but for this new movement would have remained as their
fathers were before them, mere Nimrods, Ramrods, or Fishing-rods."[206]

Of all the men engaged in the Tractarian enterprise there was no one in
whose religious and personal history a deeper public interest
concentrated than in John Henry Newman. His ardent espousal of the High
Church cause collected many friends about him at the same time that it
organized numerous enemies. But he did not inquire concerning the number
of his friends or foes, for he valued sincerity higher than favor or
opposition. His previous history was not without incident. Thirteen
years before the _Tracts for the Times_ were published, he had been
engaged in a controversy concerning baptismal regeneration, in which he
defended the evangelical side.[207] Subject to various inner conflicts,
and greatly influenced by the party-spirit which ran high, he finally
entered the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. His view of the
development of Christian doctrine is very favorable to his adopted
faith. Development can be applied to anything which has real vital
power; it is the key that unlocks the mystery of all growth; any
philosophy or policy, Christianity included, requires time for its
comprehension and perfection. The highest truths of inspiration needed
only the longer time and deeper thought for their full elucidation, for
perfection can be reached only by trials and sore conflicts. A
philosophy or sect is purer and stronger when its channel has grown deep
and broad by the flow of time. Its vital element needs disengagement
from that which is foreign and temporary, and its beginning is no
measure of its capabilities or scope. At first no one knows what it is
or what it is worth, since it seems in suspense which way to go; but
notwithstanding this, it strikes out and develops all its hidden world
of force. Surrounding things change, but these changes only contribute
to its development. Here below, to live is to change, and to be perfect
is to have changed often. This is all true of Christianity; the lapse of
years, instead of injuring it, has only brought out its power.[208]

These hints furnish a specimen of the ideal robe in which Father Newman
clothes Romanism. But it will take a stronger intellect than his to show
any harmony between his theory of development and the history of the
papacy. He has once more assumed the pen of the controversialist. In the
January number of _Macmillan's Mag