d no propagation of
truth. But when these departments become mixed up, when their separate
functions are forgotten, when one is made to do duty for another, or
where either is developed by the church or the individual at the expense
of the rest, the result is fatal. The particular abuse, however, of
which we have now to speak, concerns the tendency in orthodox
communities, first to exalt orthodoxy above all other elements in
religion, and secondly to make the possession of sound beliefs
equivalent to the possession of truth.

Doctrinal preaching, fortunately, as a constant practice is less in
vogue than in a former age, but there are still large numbers whose only
contact with religion is through theological forms. The method is
supported by a plausible defence. What is doctrine but a compressed form
of truth, systematized by able and pious men, and sanctioned by the
imprimatur of the Church? If the greatest minds of the Church's past,
having exercised themselves profoundly upon the problems of religion,
formulated as with one voice a system of doctrine, why should the humble
inquirer not gratefully accept it? Why go over the ground again? Why
with his dim light should he betake himself afresh to Bible study and
with so great a body of divinity already compiled, presume himself to be
still a seeker after truth? Does not Theology give him Bible truth in
reliable, convenient, and moreover, in logical propositions? There it
lies extended to the last detail in the tomes of the Fathers, or
abridged in a hundred modern compendia, ready-made to his hand, all cut
and dry, guaranteed sound and wholesome, why not use it?

Just because it is all cut and dry. Just because it is ready-made. Just
because it lies there in reliable, convenient and logical propositions.
The moment you appropriate truth in such a shape you appropriate a
form. You cannot cut and dry truth. You cannot accept truth ready-made
without it ceasing to nourish the soul as the truth. You cannot live on
theological forms without becoming a Parasite and ceasing to be a man.

There is no worse enemy to a living Church than a propositional
theology, with the latter controlling the former by traditional
authority. For one does not then receive the truth for himself, he
accepts it bodily. He begins the Christian life set up by his Church
with a stock-in-trade which has cost him nothing, and which, though it
may serve him all his life, is just exactly worth as much hi