Welsh Journals

Already some lines of construction and of synthesis are becoming visible, and it is our purpose here to indicate, with inevitable brevity, what they appear to us to be. (i.) The historical approach to the Scriptures has given us a truer and more fascinating understanding of their real message. Ethical and dogmatic interests are clearly interwoven, especially in the New Testament, but henceforth we are not likely to subordinate the ethical interests to the dogmatic; for we have heard the voice of Him who said that not everyone that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom, but he that doeth the will of the Father, that glorious will which was also His meat and His drink when on earth. God's desire is not for rivers of oil, but for righteousness as a mighty stream; not for elaborate and costly ritual, but for a humble service in love of even the least of the brethren with a sacramental cup of cold water. Already this is beginning to affect our preaching in Wales, which has been far too much concerned in the past to gain an aesthetic and emotional effect, but may be expected henceforth to show a new passion for moral and practical results of a more lasting character. It may not be quite so entertaining but it will certainly be more edifying and that after all is what truly prophetic preaching should be. (ii.) The growing emphasis of experi- ence as fundamental and authoritative leads us to look for religious experience within the dogmatic forms. The ex- perience is primary, the dogma in which it is enshrined is but secondary. Religion matters more than theology, just as life matters more than philosophy. In the Scriptures we find the record of a great experience, but the experience itself is greater than the noble record of it. The record itself were of little religious worth unless it helped us to get such an ex- perience for ourselves. The inspiration of Scripture is therefore only derivative, whereas the inspiration of persons through experience is original. The mere letter killeth, it is ever the spirit that giveth life. In the Scriptures then we find the religious experience of individuals and of Christian societies recorded for our profit, but the life which surged in them has flowed through all the Christian centuries, and the history of the Church is therefore a continuation of the Scripture record. It is primitive Christianity al- ready developing, that we find in the New Testament, but there is a Christi- anity of the twentieth century, and that is no less divine for those who believe in the living God. It is only the pessim- ist, the man of little faith who will seek all good in the first century only, and ever after that find nothing but a long record of steady corruption and of spas- modic correction. Here we want a syn- thesis of the Protestant doctrine regarding the Bible with the Catholic teaching about a spiritual tradition that descends through the life of the Church. (iii.) The Protestant emphasis of indi- vidual liberty must be combined with the Catholic emphasis of the authority of the Christian community. There is a subordination of the individual which is the worst tyranny, and clean contrary to the spirit of Christianity, but there is also an individualism which is rank anarchy: and which is ever leading to the formation of petty sects for the head- strong and obstinate faddist. We want a via media, for there is an element of truth in both positions. The individual develops his own character and works out his own salvation but spiritual develop-