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PREFACE
PREFACE
Everyone who has to do with children at the present day, directly or indirectly, must in some form or another have felt the difficulty of instructing them in the details of religious faith, without leaving them open to the assaults of doubt hereafter, when they encounter the results of scientific inquiry. Sometimes the old truths and the new truths seem to conflict; and though everyone must be aware that such internecine warfare between truths can be an appearance only, the reconciliation is not
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
There is a growing conception of religion which regards it not as a thing for special hours or special days, but as a reality permeating the whole of life. The old attempt to partition off a region where Divine action is appropriate, from another region in which such action would be out of place—the old superstition that God does one thing and not another, that He speaks more directly through the thunder of catastrophe or the mystery of miracle than through the quiet voice of ordinary existence—
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I THE ASCENT OF MAN
I THE ASCENT OF MAN
Q. What are you? A. I am a being alive and conscious upon this earth; a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and suffering became man....
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CLAUSE I
CLAUSE I
This answer does not pretend to exhaust the nature of man; another aspect is dealt with in Clause XII. It is usual to impart the latter mode of statement first; but premature dwelling on the more mystical aspect of human nature, with ignorance or neglect of the biological facts actually ascertained concerning it, only gives rise to troubled thought in the future when the material facts become known—often in crude or garbled form—and leads to scepticism. The clause as it stands is a large and com
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II THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE
II THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE
Q. 2. What, then, may be meant by the Fall of man? A. At a certain stage of development man became conscious of a difference between right and wrong, so that thereafter, when his actions fell below a normal standard of conduct, he felt ashamed and sinful. He thus lost his animal innocency, and entered on a long period of human effort and failure; nevertheless, the consciousness of degradation marked a rise in the scale of existence....
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CLAUSE II
CLAUSE II
This clause has been inserted because of the historic, though often mistaken, notions accreted round a legend of Fall and of a Paradise lost; and it is of interest to detect the germ of truth which these ancient ideas contain. It may be regarded as really an appendage of, or introductory to, the next clause. The sense of guilt and shame is to some extent displayed by a dog; but it appears to be due to domestication, and to be a secondary result of human influence. In any case, it is certainly on
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III CHARACTER AND WILL
III CHARACTER AND WILL
Q. 3. What is the distinctive characteristic of man? A. The distinctive character of man is that he has a sense of responsibility for his acts, having acquired the power of choosing between good and evil, with freedom to obey one motive rather than another. Creatures far below the human level are irresponsible; they feel no shame and suffer no remorse; they are said to have no conscience....
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CLAUSE III
CLAUSE III
In putting this question, children may be asked to suggest characteristics which distinguish man from animals. If gradually they hit upon clothes and fire and speech they will do well. Clothes may be defined as artificial covering removable at will; “artificial” meaning made by an artificer, or manufactured, as opposed to natural growth, like fur. But the changes of covering among animals should not be overlooked: moulting for instance, renewal of skin necessitated by growth, protective change o
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IV DUTY AND SERVICE
IV DUTY AND SERVICE
Q. 4. What is the duty of man? A. To assist his fellows, to develop his own higher self, to strive towards good in every way open to his powers, and generally to seek to know the laws of Nature and to obey the will of God; in whose service alone can be found that harmonious exercise of the faculties which is identical with perfect freedom....
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CLAUSE IV
CLAUSE IV
The laws of nature signify the ascertained processes and consistencies observable in all surrounding things; they are a special and partial, but accurately ascertainable, aspect of what is called the will of God. They cannot be broken or really disobeyed; but we may set ourselves in fruitless antagonism to them,—as by building a bridge too weak to stand, by various kinds of wrong conduct, eating unduly or wrong kind of food, by careless sanitation and neglect of health. But all such ignorance or
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V GOODNESS AND BEAUTY AND GOD
V GOODNESS AND BEAUTY AND GOD
Q. 5. What is meant by good and evil? A. Good is that which promotes development, and is in harmony with the will of God. It is akin to health and beauty and happiness. Evil is that which retards or frustrates development, and injures some part of the universe. It is akin to disease and ugliness and misery....
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CLAUSE V
CLAUSE V
“Development” means unfolding of latent possibilities; as a bud unfolds into a flower, or as a chicken develops from an egg. The idea controlling this answer is that growth and development are in accordance with the law of the universe, and that destruction and decay are features which are only good in so far as they may be on the way to something better; as leaf-mould assists the growth of flowers, or as discords in their proper place conduce to, or prepare for, harmony. In the same way conditi
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VI MAN PART OF THE UNIVERSE
VI MAN PART OF THE UNIVERSE
Q. 6. How does man know good from evil? A. His own nature, when uncorrupted by greed, is sufficiently in harmony with the rest of the universe to enable him to be well aware in general of what is a help or hindrance to the guiding Spirit, of which he himself is a real and effective portion....
