THE KEY. C. WILLIAMS ON SECULARISM. BY JOSEPH BARKER. The Rev. C. Williams, Baptist minister of Accrington, with whom I had a discussion six or seven years ago, gave a lecture at Burnley last Tuesday evening on Secularism. I have heard very favourable accounts of his lecture, and the accounts are no doubt true. Mr. Williams Is a sensible man, and is by nature and culture much of a gentleman. He does not, however, know as much about our views as is desirable, and our object at present is to give him a little further information. In the course of his ex¬ cellent lecture he asked, as we are informed, the following question:— “ Since the sphere of Messrs. Holyoake and Barker is professedly Secular, why do they oppose Christianity?” To this question I answer, We do not oppose Christianity. What we oppose is, first, the doctrine that the Christian Scriptures are of divine authority, and that we are bound to believe their teachings, and to obey their precepts, on pain of damnation. What we oppose is, secondly, such por¬ tions of Christianity as aDpear to us to be foolish, false, and injurious. We do not oppose the Bible or Christianity as a whole. We only claim the liberty to deal with the Bible as we do with other books; to examine it carefully; to test it freely, and to reject whatever we find to be erroneous or immoral. All that is true and good in the Bible we respect, and make the best use of it we can. The Bible, for instance, tells us that a tree is known by its fruits, an that a man is known by his deeds. That a good tree can¬ not bring forth bad fruit, and that a good man cannot live a bad, vicious life. That a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit; and that a bad man cannot live a good 01 J ir . u ° u ® that if a man be pure and temperate, just and kind a fover of truth and a friend of man, he is a good man, wha - wer his opinions or creed may be: and that °® ‘“temperate or profligate, unjust or uncharitable, intolei 9 THE REV. C. WILLIAMS ON SECULARISM. or ciuel, deceitful or dishonest, he is a bad man," though his creed be the most orthodox creed of the day: that a man’s worth is proportioned to his wisdom and virtue, and not to his profession of faith or attention to forms of wor¬ ship: and this we heartily believe. And on this principle we act in forming our judgments, our estimates, of men. We regard the orthodox bigot and persecutor, the pious deceiver and swindler, as a bad man. We regard the kind and just, and true and honourable, the brave and generous sceptic or unbeliever, as a good man. The believing bigot and persecutor we shun: the sceptical patriot and philan¬ thropist we love and cherish. Again; the Bible says, “ Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;” or, in other words, that just as a man lives, so shall he fare. And this also we believe; and on this we act. We believe,—nay we know,—that drunkenness and gluttony, idleness and profligacy, deceit and dishonesty, selfishness and cruelty, lead to want, disease, and misery,— while temperance and purity, truth and honesty, kindness and generosity, lead to health, and wealth and happiness. The Bible tells us that “ love worketh no ill to our neighbour;” and, with a little qualification, we accept this doctrine also. We know that love will notallow us inten¬ tionally to injure our neighbour. But we also know that blind love may lead us to do fearful injustice. A kind doctor through ignorance may kill his patient. A kind mother, through mistake, may kill her child. And kind Christians, through erroneous notions, may build Inquisitions, wage holy wars, decree massacres, burn heretics, and torture and destroy people by thousands on foolish charges of witchcraft. Though therefore we do not entirely reject the doctrine of the Apostle, we are obliged to modify or limit it. We are obliged to show, that, taken without limitation, it is erro¬ neous. We are obliged to add, that love,—whether love of our neighbour, love of our country, or love of our race, is a most dangerous element if not controlled and guided by knowledge, that knowledge is as necessary as love,—that love, apart from knowledge, is a murderer,—a wholesale murderer, a murderer of millions,—a murderer of the wisest and the best. We are obliged to show that love, unguided by political economy, tends, by its instinctive almsgiving, to encourage idleness, pauperism, and crime,— tends to burden the good for the support of the bad. We are compelled to show that love of itself is not the fulfilling the rev. c. williams on secularism. o of the law,_that left to itself it is the greatest breaker,— or one of the greatest breakers,—of the law; and that science, intellectual culture, is as needful to the welfare of the world as charity. There are many things in the Bible which, as we under¬ stand them, are very foolish, very false, very immoral. As we understand them, the following are foolish, false, and immoral. “ Wo unto you that are rich. Blessed are ye poor. Wo unto you that laugh. Blessed are ye that mourn. Wo unto you that are full. Blessed are ye that hunger. Give to him that asketh of thee; and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Bend, hoping foi nothing again. ? Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Consider the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them: and will he not much more feed you. