end or incumbency a conscious
dishonesty. At the worst it is mitigated by thought for wife or child.
It has only been during very exceptional phases of religious development
and controversy that beliefs have been really sharp. A creed, like a
coin, it may be argued, loses little in practical value because it is
worn, or bears the image of a vanished king. The religious life is a
reality that has clothed itself in many garments, and the concern of
the priest or minister is with the religious life and not with the poor
symbols that may indeed pretend to express, but do as a matter of fact
no more than indicate, its direction. It is quite possible to maintain
that the church and not the creed is the real and valuable instrument of
religion, that the religious life is sustained not by its propositions
but by its routines. Anyone who seeks the intimate discussion of
spiritual things with professional divines, will find this is the
substance of the case for the ecclesiastical sceptic. His church, he
will admit, mumbles its statement of truth, but where else is truth?
What better formulae are to be found for ineffable things? And
meanwhile--he does good.

That may be a valid defence before a man finds God. But we who profess
the worship and fellowship of the living God deny that religion is a
matter of ineffable things. The way of God is plain and simple and easy
to understand.

Therewith the whole position of the conforming sceptic is changed. If
a professional religious has any justification at all for his
professionalism it is surely that he proclaims the nearness and
greatness of God. And these creeds and articles and orthodoxies are not
proclamations but curtains, they are a darkening and confusion of what
should be crystal clear. What compensatory good can a priest pretend
to do when his primary business is the truth and his method a lie? The
oaths and incidental conformities of men who wish to serve God in the
state are on a different footing altogether from the falsehood and
mischief of one who knows the true God and yet recites to a trustful
congregation, foists upon a trustful congregation, a misleading and
ill-phrased Levantine creed.

Such is the line of thought which will impose the renunciation of his
temporalities and a complete cessation of services upon every ordained
priest and minister as his first act of faith. Once that he has truly
realised God, it becomes impossible for him ever to repeat his creed
a