第 29 节
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博搏 更新:2022-04-08 21:02 字数:9320
as the Bishop of London。 But he got in some smug reminders of
the severance of diplomatic relations with the Vatican。 Perhaps
now France will be wiser。 He pointed out that the Holy See in
its Consistorial Allocution of January 22nd; 1915; invited the
belligerents to observe the rules of war。 Could anything more be
done than that? Oh!in the general issue of the war; if you
want a judgement on the war as a whole; how is it possible that
the Vatican to decide? Surely the French know that excellent
principle of justice; /Audiatur et altera pars/; and how
under existing circumstances can the Vatican do that。。。? The
Vatican is cut off from communication with Austria and Germany。
The Vatican has been deprived of its temporal power and local
independence (another neat point)。。。。
So France is bowed out。 When peace is restored; the Vatican will
perhaps be able to enquire if there was a big German army in
1914; if German diplomacy was aggressive from 1875 onward; if
Belgium was invaded unrighteously; if (Catholic) Austria forced
the pace upon (non…Catholic) Russia。 But nownow the Holy See
must remain as impartial as an unbought mascot in a shop
window。。。。
The next column of /Le Journal/ contained an account of the
Armenian massacres; the blood of the Armenian cries out past the
Holy Father to heaven; but then Armenians are after all heretics;
and here again the principle of /Audiatur et altera pars/
comes in。 Communications are not open with the Turks。 Moreover;
Armenians; like Serbs; are worse than infidels; they are
heretics。 Perhaps God is punishing them。。。。
/Audiatur et altera pars/; and the Vatican has not forgotten
the infidelity and disrespect of both France and Italy in the
past。 These are the things; it seems; that really matter to the
Vatican。 Cardinal Gasparri's portrait; in the same issue of
/Le Journal/; displays a countenance of serene contentment;
a sort of incarnate 〃Told…you…so。〃
So the Vatican lifts its pontifical skirts and shakes the dust of
western Europe off its feet。
It is the most astounding renunciation in history。
Indubitably the Christian church took a wide stride from the
kingship of God when it placed a golden throne for the unbaptised
Constantine in the midst of its most sacred deliberations at
Nicaea。 But it seems to me that this abandonment of moral
judgments in the present case by the Holy See is an almost wider
step from the church's allegiance to God。。。。
3
Thought about the great questions of life; thought and reasoned
direction; this is what the multitude demands mutely and weakly;
and what the organised churches are failing to give。 They have
not the courage of their creeds。 Either their creeds are
intellectual flummery or they are the solution to the riddles
with which the world is struggling。 But the churches make no
mention of their creeds。 They chatter about sex and the magic
effect of church attendance and simple faith。 If simple faith is
enough; the churches and their differences are an imposture。 Men
are stirred to the deepest questions about life and God; and the
Anglican church; for example; obligesas I have described。
It is necessary to struggle against the unfavourable impression
made by these things。 They must not blind us to the deeper
movement that is in progress in a quite considerable number of
minds in England and France alike towards the realisation of the
kingdom of God。
What I conceive to be the reality of the religious revival is to
be found in quarters remote from the religious professionals。
Let me give but one instance of several that occur to me。 I met
soon after my return from France a man who has stirred my
curiosity for years; Mr。 David Lubin; the prime mover in the
organisation of the International Institute of Agriculture in
Rome。 It is a movement that has always appealed to my
imagination。 The idea is to establish and keep up to date a
record of the food supplies in the world with a view to the
ultimate world control of food supply and distribution。 When its
machinery has developed sufficiently to a control in the
interests of civilisation of many other staples besides
foodstuffs。 It is in fact the suggestion and beginning of the
economic world peace and the economic world state; just as the
Hague Tribunal is the first faint sketch of a legal world state。
The King of Italy has met Mr。 Lubin's idea with open hands。 (It
was because of this profoundly interesting experiment that in a
not very widely known book of mine; /The World Set Free/
