AN APPEAL TO THE CLERGY 361
as former and present ecclesiastics have thought. These men generally console themselves with the thought that Church doctrine probably has some satis- factory explanation of the incompatibilities which (as they suppose) only appear incompatibilities to them owing to their own deficiency in theological erudition.
If you belong to that class of men — sincerely and naively believing^ or who_, though they do not believe are yet willing to believe, and are oblivious of the obstacles to so doing — whether you are an already ordained priest, or a young man only preparing for the priesthood, pause for a while in your activity or in your preparations for that activity, and consider what you are doing or are about to do.
You are preaching, or are preparing to preach, a teaching which will define for men the meaning of their life, will define its aim, will indicate the features of good and evil, and will give direction to all their activity. And this teaching you preach not as any other human doctrine — imperfect and open to question — but as a teaching revealed by God Himself, and therefore not to be questioned ; and you preach it not in a book or ordinary conversation, but either to chil- dren — at an age when they cannot understand the meaning of what is conveyed to them, but when it all stamps itself indelibly on their consciousness — or you preach it to ignorant adults unable to weigh the instruc- tion you give them.
Such is your activity, or for such activity you are preparing.
But what if this that you teach, or are preparing to teach, be untrue }
Is it possible that this cannot be, or must not be, con- sidered ? If you consider it and compare this teaching with other teachings claiming to be equally unique and infallible, and compare it with what you yourselves know, and with common-sense ; if, 'n a word, you consider it, not in a spirit of blind credulity, but freely — you cannot fail to see that what has been given to you as sacred truth, is not only not sacred truth, but is