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin: yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. If God so clothe the grass of the field, will he not much more clothe you? Take therefore no thought for the morrow: let the morrow take thought tor the things of itself. Ask, and it shall be given. Whatever ye ask in my name, believing, shall be given unto you* Pray without ceasing. Men ought always to pray, anc no to faint. The earnest fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The prayer of faith shall save or hea ic sick. If ye have faith like a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, ‘Be thou moved;’ and it shall obey you: and nothing shall be impossible to yon. 1 ® u wouldst be perfect, sell that which thou hast, am give <> the poor. It is easier for a camel to go through e eye a needle, than for a rich man to enter the king om Heaven. For every idle word that men shall spea , k they give an account in the day of judgment. e believeth and is baptised shall be saved: anc 1 , believeth not shall be damned. Let every subject to the higher powers. The powers j’ w ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, am 00( \ to himself damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Do that which is good, an 4 this i?ev. g. williams on secularism. slialt have praise of the same. Wives, be in subjection to your husbands in all things. Obey your husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham. Servants, obey your masters in all things. Obey them that have the rule over you [in the Church]. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat; all therefore that they bid you observe, that observe and do. Beware of their doctrine; for they teach for doctrines the command¬ ments of men, and make void the law for their traditions. [Obey and disobey.] Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works: but when thou doest thy alms [thy good works] do them in secret, and let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. In what¬ soever state or calling you are when called, therein abide. If called, being free, remain free. If called, being a slave, remain a slave. If called, being married, seek not to be loose. If called unmarried, remain unmarried. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Be careful for nothing. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out: having therefore food and raiment, let us be therewith content. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. I am crucified to the ■world, and the world is crucified to me. Love not the world, nor the things of the world. Set your affections on things above; not on things below. Look not at the things which are seen; but at the things -which are not seen. The wis¬ dom of the world is foolishness with God.” All these things are, in my opinion, foolish, false, and inju¬ rious. And so, in my opinion, are the two genealogies in Mat¬ thew and Luke. And so is the story of the miraculous con¬ ception. And so are the accounts of the infancy of Jesus. And so is the story of the Baptism and the Temptation. And so are the stories of the miracles. And so are the accounts of the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. And so is the story of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost. And so are the New Testament accounts of the fulfilments of the prophecies. And so are the New Testament prophecies themselves respecting the speedy end of the world, the Accession of the twelve Apostles to thrones, and their ruling the twelve ti ibes of Israel. And so are a thousand other things to which 1 might refer. They are all, as I understand them, toolish, false, and injurious. They are all fanatical; and tend to make people fanatics. They did make fanatics in eai y tunes. They filled the Church with disorders. They THE KEY. C. WILLIAMS ON SECULARISM. 5 made idlers and paupers. They led people to avoid mar¬ riage. They led people to sell their houses and lands and lay the price at the Apostles’ feet. They led to miserable and mischievous attempts at an unnatural and impossible equality. They led to monkery. They led to self-mutila¬ tion. They led to the renunciation of trade and agriculture, and domestic life. They led to a thousand horrible austeri¬ ties. They led to the destruction of science, of art, and of literature. They led to general ignorance. They brought on the horrible millennium, the ten unhappy centuries, of darkness. They led to a thousand revolting crimes. They led to a thousand bloody wars. They led to a thousand massacres. They led to the most horrible and heart-rending- persecutions. They led to despotism and tyranny, the most cruel and crushing the world had ever seen. They led to a world of hypocrisy. They cause fanaticism and hypocrisy still. They cause intolerance, persecution, and murder still. They cause an immense amount of lying. They cause a fearful amount of pious frauds and godly calumnies. They cause afearful waste of time, and strength, and wealth. They obstruct the spread of science. They place obstacles in the way of education. They cause the outlawry of sceptics. They perpetuate bad laws, and impede beneficent reforms. They encourage slavery. They hinder freedom. They cause parents to torture their children by subjecting them to the theological drill, and mercilessly beating them with the rod. They cause husbands to ill use their wives. They cause many to misuse their moiliey. They torture millions with the dread of a malignant God, and an eternal hell; with visions of devils and damned souls, weeping, wailing, and gnashing their teeth in utter darkness, and eternal brimstone fires. Men still are found, under the influence of those doctrines, prophesying of the end of the world, and frightening people out of their senses, their money, and their lives. There is nothing, as Bur¬ ton says, that doth so crucify the souls of mortal men as those superstitious doctrines and unnatural terrors. You may say the Bible has been misunderstood,--that the meaning which the Church has given it, and which 1 still