All the same, he
perceives a danger in formalism, a resting in symbolism for its own
sake. In its genesis, the Oxford Movement threw up great men, very great
men, men of considerable intellectual power and a most profound
spirituality; it is not to be expected, perhaps, that such giants should
appear again, and in their absence lesser men may possibly mistake the
symbol for the thing symbolised, and so fall into the error of
formalism. That is a danger to be watched and guarded against. But the
Movement will continue, and it will not reach its fulfilment until under
its pressure the Church has arrived at unity and formulated a policy
intelligent and coherent.
So this great spirit, who might have given to mankind a book worthy to
stand beside the _Imitation_, and given to England a new enthusiasm for
the moral principles of Christianity, nurses a mechanistic dream and
cherishes the hope that his Party is the Aaron's rod of all the
Churches. Many would have followed him if he had been content to say
only, "Do as I do," but he descended into the dust of controversy, and
bade us think as he thinks. Nevertheless, in spite of this fatal mistake
he remains the greatest spiritual force among the Churches of England,
and his books of devotion will be read long after his works of
controversy have fallen into that coldest of all oblivions, the oblivion
of inadequate theologies.
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