It
may be logical to demand a church based on free examination and absolute
sincerity; but to realize it is a different matter. A church lives by
what is positive, and this positive element necessarily limits
investigation. People confound the right of the individual, which is to
be free, with the duty of the institution, which is to be something.
They take the principle of science to be the same as the principle of
the church, which is a mistake. They will not see that religion is
different from philosophy, and that the one seeks union by faith, while
the other upholds the solitary independence of thought. That the bread
should be good it must have leaven; but the leaven is not the bread.
Liberty is the means whereby we arrive at an enlightened faith--granted;
but an assembly of people agreeing only upon this criterion and this
method could not possibly found a church, for they might differ
completely as to the results of the method. Suppose a newspaper the
writers of which were of all possible parties--it would no doubt be a
curiosity in journalism, but it would have no opinions, no faith, no
creed. A drawing-room filled with refined people, carrying on polite
discussion, is not a church, and a dispute, however courteous, is not
worship. It is a mere confusion of kinds.
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