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THE SOUL OF AMERICA
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
KEW YORK • BOSTON - CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA ■ SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON ■ BOMBAY - CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
THE SOUL OF AMERICA
A CONSTRUCTIVE ESSAY IN THE
SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
BY
STANTON COIT
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1914
All rights reserved
A
5" ~ x
A ■? si,q
Copyright, 1914,
By the MACMILLAX COMPANY.
Set up and electrotjped. Published May, 1914-
\
V
. Cn-bing Co. — B^rw...^ & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Zo
MY WIFE ADELA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
RELIGION AND NATIONALITY
PAGE
Chapter I. A Prospectus, not a Forecast .... 3
1. Moulding the Future 2. The Word " Spiritual " 3. States-
manship in Religion
Chapter II. When Religion and Patriotism are Identical 9
1. An Argument from Personal Experiences 2. America Super-
political 3. When Religion builds States 4. Sir John
Seeley's Teaching 5. America Super-historical
Chapter III. The Cultural Unity of America ... 25
1. " Pioneers, O Pioneers 1 " 2. A Falsehood that will be
made True 3. America true to the Law of her own Being
4. Where the Poor do not look up to the Rich 5. Intui-
tion versus Instinct and Intellect 5. Where the Educated,
Leisured, and Revered Class consists of Women
Chapter IV. The Jews in America 50
1. Jewish Enthusiasm for America 2. Subsidiary Patriotisms
3. Two Voices in the Old Testament 4. Jews must declare
their Attitude 5. Mr. Zangwill not Explicit Enough 6. An
Injury wrought by One of the Voices in the Old Testament
Chapter V. Roman Catholics, Marxian Socialists, and
Some Others 67
1. The Importation of Spiritual Wares 2. Individualistic
Humanitarianism 3. " Five per Cent. Bonds of Peace "
4. The Anti-nationalism of the Church of Rome 5. The
Danger of Anti-patriotic Sociahsm
PAGE
85
VUl TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter VI. How to conserve America's Spiritual Re-
sources ....
1. America not merely a Unit of Material Wealth 2. America
the Living Church of All Americans 3. The Denomina-
tions as Parties in the Nation-Church 4. A National Com-
mittee Needed 5. The God of Personal Salvation
Chapter VII. Only One New Centre of Public Worship in
Each State . 106
1. As an Object Lesson and Laboratory 2. Institutes for
Religious Research 3. Argument rendered Superfluous
4. Creeds the Last Documents to be Revised 5. The Lib-
erty of Intellectual Interpretation 6. The Contents of
Things Said and Sung
Chapter VIII. The Nation, the State, and the Churches 120
1. A Voluntary National Church 2. A State Church un-Ameri-
can 3. Religious Parties versus Sects 4. Sectarianism
Anti-democratic
Chapter IX. The Sociological Function of the Churches 135
1. Religion not merely a Private Concern 2. Professor William
James's Error 3. The Quickening Influence of the Churches
4. The Self-made Man in Religion 5. " Omne Vivum ex Vivo "
6. The Social Genesis of Conversion 7. Spiritual Environ-
ment deliberately Prepared 8. The Power that Saves
PART II
CHRISTIANITY TO BE REINTERPRETED IN THE
LIGHT OF SCIENCE AND AMERICAN IDEALISM
Chapter X. Christianity minus Miracle .... 157
1. No Guidance from the Dead 2. Help from the Historical
Christ 3. The Communion of Saints 4. Against Demon-
ism 5. Against Monistic Spiritism 6. A Presupposition
of All Moral Judgments 7. No Mediumship 8. Naturalism
9. Man a Spirit
TABLE OF CONTENTS IX
PAGE
Chapter XL The Humanistic Meaning of Theological
Language 171
1. The Rethinking of the Old Realities 2. Theological Terms
Indispensable 3. Religion and Theology 4. The Word
"Theology" 5. The Word "Theism" 6. The Word
"Atheist" 7. The Word "Religion" 8. The Word " God "
Chapter XII. Humanistic Meanings {continued) . . 195
1. The God of the Bible 2. The Personality of God 3. " Wor-
ship," "Prayer," "Church" 4. "Repentance," "Saint,"
" Hohness '■ 5. The Word " Christ " 6. Matthew Arnold's
Insight into Christian Meanings 7. The Words " Sin " and
"Devil" 8. The Word "Hell" 9. " Redemption," " Salva-
tion," " Eternal," " Infinite "
Chapter XIII. Prayer to the God in Man .... 219
1. The Efficacy of Petition 2. Human Beings who answer
Prayers to God 3. Outward Expressions of Prayer
4. Prayer to the Absent 5. Prayers that are Overheard
6. Prayers to Historic Personages 7. Prayers to Jesus
8. Prayers to Spiritual Tendencies and Ideas 9. Prayer
not merely Communion 10. Prayer not merely Mental
11. Public Prayer 12. The Emotional Elevation of Prayer
13. Statements of Fact in Prayer 14. A Mystic Union
with God 15. The Value of Ethical Declarations
Chapter XIV. Christianity plus Science 247
1. New Grounds for Millennial Hope 2. The History of the
Millennial Hope 3. The False Basis of the Old Hope
4. A Heaven Material as well as Spiritual 5. The Sanity
and Purity of the New Hope 6. Children born Unbiassed
7. Science, Wealth, and Religion 8. How Long ? 9. The
Religion of Eugenics
Chapter XV. Social Democracy and Religion . . . 267
1. Church Services to express the Democratic Faith 2. Sir
Henry Maine's Error about Democracy 3. The Dynamics
of Democracy 4. The Inside of the Democratic Cup
5. The Religious Individualism of Professed Socialists
6. Isolation Fatal to Churches 7. Not Toleration but Co-
operation in Religion 8. Debate to be an Item in Public
Worship 9. The Social Psychology of Religion 10. A
Religion teaching Self-respect
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART III
PAGE
CHRISTIANITY TO BE EXPRESSED IN SCIEN-
TIFIC LANGUAGE AND DEMOCRATIC SYMBOL
Chapter XVI. The Need of a New Manual of National
Worship ■ • 291
1. For the Storage and Transmission of National Idealism
2. Services as compared with Sermons 3. Christian
Science an Instance 4. Preaching alone Inadequate
5. Ethics and Ceremonial 6. The Revision of Church
Services 7. Science unifies Men 8. Outside the Churches
9. The Warring Sects 10. The East
Chapter XVII. The Growth of Liturgies . , . . 316
1. By Effort 2. Emerson on Adaptation 3. The Right to
adapt Creeds and Hymns 4. An Anglican's Plea for Re-
vision 5. Lord Morley's Plea 6. Ancient Forms were
New once 7. The Poets Called 8. The Humanists in
Religion
Chapter XVIII. Prejudices against Religious Forms . . 335
1. Familiar Acquaintance Needed 2. The Effect on the Be-
liever 3. The Value of the Thing Symbolized 4. Minor
Cautions
Chapter XIX. The Psychology of Public Worship . . 344
1. Historical 2. Analytical 3. The Symbolism of Dress
4. Not Supernaturalistic 5. The Ethical Meaning of Rit-
ual 6. The Difference between Ritual and Acting 7. Rit-
ual and Real Life 8. Social Democratic Ritual 9. Ritual
and the Fine Arts
Chapter XX. Democratic Forms of Public Worship . . 372
1. Symbolism 2. Through the Senses 3. Ethical Ceremony
4. Good Deeds and Public Worship 5. A Spiritual
Atmosphere
The author acknowledges his indebtedness to Messrs.
Williams and Norgate, of London, for permission to in-
corporate in Parts II and III of this volume the substance
of several chapters of his book entitled " National Idealism
and a State Church," published by them in 1907.
PART I
RELIGION AND NATIONALITY
THE SOUL OF AMERICA
CHAPTER I
A PROSPECTUS, NOT A FORECAST
I. Moulding the Future
Our age has produced many religious Forecasts and
Outlooks ; but, so far as I am aware, no Prospectuses have
been issued. Outlooks and forecasts are the work of
spectators who stand aloof and watch the trend of forces,
without pretending or wishing to guide them or to increase
or diminish their momentum. They are written from the
point of view that the future of rehgion is nothing which
the observer can be responsible for. The writers are simply
reporters of what would take place even if they were not
to note and record. But this book is of a different
nature ; its attitude towards the future of America —
especially of its religion — is somewhat like that of the
preliminary advertisement of a business proposition. Ex-
cept that it is on a spiritual and not a material plane,
it is analogous to the prospectus of a manufacturing or
mining or railway enterprise. In this respect, it is not unlike
General Booth'sbook entitled "In Darkest England, and the
Way Out," which was pubUshed because its author wished
to raise a million dollars for his great plan of Social Re-
form. Mine, similarly, is an attempt to induce men and
women to invest their time, money, and mental and physi-
cal energy in the scheme which it outUnes. I therefore
3
4 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
stand to the future which I depict, as the first dreamer,
let us say, of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama stood
to the fact which is now on the eve of complete actualiza-
tion. A prospectus attempts to bring into existence the
idea it presents.
