Books: The Master Christian

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Leigh's clear penetrating voice, artistically modulated to the
perfectly musical expression of thought, was not without its usual
effect, even on a mind so callous as that of Gherardi. He moved
uneasily in his chair,--he was inwardly fuming with indignation, and
for one moment was inclined to assume the melodramatic pose of the
irate Churchman, and to make himself into the figure of an approved
"stage" dignitary of religion, with out stretched arm, menacing
eyes, and words that were as darts to wound and sting. But looking
under his eye lids at the cold, half satirical tranquillity of
Aubrey's pale clear-cut features, he felt that any attempt at
"acting" his part would be seen through in a second by a man who was
so terribly in earnest. So with a benevolent and regretful air, he
said,

"Yes!--no doubt things appear to you as they do not appear to us.
The spirit of faith enables us to see through all unsatisfactory
outward forms and ceremonies, to the actual divine mysteries which
they symbolise;--and heretics perceive incongruities, where we, by
the grace of God, see nothing but harmony! And though you, Mr.
Leigh, receive the information with incredulity and a somewhat
blameable indifference, it is a matter of rejoicing to us that
Cardinal Bonpre has performed this miracle of healing at Rouen. It
would have raised him to a very high place indeed in the Holy
Father's estimation, had it not been for the strange mistake he has
unfortunately made with respect to the Abbe Vergniaud."

"One may cure a sick person then, but one must not pardon a sinner?"
suggested Aubrey, "'For whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be
forgiven thee;' or 'Arise and walk?' The one is considered a
miracle;--the other a mistake!"

Gherardi's cold eyes glittered.

"We will not go into the technicalities of the question," he said
frigidly, "We will return to the point from whence we diverged. Your
wish expressed in this letter," and he drew one from a packet on the
table and glanced it over in a business-like way, "was to obtain a
private audience from the Pope. I repeat that to a mere civilian and
socialistic writer like yourself, that is impossible!"

Aubrey sat unmoved.

"I suppose if I were a prince of the blood-royal I should not be
refused an audience?" he said.

Gherardi's thick dark eyebrows went up with a movement of surprise
at such an irrational remark.

"That would make a difference certainly," he answered smiling, "The
claims of diplomacy have to be considered!"

"If a prince of the blood-royal whose private life was a scandal to
the world"--went on Aubrey, "who was guilty of every vice known in
the calendar,--who was neither intelligent nor sympathetic,--whose
whole career was one of self and self-indulgence,--I say if he were
to seek a private audience of the man who is declared to be the
representative of Christ in Christendom, he would obtain it! On the
other hand, if a man who had denied himself every personal
gratification, and had sacrificed his whole life in working for his
fellow men, and to the following of the teachings of the Gospel as
far as it was possible,--but who yet had got no further in world's
wealth than to be earning from his writings a few hundreds a year,
he could NOT be received! Monsignor, this may be diplomacy, but it
is not Christianity!"

"I cannot enter into these matters with you--" began Gherardi
impatiently.

"No, you cannot, because you dare not!" said Aubrey boldly. "Man,
you are not a Christian! Why pretend to be one? Is it not time you
left off feigning what you do not feel? Is it not preposterous that
you, at your years, should consent to make your life a lie in the
face of Omnipresent Deity?"

Gherardi rose up pale and trembling.

"Mr. Leigh, if you have come here to insult me--"

"Insult you!" echoed Aubrey, "Not I! I would make a man of you if I
could,--but that is too late! You are a witness of imposture and a
supporter of it,--and we are none of us worthy to be called men if
we do either of these two things. You know as well as I do, that
there is no representative of the blameless Christ at the Vatican,--
you know there is only a poor weak old man, whose mind is swayed by
the crafty counsels of the self-seeking flatterers around him, and
who passes his leisure hours in counting up money, and inventing new
means of gaining it through forms of things that should be spiritual
and divine. If you BELIEVE Christ was God Incarnate, how dare you
tamper with such a Supernal Mystery?"

