THE BROAD CHURCH IN HOLLAND.* THE pamphlet of Mr. Wickstead,
to which we call attention, con- tains a brief and clear account of the chief Protestant ecclesi-
* The Ecclesiastical Institutions of Holland. By Philip H. Wickstead. London: Williams and Norgate. astical institutions of Holland. In a vast array of facts, like the one he has had to deal with, he could hardly escape laying him- self open to more than one challenge as to the accuracy of the facts which he had undertaken to collect and to arrange in a form accessible to the general public. It is sufficient praise to say that his statements are, on the whole, reliable, and that though his conclusions are more than doubtful, the data on which they rest are generally put before the reader in an impartial way.
Theology has always been a passion in the Netherlands. The questions bralantes of France are, for the greater part, con- nected with politics, the discussions which call forth the greatest amount of mental activity in Germany are of a philosophical nature, the chief interest among us centres in ecclesi- astical topics ; but in Holland, theology has reigned para- mount since the days of the Reformation. Closely inter- woven with the political history of the nation from the beginning, when, after a long and passionate struggle, it had acquired its freedom and independence, theological ques- tions have continued to attract an amount of interest and of discussion, to find a parallel for which we must go back to those early days when the Arian controversy unsettled the policy of Courts, upset the equanimity of Councils, and disturbed the peace of households. On the battle-fields of theology the leadibg minds of the nation have met more than once, not so much as the advocates or opponents of disputed theories of Christian meta- physics, but rather because the system which they upheld seemed to them fraught with consequences of the most vital kind for the political and social condition of the nation. Thus only is it possi- ble to explain the hold which theology has had on the people, the tenacity with which men have clung to certain theories, and the bitterness with which they have either defended or attacked them. For the Dutch are, as a nation, very little given to specu- lation. Calvinism, which they adopted soon after the Reforma- tion, was essentially suited to the popular mind, and in harmony with the national feeling. A stern, rigid, unimaginative system, having room at the best for a subjective mysticism, a revived Judaism, with a strongly-expressed dualism between God and man, and holding up a theocracy as the ideal form of government, it could not fail to commend itself to men who were engaged in warfare as much religious as it was political, who looked upon their opponents not merely as the enemies of their country, but as the enemies of their God, and who thought of themselves as the "chosen Nation," the instrument in God's hand to punish the oppressor, and thereby to vindicate the cause of religion. Hence the rough-and-ready conclusions of Calvinism were but seldom/ called in question, and with the exception of the Arminian con- troversy, crushed in the bud by the famous Synod of Dort, when the authority of the Confession and the Presbyterian form of Church government, as best suited to a republic, were firmly established, there were but few occasions when the serenity of the atmosphere of orthodoxy was disturbed.
Since the end of the eighteenth century, however, a change made itself felt. Strange to say, it was not the influence of German philosophy which brought about this unexpected trans- formation. Philosophical discussions had no more charms for the Hollanders of the eighteenth century than they had had for their forefathers during the sixteenth. It was the weakening of the national conscience which affected the theological or religious belief of the people. Calvinism had been a great moral force in days when the people stood up, as one man, to fight for the liberation of their country, and to consolidate the freedom which it had obtained at the price of such enormous sacrifices. With the decline of patriotism, however, the power of the religious belief which had been inspired by it became considerably weakened. The general intellectual tendencies of the age exercised, it is true, some influence. But they were only the secondary cause of the Broad-Church movement, which partook more of the character of a timid retreat than of a hostile advance. It
was only gradually that the scientific consciousness was awakened, and that men became alive to the fact that they had reached a point where the only self-defence was a bold attack.
The most important scientific exponent of Rationalism, as it was called, was the school of Leiden. Kuenen and Scholten, the
most distinguished representatives of that university, imparted toe the movement its originality and definite character. The former, a master of exegesis of considerable learning, brought his powers of
research to bear upon the writings of the Old Testament. The lat- ter, a philosophical thinker, gifted with a singular power of express- ing abstruse propositions in popular, intelligible language, reigned for a long time without a rival. The youth of Holland flocked to his lecture-room, and acknowledged that they had found in his
teaching the chief source of inspiration. They were taught an ingenious, though not always ingenuous method of reconciling the formulas of the Church with the teaching of the spirit of the age. The old words were to be retained as a concession to human weakness, but as conveying different meanings, in accordance with the mind of the speaker or of the hearer. The system of Scholten was clear enough, as laid down in his writings, and its results were seen in the bold and fearless criticism which its dis- ciples applied to the sacred writings. But the masses remained for some time under the spell of its teaching ; they were like children playing unconsciously on the brink of an abyss, decked with flowers. a In the wake of the school of Leiden followed that of Utrecht. Part of it belonged to the Right Centre. But the mild Evangeli- canism of that section, expounded by men whose heart was un- doubtedly larger than their intellect, was completely put in the background by the leaders of the Extreme Left. Opzoomer, who was the chief of the advanced party, showed with imperturbable logic and enviable sang-froid the untenablenesa of the orthodox positions. The theological conclusions at which he arrived were often rash, but it must be remembered that he was a philo- sopher, and not a theologian. He vindicated the rights of the religious sentiment and of the empirical philosophy, and displayed merits which might cover a multitude of sins. There was still a third party, which found its representatives in Groningen. The men of Groningen advocated the via media. Christianity was great ; Christ was greater. The doctrines about Christ were im- portant; the doctrines of Christ were of infinitely greater value. The metaphysical theories about redemption were interesting, the fact of redemption,—Le., of the education of humanity to a. higher life—had a much greater significance.