2. The Word Spiritual
This book submits to the public a scheme for conserving
and developing the Spiritual Resources of America. The
specific nature of the scheme will be disclosed later ; but
at the outset a word may be in place as to what I mean by
Spiritual Resources. The very context in which the word
spiritual appears shows that it does not point, as it some-
times does in general literature, to some spirit-world out-
side of time and space or beyond death. Nor does it
point to any occult or transcendent faculties of the human
mind or to the influx of the iirfinite spirit of the Creator
into the sphere of mortal mind. The word spiritual here
refers, as it does in the language of religious piety, to a
kind of Kfe. We divide our world into that of the senses
and of the soul; and we say that a man is spiritually
minded when to him principles of justice, honour, purity,
and the Uke, and visions of a perfect society are as real
and present as are the ground he walks on, the bread
he eats, or the water he drinks. We say of a woman
that she is spiritually minded if, when the practical alter-
native is presented to her of loyalty to her own ideal of
womanhood on the one hand, and on the other the sacrifice
of this to luxury, display, and physical comfort, she without
an instant's hesitation finds herself siding with her own
inward standards of honour. The suggestion that she should
disregard these is to her as if it were proposed that she should
walk straight through a granite wall. It is the sense of the
reahty of the unseen universe of principles and ideals that
■^constitutes spirituaUty.
A PROSPECTUS, NOT A FORECAST 5
The proposition, then, how to conserve and develop
the spiritual resources of America is the proposition how to
conserve and develop the sense of the reality, the potency,
the pressure and power of those principles and ideals which
have emerged in the history of the American people as
manifestations of its essential and unique moral genius.
It is a question as to what is the American tj^e of man-
hood and womanhood. It is further the question as to
what is the high calling or inherently preestablished
destiny to which the unprecedented origin, geographical
location, and opportunity, and the unforeseen and unfore-
seeable events in the nation's career have been calling her
citizens.
The spiritual resources of America thus understood are
clearly seen to be not unrelated to her commercial, poHtical,
and domestic hfe. On the contrary, the motive of this
book springs from the conviction, which I beUeve many
readers will share with me, that the ultimate dynamic of
all thorough reform in domestic life, in economics and
politics is to be found in the sense of the reality and urgency ^
with which moral principles and social ideals are invested.
Even the conservation of the material resources of America »^'
requires the development of its spiritual energy and insight.
This prospectus for the development of the Soul of
America arises out of the belief that her moral potencies
are at present running enormously to waste or lying
idle, and are therefore practically as if they were in
great part non-existent. My propositions assume that
it would be possible to develop almost infinitely the spiritual
potencies of the nation by organizing them and Hfting
them into self-consciousness, and that when so developed -•
they would be able to sweep away rapidly and forever
national defects and wrongs and causes of suffering and
disease which now alarm every true statesman and patriot.
I began by referring to religion, because the spiritual
A
6 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
resources of the world have always been the concern of
organized religion. It has always been religion which has
given spiritual sanctions — the sense of the reality of an
unseen order — • to the practical conduct of a people and
its customs and laws concerning property, Ufe, the family,
poUtics, truth, and religion itseK.
3. Statesmanship in Religion
When we look at the place which inteUigent foresight
and statesmanship have taken in the history of rehgion, it
becomes the more astonishing that in our day writers should
occupy themselves with outlooks and forecasts instead of
prospectuses. This pecuharity of present-day writers on
religion would seem to argue some sort of degeneracy
or blindness or some aberration as to the real character
and significance and purpose of religion ; for in its periods
of creative and beneficent activity rehgion has been full
of the plans of patriots and statesmen. Possibly the great-
ness of the past has overpowered us so that we can no longer
originate, but only imitate and repeat. We must imitate
and not repeat ; that is, we must imitate the originality
and constructive statesmanship of the great rehgious
geniuses of the past. Primarily we must remember that
reUgions start with ideas which gradually become facts. It
was an idea in the mind of Jesus — an idea of the nature
of a prospectus or scheme of salvation — from which ema-
nated the Christian churches. But the scheme of Jesus
was supplemented by another of St. Paul and his con-
temporaries. There was constructive enterprise of states-
manship at work to conserve and develop the spiritual
resources of society. The great rehgious geniuses never
assumed the r61e of spectators, nor did they practise an
aloofness, as if the religious drama of the world would un-
roll of itself before them. They were not spectators.
A PROSPECTUS, NOT A FORECAST 7
but the actors in the drama. They felt that, with them-
selves left out, the issue of the plot would fail to manifest
its inherent meaning.
If we look beyond Christianity to ancient Judaism, we
note the same conspicuous ofl&ce performed by the enter-
prises of statesmanship and the entire absence of any role
assigned to mere onlookers ; nor was there any thought of
an evolution of religion as a thing uncaused by human
effort and design. For instance, reUgious patriots and
politicians first threw out the idea that the Jewish nation
was weakened and decentralized in character by the scat-
tered " high places " of worship over the land ; and then they
agitated for the abolition of remote altars and the concen-
tration upon Moxmt Zion in Jerusalem as the one point of
national worship. Coming forward again in history, we
are startled by the fact that the Roman Catholic Church,
which declares itself not only to be heaven-born, but con-
tinuously inspired from on high, is the world's chief instance
of men's intelHgent foresight in mapping out the kind of
future they wish to see created and constraining the forces
of human nature to actualize their scheme. Even the
present policy of the Roman Church in centralizing itself
in the Vatican and in this way unifying the Roman Catholic
world is but a repetition on a larger scale of the prospectus
of Jewish politicians in the eighth, seventh, and sixth cen-
turies before Christ.
Not to prolong to too great length my historical argu-
ment, I would cite only two more instances of the place of
prospective enterprise in religion. Richard Hooker, at
the close of the sixteenth century, in his "Ecclesiastical
Polity," marked out a scheme which has had structural
effect upon the reUgious organization of England, and which
seems destined to have still more decisive influence. My
last instance is American. It was the practical organizing
statesmanship of John Wesley that caused him, as soon
8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
as the United States were established, to assume the role
of bishop and, by sending out preachers, transplant to
American soil his whole system of rehgious discipline.
Thus he brought into being, and did not simply foresee or
forecast, the present-day fact that the Methodist denomina-
tions of America possess a greater membership than any
other one group of Protestant churches.
If I mistake not, there have again appeared in America
during the last five years evidences of a recognition of the
significance of practical statesmanship in conserving and
developing the spiritual resources of the nation as distinct
^ from faith in supernatural providence. I am therefore
the bolder in laying stress upon the enterprise-launching
nature of this book; but I have another reason for doing
so. The clue to its Uterary style and structure can only
be found in the fact that it is a prospectus, and that I am,
as it were, trying to float a practical undertaking. Only
this object and the peculiar character of the enterprise can
explain the composition of the book. They alone will
justify both what I have included and what I have excluded.
Another person writing on the Soul of America, or I myself
writing from a different point of view, would have presented
many facts here omitted and shown even those here pre-
sented in quite different relations and with different values.
For instance, my giving a great part of the space of this
volume to a humanistic reinterpretation of Christianity
and to the psychology of pubHc worship is wholly justified,
if I am right in thinking that the churches in the future
are to be the chief instrumentalities for the conserving and
developing of America's spiritual resources, and if reUgious
rites and ceremonies must be the chief means for bringing
home to the citizens of America the reahty of the ideal
order of her life.
CHAPTER II
WHEN IlELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL
I. An Argument from Personal Experiences
There was a time when the champion of any fundamental !
idea anxiously attempted to demonstrate to his readers that I
his philosophy was in no wise coloured by his own private
experience. He tried to show that it was purely objective, i
and might have originated in the mind of any one ; but,
happily, in our day we have come to see that even pro-
foimd and universal truths are never discovered and brought
to self-conscious definition, except by some rare opportunity,
and even because of some pecuHar emotional experience '
and bent of the individual's will. No philosophy is now
counted worthy of attention that was not, in the first in-
stance, an outgrowth of some one person's pecuHar indi-
viduality and experience; and no thinker is fully trusted
who is not perfectly aware of the subjective and incidental
occasion that disclosed to him the universal truth which
he is advocating.
Accordingly, before proceeding to impersonal grounds to
justify the main thesis of these pages, I wish to offer as
an argument in favour of it those experiences of my
own which first thrust it into the foreground of my
attention and so diffused it over my mind that it has now
become the formative principle of all my thought on
social problems.
