had determined to face the difficult
questions of the day no less boldly from within the bosom of the church than the
church's enemies had faced them from without her pale.
    There was an essay on the External Evidences of the Resurrection; another on
the marriage laws of the most eminent nations of the world in times past and
present; another was devoted to a consideration of the many questions which must
be reopened and reconsidered on their merits if the teaching of the Church of
England were to cease to carry moral authority with it; another dealt with the
more purely social subject of middle-class destitution; another with the
authenticity or rather the unauthenticity of the fourth gospel; another was
headed »Irrational Rationalism,« and there were two or three more.
    They were all written vigorously and fearlessly as though by people used to
authority; all granted that the church professed to enjoin belief in much which
no one could accept who had been accustomed to weigh evidence, but it was
contended that so much valuable truth had got so closely mixed up with these
mistakes that the mistakes had better not be meddled with. To lay great stress
on these was like cavilling at the Queen's right to reign on the ground that
William the Conqueror was illegitimate.
    One article maintained that though it would be inconvenient to change the
words of our prayer book and articles, it would not be inconvenient to change in
a quiet way the meanings which we put upon those words. This it was argued was
what was actually done in the case of law; this had been the law's mode of
growth and adaptation, and had in all ages been found a righteous and convenient
method of effecting change. It was suggested that the church should adopt it.
    In another essay it was boldly denied that the church rested upon reason. It
was proved incontestably that its ultimate foundation was and ought to be faith,
there being indeed no other ultimate foundation than this for any of men's
beliefs. If so, the writer claimed that the church could not be upset by reason.
It was founded like everything else on initial assumptions - that is to say on
faith, and if it was to be upset must be upset by faith - by the faith of those
who in their lives appeared more graceful, more loveable, better bred, in fact,
and better able to overcome difficulties. Any sect which showed its superiority
in these respects might carry all before it, but none other would make much
headway for long together. Christianity was true in so far as it had fostered
beauty, and it had fostered much beauty. It