give it, is not the true one. But you can do no more than say it: you cannot prove it. The proof is all on t e other side. There is no proof that the literal, obvious sense the new Testament is not the true sense. There is every proof the case admits that it is the true sense, lbe 6 THE REV. C. WILLIAMS ON SECULARISM. New Testament teachers acted on the literal, obvious sense. The early Christians generally did the same. The Church, from the beginning, understood the passages we have quoted in this sense. The early opponents of Chris¬ tianity, such as Celsus and Porphyry, understood them in this sense. The most earnest and devoted of modern religionists have so understood them. This is the sense given to them by Wesley in his hymns. This is the sense given to them by the Plymouth Brethren. This is the only sense that makes the different parts of the Christian system hang together. This is the sense I was myself compelled, while a Chris¬ tian, by a study of the Christian Scriptures, to give them. It is the study of Secularism, of enlightened common sense, and unperverted human nature, and the wide-spread scepti¬ cism caused by the influence of modern science, that have forced on so many Christians, to such an extent, the rational secular interpretation for which you and others now contend. Any way, it is only in this, or in similar anti-secular senses, that we oppose those doctrines. We accept and practise the moral teachings of Jesus and the Apostle in the sense in which you appear to hold and teach them. You say that when we are told not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, the meaning is, that we are not to lay up too much wealth,—nor seek it too eagerly to the neglect of other duties, or not to gain money by unlawful means,—or not to trust in it,—or not to trust in it too much,— not to suppose that of itself it can make us happy, or protect us from calamity, &c., &c. You say that when we are told to take no thought for the body, the meaning is, we are not to take too much thought,—not to be too anxious about bodily things,—not to make ourselves unnecessarily uneasy,—not to be so anxious as to be unfit for the duties and enjoyments of life. And so with regal'd to all the other unearthly doctrines and precepts. All we have to say in reply is, that in this sense we offer the passages no opposition. No one thinks of recommending people to lay up too much wealth or to trust too much in wealth; or to expect it of itself to make men happy. No Secularist ever dreams of recommending people to take too much care for the body, or to be too anxious about to-morrow. Make the Bible teach nothing but truth and u ty’ ma ke Christians believe that it teaches nothing but good sound Secular science and morality,— in other words, ma te the Bible and Christians rational, moral, scientific, and we s lall have no further quarrel either with it or them.^ the rev. c. williams on secularism. 7 But even then we should think it unwise to bother ourselves much about the interpretation of the Bible. If the Bible does not teach us the truth, why should we waste our time in try- in a friends of virtue; we are friends of man. e a ^.®. , « of all truth; we are friends of all virtue; we aie all mankind. We are friends of order; \ ies offreedom. We are friends of governmen , 10 » , f of despotism, oppression, and tyranny. We are /^ s ot science; we are friends of art. We are We are friends of education ; we are friends of literature. 8 THE REV. C. WILLIAMS ON SECULARISM. We are men, and nothing more, and nothing less, and nothing else than men. We are men that sympathise with all that is beautiful, and good, and grand in humanity; and with all that is beautiful, and good, and grand in the universe. Nor do we ignore the mysteries of man and the universe. Nor do we affect a stoical indifference to the sorrows and perplexities of humanity. Nor do we look with contempt, or hate, or uncharitableness on those who- differ from us on religious matters. Nor would we, if we could, force them to change their views. Nor would we needlessly shock their prejudices, or wound their feelings* Nor would we force them even to hear us or to read our books. Nor would we hurry them, or harass them. We would not even compel them to inquire or think against their will. We believe our views will spread. We con¬ sider their triumph as certain. And we can afford to be patient. We can afford to be tolerant and charitable. We cannot be anything else. We make no pretensions to per¬ fection. We know we are liable to err. Unkindness* injustice, abuse, persecution, may throw us off our guard; may irritate us; and in our anger we may speak unadvisedly. But we wish to be right. We mean to be right: and right, on the whole, we are satisfied we are. And we shall do our best to put others right. The truth may not be all on our side. The error may not be all on yours. But on whatever side the truth may be, we are resolved to have it; and on whichever side the error may be, we are deter¬ mined to war with it. Our aim is to develope, to improve, as far as possible, both ourselves and others, and to aid and hasten the illumination and salvation of the world. Finally, as an individual, I am willing, either on the Plat¬ form or through the Press, to discuss with the Rev. C. Wil¬ liams, or with any other able, candid, and gentlemanly minis¬ ter, the great theological and moral questions of the day, not captiously or for selfish objects, but fairly, honourably, and with a view to the detection of error, the discovery of truth, and the improvement and happiness of mankind. BARKER AND CO GREAT NEW LONDON: ., PRINTERS, M’LEAN’S BUILDINGS, STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.