Man could never do it, even in the simpler
Middle Age. Far less can he do it now in an age full of such
strange, such complex influences; at once so progressive and
conservative; an age in which the same man is often craving after
some new prospect of the future, and craving at the same moment after
the seemingly obsolete past; longing for fresh truth, and yet
dreading to lose the old; with hope struggling against fear, courage
against modesty, scorn of imbecility against reverence for authority
in the same man's heart, while the mystery of the new world around
him strives with the mystery of the old world which lies behind him;
while the belief that man is the same being now as he was five
thousand years ago strives with the plain fact that he is assuming
round us utterly novel habits, opinions, politics; while the belief
that Christ is the same now as he was in Judaea of old--yea, the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever--strives with the plain fact that his
field, the world, is in a state in which it never has been since the
making of the world; while it is often most difficult, though (as I
believe) certainly possible, to see those divine laws at work with
which God governed the nations in old time. May God forgive us all,
both laity and clergy, every cruel word, every uncharitable thought,
every hasty judgment.
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