To the Editors of LUCIFER.
IN the numerous letters that have repeatedly appeared recently in the Times opposing the statements of the Rev. Canon Isaac Taylor, in his speech at the late Church Congress, on the very great progress of Islam, and the comparative failure of Christianity (as taught), in India and Africa, it is frequently asserted that “Islam is the only religion that has laid an immutable barrier on human progress”; and that no system could have been devised with more consummate skill (than the Koran of Islam) for shutting out the light of truth, from the Nations over which Islam has sway”.
But surely this is equally as true of our Church, whilst it also makes it an immutable law, as it has done to this day, that “the doctrine of the Church may not be touched” ? For how could any system have been devised with more consummate skill for shutting out the light of truth, than to delude the people to crucify “the Just One”, as a blasphemer whose blood ought to be shed for an atonement, and afterwards to quote Scripture in support of this doctrine (as necessary to be believed in order to escape being cursed here and damned hereafter), and stamp out and boycott all who doubted it ?
And yet this is the present state of things.
And therefore, whilst the clergy have power to say that “the doctrine of the Church may not be touched” how is the mystery of a Crucified Christ to be explained and translated, so that it may be seen to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and also the glory of Israel” instead of being, as it is now, a stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the world, and a mystery to the [Page 323] teachers of it, making those who accept it, in India and Africa, worse than they were before?
Then is there not a cause for demanding that liberty should be allowed in the Church, for explaining, in the pulpit, the mystery of a Crucified Christ, so that it may no longer remain a mystery for want only of this liberty ?
(REV.) T. G. HEADLEY.
