Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 86

Progressive Development

page 6

Progressive Development.

Society is an organism—is a development from a lower to a higher form. This development, it is true, has been of gradual accomplishment, but it is none the less sure, as we may see by comparing the present with the past. The institutions of society are a part of society, and if they are to be retained they must develop along with society. If they remain stagnant, incapable of reform, incapable of change, incapable of adapting themselves to the changing needs of society, society leaves them behind, and they become rudimentary, effete, worthless, dead, injurious, in fact, to the growth of society, and hostile to its best interests. I do not think that any truth can be plainer than this. The butterfly does not incommode itself with the cast of shell of its mundane life, and why should society impede its progress by clinging to the hollow husks of institutions, merely because these have been of service to it in the past. Take any of the institutions that are of genuine utility to us to day, and you will see that they all evidence this law of progressive development—a law which is the grandest generalisation of our own or any time. Our Parliament, for instance, the English Parliament, is the result of ages of growth. At first a collection of the freemen of the tribe, it was gradually and at the same time unconsciously remodelled to meet the requirements of a nation. And throughout the history of the English nation, how often has its Parliament suffered change in order that it might be brought into harmony with the advancing views of the people? It is not 50 years ago since the Reform Bill was passed, and the day is not far off when a higher point of development will be reached—namely, the day when the English people feel that it will be to their interests to obtain manhood suffrage. The laws of a country present the same phase of development. At first they are crude and imperfect and ill-adapted to the meagre requirements of a primitive state of civilisation. As the society grows, however, the relations of its members to the community and to each other become more complex, and an ever-developing system of rules is required and is obtained to deal with the ever-increasing complexity of these relations. New arts, new industries, new modes of life are ever being brought into being, and the old ones that have proved unsuitable are discarded by the ever-widening sphere of civilisation. The wooden plough of our ancestors is discarded for an iron one, the wagon gives place to the locomotive, the seythe to the reaper and binder—it is thus society progresses. All her parts obey the law of progressive development—all except one of her institutions. The Church alone undergoes no change, no reform, makes no effort to look forward with humanity, to bring itself into harmony with modern thought. It still worships the wooden plough it still exalts the wagon and the scythe Stationary it looks wistfully back to the past' and with its old prophetic spirit gone, it gazes with horror on the advancing sea of human life. Was it always thus? Did the Church always present the same barrier to progress as it does to-day? Was it always out of harmony with the requirements of the time? In the old Jewish days the Church was a necessity of the State and its very life. Its functions were statecraft rather than priestcraft. It helped to knit man more closely to the community of which he was a member, and preferred to consult the interests of the nation rather than of the chosen few. Its power seemed to wane, and a new departure was taken at the rise of Christianity. Pauline Christianity flourished, and under the dominance of the Catholic Church the nations of Europe were partially confederated. The revival of learning forced another change, and the Reformation was the result. Since then English-speaking countries especially have been noted for religious revivals; a new sect has sprung up, or the colour of a surplice has been changed, but where have been the reforms to bring the spirit of the Church into harmony with the spirit of the times, to change its skeleton thoughts into the living ideas of the present? The Church is the same in spirit to-day, evidences the same intolerance to opposing opinions, is based on the same principles, cherishes the same legends, accepts the same explanation of things, teaches the same false ethics as it did centuries ago. Its development has been arrested, it has ceased to be governed by the law of Evolution; and to bring it into harmony with modern thought, into harmony with the complexity of modern relations will require something more than mere reform. Utter regeneration alone can save it.