Until my twenty-third year, it had never occurred to me
that such a person as myself, with such a point of view
concerning Ufe and its meaning, with such presupposi-
9
10 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
tions, spontaneous reactions and recoils, and with such a
scale of values and standards of judgment, might not have
been born and reared at any time, in any place on the face
of the globe, or even on the planet Mars. So self-evident
had I been to myself that it seemed to me as if an i nfini te
Creator might have projected me, full-grown, into space
and time at any point, and that I should have felt myself
at home anywhere, irrespective of antecedent courses of
local and temporal events. My notions of self-respect
and duty, of hberty and temperance, manliness and woman-
Hness seemed to me to be such as must appear immediately
right and rational to any inteUigent will, human or angehc,
finite or infinite.
At the age of twenty-two, however, leaving for the first
time my own national milieu, I went as a student to Ger-
many. Only then did I gradually become aware that the
most impersonal and universal characteristics of my inner
selfhood could never have been brought into existence except
in the United States of America — in the Middle West —
and at the exact point in her history when I was born and
had lived there. Then for the first time I saw that almost
everything in morals, rehgion, and even manners, that had
seemed to me to go without saying, needed argument and
justification beyond itself before it could appeal to any
German. I thus became aware that every native student
in the University of BerHn differed from me in all the
spontaneous reactions of his nature against the occasions
that call for judgment and decision, by as much as the whole
history of Germany for three hundred years has differed
from the entire tradition and experience of America from
the time of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers until the
year in which I was born — the year before that in which
Abraham Lincoln had awakened America by saying of it
that a house divided against itself could not stand, and that
the United States must become either all free or all slave.
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL II
It was revealed to me that America, despite her original
descent from England and her continued intercourse with
Europe, was a world in herself — a psychic sphere of creative
energy, enveloping her citizens, but that she herself was
not in the same way comprehended under any larger moral
sphere that overarched her as she spans her own geographi-
cal sections, her States, counties, cities, families, and indi-
vidual men and women. And I became aware that Ger-
many constituted for her subjects an equally self-contained
sphere of active psychic influence, and in the same way
furnished an outer circumference or surface up to which
the duties and responsibihties of her subjects extended, but
beyond which they suddenly decreased almost to the van-
ishing point. I realized that beyond that point where
one nation stops and another begins on the surface of the^'
earth, the nation and not the individual mind becomes the
moral agent which is to deal with neighbouring nations.
I saw the profound wisdom of the aphorism of Mazzini,
that nations are to humanity as individual men and women t-
are to nations. I saw that reverence for all nations was as
essential to the idea of universal brotherhood as reverence
for all individual human beings irrespective of race, na-
tionahty, colour, sex, or rehgion. I saw that the brother-
hood of nations was the true meaning of the brotherhood 1/
of man, and that those were the enemies of men as well as
of nations who interpreted universal brotherhood in the
sense of the obHteration instead of the sanctification of
national differences.
After two years and a half of study in Berlin, my debt
to Germany had become so great that I have never since
been able to think, of the "Fatherland" without awe,
reverence, and deep personal gratitude. But I am quite
cert£dn that what I gathered from the Imperial University
was totally different from what any German student would
have drawn. It was the contrast with everything I had
12 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
been accustomed to that gave for me a peculiar significance
to German philosophy, political economy, art, and social
customs, and brought out a new meaning in all things
American. I tingled with awareness of characteristics
which did not challenge the attention either of stay-at-
home Germans or Americans. I am convinced, and have
been ever since my student days in Berlin, that the ratio
of a man's points of quickening contact with his own nation
to those of his possible contact with any foreign country
is at least ten thousand to one. I do not deny the one
point. I am fully aware that everybody receives into his
mental and moral composition elements and energy de-
rived from other nations, nor do I undervalue these fac-
tors; but I do say that even when the specific influences
have originated in foreign countries or have had his-
toric roots abroad, they become so transmuted and re-
organized by entering the new national atmosphere, as to
constitute in their psychic effect a totally different environ-
ment. A person, also, who has never left his native coun-
try, or at best has travelled abroad only for hoUday diver-
sion and not for work and cooperation, inevitably remains
blind to the fact that almost all the influences that have
moulded him have emanated from within the confines of
his own nation.
2. America Super-political
The purpose of this book seems to justify me in giving
space here for only one instance of the many characteristics
of America as a nation that were brought home to my mind
by Germany. I became aware after a half year's sojourn
in Berlin of the pervading presepce, and what seemed
to me then omnipotence and omniscience, of a spiritual
reaHty the Uke of which I had never felt and never
could have felt in America. I became aware of the pre-
sence of what is called the State. In America, if no indi-
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL 1 3
vidual person is watching you for some private reason of
his own, you are unobserved and have a corresponding sense
of being alone. In Germany everybody is not only being,
observed, but is being tracked by the State. I realized
that with a million eyes and with instruments and with
agencies adequate in power to its purposes, the State was
above me, below me, in front and behind, and on both sides,
protecting me from others and others from me. I began
to perceive the immensity of the difference between a
Nation and a State, which my professors in PoUtical Science
had pointed out, but which hitherto I had counted as
nothing more than an academic distinction. Some of the
PoKtical Economists of Germany describe the same thing
as the difference between Society and the State. I saw that
what I had known and felt in the land of my birth was a
Society, a Nation, but scarcely a political orgaiuzation.
I gradually began also to realize the beneficence and
moral necessity of the strong State as a guardian of each
person and of the community as a whole, and to deplore
its absence in America. The Will of the People, I saw,
could never become truly coherent and sovereign, could
never fully express itself and execute its plans ; the working
people would instead become victims of dominant indi-
viduals and classes, unless the State stepped in as the agent
of the Nation and preserved the human claims of all as
against the aggressions of the few. It was Germany that
turned my individualistic Democracy into Social Demo-
cracy. The German State added to my belief in the good
of all, a belief in the good of the whole as being equally the
end of the State.
Foreign observers of America still note a prevalent lack*
of the sense of the State throughout America. In a demo-
cracy preyed upon by plutocratic enemies from within,
this is an alarming defect, which as such must be brought
to acute self-consciousness; for the State cannot become
14 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
powerful and wise in the interests of the people — that is,
it cannot really exist — except as the conscious need of it
encourages it into existence. Only an enormous increase
of the power of the State in the interests of the whole com-
munity can ever beat back the unblushing and unashamed
~ exploitation of the national wealth by the few, to the detri-
ment of the millions. For instance, there has been no
greater menace to America than the pretence of promoters
of industry that when benefiting themselves in bringing
immigrants to these shores they are also acting for the
benefit of the Nation. The public does not seem yet to
see the difference between the immediate private benefit
of the controlling classes, or of all, and the permanent
good of America as a whole; and it accordingly has been
ready to sacrifice the total and abiding nation to the rapid
development of private enterprises in commerce. Other-
wise there could not have been so undisguised an appeal
to individual self-interest in summoning immigrants to
America. To all the oppressed of Europe America herself
still says: "Come over here, here is your country. This
country is your opportunity to get rich, to rise in the world,
to make much of yourself, to be somebody. Come, bleed
me." Does America, then, exist for individuals who are
• not equally to exist for America ? Is she merely a means
and they wholly the ends ? My impression in the course
of recent journeys across the United States is that there
are more human beings in America preying upon the re-
sources of their nation from a motive of undisguised self-
interest than is the case with any country in Europe.
Not only do these American citizens batten upon her
wealth, but also upon her naive faith in human nature and
individual liberty ; nor do the poor in America differ in mo-
tive and intent from the rich. More of America's nurslings,
of aU classes and of whatever origin, feed upon her vitals
than is the case with any other national brood in the
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL 1 5
world. It cannot be accounted for in any other way than
negatively, that is, by the absence of the State and the sense
of the State as an instrument in the service of the People
as a whole ; there must spring up a political government
to express and administer the Will of the whole people
in the interests, not of all individually, but of the whole as ^.
an abiding totality, of the nation as an organic unit of Hfe.
But my student years in Germany did far more for me
than reveal merely the characteristics, positive and nega-
tive and good and bad, of America ; the contrast of Ger-
many with the United States, as I have already said, gave
me the formative principle of all my thinking since then
upon social problems.
3. When Religion builds States
It reqmred only a few months of sojourn in Germany
to reveal to me the fact that in our dependence upon con-
tinuity of environment our minds belong spiritually to the
plant order of creation. Our characters, our hearts and
wills grow by means of roots which we put down into the
soil, or rather the soul, of the nation in which we are born
and where we pass oiu* years of infancy and adolescence.
