Morality as a Religion | Page 2

gained numerous
adherents from amongst those who, finding it impossible to "stand
upon the old ways," were yet in need of an Idealism and an inspiration
of life. The teaching given weekly at its Sunday Services is summarised
in the following chapters, which are published under the impression
that some information respecting a Body which is content to make the
Moral life its ideal and reverence Conscience as "the highest, holiest"
reality, may be welcome to religious idealists generally. The volume is
altogether of an introductory character, and merely aims at conveying
the central truth of Ethical Religion expressed by Immanuel Kant in the
well-known words--Religion is Morality recognised as a Divine
command. Morality is the foundation. Religion only adds the new and
commanding point of view.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
ETHICS AND RELIGION II. ETHICS AND SCIENCE III. ETHICS
AND THEISM IV. IMMANUEL KANT, THE ETHICAL
PHILOSOPHER V. THE ETHICAL DOCTRINE OF
COMPENSATION VI. CONSCIENCE THE VOICE OF GOD AND
THE VOICE OF MAN VII. PRIESTS AND PROPHETS VIII.
PRAYER IN THE ETHICAL CHURCH IX. THE ETHICAL ASPECT
OF DEATH X. THE ETHICAL ASPECT OF WAR XI. THE ETHICS
OF MARRIAGE XII. THE ETHICAL CHURCH AND POSITIVISM

XIII. THE OLD FAITH AND THE NEW AS SEEN IN "HELBECK
OF BANNISDALE" XIV. THE RELIGION OF TENNYSON XV.
"THE UNKNOWN GOD" XVI. "A CHAPEL IN THE INFINITE"
XVII. "THE OVER-SOUL"

MORALITY AS A RELIGION.
I.
ETHICS AND RELIGION.
Some fifteen years ago a discussion was carried on in the pages of one
of our leading monthlies on the profoundly important question, "The
Influence on Morality of a Decline in Religious Belief". Men of every
shade of opinion, from Roman Catholicism to Agnosticism, contributed
their views, and, as might well have been expected, they came to the
most contradictory conclusions. The Roman Catholic and Anglican
writers appeared to think that the mere husk of morality would be left
with the disappearance of Christianity; that a sort of enlightened
epicureanism, a prudent animalism, would sway the greater part of
mankind; in a word, that we should be "whited sepulchres," fair to look
on without, but "inside full of dead men's bones, and all filthiness". The
agnostic was no less certain that morality, which had outgrown the
cumbrous garments manufactured by theology, would get on equally
well in the handy raiment provided by science. The Rev. Dr. Martineau,
speaking as a theistic philosopher, accurately delineated the boundaries
of religion and morality, proceeded to show the untenableness of these
two extreme positions, and nobly vindicated the complete autonomy or
independence of ethics, whether of theological or scientific doctrines.
Before stating the views which an ethical society advocates as to the
relations between religion and ethics, it would be very opportune to
remark that in the symposium or discussion referred to, sufficient
emphasis was not laid on an extremely important distinction which
should be borne in mind when we estimate the comparative importance
of religion and ethics. It is this. Religion, to ninety-nine out of every

hundred men who talk about it, does not mean religion in its genuine
character, but philosophy. A man's religion is merely a synonym for the
reasoned explanation of the universe, of man, and their destiny, which
he has learnt from the particular ecclesiastical organisation to which he
belongs. Thus, the Christian religion means to the Anglican the Bible
as interpreted by the Thirty-nine Articles; to the Dissenter, the same
book, as interpreted by some confession, such as the Westminster, the
Calvinistic, or the like. To the Roman Catholic it is synonymous with
what has been, and what in future may be, the verdict of a central
teaching corporation whose judgment is final and irrevocable. Similarly,
religion for the Mohammedan is the precise form which his founder
gave it, whilst the Buddhist is equally persistent in upholding the
version of Sakya Mouni. Now, it is plain that religion itself is one
definite thing, and cannot be made to cover a multiplicity of
contradictory statements. What, then, are these Catholic, Protestant,
Mohammedan and Buddhist religions? They are not religions at all:
they are merely philosophies, or systematised accounts of God, the
world, and of man, which have obtained large support in earlier stages
of the world's history. Religion itself is a thing apart from these
ephemeral forms in which it has been made to take shape. It is the great
sun of reality, whose pure and authentic radiance has been decomposed
in the spectrum of the human brain, each man seizing on an individual
ray of broken light and making that the sum and substance of his belief.
Our little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Lord, art more than
they.
It is the aim of this