3. Christ did not merely refrain from interfering with free growth Himself, He interposed to defend others when they were interfered with. His most marked action is in behalf of liberty, and He is strongest in rebuke when He checks the attempt of any one to thrust his own character on another, to the destruction of its genuineness. What a lesson there is to contending, narrow- minded religionists, who can see nothing beyond their own circle, in His answer: "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name ; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us " (Luke ix. 49). " Forbid him not ; for he that is not against you is for you." It is as if He had said, " We must not narrow the cause of God to our own party, but rejoice in goodness wherever it appears. If we are right it is all coming our way."
^ Crawford had cashiered or suspended his lieutenant-colonel for the sore offence of holding wrong opinions in religion. Cromwell's rebuke (March 1643) is of the sharpest. "Surely you are not well advised thus to turn off one so faithful in the cause, and so able to serve you as this man is. Give me leave to tell you, I cannot be of your judgment ; cannot understand it, if a man notorious for wickedness, for oaths, for drinking, hath as great a share in your affection as one who fears an oath, who fears to sin. Ay, but the man is an Anabaptist. Are you sure of that? Admit that he be, shall that render him incapable to serve the public ? Sir, the State in choosing men to serve it takes no notice of their opinions ; if they he willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies. I advised you formerly to bear with men of different minds from yourself; if you had done it when I advised you to do it, I think you would not have had so many * A. V. G. Allen, Phillips Brooks, 92.
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stumbling-blocks in your way. Take heed of being sharp, or too easily sharpened by others, against those to whom you can object little but that they square not with you in every opinion concerning matters of religion." ^
^ The Government introduced a Bill to permit an affirmation to be made by Mr. Bradlaugh. Gladstone made one of his most magnificent speeches in support of this Bill. Never did he appear to me to greater advantage. I should think he literally loathed the theological — or non-theological — opinions of Mr. Bradlaugh. Between the two men there could be no personal sympathy whatever. But Mr. Gladstone saw in him the sign, symbol, and impersonation of a gross political injustice; and, rising superior to all petty, personal, or sectarian feelings, he pleaded with amazing and overpowering eloquence for justice, equahty, and freedom of opinion. He knew the folly of attempt- ing in any way to coerce opinion and to place any kind of penalty upon it.*
4. The exercise of this law of tolerance is possible since Christ ascended as it was not possible while He was on earth. His withdrawal from earth in His visible person is in favour of free Christian development, since the very presence of a visible Lord and Lawgiver, however wise and tolerant, must tend to uniformity in the character of His subjects. The principle of working by His Spirit is to enter into each natui-e by itself, and unfold it from its own germ and centre. It is the lifting up and widening of the first overshadowing canopy of His personal guidance, which was needful in its time, into the grand arch of the heavens, beneath which all can grow up more freely and expansively. It is for wise reasons, in regard to Christian growth, that a visible Head is removed from the Christian Church, and that the liberal unconstrained movements of faith are substituted, meanwhile, for the limitation and fixity of sight. We can perceive how the disciples started up into stronger, broader men, under this new influence, and how their characters struck out on all sides into more marked individuality. There was a presence of Christ to implant the first seeds, and foster them; then a departure, that they might grow up more freely in His absence, till through His Spirit they reach a full stature and
* John Morley, Oliver Cromwell, 131. ■ Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 170.
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firm character. When these are gained, and individuality ia fully formed, there can be a safe return to that closest proximity to Him which is their highest happiness, and where, too, they shall feel that the law of love is perfect liberty.
^ The natural history of toleration seems simple, but it is in truth one of the most complex of all the topics that engage either the reasoner or the ruler ; and until nations were by their mental state ready for religious toleration, a statesman responsible for order naturally paused before committing himself to a system that might only mean that the members of rival communions would fly at one another's throats, like Catholics and Huguenots in France, or Spaniards and Beggars in Holland. In history it is our business to try to understand the possible reasons and motives for everything, even for intolerance.^