The Age and the Church; Being a Study of the Age, and of the Adaptation of the Church to Its Needs (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ...and yet that rule is constantly ignored. Children are drilled in certain religious doctrines, and then a confession is required of them whose meaning they cannot comprehend. In Europe the confirmation of children is thus largely a burlesque on religion; and the instruction, given preparatory to confirmation, has been declared by social democrats to be the most efficient means for alienating the youth from the church. Religion cannot be taught; it is a creation, an inspiration. All that can be done by others is to teach religious truth and to help a soul in its efforts to become religious. Spirituality is preeminently ethical and personal, wholly an act of the soul itself; whatever human and divine aids may be given. This is so clear from Christ's method with souls and from all experience that it cannot be questioned. But because certain doctrines can be taught, it seems to be taken for granted that religion itself can be taught. Certain doctrines are consciously or unconsciously substituted for religion, so that the confession of these doctrines is taken as proof that the confessor is religious. This is perhaps one of the most radical evils in the church, and accounts for the discrepancy between the confession and the life. Why lead a religious life, if a confession of faith is sufficient? The child and the newly converted cannot be expected to understand more than the elements of Christianity; and in their confession of faith nothing more can be expected. But in many instances they are required to confess what they cannot possibly understand. They do not confess what they really believe, but what the church thinks they ought to believe. And when later they find that they have deceived themselves, the reaction may be so strong as to turn them...