things be?"

And there were others who still lingered in the Church, perplexed and
wistful, who had come to him and confessed that the so-called catholic
acceptance of divine truths, on which he had hitherto dwelt, meant
nothing to them. To these, in particular, he owed a special reparation,
and he took this occasion to announce a series of Sunday evening sermons
on the Creeds. So long as the Creeds remained in the Prayer Book it was
his duty to interpret them in terms not only of modern thought, but in
harmony with the real significance of the Person and message of Jesus
Christ. Those who had come to him questioning, he declared, were a
thousand times right in refusing to accept the interpretations of other
men, the consensus of opinion of more ignorant ages, expressed in an
ancient science and an archaic philosophy.

And what should be said of the vast and ever increasing numbers of those
not connected with the Church, who had left it or were leaving it? and
of the less fortunate to whose bodily wants they had been ministering
in the parish house, for whom it had no spiritual message, and who never
entered its doors? The necessity of religion, of getting in touch with,
of dependence on the Spirit of the Universe was inherent in man, and yet
there were thousands--nay, millions in the nation to-day in whose hearts
was an intense and unsatisfied yearning, who perceived no meaning in
life, no Cause for which to work, who did not know what Christianity
was, who had never known what it was, who wist not where to turn to
find out. Education had brought many of them to discern, in the Church's
teachings, an anachronistic medley of myths and legends, of theories of
schoolmen and theologians, of surviving pagan superstitions which
could not be translated into life. They saw, in Christianity, only
the adulterations of the centuries. If any one needed a proof of the
yearning people felt, let him go to the bookshops, or read in the
publishers' lists to-day the announcements of books on religion. There
was no supply where there was no demand.

Truth might no longer be identified with Tradition, and the day was past
when councils and synods might determine it for all mankind. The era of
forced acceptance of philosophical doctrines and dogmas was past,
and that of freedom, of spiritual rebirth, of vicarious suffering, of
willing sacrifice and service for a Cause was upon them. That cause was
Democracy. Christ was uniquely the Son