Painted Windows

Painted Windows

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Painted Windows, by Harold Begbie
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Painted Windows Studies in Religious Personality
Author: Harold Begbie
Release Date: February 9, 2005 [EBook #14996]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAINTED
WINDOWS ***

Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: BISHOP GORE]

PAINTED WINDOWS
STUDIES IN RELIGIOUS PERSONALITY
BY
A GENTLEMAN WITH A DUSTER AUTHOR OF "THE MIRRORS
OF DOWNING STREET"
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KIRSOPP LAKE
_It was simply a struggle for fresh air, in which, if the windows could
not be opened, there was danger that panes would be broken, though

painted with images of saints and martyrs. Light, coloured by these
reverend effigies, was none the more respirable for being picturesque._
J.R. Lowell.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILE VERPILLEUX
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The
Knickerbocker Press 1922
_For the information presented in the biographical records connected
with the several chapters the publishers desire to express their
indebtedness to "Who's Who."_

FOREWORD
BY PROFESSOR KIRSOPP LAKE
No one who believes that the Christian churches have in the past been
the moral leaders of western civilization can fail to be interested in the
presentation of some of the English religious leaders by "A Gentleman
with a Duster" especially if, like myself, he have some passing
acquaintance with most of them. Nor can any neglect to regard
seriously his warning that the Church is failing as a moral leader.
What is the reason for that failure? It cannot, I think, be found in lack
of earnestness; for today all the guides of the churches in England are
serious, upright men, who would gladly lead if they could. Nor is it
because they are voices uttering strange announcements in the
wilderness; if they have a fault it is rather that they have so little to
announce. The defect which is disclosed by the pictures given by "A
Gentleman with a Duster" is primarily intellectual, and I propose to
devote to its explanation the introduction which the publisher has asked
me to write for the American edition of Painted Windows.
From the third century to the eighteenth the Christian Church presented
views of life and theories of the origin, weakness, and possible
redemption of human nature, which were both self consistent and
rational. It offered men an infallible guide of life, to be found in the
Church, the Bible, and the Christ. Different branches of the Christian
church emphasised one or the other, but the three formed in themselves
an indivisible trinity. Nor did the laity doubt that this presentation was
correct. The clergy were the professional and expert exponents of an
infallible revelation which they had studied deeply and knew better
than other men, and on which they spoke with the authority of

experience. It was firmly believed that to follow their teaching would
lead to future salvation; for the centre of gravity in life for seriously
minded men was the hope of attaining everlasting salvation in the
world to come.
The situation today is changed in two directions. The Church, the Bible,
and even the Teaching of Jesus are no longer regarded as infallible.
History first abundantly proved that the voice of the Church was not
inerrant; then science discredited the biblical account of man's origin
and development; and finally the "kenotic" theory of Bishop Gore
showed that what were considered the ipsissima verba of the Lord
himself could no longer be regarded as infallible. The _coup de grâce_
to the belief that Jesus must be followed literally was administered by
official sermons during the war. This does not mean that men and
women within or without the Church do not admire and venerate the
teaching of Jesus and regard him as the best teacher whom they know.
But they are not willing to accept all his teaching; they have been
forced to admit that it is sometimes lawful to resist evil by force; they
doubt whether he is to appear as the Judge of the living and the dead;
they accept much of his teaching and try to follow it because they
believe that it is true, but they do not believe that it is true because it is
his teaching. It is therefore impossible today for educated men, even
among those who most sincerely adopt it, to settle a moral argument by
an appeal to the teaching of Jesus. The tragedy is that there are
probably as many today outside