He
writes, I think, as one who feels that he is wasting time. Like Mr.
Winston Churchill, he diverts his leisure with a paintbrush.
One is disposed to judge that the mind of this very fiery particle is
too busy with side-issues to make acquaintance with the deeper mysteries
of his religion. When he complains that people do not know what
Christianity is, one wonders whether his own definition would satisfy
the saints. He is a fighter rather than a teacher, a man of action
rather than a seer. I do not think he could be happy in a world which
presented him with no opportunities for punching heads.
Matthew Arnold, quoting from _The Times_ a sentence to the effect that
the chief Dissenting ministers are becoming quite the intellectual
equals of the ablest of the clergy, referred it to the famous Dr. Dale
of Birmingham, and remarked: "I have no fears concerning Mr. Dale's
intellectual muscles; what I am a little uneasy about is his religious
temper. The essence of religion is grace and peace."
But Dr. Orchard, we must not fail to see, is quite genuinely exasperated
by the deadness of religious life, and is straining every nerve to
quicken the soul of Christ's sleeping Church. This discontent of his is
an important symptom, even if his prescription, a very old one, gives no
hope of a cure. He is popular, influential, a figure of the day, and
still young; yet his soul is full of rebellion and his heart is swelling
with the passion of mutiny.
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