To transplant a man from one country to another is to
tear him up by the roots and to remove the most sensitive
fibres and tendrils of his being from the sources whence
he has drawn his vitahty and the peculiar substance and
form of his nature. In proportion as a man possesses
individuality and virility, he suffers exquisite torture by
expatriation. In the strongest natures, homesickness in
a foreign land is liable to become not only normally pain-
ful, but pathologically dangerous. It is exile from home
that first reveals to oneself not only one's love of home, but
one's psychic dependence upon it. One's sense of per-
sonal identity may almost be overborne and obUterated
1 6 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
by a change of environment from one's native country to
a land where the speech, the customs, the wit and humour,
and the ethical valuations are different. A love of one's
own country thus awakened will never sink into ujicon-
sciousness again. Of all the spiritual energies of the human
• mind, the sentiment of patriotism aroused by exile is the
deepest and most powerful. In depth and potency it is the
one spiritual momentum which can be classed with the
primal instincts and appetites, such as those of hunger,
thirst, the reproductive instinct, curiosity, anger, imitation,
and the love of self-display. Women are equally responsive
with men to the sentiment of patriotism ; but the careers
open to men have made it chiefly a masculine characteristic.
The craving to return to one's native environment and
the conscious sense of dependence upon it, when once
awakened, constitute not only the most powerful of spiritual
motives, but also the most cohesive of social forces. It
would therefore seem that if somehow the religion of the
churches could in each country identify itself with the
conscious sense of dependence upon one's nation as the
source of one's spiritual hfe, Christianity and the churches
would enter upon a new period of beneficent activity, vm-
precedented in the world since the first two centuries after
Christ — a period of mascuhnity and virility as well as
of a new tenderness and respect for the poor, for women,
and for all the tmfortunate. It would seem that if the
churches could link up their aim with that of patriotism,
rehgion would become again the greatest State-building
power in the world. It would reorganize and reconstruct
cities and institutions of commerce and education and the
laws of marriage and of the ownership of land and capital.
Such is the beUef in the rehgious significance and power of
awakened patriotism which was engendered in me by the con-
trast of Germany with America. My experience of the differ-
ence in these two nationalities prepared my mind to accept as
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL 17
the most significant lesson of universal history the identity
of rehgion in all its great epochs with the higher patriotism.
I saw for the first time why religion among the ancient
Jews was such a dominant national asset ; I saw how it was
that Judaism — ■ his reUgion — made the Jew and gave him
such vitality that 2000 years of foreign oppression and
inhumanity has not been able to extinguish him or his
national ideaUsm. It was all because with the ancient
Jews reUgion was patriotism and patriotism was rehgion.
The God the Jews worshipped was the socializing spirit
of the tribe and nation ; Jahweh was the indwelling moral
genius of the Jewish people. He was the creative soul of
Israel. The moral genius of this people had brought the
Jews out of the house of bondage and out of the land of
Egypt, had preserved them in the desert, and had kept the
remnant of the righteous together during the seventy years
of the exile in Babylon. It was the consciously awakened
loyalty of the Jews to the indwelling spirit of their nation
that constituted their religion while in Babylon and brought
them back to their own country and induced them to es-
tabhsh a theocracy when they were denied an independent
political state. The throne of their God, as one of their
psalmists says, was in the praises of his people.
Nobody denies that national idealism was the religion of
Judaism ; but many who concede this historic fact are ac-
customed to assert that with the advent of Christianity
rehgion became distinct from patriotism, and that this
separation was a moral and spiritual advance. But the
new psychology and sociology of rehgion are throwing a flood
of hght upon historic Christianity and showing an un-
expected identity of it with patriotism. This identity
for the first thousand years explains the organizing and
virile power of Christianity. Had it not become the in-
dwelhng, socializing, moralizing spirit of a great nation,
Christianity would not have survived and would not have
1 8 THE SOUL or AMERICA
deserved to survive. What happened was this : the
Roman Empire was in need of a soul, it was the body
without the spirit of a nation. It had only miUtary
unity. AU the conquered peoples paid tribute unto Csesar ;
but there was no cultural unity, and the Roman Empire
would soon have become a disintegrating corpse. Even
the emperors and courtiers saw this. Constantine and
his advisers appreciated the strategic significance of the
Uttle groups of Christians worshipping underground through-
out the Empire. They must be made the Soul of the nation.
And this was what happened : They conserved and devel-
oped the spiritual resources of the Roman Empire. They
gave it a common ideal of manhood and of life — the ideal
found in the New Testament together with the standard of
national loyalty presented in the Old. Thus Europe be-
came spiritually unified. In Christianity, then, rehgion
did not cease to be identical with national ideaHsm; on
the contrary, it assumed the task of creating a nation — of
breathing into it the breath of hfe. That is the reason
Christianity lived and deserved to Uve. Paul ceased to
be a Jew, but he became a Roman citizen ; the moral genius
which he now worshipped as God was indeed no longer that
of Israel, but it was that of Rome.
In like manner, Protestant interpreters have for the
most part been quite bHnd to the true significance of the
Reformation. The Reformation was not an assertion of
private conscience and of the individual's right to think
for himself, but the assertion of Germany's wiU to become
an organic unit of spiritual hfe and free itself from the
dictation of a foreign bishop. Luther is at the same time
the genius of the Reformation and the genius of the spiritual
resources of Germany ; yet not because he was a genius in
two directions, but because the Reformation was the awaken-
ing of Germany to spiritual self-consciousness.
Analogous was what happened in Scotland and in Eng-
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL 1 9
land ; but I cannot here prolong the story. It is clear that
religion whenever it has been creative and beneficent has
been identical with patriotism. God has always been the
indwelling moral genius of a people, the Holy Ghost has
always been the socializing power that quickens indivi-
dual men and women into glad self-sacrifice and service
for the good of the whole group to which they belong.
4. Sir John Seeley's Teaching
But the interpretation of history which I have just given
was by no means a discovery of my own. The awakening
to self-consciousness of my own patriotism through the
contrasts which I saw between Germany and America only
prepared my mind and made it receptive and enthusiasti-
cally sensitive to this doctrine of the identity of true re-
ligion with the higher patriotism which I found expressed
in masterly fashion by Sir John Seeley in his book on
"Natural Religion," which was first pubhshed in 1883.
Sir John Seeley is, in the judgment of many, the most origi-
nal genius both in the sphere of rehgious insight and of
historic imagination which England produced in the nine-
teenth century. He more than anyone else was able (in
his book entitled "Ecce Homo") to present the human
aspect and the human and natural significance of the per-
sonality of Jesus Christ. He also, so far as I am aware,
was the first to point out the nationalizing genius of Chris-
tianity through the Roman CathoHc Church and the iden-
tity of Protestantism in its several branches with the awaken-
ing self-consciousness of the nations of the North.
It was such passages as the following that illuminated
and justified to me my personal sense of the exalted sig-
nificance of patriotism : —
Look almost where you will in the wide field of history, you
will find Religion, whenever it works freely and mightily, either
20 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
giving birth to and sustaining States, or else raising them up to
a second Ufe after destruction. It is a great State-builder in the
hands of Moses and UL&las and Gregory and Nicholas; in the
ruder hands of Mohammed and many another tamer and guide
of gross populations, down to the prophet of Utah, it has the
same character ; the same, too, in the hands of the almost for-
gotten Numas and propagators of the Apollo-worship who laid
the foimdation of Roman and Greek civilization, and of the
Pilgrim Fathers who founded New England. In the East to
this day nationaUty and reHgion are almost convertible terms ;
the Scotch national character first awoke in the adoption of a
new ReUgion, and afterwards expressed itself more than once
in national covenants ; the Reformation itself may be repre-
sented as coming out of the German national consciousness,
and it has been proposed to call the various forms of Protestant-
ism by the collective name of Teutoliic Christianity. Lastly,
in Christianity itself, in Romanism, and partly also in Mo-
hammedanism we find reHgion in the form of an aggressive or
missionary nationahty, bringing foreign nations into a new
citizenship.
All this being overlooked, the very outlines of European
developments almost disappear from ovir view. In losing sight
of the connection between ReHgion and Nationahty, we lose the
clue to the struggle between Church and State, which is the
capital fact in the development of Europe. As in the first part
of the struggle we overlook that the Church is but another
aspect of the Empire, and CathoHcism but the embodiment of
the Roman nationahty, so in the later stages of it, in the modern
struggle between CathoHcism and that which caUs itself the
State, we are bHnd to the fact that under the so-caUed State
there lurks a new, yet imdeveloped, Chxirch.
On account of my own individual experience, the pas-
sages in Sir John Seeley's book which have most endeared
his moral insight to me are those in which he points out the
awakening and deepening effect upon patriotism of exile from,
one's native land. He made me realize that whatever
special sensitiveness it was on my part which had converted
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL 21
my patriotism into a religion was no eccentricity nor abnor-
mality of mine ; for a similar experience in thousands of
hearts in all ages has proved of untold significance and
beneficence to the world.
