rvation of the
more permanent and essential articles of the Christian faith. The amount
of heresy, as against the more truly representative doctrines, that may
pass through their meshes is very great.

This weakness is aggravated by another--the want of any provision for
amending the creed from time to time. If it were desirable to adopt
measures for maintaining uniformity of opinions among the clergy, the
creed should be excised, or added to, according to the needs of every
age. That this is not done, shows that the machinery of tests is
altogether abnormal; it is not within the type of regular legislation.
That any given creed should be regarded as out of keeping, as both
redundant and defective, and yet that the ecclesiastical authority
should shrink from applying a remedy to its most obvious defects, proves
that the system itself is bad. All healthy legislation lends itself to
perpetual improvement; that the enactments of articles of belief cannot
be reconsidered, is a sign of rottenness.

A third objection to tests is, that mere dogmatic uniformity, if it were
more complete than any tests can make it, is at best but a part of the
religious character. It does nothing to secure or promote fervour,
feeling, the emotional element in religion. It is by moral heat, far
more than by its mould of doctrine, that religion influences mankind.
There is no means of censuring preachers for coldness or languid
indifference; or rather, there is another and more legitimate means than
penal prosecutions, namely, expressed dissatisfaction and the preference
of those that excel in the quality. A warm, glowing manner, an unctuous
delivery, commands hearers and conducts to popularity and importance.
The men of cold and unfeeling natures may get into office, but they are
lightly esteemed. They are not had up to a public trial and deposed, but
they are treated, and spoken of, in such a way as to discourage men of
their type from becoming preachers, and to encourage the other sort.
There are many qualifications that go to forming a good preacher; the
holding of the creed of the body is only one. Yet, with the exception of
gross immorality or abandonment of duty, correctness of creed is the
only one that is subjected to the extreme penalty of loss of office; the
others are secured by different means. Is it too much to infer that,
without the extreme penalty, a reasonable conformity to the prevailing
creed might also be secured?

[ELEMENT