Jacks confesses to me that there is no zeal of propaganda in the
Unitarian communion. It is a society of people which does not thrust
itself upon the notice of men, does not compete for converts with other
churches in the market-place. It is rather a little temple of peace
round the corner, to which people, who are aweary of the din in the
theological market-place, may make their way if they choose. It is such
a Church as Warburton, to the great joy of Edward FitzGerald, likened to
Noah's family in the Ark:
The Church, like the Ark of Noah, is worth saving; not for the sake
of the unclean beasts that almost filled it and probably made most
noise and clamour in it, but for the little corner of rationality
that was as much distressed by the stink within as by the tempest
without.
It is significant of the modesty of the Unitarian that he does not
emerge from this retirement even to cry, "I told you so," to a Church
which is coming more and more to accept the simplicity of his once
ridiculed and anathematised theology.
"You must regard modernism," I said to Dr. Jacks on one occasion, "as a
vindication of the Unitarian attitude."
He smiled and made answer, "Better not say so. Let them follow their own
line."
No man was ever less of a proselytiser. In his remarkable book _From
Authority to Freedom_, in which he tells the story of Charles Hargrove's
religious pilgrimage, he seems to be standing aside from all human
intervention, watching with patient eyes the action of the Spirit of God
on the hearts and consciences of men.
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