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CLAUSE VI
CLAUSE VI
We are not something separate from the Universe, but a part of it: a part of it endowed with some power of control—power to guide ourselves and others and assist in the scheme of development—power also to go wrong, to set ourselves contrary to the tendency of things, to delay progress, and break ourselves in conflict with overpowering forces. When not thus warped or misled, we fit into the general scheme, and, like all other portions of existence, can fulfil our function and take our due share i
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VII THE NATURE OF EVIL
VII THE NATURE OF EVIL
Q. 7. How comes it that evil exists? A. Evil is not an absolute thing, but has reference to a standard of attainment. The possibility of evil is the necessary consequence of a rise in the scale of moral existence; just as an organism whose normal temperature is far above “absolute zero” is necessarily liable to damaging and deadly cold. But cold is not in itself a positive or created thing....
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CLAUSE VII
CLAUSE VII
The term “evil” is relative: dirt, for instance, is well known to be only matter out of place; weeds are plants flourishing where they are not wanted; there are no weeds in botany, there are weeds in gardening; even disease is only one organism growing at the expense of another; ugliness is non-existent save to creatures with a sense of beauty, and is due to unsuitable grouping. Analysed into its elements, every particle of matter must be a miracle of law and order, and, in that sense, of beauty
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VIII THE MEANING OF SIN
VIII THE MEANING OF SIN
Q. 8. What is sin? A. Sin is the deliberate and wilful act of a free agent who sees the better and chooses the worse, and thereby acts injuriously to himself and others. The root sin is selfishness, whereby needless trouble and pain are inflicted on others; when fully developed it involves moral suicide....
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CLAUSE VIII
CLAUSE VIII
The essence of sin is error against light and knowledge, and against our own higher nature. Vice is error against natural law. Crime is error against society. Sin against our own higher nature may be truly said to be against God, because it is against that purpose or destiny which by Divine arrangement is open to us, if only we will pursue and realise it. Sin is a disease: the whole of existence is so bound together that disease in one part means pain throughout; the innocent may suffer with the
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IX DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE
IX DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE
Q. 9. Are there beings lower in the scale of existence than man? A. Yes, multitudes. In every part of the earth where life is possible, there we find it developed. Life exists in every variety of animal, in earth and air and sea, and in every species of plant....
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CLAUSE IX
CLAUSE IX
One of the facts of nature which we must weld into our conception of the scheme of the universe, is the strenuous effort made by all live things to persist in multifarious ways,—spreading out into quite unlikely regions, in the struggle for existence, and establishing themselves wherever life is possible. The fish slowly developing into a land animal, the reptile beginning to raise itself in the air and ultimately becoming a bird, the mammal returning under stress of circumstances to the water,
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X COSMIC INTELLIGENCE
X COSMIC INTELLIGENCE
Q. 10. Are there any beings higher in the scale of existence than man? A. Man is the highest of the dwellers on the planet earth, but the earth is only one of many planets warmed by the sun, and the sun is only one of a myriad of similar suns, which are so far off that we barely see them, and group them indiscriminately as “stars.” We may reasonably conjecture that in some of the innumerable worlds circling round those distant suns there must be beings far higher in the scale of existence than
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CLAUSE X
CLAUSE X
The existence of higher beings and of a Highest Being is a fundamental element in every religious creed. There is no scientific reason for imagining it possible that man is the highest intelligent existence—there is no reason to suppose that we dwellers on this planet know more about the universe than any other existing creature. Such an idea, strictly speaking, is absurd. Science has investigated our ancestry and shown that we are the product of planetary processes. We may be, and surely must b
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XI IMMANENCE
XI IMMANENCE
Q. 11. What caused and what maintains existence? A. Of our own knowledge we are unable to realise the meaning of origination or of maintenance; all that we ourselves can accomplish in the physical world is to move things into desired positions, and leave them to act on each other. Nevertheless our effective movements are all inspired by thought, and so we conceive that there must be some Intelligence immanent in all the processes of nature, for they are not random or purposeless, but organised
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CLAUSE XI
CLAUSE XI
Origin We cannot conceive the origin of any fundamental existence. We can describe the beginning of any particular object in its present shape, but its substance always existed in some other shape previously; and nothing really either springs into being or ceases to exist. A cloud or dew becomes visible, and then evaporates, seeming to spring into being and then vanish away; but as water vapour it had a past history and will have a future, both apparently without limit. In our own case, and in t
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XII SOUL AND SPIRIT
XII SOUL AND SPIRIT
Q. 12. What is to be said of man’s higher faculties? A. The faculties and achievements of the highest among mankind—in Art, in Science, in Philosophy, and in Religion—are not explicable as an outcome of a struggle for existence. Something more than mere life is possessed by us—something represented by the words “mind” and “soul” and “spirit.” On one side we are members of the animal kingdom; on another we are associates in a loftier type of existence, and are linked with the Divine....
