The Zeit-Geist | Page 4

of them. There was a grave earnestness in his speech which
made his opinion on this subject suddenly become of moment to me,
and his intensity did not produce any of that sensation of irritation or
opposition which the intensity of most men produces as soon as it is
felt.
"You think that the chief obstacle which is hindering the progress of
true religion in the world at present is that while we will not learn from
those who disagree with us we can obtain no new light, and that when
we are willing to reach after their light we become also willing to let go
what we have had, so that the world does not gain but loses by the
transaction. This is, I admit, an obstacle to thought; but it is not the
essential difficulty of our age."
"Let us consider," I said, in my pedantic way, "how my difficulty may
be overcome, and then let us discuss that one you consider to be
essential."
Toyner's choice of words, like his appearance, betrayed a strong, yet
finely chiselled personality.
"We are truly accustomed now to the idea that whatever has life cannot
possibly remain unchanged, but must always develop by leaving some
part behind and producing some part that is new. It is God's will that
the religious thought of the world, which is made up of the thought of
individuals, shall proceed in this way, whether we will or not, but it
must always help progress when we can make our wills at one with
God's in this matter; we go faster and safer so. Now to say that to
submit willingly to God's law of growth is to produce chaos must
certainly be a fallacy. It must then be a fallacy to argue that to keep a
mind open to all influences is antagonistic to the truest religious life;
we cannot--whether we wish or not, we cannot--let go any truth that
has been assimilated into our lives; and what truth we have not

assimilated it is no advantage to hold without agitation. We know better
where we are when we are forced to sift it. It is the very great apparent
advantage of recognised order that deceives us! When we lose that
apparent advantage, when we lose, too, the familiar names and
symbols, and think, like children, that we have lost the reality they have
expressed to us, a very low state of things appears to result. The strain
and stress of life become much greater. Ah! but, my friend, it is that
strain and stress that shape us into the image of God."
"You hinted, I think, that to your mind there was a more real obstacle,
one peculiar to our age."
Ever since I first met him I have been puzzled to know how it was that
I often knew so nearly what Toyner meant when he only partially
expressed his thought; he had this power over my understanding. He
was my master from the first.
He laid his hand now slightly upon my arm, as though to emphasise
what he said.
"It is a little hard to explain it reverently," he said, "and still harder to
understand why the difficulty should have come about, but in our day it
would seem that the nights of prayer and the fresh intuition into the
laws of God's working, which we see united in the life of our great
Example, have become divorced. It is their union again that we must
have--that we shall have; but at present there is the difficulty for every
man of us--the men who lead us in either path are different men and
lead different ways. Our law-givers are not the men who meet God
upon the mount. Our scientists are not the teachers who are pre-eminent
for fasting and prayer. We who to be true to ourselves must follow in
both paths find our souls perplexed."
In front of us, as we turned a curve in the drive, a bed of scarlet lilies
stood stately in the sun, and a pair of bickering sparrows rose from the
fountain near which they grew. Toyner made a slight gesture of his
hand. With the eagerness of a child he asked:
"Is it not hard to believe that we may ask and expect forgiveness and

gifts from the God who by slow inevitable laws of growth clothes the
lilies, who ordains the fall of every one of these sparrows, foresees the
fall and ordains it--the God whose character is expressed in physical
law? The texts of Jesus have become so trite that we forget that they
contain the same vision of 'God's mind in all things' that makes it so
hard to believe in a personality in God, that makes prayer seem to us so