Mrs. Humphry Ward, in opening a bazaar for Unitarian objects
at Chesterfield on Wednesday, declared that Unitarians had the work of the future in their hands, because they more than any other religious thinkers have fully accepted the criticism of the Scriptures and the historical realism which the German Universities originated and verified, and yet are prepared to combine their rationalised convictions with "enthusiasm, faith, and imagination." There had now been enough of criticism and rationalism, and what was wanted was to blend with the results of critical and rationalistic investi- gations the spirit of life and love. No doubt ; but will the blending prosper P Will not enthusiasm receive many a cold douche from rationalism directly it goes beyond the bounds of verification P Will not faith be confronted with knowledge the moment it passes from the seen to the unseen ? Will not imagination be restrained from soaring into fancy and poetry the moment it attempts to outstrip the sober pace of reason P If God has never done what the Christianity of the first Christian centuries believed with all its heart that he had done, how can the thinkers who insist on denying the Christian premisses, hope to justify the evidence of the Christian con- clusions ?
Previous page