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CLAUSE XII
CLAUSE XII
The highest of those who have walked the earth reveal to us what we, too, may some day be: they link us with the Divine, and teach us that, however pathetically defaced by our infirmities and distorted by our imperfections, we may yet reflect the image of God. [ Part of the following explanation is based upon a study of certain facts not yet fully incorporated into orthodox science, nor fully recognised by philosophy: it must therefore be regarded as speculation. ] This idea, which permeates lit
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XIII GRACE
XIII GRACE
Q. 13. Is man helped in his struggle upward? A. There is a Power in the Universe vastly beyond our comprehension; and we trust and believe that it is a Good and Loving Power, able and willing to help us and all creatures, and to guide us wisely, without detriment to our incipient freedom. This Loving-kindness continually surrounds us; in it we live and have our real being; it is the mainspring of joy and love and beauty, and we call it the Grace of God. It sustains and enriches all worlds, and
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CLAUSE XIII
CLAUSE XIII
The guidance exercised by the Divine Spirit, by which we are completely surrounded, is not of the nature of compulsion; it is only a leading and helping influence, which we are able to resist if we choose. The problem of manufacturing free creatures with a will of their own, to be led, not forced, into right action, is a problem of a different nature from any of those that have ever appealed to human power and knowledge. What we are accustomed to make is mechanism, of various kinds; and the esse
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XIV INSPIRATION
XIV INSPIRATION
Q. 14. How may we become informed concerning things too high for our own knowledge? A. We should strive to learn from the great teachers, the prophets and poets and saints of the human race, and should seek to know and to interpret their inspired writings....
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CLAUSE XIV
CLAUSE XIV
People at a low stage of development are liable to think that they can arrive at truth by their unaided judgment and insight, and that they need not concern themselves with the thoughts and experiences of the past. Unconscious of any inspiration themselves, they decline to believe in the possibility of such a thing, and regard it as a fanciful notion of unpractical and dreamy people. Great men, on the other hand, are the fingerposts and lodestars of humanity; it is with their aid that we steer o
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XV A CREED
XV A CREED
Q. 15. What, then, do you reverently believe can be deduced from a study of the records and traditions of the past in the light of the present? A. I believe in one Infinite and Eternal Being, a guiding and loving Father, in whom all things consist. I believe that the Divine Nature is specially revealed to man through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lived and taught and suffered in Palestine 1900 years ago, and has since been worshipped by the Christian Church as the immortal Son of God, the Saviour
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CLAUSE XV
CLAUSE XV
The three paragraphs correspond to the three aspects or Personifications of Deity which have most impressed mankind,— The Creating and Sustaining. The Sympathising and Suffering. The Regenerating and Sanctifying. The first of the three clauses tries to indicate briefly the cosmic, as well as the more humanly intelligible, attributes of Deity; and to suggest an idea of creation appropriate to the doctrine of Divine Immanence, as opposed to the anthropomorphic notion of manufacture. The idea
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XVI THE LIFE ETERNAL
XVI THE LIFE ETERNAL
Q. 16. What do you mean by the Life Eternal? A. I mean that, whereas our terrestrial existence is temporary, our real existence continues without ceasing, in either a higher or a lower form, according to our use of opportunities and means of grace; and that the fulness of Life ultimately attainable represents a growing perfection at present inconceivable by us....
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CLAUSE XVI
CLAUSE XVI
Continuity of existence, without break or interruption, is the fundamental idea that needs inculcation, not only among children but among ignorant people generally. And the survival, from savage times, of an inclination to associate a full measure of departed personality with the discarded and decomposing bodily remnant,—under the impression that it will awake and live again at some future day,—should be steadily discouraged. The idea of bodily resurrection, in this physical sense, is responsibl
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XVII THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
XVII THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
Q. 17. What is the significance of the “Communion of Saints”? A. Higher and holier beings must possess, in fuller fruition, those privileges of communion which are already foreshadowed by our own faculties of language, of sympathy, and of mutual aid; and as we find that man’s power of friendly help is not confined to his fellows, but extends to other animals, so may we conceive ourselves part of a mighty Fellowship of love and service....