A civilization [says Sir John Seeley] which to those who
live in the midst of it is imperceptible as an atmosphere, be-
comes distinctly visible in contrast with the outer world.
Greeks felt their Hellenism in contrast with barbarism and
Jews their election in contrast with Gentiles. When the con-
trast becomes intense a condition of unstable equilibrium is
created . . . and one of those great spiritual movements takes
place which mark at long intervals the progress of humanity,
such as the conversion of all nations to Judaism, to Romanism,
to Hellenism.
It would even seem that Seeley had not failed to observe
cases of American patriotism Hke mine ; for he says : —
Not otherwise at this day the American who finds himself
in Europe translates of sheer necessity his American ways of
thinking into a creed. He can think and talk of nothing else.
To every European he preaches, Uke St. Paul, in season and out
of season, America, America !
I hope I may not seem to be falling into too personal a
vein instead of keeping to my argument when I cite the
present volume as perhaps the latest instance of an Ameri-
can in Europe preaching America. Nor can I deny that
my case is still more aggravated than those referred to by
Seeley, for I am here presuming to preach America, America,
not to Europeans, but to Americans themselves. I would,
however, plead excuse and justification on the ground of
the exile which my specialized work has imposed upon me ;
and if I need further justification, I would hide behind that
fine aphorism of Mr. Rudyard Kipling with which he
shielded himself against the adverse judgment of those who
thought that he, having sojourned in remote India, should
2 2 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
not presume to criticise or instruct England. In retort
he exclaims : —
What should they know of England, who" only^ England
know?
5. America Super-historical
But I have not finished the argument from personal
experience with which I said I wished to introduce the
thesis of this book. After student days in Germany and a
brief return to America, my special task called me to Eng-
land, and there I settled ; and I have lived and worked there
since the year 1888. From the first I dehghted in those
qualities of English life — mellow as her summer sunshine
— which always enchant and often permanently enchain
visitors from the New World. But here I wish only to give
my testimony as to the increasing consciousness which my
knowledge of England brought about as to the deeper
meaning of America in particular and of National Idealism
the world over as the redemptive trend in history. In
England, I again found myself in a new world, a world as
different from both Germany and America as I had found
these two unKke each other. England, in my judgment, is
^ spiritually a different sphere from America, as much as
Mars is physically different from the Earth. All the
planets, no doubt, have the same chemical nature and mani-
fest the same laws of physics, and all of them are in the same
solar system ; but life in Mars, if there be any, and the
forms engendered there by natural selection, must be as
different from those of Earth as is her place in the solar
system. Both Englishmen and Americans, let us grant,
participate in the same primal instincts and psychic con-
stitutions; but the men and women in England who are
surrounded by a social atmosphere more than a thousand
years deep, through which the whole of the Past presses
upon them, inevitably find the American, with his short
WHEN RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM ARE IDENTICAL 23
national tradition and memory, almost a human curiosity ;
and vice versa. As with my impression of Germany, so
of England ; my arguments here permit me to specify only
one characteristic of America as distinct from England,
and it is again a negative quality. The absence of the
sense of the Past, and the absence of the pressure of it
upon the American imagination and will, are unique in
the life of the great modern nations, just as is the absence
from the American mind of the sense of the State and of
the pressure of the State as a living reality. This
sense in a nation of escape from the Past is a negative
quaUty of the highest significance for the whole future of
America. It is a form of Hberty, I beheve, which to the end
of aU time will mark her ; having once got into her blood,
it wiU propagate itself like an antitoxin. The conscious-
ness of being free from the Past and therefore of relative
contempt for the Past is one of the chief elements in the
American sense of Hberty. The absence of the Past and
of a sense of it, will make America forever predisposed
to undertake enterprises which have no precedent in the
world's history. America, from a motive of utiKtarian
ideahsm, will always be ready in the spirit of Nietzsche's
philosophy to become superhistorical. I could cite
many instances of commxmities in America which have
quite readily, and without any misgiving or apprehension,
passed laws of a wholly untried and unprecedented nature,
laws which the British would have felt that their very
sanity — meaning their historic sense — forbade them to
pass. Here, then, we find, although of a negative nature,
a characteristic common to all Americans : the lack of the
historic sense and the absence of the pressure of history.
This negative characteristic of American Hfe begins im-
mediately to have effect upon the heart of every immigrant
or casual visitor, making it light, and upon the will, making '
it brave. Thus is every American differentiated from the
24 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
stay-at-home subjects of every other government in the
world.
I count typical of all America, and therefore an allegory
or parable, an answer to a question of mine which was made
many years ago by a youth in one of my boys' clubs in New
York City. He had made some remark which seemed to
reveal so superficial a sense of history that I asked him:
"But how old do you suppose the world is?" With sur-
prise and some bewilderment he answered with the return
question: "Wasn't the world created in 1776?" No
youth ever spoke more wisely ! The world in which he
lived, the world of the United States, the Soul which brooded X
over him, the Soul of America, was, as an ordered cosmos,
as a spiritual providence, created in 1776.
If we contrast the great historic fact of the identity of
patriotism and reUgion with the present state of things in
America, we cannot help being startled by what seems to be
an absolute divorce between religion in America and Ameri-
can patriotism. In America religion is one thing ; and
patriotism, where it exists, is altogether another and a
different thing. They are not even two things that inter-
penetrate or move in the same direction or advance to the
same end. There probably never was a country in the
world that Hved so long and that prospered so well where
there was so httle identification, conscious or unconscious, '^
of religion with patriotism. But its history thus far has
been wholly unique ; and now the unique conditions are at
an end. Its divorce, therefore, of rehgion from patriotism
is no proof that either Christianity or American patriotism
or even the material conditions of the United States will
go on prospering if the divorce continues. It is possible
that, from now on, the one national asset that will save
America from internal disruption and from moral decay
will be the making of reUgion henceforth identical with the
nation's sense of high destiny and subUme responsibility.
CHAPTER III
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA
I. Pioneers, Pioneers!
Some recent students of life in the United States have
declared that America is lacking in any central vitalizing
power that gives unity of culture, community of vision and
aim, and harmony of values to all her citizens. For in-
stance, Mr. A. E. Zimmern, until recently a Don of Oxford,
in a brilliant paper entitled, "Seven Months in America,"
which appeared in the Sociological Review for July, 191 2,
says: "Another common pohtical fallacy needs to be
mentioned. Current ideas . . . assume that America is
a nation. . . . America consists at present of a congeries
of nations who happened to be united under a common
federal goverimient." He adds, "No, America is not a
melting pot. ... To meet image with image, I would
reply, 'America is not a melting pot ; it is a varnishing pot,'
or, in the words of Freiherr von Wolzogen, 'America is a
sausage machine, for grinding out EquaUty sausages.' . . .
'There is all the difference in the world,' said a young Jewish
philosopher to me, ' between an American Jew and a Jewish
American. A Jewish American is a mere amateur Gentile,
doomed to be a parasite forever.'/'
Where is the truth in this matter? Has it been an il-
lusion of self-conceit and vanity on the part of America to
believe that the very spirit embodied in the Constitution
and history of the United States penetrates through a
thousand different avenues into the centre of the soul of
every child born here and of every immigrant that is landed
25
26 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
here, and that it then, from the throne of each person's
selfhood, begins to construct his character in accordance
with the organic law of the nation's being?
Mr. Zimmern's denial that America gives cultural unity
to her people can in the first place be refuted out of his own
mouth. In the very same essay, of which the object is to
deny that America is a nation, occurs the following lavish
dehneation of that disposition of will, that quality of heart,
that type of intellect which, according to Mr. Zimmern's
own confession, marks not only the successive generations,
but all the geographical groups of the United States : —
Every one knows what the American pioneer qualities are ;
most Europeans admire or even envy them, as the middle-aged
envy the young, whUe laughing a little up their sleeve. Yet it
is worth while trying to define them, indefinable though they
are. An inexhaustible fountain of kindness and good nature,
which makes a journey in America seem like a passage from
friend to friend; a wonderful alertness and adaptability,
through which the hostess grasps the situation, the financier
closes with a bargain, the citizen takes the law into his own
hands, in as brief a moment as it took their ancestors to sight
and shoot the Red Indian who was climbing the stockade ; an
undaunted self-confidence, which will plant a city in a treeless
wilderness, as the Mormons did in Utah, or descry a business
prospect when the Easterner can see only a castle in Spain ; a
ferocious optimism which seems to welcome difficulty and dis-
aster, bankruptcy and earthquake, for the fierce joy of over-
coming them; an ingenuous delight in novelty for the mere
sake of experiment, which replaces the philosophic " Why? " of
Europe by the unanswerable "Why not ! " a nonchalant venture-^
someness which gambles with life and fortune as gaily as the
reprobates among ourselves would risk a handful of money on a
racecourse ; a strength of purpose and a vigorous tenacity in
action unexampled in any one people, even the Scotch, but
explicable as the result of three generations of social selection
from among the stronger wills of Europe ; a complete absence of
self-consciousness or reflectiveness or any kind of deeper in-
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 2^
sight, and an inclination, developed by their education into a
habit, towards using the mind as a quick-firing gun; all the
qualities of childhood except reverence, with a continent for a
nursery, its easy emotions and rapid tempers, its lively curiosity,
its svmny expansiveness, its irresistible buoyancy, its short and
fickle memory, its disobedience, its ruthlessness, its almost
tragic capacity for laughter in the face of grave issues, its in-
satiable appetite for sweetness and light, in the shape of con-
fectionery and electric sky signs ; above all, and a redemption
of all, its intense and abounding and infectious vitality, its in-
stinctive loyalty and comradeship in action, its idealism in the
darkest hours, shedding immortal lustre on some disaster which
its own unwisdom has failed to avert, when in a moment, as
under Lee and Lincoln, at the bidding of destiny the scattered
band of ' boys ' becomes an army of men — this, this is the Ameri-
can spirit; and Walt Whitman is its prophet. Pioneers,
Pioneers, is the song of successive generations of young Ameri-
cans, novitiates into the Dionysiac spirit of transatlantic Life.