Gherardi turned his head slowly and looked round at Aubrey,--then
recovering his composure, sat down and pretended to turn over some
documents on the table, but Aubrey went on undeterred by his aspect
of frigidity, "How dare you, I say? The God in Man! Do you realize
the stupendous meaning of such a phrase? Do you not see that it
means A DIVINE LIFE PALPITATING THROUGH EVERY ATOM OF CREATION? A
Force so great, so pure and majestic, so absolute in Its working for
good, and yet so deliberate in Its movements that It will give Its
creature Man whole centuries of chance to find and save his own soul
before utterly destroying him? What has this sublime Power in common
with the Pope, who shuts himself up in his palace, a voluntary
prisoner, all forsooth because he is denied temporal power! Temporal
power! What is temporal power compared to spiritual power! If he
were the true representative of Christ he would move the world by
deeds of benevolence, goodness, and sanctity! In such a case as that
of the unhappy Dreyfus for instance, he would have issued a solemn
warning and earnest reproach to the French nation for their
misguided cruelty;--he would have travelled himself to Rennes to use
his personal influence in obtaining an innocent man's release with
honour! That would have been Christian! That would have been a
magnificent example to the world! But what did he do? Shut
comfortably up in his luxurious palace where no harm could touch
him, where no crucifixion of the heart or soul could torture him, he
announced to his myrmidons his opinion that the wretched martyr
would be found guilty! And who can tell but that his utterance thus
unchristianly proclaimed did not help to sway the minds of the
Rennes Court-martial? Again, why are there so many poor in Italy? If
the Pope were the father indeed of those who are immediately around
him, the land should be like the fabled Paradise, flowing with milk
and honey. The Vatican is full of money and jewels. 'Sell half that
thou hast and give to the poor,' was the command of Christ.--Does
the Pope do that? Why does he not go out among the people and work
in active sympathy with them? Christ did so! Christ was never borne
with solemn flourish of trumpets like a mummy in a chair, under
canopies of cloth of gold, to give a blessing to a crowd who had got
admission to see him by paid ticket! Man, man! The theatrical
jugglery of Rome is a blasphemy in the sight of heaven;--and most
truly did St. John declare this city, throned on its seven hills, to
be, 'MYSTERY, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.'
And most clearly does God say at this period of our time, 'Come out
of her My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye
receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven,
and God hath remembered her iniquities!' The days of evil are
drawing to an end; Rome must fall!"

Gherardi's breath came and went quickly,--but he kept up the outward
appearance of cold composure.

"You rant very well, Mr. Leigh!" he said, "You would make an
excellent Hyde Park orator! You have all the qualities which attract
the vulgar; but we--we of the Church know quite well how to deal
with men of your class,--their denunciations do not affect us at
all. They amuse us occasionally; and sometimes they pain us, for
naturally we grieve for the backslidings of refractory brethren. We
regret the clamourings of ignorance which arise from a strong
personal desire for notoriety. That passage in the Revelation of St.
John, has been quoted scores of times as being applicable to Rome,
though as a matter of fact it distinctly mentions Babylon." Here he
smiled suavely. "And thanks to the workings of an All-wise
Influence, Rome was never more powerful than she is at the present
moment. Her ramifications are everywhere; and in England she has
obtained a firm footing. Your good English Queen has never uttered
one word of reproach against the spread of our Holy Religion among
her subjects! Our prayers for the conversion of England will yet be
granted!"

"Not while I live!" said Aubrey firmly, "Not while I can hold back
but a handful from such a disaster, and that handful shall hold back
yet another handful! The hand of Roman priestcraft shall never weigh
on England while there are any honest men left in it! The conversion
of England! The retrogression of England! Do you think such a thing
is likely to happen because a few misguided clerics choose to appeal
to the silly sentimentality of hysterical women with such church
tricks and rags of paganism as incense and candles! Bah! Do not
judge the English inward heart by its small outward follies,
Monsignor! There are more honest, brave, and sensible folk in the
British Islands than you think. And though our foreign foes desire
our fall, the seed of THEIR decay is not yet in us!"

XXI.

Gherardi sat for two or three minutes in absolute silence. Only the
twitching of his eyelids and a slight throbbing in the muscles of
his throat showed with what difficulty he suppressed his rising
fury. But his astute and crafty powers of reasoning taught him that
it would be worse than ridiculous to give way to anger in the
presence of this cool, determined man, who, though he spoke with a
passion which from its very force seemed almost to sound like "the
mighty wind" which accompanied the cloven tongues of fire at the
first Pentecost, still maintained his personal calm,--that immovable
calmness which is always the result of strong inward conviction. A
dangerous man!--yes, there was no doubt of that! He was one of those
concerning whom Emerson wrote, "let the world beware when a Thinker
comes into it." Aubrey Leigh was a thinker,--and more than that, he
was a doer. He was of the strong heroic type of genius that turns
its dreams into facts, its thoughts into deeds. He did not talk, in
common with so many men, of what they considered OUGHT to be done,
without exerting themselves to DO it;--he was sincerely in earnest,
and cared nothing for any personal loss or inconvenience he might
suffer from carrying out his intentions. And Gherardi saw that there
was little or no possibility of moving such a man from the firm
ground of truth which he had elected to stand on. There is nothing
so inconvenient in this world as an absolutely truthful person, who
can both speak and write, and has the courage of his convictions.
One can always arrange matters with liars, because they, being
hampered by their own deceits, are compelled to study ways, means,
and chances for appearing honest. But with the man or woman who
holds truth dearer than life, and honour more valuable than
advancement, there is nothing to be done, now that governments
cannot insist on the hemlock-cure, as in the case of Socrates.
Gherardi, looking furtively under his eyelids at Leigh's strong
lithe figure, and classic head, felt he could have willingly
poisoned or stabbed him. For there were, and ARE great interests at
stake in the so-called "conversion of England,"--it is truly one of
the largest financial schemes ever set afloat in the world, if those
whose duty it is to influence and control events could only be
brought to see the practical side of the matter, and set a check on
its advancement before it is too late. Gherardi knew what great
opportunities there were in embryo of making large fortunes;--and
not only of making large fortunes but of obtaining incredible power.
There was a great plan afoot of drawing American and English wealth
into the big Church-net through the medium of superstitious fear and
sentimental bigotry,--and an opposer and enemy like Aubrey Leigh,
physically handsome, with such powers of oratory as are only granted
to the very few, was capable of influencing women as well as men--
and women, as Gherardi well recognised, are the chief supporters of
the Papal system. Uneasily he thought of a certain wealthy American
heiress whom he had persuaded into thinking herself specially
favoured and watched over by the Virgin Mary, and who, overcome by
the strong imaginary consciousness of this heavenly protection, had
signed away in her will a million of pounds sterling to a particular
"shrine" in which he had the largest share of financial profit. Now,
suppose she should chance to come within the radius of Leigh's
attractive personality and teaching, and revoke this bequest? Deeply
incensed he sat considering, yet he was conscious enough of his own
impotency to persuade or move this man a jot.

"I am very sorry," he said at last without raising his eyes, and
carefully preserving an equable and mild tone of voice, "I am sorry
you are so harsh in your judgments, Mr. Leigh;--and still more sorry
that you appear to be bent on opposing the Roman Catholic movement
in England. I will do you the justice to believe that you are moved
by a sincere though erroneous conviction,--and it is out of pure
kindness and interest in you that I warn you how useless you will
find the task in which you have engaged. The force of Rome is
impregnable!--the interpretation of the Gospel by the Pope
infallible. Any man, no matter how gifted with eloquence, or moved
by what he imagines to be truth-(and alas! how often error is
mistaken for truth and truth for error!)--must be crushed in the
endeavour to cope with such a divinely ordained power."

"The Car of Juggernaut was considered to be divinely ordained," said
Aubrey, "And the wretched and ignorant populace flung themselves
under it in the fit of hysterical mania to which they were excited
by the priests of the god, and so perished in their thousands. Not
THEY were to blame; but the men who invented the imposture and
encouraged the slaughter. THEY had an ideal;--the priests had none!
But Juggernaut had its end--and so will Rome!"

"You call yourself a Christian?" asked Gherardi, with a touch of
derision.

"Most assuredly I do," replied Aubrey, "Most assuredly I am! I love
and honour Christ with every fibre of my being. I long to see that
Divine Splendour of the ages stand out white and shining and free
from the mud and slime with which His priests have bespattered Him.
I believe in Him absolutely! But I can find nowhere in His Gospel
that He wished us to turn Religion into a sort of stock-jobbing
company managed by sacerdotal directors in Rome!"

"What do you know about the 'sacerdotal directors' as you call them,
of Rome?" asked Gherardi slowly, his eyes narrowing at the corners,
and his whole countenance expressing ineffable disdain, "Do you
think we give out the complex and necessary workings of our sacred
business to the uneducated public?"

"No, I do not," replied Aubrey, "For you keep the public in the dark
as much as you can. Your methods of action are precisely those of
the priests of ancient Egypt, who juggled with what they were
pleased to call their sacred 'mysteries' in precisely the same way
as you do. Race copies race. Roman Christianity is grafted upon
Roman Paganism. When the Apostles were all dead, and their
successors (who had never been in personal touch with Christ) came
on to the scene of action, they discovered that the people of Rome
would not do without the worship of woman in their creed, so they
cleverly substituted the Virgin Mary for Venus and Diana. They
turned the statues of gods and heroes into figures of Apostles and
Saints. They knew it would be unwise to deprive the populace of what
they had been so long accustomed to, and therefore they left them
their swinging censers, their gold chalices, and their symbolic
candles. Thus it is that Roman Catholicism became, and is still,
merely a Christian form of Paganism which is made to pay
successfully, just as the feasts and Saturnalia of ancient days were
made to pay as spectacular and theatrical pastimes. I should not
blame your Church if it declared itself to be an offshoot of
Paganism at once,--Paganism, or any other form of faith, deserves
respect as long as its priests and followers are sincere; but when
their belief is a mere pretence, and their system degenerates into a
scheme of making money out of the fond faiths of the ignorant, then
I consider it is time to protest against such blasphemy in the
presence of God and all things divine and spiritual!"

Gherardi had listened to these words very quietly, his countenance
gradually relaxing and smoothing into an amiable expression of
forbearance. He looked up now at Aubrey with a smile that was almost
benignant.

"You are quite right, Mr. Leigh!" he said gently, "I begin to
understand you now! I see that you have studied deeply, and you have
thought still more. If you will continue your studies and your
thinking also, you will see how difficult it is for us to move as
rapidly with the times as you would have us do. You must remember
that it would be quite possible for Holy Mother Church to rise at
once to the high scientific and psychical position you wish her to
adopt, if it were not for the mass of the ignorant, with whom one
must have patience! You are a man in the prime of life--you are
zealous--eager for improvement,--yes!--all that is very admirable
and praiseworthy. But you forget the numerous and widely differing
interests with which we of the Church have to deal. For the great
majority of persons it would be useless, for example, to give them
lessons on the majesty of God's work in the science of Astronomy.
They would be confused, bewildered, and more or less frightened out
of faith altogether. They must have something tangible to cling to--
for instance,"--and he pressed the tips of his fingers delicately
together, "there are grades of intelligence just as there are grades
of creation; you cannot instruct a caterpillar as you instruct a
man. Now there are many human beings who are of the caterpillar
quality of brain--what are you to do with them? They would not
understand God as manifested in the solar system, but they would try
to please some favourite Saint by good conduct. Is it not better
that they should believe in the Saint than in nothing?"

"I cannot think it well for anyone to believe in a lie," said Aubrey
slowly, taken aback despite himself by Gherardi's sudden gentleness,
"There is a magnificent simplicity in truth;--truth which, the more
it is tested, the truer it proves. Where is there any necessity of
falsehood? Surely the marvels of nature could be explained with as
much ease as the supposed miracles of a Saint?"

"I doubt it!" answered Gherardi smiling, "You must admit, my dear
sir, that our scientific men are a great deal too abstruse for the
majority;--in some cases they are almost too abstruse for
themselves! You spoke just now of the priests of Egypt;--the oracles
of Memphis were clear reading compared to the involved sentences of
some of our modern scientists! Scientific books are hard nuts to
crack even for the highly educated; but for the uneducated, believe
me, the personality of a Saint is much more consoling than the
movements of a star. Besides, Humanity must have something human to
love and to revere. The infinite gradations of the Mind of God
through Matter, appeal to none but those of the very highest
intellectual capability."

Aubrey was silent a moment, then he said,

"But even the most ignorant can understand Christ,--Christ as He
revealed Himself to the world in perfect beauty and simplicity as 'a
Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.' There needs no Vatican,
no idolatry of the Pope, no superstitious images, no shrines of
healing and reliquaries to explain His sublime intention!"

"I am afraid, Mr. Leigh, you entertain a very optimistic view of
mankind," said Gherardi, "Unfortunately Christ is not enough for
many people. Christ was an Incarnation of God, and though He became
Man he 'knew not sin.' He therefore stands apart; an Example, but
not a Companion. There are a certain class of sinners who like to
think of Saints;--human beings constituted like themselves, who have
committed errors, even crimes, and repented of them. This is a
similar spirit to that of the child who catches hold of any
convenient support he can find to guide his first tottering steps
across the floor to his mother,-the Saint helps the feeble-footed
folk to totter their way towards Christ. I assure you, our Church
considers everything that is necessary for the welfare of its
weakest brethren."

"Yes,--I grant you that it is full of subtle means for approaching
and commanding the ignorant," said Aubrey. "But to the intellectual
forces it offers no progress."

"The intellectual forces can clear their own way!" declared
Gherardi, rising to his full imposing height, and beaming sovereign
benevolence on his visitor, "and can, if they choose, make their own
Church. This is the age of freedom, and no restraint is placed on
the action of the intellectually free. But the ignorant must always
form the majority; and in their ignorance and helplessness, will do
wisely to remain like obedient children under the sway of Rome!"

Aubrey rose also, and could not forbear an involuntary glance of
reluctant admiration at the stately figure and commanding attitude
of the man who confronted him with such a pride in the persistent
Jesuitical conviction that even a Lie may be used in religion for
the furtherance of conversion to the Truth.

"I do not see," Gherardi went on, smiling blandly, "why after all,
you should not be received by the Holy Father. I will try to arrange
it for you. But it would avail you very little, I imagine, as he is
not strong, and would not be capable of conversing with you for more
than a few minutes. I think it would serve your purpose much more to
carefully study the movements, and the work of what you call 'the
stock-jobbing company of sacerdotal directors,'" and here his smile
became still more broadly benevolent, "and take note of their
divisions and subdivisions of influence which extend from the very
poorest and most abandoned to the very highest and most cultured.
You will then understand why I maintain that Rome as a power is
impregnable;--and why some of the more far-sighted and prophetic
among us look upon the Conversion of England as an almost
accomplished fact!"

Aubrey smiled; but he was not without the consciousness that from
his own particular point of view Gherardi had some excuse for his
belief.

"According to your own written opinions," went on Gherardi, "for I
have read your books,--the Church of England is in a bad way. Its
Ritualistic form is very nearly Roman. Some of your Archbishops
confess to a liking for incense! You admit that the stricter forms
of Protestantism do not comfort the sick soul in times of need;
well, what would you Socialists and Freethinkers have? Would you do
without a Church altogether?"

"No," said Aubrey quickly, "But we would have a purified Church,--a
House of Praise to God--without any superstition or dogma."

"You must have dogma," said Gherardi complacently, "You must
formulate something out of a chaos of opinion. As for superstition,
you will never get rid of that weakness out of the human
composition. If the Church gives nothing for this particular mood of
man to feed on, man will invent something else OUTSIDE the Church.
My dear sir, we have thought of all these difficulties for ages! In
religion one cannot appeal solely to the intellect. One must touch
the heart--the emotions. Music, painting, colour, spectacle, all
these are permitted us to use for the good purpose of lifting the
soul of a sinner to contemplate something better than himself. Women
and little children enter the Church as well as men,--would you have
THEM find no comfort? Must a woman with a broken heart take her
sorrows to the vast Silence of an unreasonable God among universes
of star systems? Or shall she find hope, and a gleam of comfort in a
prayer to a woman of the same clay as herself in the person of the
Virgin Mary? And remember, there is something very beautiful in the
symbol of the Virgin as applied to womanhood! The Mother of God!
Does it not suggest to your poetical mind that woman is destined
always to be the Mother of the God?--that is, mother of the perfect
man when that desirable consummation shall be accomplished?"

"I have never doubted it.'" said Aubrey, "The Mother of Christ is to
me a symbol of womanhood for all time!" Gherardi smiled.

"Good! Then in spite of your denunciations you come very near to our
faith'"

"I never denied the beauty, romance, or mysticism of the Roman
Catholic Faith," said Aubrey, "If it were purified from the
accumulated superstition of ages, and freed from intolerance and
bigotry, it would perhaps be the grandest form of Christianity in
the world. But the rats are in the house, and the rooms want
cleaning!"