His Views and Principles
Why should we not be candid? Why do we not confess that John's symbols are ill-chosen and dangerous, for our times at all events; that the Congregationalists of Peckham, the Baptists of Battersea, the Wesleyans of Tooting have long passed beyond the spiritual region which was occupied by half-clad, ignorant, uncivilised fellahin and fakirs in the Syria of the first century? But do we quite realise this? Are we not, even the best of us, bound by that superstitious reverence for the past which has been responsible for so much mischief and error, which has enslaved and still enslaves the souls and bodies of men? Would it not be as well if we realised, once for all, that the average seventh standard boy or girl from the school over the way is in many respects the superior of the whole body of the Apostles? I believe there are persons, even in this age, who despise or pretend to despise modern progress, who assert that main drainage, pure water, electric trams—in fact, all the results of applied science—are entirely unimportant.
87