The only possible explanation which I can find for Mr.
Zimmern's self-contradiction in describing the character
of America, and yet denying to her a dominant unify-
ing influence, is that if a nation's genius is of the pioneer
sort, he thinks it must be only a passing phase of mental
life and not enduring enough to be a nation-building power.
He seems to imply that the moment pioneer opportunities
of material exploration have ceased, it is preposterous to
suppose that the quahties of the pioneer may continue to
dominate. But here, in my judgment, the sociology of this
student of America is defective in three vital points. Some
imique circumstance in a nation's career, although itself
not lasting for more than two or three lifetimes, may
generate a temper, a vision, a standard of values, that will »
live on and mould the people for centuries to come. Even
Mr. Zimmern opens his essay with the affirmation that,
although she is not a nation, America is "a state of mind."
Now, my contention is that the state of mind which is
28 THE SOUX OF AMERICA
America is a permanent creative spirit, giving unity of
vision, a sympathetic imderstanding, and comradeship of
will to all the dwellers on American soil. It was generated
under conditions unique in the history of mankind ; those
conditions are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. But
that spirit which they engendered is mightier throughout
the United States to-day than ever before. Not only
this; it is spreading throughout the world. Japanese
scholars caught it in American colleges and took it back
to Japan. Sun Yat Sen and his feUow-students carried
it to China. Tlnd we know what it has already achieved
in both these coimtries. This Dionysiac spirit, begotten
into immortahty by the pioneer hfe in America, sets
quickly on fire the proletariats of all the nations of the
world. For three generations it has drawn something like a
million persons a year to the American shores. Now it is
taking root in foreign soils and is engendering revolutions
there — like the recent one in China. Let us, then, concede
that primitive pioneer conditions have ended. But let us
not be blind to the gigantic fact that before they ended,
they let loose a Spirit which bids fair to become ever-
lasting and luiiversal. It is probable that from now on
throughout the world for aU time the dominant disposition
of Humanity will not cease to be that of the Pioneer Spirit.
The second error which I think must lurk at the root of
Mr. Zimmem's self-contradiction is that pioneering work -^
is over when once the primeval forests have been owned)
and cut down. The facts of American history justify as
against such a view the belief that the moment the pio-
neering spirit has nothing more to achieve on the purely
physical plane of material wealth, it immediately rises to
the mental, moral, and spiritual plane. There it discovers
one new vision after another that needs actualizing and one
old world after another that requires to be annihilated in
order that there may be room for the new ideal. The real
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 29
and the highest pioneer work has only begun in America.
Note the recent transformations of the Constitutions of
the United States and of the several States, whereby these
have been made more plastic and supple instruments of
the sovereign will of the people. Who is so literal and
materialistic, as to deny that the adoption of the Initiative,
the Referendum, the Recall, and of Woman's Suffrage has
been in each case an enterprise that has given full scope to
all the live qualities of the pioneer spirit ? It was as late
as 1903 that Mr. H. G. Wells unfortunately committed
liimself to saying of America: "No national Income Tax
is legal ; and there is practically no power, short of revolu-
tion, to alter that." And yet the pioneer spirit has altered
"that," already, and far short of revolution in the sense of
violence and disorder.
It was Mr. Walter Bagehot in his book on " The English
Constitution," who, criticising the American Constitution a
generation ago, said that the defect of it was that just when
you most wanted to find the sovereign will of the people
there was no way of discovering it. He therefore main-
tained that England, with its government by Cabinet and
its Electoral Appeal to the people whenever the Cabinet
lost the support on any vital issue of the majority of the
House of Commons, was far more democratic in method
than America. But the pioneer spirit of America in the
last five years has been able to find means for the expression
of the sovereign will of the people, and there is ample evi-
dence to justify the behef that in another generation
America will be in reality, as well as in boast, the most
democratic nation in the world.
2. A Falsehood that will be made True
My allusion to the boast of Americans that their country
is a democracy suggests to me what I count a third vital f al- 1^*^
30 THE SOUL OP AMEMCA
lacy implied iq Mr. Zimmem's sociological reasoning. In
one place he says : "The schoolboy is taught in his text-
book, and repeats to every passing stranger, that America,
being a republic, is a free country and that she is a pure
democracy, and that she offers perfect Hberty to her citi-
zens, that she knows no distinctions of rank and class, that,
giving votes to all, she is governed by all. All this is false
to-day, if it ever was true."
ISIy knowledge of the dynamics of national Hf e has helped
me to see that the fallacies about itseK which a nation
sincerely believes to be true are of greater worth as a na-
tional asset and are therefore in a sense more true than
those exactly Uteral facts which an imsympathetic stran-
ger is quite capable of detecting even in less than a seven
months' visit. Let it be conceded that America is not by
any means governed by all, although she gives votes to aU ;
that she knows inhimian, bitter, and wholly unjustifiable
distinctions of rank and class; that there is nothing she
offers which even remotely resembles perfect equaUty
among her citizens ; and that she is not either a free country
or a pure democracy. StUl, there is more hope for a land
that is not free in fact, but is so in ideal, than for a land
that is in fact free, but is not so in ideal. A nation that
teaches in its text-books to every schoolboy, so that he can
repeat it to every passing stranger, that his country is free,
is storing up a dynamic of Uberty that will prove irresist-
ible when once it strikes consciously against economic
inequaUties of opportunity. The future of a country does
not come out of what it is at present or what it was in a past
generation, — such a notion is a mere pedantry of academic
sociology. The future of a country comes out of what its
teachers teU its schoolboys that it is. For, when in later
life they find that the country is not what the teachers
prepared them to expect, the teachers' statement will be
transformed by the younger generation into fierj' prophecy.
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 3 1
When Americans awake to the illusory nature of what had
been taught them in childhood as very fact, it will be the
newly detected facts and not the illusion which they will
repudiate as impossible. They wiU transform the Great
Elusion into a Greater Fact.
The most wonderful characteristic of that state of mind
which is America is the teaching of this fallacy that America
is a free country. There is no other land in the world
where the boys and girls have been so taught from the be-
ginning of the nation's existence that their nation offers
perfect equality to its citizens. Russia has not taught
that, Prussia has not taught that ; and I can testify from
twenty-five years of close observation of what is given by
teachers to the children of England that no child born
in Great Britain has ever been told by parent, teacher, or
preacher that in England there are no distinctions of rank
and class, that the coimtry is free and offers equality to all,
and that she is governed by all. One reason why economic
equality as regards the ownership of land comes so slowly
in England and why women's suffrage has seemed to many
of the best women in England as if it were an instalment of
justice that never could be brought about except by violence
and terror, is because in England no educators have been
indiscreet enough to perpetuate the explosive fallacy that
all men are created free and equal.
Could there be any greater proof that it is a mistake to deny
a homogeneous culture to America than the fact that the
United States has for a hundred and forty years taught, in
season and out of season, in every section of the land, to all
children and adults, and teaches now more than ever, the
doctrine of equality ? Americans have been setting up that
false notion, — false to the facts, — and making it the stand-
ard by which they will condemn all conflicting facts. That
false doctrine will never be jdelded up simply because it is
false ; it will make itself true. Sociologically, there could
32 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
be no greater error than to laugh at the Declaration of
Independence and the Preamble of the Constitution of the
United States as if they were mere words or mere paper or
mere ideas, simply because the economic conditions of
America do not tally with them. That Declaration and
that Preamble are as yet not facts, and in this sense are
only ideas. But some ideas act as stimuh to the primal
instincts and cravings in human nature, they awaken an
/ active thirst for seh-reahzation. They carmot therefore be
called merely ideas, as if they were not actual potencies,
for they are incentives which build and unbuild States.