(May; 1914); in which I represented a world state as arising out
of Armageddon; I made the first world conference meet at Brissago
in Italian Switzerland under the presidency of the King of
Italy。) So that when I found I could meet Mr。 Lubin I did so very
gladly。 We lunched together in a pretty little room high over
Knightsbridge; and talked through an afternoon。
He is a man rather after the type of Gladstone; he could be made
to look like Gladstone in a caricature; and he has that
compelling quality of intense intellectual excitement which was
one of the great factors in the personal effectiveness of
Gladstone。 He is a Jew; but until I had talked to him for some
time that fact did not occur to me。 He is in very ill health; he
has some weakness of the heart that grips him and holds him at
times white and silent。
At first we talked of his Institute and its work。 Then we came
to shipping and transport。 Whenever one talks now of human
affairs one comes presently to shipping and transport generally。
In Paris; in Italy; when I returned to England; everywhere I
found 〃cost of carriage〃 was being discovered to be a question of
fundamental importance。 Yet transport; railroads and shipping;
these vitally important services in the world's affairs; are
nearly everywhere in private hands and run for profit。 In the
case of shipping they are run for profit on such antiquated lines
that freights vary from day to day and from hour to hour。 It
makes the business of food supply a gamble。 And it need not be a
gamble。
But that is by the way in the present discussion。 As we talked;
the prospect broadened out from a prospect of the growing and
distribution of food to a general view of the world becoming one
economic community。
I talked of various people I had been meeting in the previous few
weeks。 〃So many of us;〃 I said; 〃seem to be drifting away from
the ideas of nationalism and faction and policy; towards
something else which is larger。 It is an idea of a right way of
doing things for human purposes; independently of these limited
and localised references。 Take such things as international
hygiene for example; take /this/ movement。 We are feeling
our way towards a bigger rule。〃
〃The rule of Righteousness;〃 said Mr。 Lubin。
I told him that I had been coming more and more to the ideanot
as a sentimentality or a metaphor; but as the ruling and
directing idea; the structural idea; of all one's political and
social activitiesof the whole world as one state and community
and of God as the King of that state。
〃But /I/ say that;〃 cried Mr。 Lubin; 〃I have put my name to that。 Andit is /here!/〃
He struggled up; seized an Old Testament that lay upon a side
table。 He stood over it and rapped its cover。 〃It is
/here/;〃 he said; looking more like Gladstone than ever; 〃in
the Prophets。〃
4
That is all I mean to tell at present of that conversation。
We talked of religion for two hours。 Mr。 Lubin sees things in
terms of Israel and I do not。 For all that we see things very
much after the same fashion。 That talk was only one of a number
of talks about religion that I have had with hard and practical
men who want to get the world straighter than it is; and who
perceive that they must have a leadership and reference outside
themselves。 That is why I assert so confidently that there is a
real deep religious movement afoot in the world。 But not one of
those conversations could have gone on; it would have ceased
instantly; if anyone bearing the uniform and brand of any
organised religious body; any clergyman; priest; mollah; of
suchlike advocate of the ten thousand patented religions in the
world; had come in。 He would have brought in his sectarian
spites; his propaganda of church…going; his persecution of the
heretic and the illegitimate; his ecclesiastical politics; his
taboos; and his doctrinal touchiness。。。。 That is why; though I
perceive there is a great wave of religious revival in the world
to…day; I doubt whether it bodes well for the professional
religions。。。。
The other day I was talking to an eminent Anglican among various
other people and someone with an eye to him propounded this
remarkable view。
〃There are four stages between belief and utter unbelief。 There
are those who believe in God; those who doubt like Huxley the
Agnostic; those who deny him like the Atheists but who do at
least keep his place vacant; and lastly those who have set up a
Church in his place。 That is the last outrage of unbelief。〃
IV。 THE RIDDLE OF THE BRITISH
All the French people I met in France seemed to be thinking and
talking about the English。