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CLAUSE XVII
CLAUSE XVII
Here is opened up a great subject on which much remains to be discovered. It is probable that the action of the Deity throughout the Universe is always conducted through intermediaries and agents. In all cases that we can examine, it is so; and this is one of the many meanings of “Immanence.” Humanity is the most prominent, to us, among Divine agencies, and though it is probably only an infinitesimal fraction of the whole, yet it can be studied as a sample. Experience shows us that human beings
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XVIII MYSTIC COMMUNION OR PRAYER
XVIII MYSTIC COMMUNION OR PRAYER
Q. 18. What do you understand by prayer? A. I understand that when our spirits are attuned to the Spirit of Righteousness, our hopes and aspirations exert an influence far beyond their conscious range, and in a true sense bring us into communion with our Heavenly Father. This power of filial communion is called prayer; it is an attitude of mingled worship and supplication; we offer petitions in a spirit of trust and submission, and endeavour to realise the Divine attributes, with the help and e
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CLAUSE XVIII
CLAUSE XVIII
In prayer we come into close communion with a Higher than we know, and seek to contemplate Divine perfection. Its climax and consummation is attained when we realise the universal Permeance, the entire Goodness, and the Fatherly Love, of the Divine Being. Through prayer we admit our dependence on a Higher Power, for existence and health and everything we possess; we are encouraged to ask for whatever we need, as children ask parents; and we inevitably cry for mercy and comfort in times of tribul
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XIX THE LORD’S PRAYER
XIX THE LORD’S PRAYER
Q. Rehearse the prayer taught us by Jesus. A....
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CLAUSE XIX
CLAUSE XIX
Q. 19. Explain the purport of this prayer. A. We first attune our spirit to consciousness of the Divine Fatherhood; trying to realise His infinite holiness as well as His loving-kindness, desiring that everything alien to His will should cease in our hearts and in the world, and longing for the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then we ask for the supply of the ordinary needs of existence, and for the forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings as we pardon those who have hurt us. We pray to
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XX THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
XX THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Q. 20. What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven? A. The Kingdom of Heaven is the central feature of practical Christianity. It represents a harmonious condition in which the Divine Will is perfectly obeyed; it signifies the highest state of existence, both individual and social, which we can conceive. Our whole effort should, directly or indirectly, make ready its way,—in our hearts, in our lives, and in the lives of others. It is the ideal state of society towards which Reformers are striving; i
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CLAUSE XX
CLAUSE XX
This mighty ideal has many aspects. It has been typified as the pearl of great price, for which all other possessions may well be sacrificed: in germ it is as leaven, or as growing seed. It will come sooner than is expected, though for a time longer there must be tares among the wheat: for a time longer there shall be last and first, and a striving to be greatest, and a laying up of earthly treasure, and wars and divisions; but only for a time,—the spirit of service is growing, and the childlike
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THE CATECHISM
THE CATECHISM
Q. 1. What are you? A. I am a being alive and conscious upon this earth, a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and suffering became man. Q. 2. What, then, may be meant by the Fall of man? A. At a certain stage of development man became conscious of a difference between right and wrong, so that thereafter, when his actions fell below a normal standard of conduct, he felt ashamed and sinful. He thus lost his animal innocency, a
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MINOR PUBLICATIONS
MINOR PUBLICATIONS
Colonial Editions are published of all Messrs. Methuen’s Novels at a price above 2 s. 6 d. , and similar editions are General Literature. These are marked in the Catalogue. Colonial editions are only for circulation in the British Colonies and India....
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Part I.——General Literature
Part I.——General Literature
Abbot (Jacob). See Little Blue Books. Abbott (J. H. M.). Author of ‘Tommy Cornstalk.’ AN OUTLANDER IN ENGLAND: Being Some Impressions of An Australian Abroad . Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Acatos (M. J.). See Junior School Books. Adams (Frank). JACK SPRATT. With 24 Coloured Pictures. Super Royal 16mo. 2 s. Adeney (W. F.) , M.A. See Bennett and Adeney. Æschylus. See Classical Translations. Æsop. See I.P.L. Ainsworth (W. Harrison). See I.P.L. Alderson (
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Part II.—Fiction
Part II.—Fiction
Adderley (Hon. and Rev. James) , Author of ‘Stephen Remarx.’ BEHOLD THE DAYS COME. Cr. 8vo. 3 s. 6 d. Albanesi (E. Maria). SUSANNAH AND ONE OTHER. Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. THE BLUNDER OF AN INNOCENT. Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. CAPRICIOUS CAROLINE. Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. LOVE AND LOUISA. Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. PETER, A PARASITE. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. THE BROWN EYES OF MARY. Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. I KNOW A MAIDEN. Cr. 8vo. 6 s. Anstey (F.). Author of ‘Vice Versâ.’ A BAYARD FROM
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