must be the future of the Church when all the people who are now fifty and up are in their graves! This oncoming generation, now in its adolescence, is not in the least way concerned about organized religion. Religious enough, instinctively, I dare say; but out of sorts with the sects; weary of their bad-mannered yammering at one another over matters in which one man’s guess is as good as another’s, and no outcome promised either in faith or conduct, no matter whose guess is right!”

“Is it that bad?” commented Bobby. “I hadn’t known the churches were losing ground. There seems to be such a lot of them.”

“Yes⁠—too many!” grumbled McLaren. “Too many⁠—of the wrong kind!⁠ ⁠… Take so important a matter, now, as the nature and mission of Christianity’s author, himself. A Christ who can help us to a clearer perception of God needs to be a personality confronted with problems similar to ours, and solving them with knowledge and power to which we also have access⁠—else he offers us no example, at all.

“But here we have a majority of the churches trying to elicit interest in him because he was supernaturally born, which I wasn’t; because he turned water into wine, which I can’t; because he paid his taxes with money found in a fish’s mouth, which⁠—for all my Scotch ingenuity⁠—I can’t do; because he silenced the storm with a word and a gesture, whereas I must bail the boat; because he called back from the grave his friend who had been dead four days, while I must content myself with planting a rosebush and calling it a closed incident! What we want is a Christ whose service to us, in leading us toward God, is not predicated upon our dissimilarities, but upon our likenesses!

“In our church, we’re trying to offer a Christ who is not a mere prestidigitator⁠—a magician who feeds an acre of people from a boy’s lunch-basket⁠—but a great prophet and an understanding friend! Don’t you think a man can accept that, and still be a sound scientist?”

Bobby accepted a light from his hostess’s hand, and slowly nodded.

“I know very little about the conflict between the traditional estimate of Christ and the more recent theory. Viewing it superficially, I should say that neither system would appeal very strongly to this age. Isn’t the modern school just substituting a new metaphysic for the old one? Our generation is doing all its thinking in terms of power, energy, dynamics⁠—the kind you read about, not in a book, but on a meter! Why not concede the reality of supernormal assistance, to be had under fixed conditions, and encourage people to go after it?”

“That sounds a little as if you believed in prayer, Doctor Merrick,” said Betty wistfully.

“You mean⁠—getting down on your knees to wish you had something?”

“Oh, it’s more than that!⁠ ⁠… Asking God to give it to you!”

“Well, that depends on your credit.”

“Agreed!” nodded McLaren.

“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand,” said Betty.

“Why, he means that unless one has been living up to one’s best ideals, it’s useless to ask for God’s approval and assistance. That’s obvious.”

“No,” said Bobby. “That is not what I meant. If you’re interested, I’ll tell you a story.”


For the next two hours⁠—they had moved to the library on Bobby’s hint that they had let themselves in for an extended tale⁠—the McLarens sat scarcely daring to trust their own hearing.

Eager to give them all the steps of his spiritual progress, in their exact sequence, he had begun back in Randolph’s studio. Carefully picking his way with a care to the avoidance of any act of his own, performed in pursuance to the Galilean theory of availing prayer, he laid the facts before them in a dispassionate recital.

He finished as he had begun. He could hardly expect them to believe it, he said. He hadn’t believed it; had been disgusted by it; intellectually offended by it; in violent revolt against it; but⁠—well, there it was!

“How utterly trivial,” said McLaren humbly, “my whole programme of preaching seems in the face of such astounding possibilities! Why⁠—we’ve been trying to teach religion without⁠—without knowing what it’s about!”

“Oh, I shouldn’t go so far as to think that!” consoled Bobby. “You’ve inspired people to take stock of themselves. They can’t help being better for every serious thought you’ve given them about life and duty. That’s ethics. And ethics is decidedly important. This thing I’ve been talking about is not in the field of ethics. It belongs rather to science. We have been at great pains to construct devices and machinery to be energized by steam and electricity and sunshine; but haven’t realized how human personality can be made just as receptive to the power of our Major Personality.”

“I feel, today,” said McLaren, “as if I’d been doing nothing⁠—exactly nothing!”

“By no means! You have been doing some highly necessary work in clearing away the old superstitions; the old irrelevancies. That’s not labour lost, you may be sure! Only⁠—as I listened, this morning, I couldn’t help wishing that this new interpretation of religion which you are so splendidly equipped to offer might go further and show how soundly scientific religion is. You counselled us, today, to accept the evolutionary hypothesis. You said⁠—if I recall correctly⁠—that we could explain everything we have and are by that theory⁠ ⁠… Now⁠—I don’t agree with you. Perhaps our bodies derive from some pre-human type of life. Perhaps all romantic literature is but an elaboration of the animal’s urge to reproduce itself. Perhaps our brains are but refinements of elementary nerve ganglia that used to respond, automatically, to the necessity for food and shelter⁠ ⁠… It hasn’t been proved. You were ever so much more sure of it, in your pulpit, than my biology professor was, in his classroom⁠ ⁠… But⁠—assuming a physical evolution, biology has no explanation to offer for human personality. You ask old man Harper how he accounts for aspiration, penitence, inquisitiveness about our origin, concern about our future⁠—and he’ll say, ‘I’m not a theologian, sir! I’m a biologist!’ ”

“And

Вы читаете Magnificent Obsession
Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату