Guy A. Aldred Archive
Written: 1913.
Source: PDF's from Marxists.org and OCR/Editing from RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
“To state correctly what I now am, it is necessary that I should state the means which I have had to acquire knowledge; and though this will set me to speak of myself from infancy upwards, it is a story which none can tell as well as myself. But this speaking of one's self is a pleasure at all times, whatever affectation might have affected to the contrary; particularly, where a man is not ashamed to expose his past career to the knowledge of all."
— Richard Carlile.
“Wait not to be backed by numbers. Wait not till you are sure of an echo from the crowd. The fewer the voices on the side of truth, the more distinct and strong must be your own." — Channing.
I.
I was born on November 5th, 1886, and educated at the Hugh Myddelton High-Grade School. Here was attained some success in Mathematics, Scripture, and English.
In 1894 I became a member of the Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, near the London General Post Office. Six years later followed Confirmation and admission to Holy Communion. I liked the Church service right enough, but I was doubtful as to the urgency or necessity of many of the Ecclesiastical ceremonies. They seemed to have no especial bearing on religion, and were too often solemn in appearance only. Long faces and nobly sad hearts never go well together. And quite early in life I learned that Church was not the place where men and women assembled, in entire forgetfulness of themselves, to worship at the sacred altar of truth. But this failure was attributed to man’s hypocritical heart, not to the influence of the Church. For no institution was ever the fount of wisdom, but only an avenue to knowledge. Even here the Church was to prove useless.
Between April 9th and July 25th, 1902, the Rev. Septimus Buss, LL.B., then Rector of St. Anne's, delivered a series of Wednesday noon-day lectures on "The Religions of the World." These were attended with the object of making notes of the main points in each address, and writing a descriptive report around them. Mr. Buss regularly read and corrected each effort on the Sunday succeeding the delivery of the Wednesday address thus reviewed. On the strength of his teaching I attacked the non—Christian religions with both virulence and arrogance. And Mr. Buss approved of the vigor without informing the criticism.
Thus there occurred a pitying reference to the ancient Egyptian lower class worship of the elements of nature and of sacred animals! “Symbolical of their uninitiated state of being I," “Cannibalism E", “Excellent,” said Mr. Buss. He forgot to mention that Christianity centered about a cannibalistic propitiation for sin! That its theology was a perpetuation of Egyptian and other Pagan theology, that its rites and ceremonies had been handed down from a cannibal past! Perhaps he did not forget to do these things, but taught rather in ignorance. In any case, he was an excellent agent of mental darkness a splendid guide along the path that leads to the dungeon of moral and intellectual servitude. Fortunately we were to part company at an early date. And ill-informed as they were, these accounts of Mr. Buss's lectures gave promise of that separation. They were none the less priggish in tone.
The report of the address on Confucius, for example, casually states that “the very name of atheism sends a cold shiver through my blood! So I lingered over the Chinese Sage's miserable passing into the tomb's silence with unction:—
“broken down by misfortune, enfeebled by age, and echoing a last cry, not of praise, but of worldly hopelessness, so little done, so much to do.”
What a Pharisee it was that wrote this! One can hear the smack of the lips, the disgusting chuckle of self-satisfaction, the loudly declaimed thanks to the Creator! Actually see the oily smile of smug content at being a Christian! How copiously must I have been dosed with the poison of ecclesiastical veracity. The antidote of natural reason was at work, however, and thus escape from intellectual death was assured. For I held that
“the atheists and unbelievers’ arguments must be treated of and disproved, clause by clause, until they recognize the fallacy attending their respective beliefs!"
This excerpt is culled from my account of the lecture on Brahma. It shows that I was leaving nothing to miracle. Reason was the supreme guide. And it was realized that non-belief involved counter beliefs. Very few Christians seem to grasp this fact. So I must have been very near heresy, though I did not suspect it at the time. Outwardly there was nothing very heretical in the attitude of a youth who held that reason was compatible with belief in the existence and goodness of God, divine interference with the affairs of men, and objective answers to prayer! Also with faith in the Divinity of Christ, and the verbal inspiration of the Bible! Inwardly there was the faintest spark of revolt, for I was single-eyed. Whatever was thought should be proclaimed.
Buddha, in these reports, wins my sorrowful regard on account of “the darkness cast over his would-be good life by the dismal thoughts of Eternal sleep." A little patronizing and self-righteous, thinks the reader? Perhaps you are right, so far as the form of expression is concerned. But the idea was not to pat Buddha on the cheek. I had sensed, for the moment, the awful pessimism of life; had seen its horrible uselessness, and shrunk, in Christian cowardice, from its realism. Buddha's saintly heroism came as a surprise, even when related by Christian lips. So I seemed to patronize where actually I approached with deep affection and respect. As yet it was impossible for me to stand alone. God and Immortality were essential props to my existence. But I dismissed with loathing "the undisguised polytheism of the Babylonians," and rejoiced exceedingly in “the purity of the monotheism of the Jews."
Such was my theological attitude when, in November, 1902, I noticed the advertisement of an evangelist named John Willoughby Masters, for rooms for mission services, and consequently wrote to him, offering assistance. The result was that we opened a "Christian Social Mission," at the Assembly Rooms, 5, Russell Road, Plolloway; the meetings being advertised as being conducted by “‘The Lyrical Gospel Herald,’ assisted by Master Guy Aldred, the Boy Preacher."
A circular published in connection with this Mission insisted on our sympathy with the best in all sects and no sects. We wished to work out of the old ruts, and to draw together companionable souls bv the common bonds of spiritual brotherhood and mutual consideration. All mankind had to struggle on against difficulty without and trials within. And the Christian spirit could only be conserved, under such circumstances, by broad humanitarian social work. Total abstinence was part of our creed. Yet we urged that drunkenness was a malady requiring special treatment, not a crime calling for punishment. All judging and slandering we condemned as wrong. In a word, Christianity, practically interpreted, meant to us the beautification of life on earth.
Less and less did pious other-worldism attract me. “There was so much to do, so little done," that it was necessary to inculcate incessantly the duty of social helpfulness. My very first sermon, delivered on November 10th, 1902, had this urgent dirge for its burden. Its text was found in Gal. vi., 6: “Serve ye one another, and so fulfill the law of Christ."