Ward supposes--that
it has advanced, in more senses than one, beyond the point raised by
Renan's Vie de Jesus. Of course, a man such as Robert Elsmere came
to be ought not to be a clergyman of the Anglican Church. The priest
is still, and will, we think, remain, one of the necessary types of
humanity; and he is untrue to his type, unless, with whatever
inevitable doubts in this doubting age, he feels, on the whole, the
preponderance in it of those influences which make for faith. It is
his triumph to achieve as much faith as possible in an age of
negation. Doubtless, it is part of the ideal of the Anglican Church
that, under certain safeguards, it should find room for
latitudinarians even among its clergy. Still, with these, as [67]
with all other genuine priests, it is the positive not the negative
result that justifies the position. We have little patience with
those liberal clergy who dwell on nothing else than the difficulties
of faith and the propriety of concession to the opposite force. Yes!
Robert Elsmere was certainly right in ceasing to be a clergyman. But
it strikes us as a blot on his philosophical pretensions that he
should have been both so late in perceiving the difficulty, and then
so sudden and trenchant in dealing with so great and complex a
question.
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