“For my part,” said Coggan, “I’m staunch Church of England.”
“Ay, and faith, so be I.” said Mark Clark.
“I won’t say much for myself; I don’t wish to,” Coggan continued, with that tendency to talk on principles which is characteristic of the barley-corn. “But I’ve never changed a single doctrine: I’ve stuck like a plaster to the old faith I was born in. Yes; there’s this to be said for the Church, a man can belong to the Church and bide in his cheerful old inn, and never trouble or worry his mind about doctrines at all. But to be a meetinger, you must go to chapel in all winds and weathers, and make yerself as frantic as a skit. Not but that chapel members be clever chaps enough in their way. They can lift up beautiful prayers out of their own heads, all about their families and shipwrecks in the newspaper.”
“They can — they can.” said Mark Clark, with corroborative feeling; “but we Churchmen, you see, must have it all printed aforehand, or, dang it all, we should no more know what to say to a great gaffer like the Lord than babes unborn.”
“Chapelfolk be more hand-in-glove with them above than we.” said Joseph, thoughtfully.
“Yes.” said Coggan. “We know very well that if anybody do go to heaven, they will. They’ve worked hard for it, and they deserve to have it, such as ’tis. I bain’t such a fool as to pretend that we who stick to the Church have the same chance as they, because we know we have not. But I hate a feller who’ll change his old ancient doctrines for the sake of getting to heaven.”
— Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd
September 3rd, 2006 at 7.12 pm
How revealing this conversation is about the frequent truth of our own hearts. “And then there are others of you,” Charles Spurgeon wrote, “who are such sticklers for order, so given to every thing that has been, that you … would not have the church repaired, lest we should touch one piece of the venerable moss that coats it. You would not cleanse your own garment, because there is ancient dirt upon it. You think that because a thing is ancient, therefore it must be venerable.” (Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.. V, pp. 350; Baker Books) Whether we are in the Church of England or any other denomination, we always ought to be willing to change our own perceptions in light of the constant truth of the scriptures. May we always hold to the Reformation cry, “Ecclesia semper reformanda,” that the Church always ought to reform for the sake of Christ our Constancy.
September 4th, 2006 at 7.50 pm
Eric, for another example of the sometimes stupefying effects of tradition, see the dissenting judgement in Kokkinakis, excerpted by an excellent legal mind.
Of course, I would not want to suggest that tradition is a bad thing per se. (After all, we wish to cling to an ecclesiam semper reformandam.) For examples of excellent tradition, let me refer you to the 39 Articles of the Church of England.