The conviction, "I am free," striking unexpectedly against
the flinty fact, "I am not free," generates a spark from
whence a revolution may be kindled.
But, happily, in this America, which is said not to be a
nation but only a congeries of nations, the idea that she is
free is not an absolute falsehood. There are some actual
institutions in the United States that not only are free, but
are open doors to a larger freedom. Those clauses in the
Constitution of the country which made it possible to in-
troduce the Income Tax without the violence of revolution
are footholds on which the Spirit of Liberty can stand
and lift the whole people into economic equahty.
3. America true to the Law of her own Being
It is to be regretted that many present-day students of
American life, instead of noting that the United States is
evolving from within according to the organic law of its own
N being, are simply struck by the fact that great changes are
' taking place. They see the new phases of Hfe, but do not
seem to detect the inner law from which they issue. The
new phases accordingly seem to them incidental, accidental,
or arbitrary. But I should Hke to record, for what it is
worth, my judgment that, as compared with England and
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 33
Germany, America is not being transformed more rapidly
than either of these other two countries, nor in the changes
which she is effecting is she less true to the genius of her
historic past. There is no more occasion to write a book
on " Changing America, " as one American has done, than for
a German to write a book on changing Germany ; hkewise,
it is a great mistake to imagine that America in 1914 is a
new world, any more than is the England of the same year,
as compared with that of 1814. Berhn, Diisseldorf, and
Munich, London, Manchester, and Liverpool are no more
like what they were even fifty years ago than is New York
Uke its former self, or San Francisco and Chicago Kke them-
selves. The sanitary conditions, the municipal laws, the
habits and tastes of the people have undergone as great a
revolution throughout Germany and England as through-
out America. What is more, the changes have been, on the
whole, in the same direction. One cannot say that Germany
and England have become Americanized, although they
both have become democratized and socialized in education,
politics, economics, and in mental characteristics. German
democratization is of an essentially German kind ; that of
England bears all the marks of the pecuhar dialectical pro-
cess by which for a thousand years England has zigzagged
forward ; while America has become more social-democratic
in a manner which only her peciiliar problems and her par-
ticular traditions could have occasioned. It is therefore
altogether superficial and uncritical to interpret the rapidity
of the changes in America as due to a lack of cohesiveness
or a deficiency of unifying power in the moral genius
of the nation. It would seem as if some sociological visi-
tors from abroad become bewildered by the complexity
and extent of American social Ufe, as if their brain power
was not equal to detecting the inward unity which embraces
all the differences and even dictates the changes, manipu-
lating them in the interests of the nation. But it is surely
34 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
a fallacy to infer that there is no coordination in an ex-
ternal complex, because one's own mind lacks the umfying
faculty of apperception.
As a proof of increasing anarchy and chaos, and as support
to the assertion that America is not a nation, it is stated
that during the last decade the restlessness of the working-
classes is greater. They shift more often from city to city
and from State to State than they did thirty years ago.
From this the critic infers that they do not remain long
enough in any one locality of the United States to receive
a unity of culture or to feel a local attachment. But such
an interpretation presupposes that, when they shift from
State to State, they come imder another type of moral and
social influence, and that the locaUty to which they are
becoming attached may not be America as a whole. In
journeying to and from New York and San Francisco I
have been astonished to find almost an absolute identity
in the degree and kind of culture that exists over the whole
continent. I have heard very much friendly bantering of
the inhabitants of one section towards those of another, as
if there were colossal differences ; but I am certain that as
I passed from Boston to Los Angeles there was no down-
ward slope to a lower or any ramification to a different
culture. The only place in which I became aware of a
drop in tone and a different type of civilization was in
Utah, especially Salt Lake City; but whoever has read
the Book of Mormon and knows aU the circumstances
will understand how Mormonism has acted as a barrier,
shutting out from Utah the full influence of modern critical
thought and social education.
The very increase in the shifting of populations from
locality to locaUty itself tends to cultural unification and
hf ts the lowest of the population above the dull unconscious-
ness of self in which the proletariats of European nations
have slept imtil the last thirty years. One of the striking
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 35
contrasts between the middle- and the working-class popu-
lations in a country like England is the greater mobility
(because they can afford it) of the middle classes from sec-
tion to section. The shifting, then, of the wage-earners in
America simply means that they already have the cultural
opportunity of the trading classes of England.
In the preceding paragraphs I have tried to show that
the differences in American Ufe that seem to point to a lack
of unity are really purely superficial, or are actually causes
of unity; and I have also shown that the preaching of
liberty, equality, and fraternity is universal, and always
has been since the winning of independence by the American
Colonies. In a later chapter, likewise, I shall make it
clear that the subsidiary patriotisms of the various national
groups of American immigrants give an interesting and
delightful variety without destroying in the least the
cultural unity of the United States, or her dominance as
a formative power. I have also pointed out two negative
characteristics of America which cause all her citizens,
in common, to escape two of the mightiest pressures that
have shaped the characters of people in all the other great
nations of the world. One is the absence, relatively, of
the State and therefore the lack of the sense of the State ;
the other is the absence of any concrete monuments of the
civilization of the world prior to 1606 and of all such
customs, habits, and traditions as were left behind in the
Old World and all such as pilgrim and immigrant have
preferred to forget. There is reason to believe, as I have
already said, that a nation which during its first century
and a half of existence is comparatively free from these two
pressures, will never desire to submit to the State or to
revere it, or to be brought under that mighty Past from
which it in great part escaped. It seems quite reasonable
to conjecture that however rapidly the State develops in
power and enters into the details of the lives of individuals,
36 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
the individuals will never forget that they themselves
devised the laws and enforced them ; and that they them-
selves, as a nation, that is, as a Society, were the original
protoplasm, as it were, which differentiated itself into a
State, and that they can at any time, being still alive and
creative, slough off aU laws and traditions that have become
dead, and can afresh shape other laws to meet the present
and the future need. And as America sees an ever deepen-
ing past of her own stretching behind her, that past, being
her own, will be increasingly a power on the side of those
ideas which first dictated and then adapted her political
structure.
With no pretence of a systematic or exhaustive presen-
tation of the positive influences that play upon the
minds of all American citizens alike, let me mention three
more which have a direct relation to the fimdamental
purpose of this book.
4. Where the Poor do not look up to the Rich
The first is the imiversal attitude of the American poor
to the rich. While in all other great historic nations, and
in America as well, the rich look down upon the poor,
America is the only great nation where the poor do not
inwardly, that is, with real respect and reverence, look up
to the rich or to the ruling classes in general. An English
gentleman visiting in the United States misses a certain
deference to which he has always been accustomed. He
sometimes receives the very opposite ; but in the end, if
he pierces to the motive forces of social democracy and if
he respects democracy and beheves in it, he will interpret
what at first seems to him contempt for persons of a higher
social station as being in reaHty the American working-
man's enormously greater respect for himself. It is not
that he respects the rich and powerful less than the British
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 37
workman, but that he respects himself infinitely more.
The social atmosphere of America engenders in him a
fearlessness towards anybody and everybody. He be-
comes superbly oblivious to any conventional barriers
with which the rich of America attempt to secure them-
selves against easy approach. He may notice difference
of dress and bearing and of speech ; but these by no means
impress or overpower him. Nothing can be more astonish-
ing to a European of high social position as he moves among
the rank and file of the American public than to find the
perfect readiness with which persons will speak to him on
a basis of social equality while belonging to a class who
in Europe would not dream of making any social approach.
I may be allowed to cite as typical of hundreds of experi-
ences that are likely to befall any visitor to the United
States one of my own. I have selected it as illustrative
of a general temper among the wage-earners of America,
and as an exhilarating expression of the general absence
of social deference. This experience was provided me by
the conductor of an electric street-car in a city of the Middle
West. It was a summer evening and the open car was
crowded. As the car was brilliantly lighted, I was for
an instant too dazzled to detect whether there still remained
one vacant seat or not ; accordingly, as the conductor stood
near on the outer rail where I mounted the car, I asked
him in a tone no louder than necessary, "Is there an empty
seat?" "An empty seat?" exclaimed he in a voice that
attracted the attention of every one in the car, "Can't
you see for yourself? Haven't you got any eyes?"
Whereupon all my fellow-passengers riveted theirs upon me.
As I took my seat, I fixed my gaze upon the conductor,
when he again broke out with, "That's right, stare at me !