From these three schools numbers of young men went forth to fill the pulpits of the Church. The influence of Groningen was short-lived; its endeavours at a compromise failed to satisfy either of the extremes, and its disciples beat a hasty retreat. The teaching of Utrecht was of a more lasting nature. But its em- pirical teaching, carried consistently into practice by its disciples, led some of them ere long beyond the boundaries of the Church. They had been led to reject the supernatural, which is the foundation of the Church, as a mere fable, as the offspring of an amiable superstition. They had been taught the subjective char- acter of revelation, and the impossibility of arriving at any con- clusion beyond a mere probability. The teaching at Leiden was more conservative.
It admitted the supernatural in which Jesus had believed, though it was doubtful about the theories of St. Paul. It acknowledged the divine element in Jesus to an unprecedented degree, and the value of his death as the highest evidence of the efficacy of his religion. It preached a decided determinism, which the orthodox mistook for their pet theory of predestination, and insisted in the same breath on a life in moral communion with Christ, who had realised the ideal religion by means of which the final triumph of good would be secured. Preached by enthusiastic and elo- quent young men, with an air of freshness, of reality, and of pathos about their utterances, it was but natural that the doctrines of Leiden should at first have gained acceptance, and that men, wearied of the broken cisterns of a dead theology, should have turned with a feeling of relief to the fresh springs, which promised a renewed life.
Broad-churchism had, therefore, at the outset a career full of promise. The synod of the Church supported it by altering the formula of subscription, which had to be signed by the ministers of the Church, into a formula so vague that no clerical conscience, at any rate, could feel the least scruple in adopting it. And when the reaction set in, led at first by the aristocracy and inspired by political motives, it did all in its power to secure the threatened rights of the Liberal party. It answered the violent protests of the orthodox in pastorals, in which mild surprise was mingled with gentle assurances, and in grand, oracular utterances which defied the powers of analysis. In its great desire to secure the liberty of the individual, it was almost ready to sacrifice the interests of the community.
It is, therefore, all the more disappointing that the Broad-Church movement in the Netherlands should have proved a failure. The energetic attempts of the Synod—which, in its desire to shield and to maintain it, went so far as to make the essential principle of Christianity an open question—the undoubted learning, enthusi- asm, and eloquence of the leaders, the not concealed interest of the educated amongst the people, and the, to say the least, not unkind indifference of the masses, have failed to give to the movement that long lease of life which it might have reasonably expected at the outset. When in 1867 it was decided that the congre- gation should elect its own council and its own pastors, when, in one word, the supreme power was vested in the people, the " Modern " (moderns), as they were called, found themselves in most places in a minority. Since then a strong tide has set in in an orthodox direction, and there is no reason to suppose that changes of Church government or partial schemes of reform will keep back the rising flood.
The causes of this failure are of universal interest. Local reasons may have had their share in the discomfiture of the Liberal Church party. The Dutch middle-classes have always been strongly conservative, and their religious sympathies have generally been given to Calvinism, to which they attributed the powerful position of their country in a past age. There was also a chaotic confusion in religious affairs, owing to the fact that the most conflicting utterances were heard on Sundays from the same pulpit. The ministers in a Dutch town preach at the several churches in rotation. Fancy Dr. Pusey in the morning, Mr. Voysey in the afternoon, and Canon Ryle in the evening. There was, moreover, an unnecessary boldness in the sermons of the chief prophets of the movement, a rough upsetting of sacred traditions and beliefs ; and lastly, pour comble de malheur, the secession of some of the more daring spirits of the Liberal Church party to the less restricted domain of mere philosophy. But the ground of failure lies deeper. The intellectual character of the Broad-Church movement is its salvation, and at the same time its destruction. The "remnant according to the election of grace," accustomed to draw distinctions and to see differences, was satisfied with the possession of the religious sentiment, which derives probably its greatest stimulus from the Church. The masses, however, were little impressed by the preacher. They understood him but seldom. If they did, the destructive criticism to which they had listened bad done them no good, for they were probably unaware that the attack had been directed against some outpost, and that the fortress stood as firm as ever. They went home with a mistaken impression. At the utmost, there had been stirred up within them a vague sentiment, which, however poetic and beautiful, was not tangible enough for practical men, beset by the difficulties of every-day life. But in nine cases out of ten they left the Church with the conviction that something was unsettled, that it was difficult how to settle it, and that it was not very necessary to go for that purpose to the Church. To sum up, the educated classes were made philosophers, the religious middle- classes ;vere alienated and sighed for the restoration of the Church, of their fathers, the non-religious middle-classes were mystified, and the irreligious middle-classes, when the movement reached them, became more estranged than ever. And yet the gospel of the Broad-Church party is probably the nearest approach of Christianity to Christ. Its failure in Holland to reconcile authority and liberty, to fix the relations between the school and the Church, to solve the vexed questions of Church authority and other problems, which demand, and we trust are capable of, a satisfactory solution, has taught us, among other lessons, the value of a State Church and of a ritual. A State Church is like the Conservative Republic of France,—it divides us least. Within its capacious fold there is room for all ; there is scope for the development of the varied religious tendencies of the nation. A ritual, again, is valuable as the means of preserving uni- formity. The one may find in it even now the expression of his praises and prayers; another will probably consider it as an evidence of the historical continuity of the Church ; both, however, are able to unite in one and the same ritual. Given the alliance with the State and the Prayer-book, there is a probability that the triumph of Liberal Church principles will one day be numbered among the faits aecomplis.
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