CHAPTER IV. THE ARISTOCRATIC SENTIMENT. CONTENTS. CAUSES OF WEAKNESS REVIEWED IN THE FOREGOING CHAPTER, INDIGENOUS-SHOW THE WANT OF A HIGHER STYLE OF RELIGION AMONGST EXTRANEOUS CAUSES, THE ARISTOCRATIC SENTIMENT IS PROMINENT-PLAN OF THE CHAPTER-SENSE IN WHICH THE PHRASE IS EMPLOYED-SPIRIT OF CASTE-MAN VALUED ACCORDING TO WORLDLY POSITION-NOT IN HARMONY WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL-WITH ITS SPIRITUAL PURPORT-WITH THE LIFE OF CHRIST-WITH PRECEPTIVE DIRECTIONS-WITH CHURCH FELLOWSHIP-ARISTOCRATIC SENTIMENT IN THE BRITISH CHURCHES CAUTION AGAINST MISTAKES-ITS EVIL ACTION UPON THE SYM CONSE PATHIES OF THE CHURCHES-UPON THEIR ENTERPRISES-UPON CHAPTER IV. THE morbid symptoms of the religion commonly exemplified by the British Churches, to which attention was pointed in the foregoing chapter, were regarded as arising from causes of a purely spiritual character. They were considered-whether with or without sufficient reason must be determined by the reader-as the natural results of a misapprehension of the drift, spirit, and method, of the New Testament economy. Substantially, the forms of revealed truth recognised by the majority of our Christian organizations, were supposed to be correct interpretations of the mind of God, whilst exception was taken to the mode in which they are held. The very texture of the religious principle was pronounced defective, and hence, ill adapted to bear the strains to which the pressure of worldly influences must always, more or less, subject it. Just as physical sufferings of various, and seemingly opposite, kinds are traced N home to some taint in the blood, and are treated as originating in constitutional causes, so the defects, inconsistencies, and mischiefs, which have passed under our review, were thought to have their seat in the prime elements of religious life. We may distinguish them, we think, without impropriety as indigenous-the fruit of tendencies inherent in our nature. Before proceeding to a consideration of those causes of weakness and inefficiency which are extrinsic, local, and accidental, I crave forgiveness for detaining the reader a few moments to state my conviction, that however I may be deemed to have erred in my attempt to lay bare the roots of the chief evils discernible in the Churches, they will not be discovered. at any less distance from the surface. The peculiar character of the present times, the greater amount and intensity of secular cares falling to each man's lot, in consequence of our increasing population, the social customs of the age, antiquated and cumbersome religious machinery, and many other causes operating from without, may serve, as we shall hereafter see, to aggravate the disorder, but I cannot regard them as accounting for its existence. Were spiritual vitality moderately vigorous, the injurious action of these external circumstances and arrangements upon it, would be more generally and successfully resisted. It is in the for The mation of religious principle, rather than in subsequent modifications of it, that the mischief originates—and if, as I believe, we have no sufficient ground for concluding that erroneous doctrine has eaten away the strength of the Churches, we have as little reason for suspecting that it has been worn down by the multiplicity and the energy of extraneous influences. disease, if I may so speak, is in the blood. The life itself is of an inferior type. We look at Christianity from one position only, and that as low an one as we could well take-and the spirit begotten in us by what we see, is but a partial and one-sided reflection of the truth revealed. The great want of the Churches, therefore-that which overtops all others, and casts its own broad, deep shadow over all-is a higher, nobler, diviner style of religion, a more intimate, and an intenser sympathy with the moral character of the manifested God. Until this want is met, we shall look in vain for large and permanent improvement. Christianity must be preached and studied for other ends than the personal advantage to be secured by it-must be received and exulted in as a dispensation of "glorious liberty" rather than a system of authoritative injunction-must be understood and appreciated as given to elicit, and train, and discipline our spiritual powers rather than, careless |