My name's McCarthy and my number is 243." Again
my fellow-passengers focussed their vision upon me. Some
twenty minutes later every one else had got out, but I
38 THE SOITL OF AMERICA
remained, as I was going to my brother's house beyond the
terminus of the electric line. I was looking off into the
dark and wishing myself back in effete England, when
suddenly I felt two hands, like those of a suppliant, placed
upon my knees ; and there stood the conductor, who in
subdued and gentle voice began : "See here ! I understand
you are Colonel Coit's brother. I hope you won't peach
on me ; for if you do, I shall get the sack." "I shall not
say anything," I replied, "but it is a pity if a foreigner — "
"There now!" he interrupted, "do you know, I thought
you must be a foreigner ! No American would ever have
asked such a damn-fool question as you did !" In America
wage-earners not only coimt themselves as good as any-
body else, but wiU allow no one, I have learned, to intrench
upon their time a moment beyond what is nominated
in the bond. American working-men regard themselves
simply as men, as fellow-citizens, and not as members of
> the economic class to which for the moment they belong.
Not a day can be passed by a visitor from Europe without
being reminded of the universal fact throughout America
that there is no horizontal stratification of society and that
no one seemingly at the bottom feels any superincumbent
weight of the classes above him pressing out of him not
only the ability, but even the desire to rise. If the traveller
from Europe chances to put up at the best hotels, for
instance, in the Yellowstone Park, he may observe, as I
did, among the guests at the evening dance given for them in
the dining room, the women who during the day have
been serving at the tables. Bewildered by this circumstance,
he may apply to the hotel clerk to inquire whether this
be a servants' or a guests' dance ; and he will be informed
that it is both ! He will be assured that if the waitresses
were not admitted to the dance, they would immediately
strike. Upon his return to the East, if he cites such expe-
riences as typical of American Hfe, his friends will explain
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 39
that the waitresses in the Yellowstone Park were not
ordinary "hired help," but were probably school-teachers
taking their summer holidays. Yet to him, this explanation
only reveals the more palpably the astonishing absence of
any horizontal classification of social grades in America.
I have said that the American working-man never looks up
to the rich and to the ruling classes and he feels no barrier
in approaching nor any shyness in seeking access. This
is the more remarkable, considering the enormous respect
paid to riches; and it is only exphcable on the ground
that the respect for the riches is impersonal. It is the
money the American reveres, and not the man who owns it.
It would seem that even the richest men in America are
not so vain as to imagine that it is they and not their riches
which are sought after. In his " Inspired Millionaires," Mr.
Gerald Stanley Lee with exquisite humour depicted the
American plutocrat who is only rich and nothing more.
He represents such a milHonaire as forced in mere self-
pity to become something else besides rich ; for he cannot
induce any one, least of all the poor, even though he come
with open cheque-book in hand, to have him for a friend
and companion. The pubHc hold aloof because they look
down upon him, not because they look up.
Now there is no other nation on the earth where the poor
do not with genuine reverence and sincere respect look up
to the rich. In Germany the Social Democratic Party has
been trying for forty years to prevent the poor from doing
this, but has not succeeded except through terrorization.
In England, in spite of the organization of the aristocracy
of labour into proud trade-unions, the average working-man
still has social contempt for members of his own order.
He has a sincere deference for the members of the so-called
"gentleman class," and prefers to have gentlemen represent
him in the House of Commons. The contempt of the
working-man in America for the rich merely as the rich is
40 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
the greatest dynamic factor in the evolution towards social
justice that the world possesses to-day ; while the reason
that hberty and equaHty halt so long in their advance over
Europe is because the wage-earners respect their "superiors "
and beheve in them more than they respect and beHeve
in themselves.
5. Intuition versus Instinct and Intellect
The second unique element that is diffused throughout
the entire moral atmosphere of America and gives to it
a tonic effect is the universal faith in the power of the
experienced mother-wit of every average individual to
cope with unforeseen difficulties, and in the corresponding
power of the combined mother-wit of the nation to enhst
, ultimately all the resources of the universe into the service
' of humanity. Perhaps I cannot better bring out the exact
character of this pervasive feature than by caUing the at-
tention of my reader to the distinction, as M. Bergson
makes it, between iatuition on the one hand, and on the
other instinct and intelKgence.
Adopting the Bergsonian distinction, we may say that
England is proverbial the world over for her rehance upon
instinct. This accounts for her fumbling and her faith in
fumbling. She trusts to accident and happy chance and
to improvised hand-to-mouth judgments. Britishers be-
lieve in the subconscious trend in themselves ; their in-
> teUigence is tied down to the immediate present, and they
trust to its spontaneous reaction against the unanticipated
circumstances which confront them. In this way they
have moved for ages through crises and have moved out
of long epochs exactly as the birds in the north of Scotland
pass in the autumn southward over Europe to Egypt ; and
the result has thus far justified them in trusting to their
almost automatic reaction in coping with adverse environ-
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 41
ments which have no precedent. On the other hand, the
British have no historic experience to justify them in trust-
ing either to their logical intelligence or their intuition.
Mr. Gladstone has given classic recognition to this in-
stinctive character of the British genius in a passage in
which he contrasts the Constitution of England with that
of America. "The two Constitutions," he says, "of the two
countries express rather the differences than resemblances
of the two nations. The one is a thing grown, the other is
a thing made ; the one, the offspring of tendency and in-
determinate time, the other of choice and of an epoch.
But, as the British Constitution is the most subtle organism
which has proceeded from the womb and the long gesta-
tion of progressive history, so the American Constitution
is, as far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck
off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. It
has had a century of trial under the pressure of exigencies
caused by an expansion unexampled in point of rapidity
and range ; and its exemption from formal change, though
not entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the con-
structors and the stubborn strength of the fabric."
America has not been an outgrowth of instinct ; but
neither does it illustrate the action of logical or abstract
intellect. For a nation typical of the logical understanding,
in the Bergsonian sense, we must look to Germany. Here
we see a nation which is at the same time the least instinc-
tive and also the least intuitive nation on earth. Germans
beUeve universally in abstract reasoning and even in de-
ductive inference when once they have carefully built
up their generahzatiqns. Modern Germany has been made
according to a highly elaborated design, just as a building
is put up. according to the architect's plans. As compared
with EngHshmen and Americans, Germans never trust
either instinct or intuition. They will not even trust a
man whom they have seen and with whom they have talked
42 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
by the impression he makes directly upon them, but require
paper credentials and the testimonials of teachers and
employers, and these evidences they wiU accept even
against their own immediate impression. The Germans
have become so impregnated with the habit of exact and
quantitative knowledge such as science demands, that they
find it difficult to act in any direction untU they have
attained a definition and an algebraical formula. They
seem, therefore, both to the EngKshman and the American,
to be victims of a pedantry that bids fair to paralyze what-
ever mother-wit they may have been endowed with at birth.
Even the Social Democratic Party, although consisting
chiefly of ujitutored working-men, illustrates this national
characteristic. The Social Democratic Party was derived
directly from the university discipline and studies of two
middle-class thinkers, and aU along it has been led by
doctors of philosophy from the imiversities. It is the most
rationalistic, metaphysical, seK-conscious, and theoretical
organization in the world, and is the least instinctive and
the least intmtive. It is absolutely encoffined in the meta-
physical dogma of Karl Marx. Such Socialism can see
no facts that run counter to Marx's fiction ; and, unless new
Ufe be brought to it from some genius who, Uke Edward
Bernstein, has been in touch with the instinctive method
of England, the Social Democratic Party is doomed to
practical ineffectuahty. Its Utopia is an abstract con-
struction of logical intellect, which wiU be shattered the
moment its leaders come into power and try to meet the
demands of concrete Ufa. Schopenhauer protested against
this kind of death-engendering intellectualism of Germany,
and so did Nietzsche. Bernstein, even within the Con-
gresses of the Social Democratic Party, has now for more
than a decade cried protest in the name of instinct and
intuition.
But Bergson counts both the method of instinct and the
Xitb; CXTLTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 43
method of the logical intellect as inferior to intuition. In-
tuition, as he defines it, has all the self-consciousness of
understanding and yet that closeness of spontaneous re-
action to the instant circumstance which characterizes "^
instinct in the lower animals. Now America as a nation
is equally distrustful of the cul de sac of instinct and the
designed canals of the logical understanding ; and, instead,
she chooses the lightning path of intuition. This has been
characteristic of America from the first. Even the Con-
stitution which Gladstone so admired was struck off by
tact, by concrete thinking, by supreme self-reliance.
Americans seem to beUeve in education, but their real
trust is in each man's immediate insight and in his ability 1^-
to anticipate the demands of the concrete situation that
confronts him. Americans seem to believe in science ; but
they never allow her to become the mistress ; she is only
the handmaid of their mother-wit. Intuition is where
instinct and scientific intelUgence fuse into a new point
of iUumination. This new illuminating force would be
impossible if both the trained intellect and the bhnd in-
stinct were not there and did not come together. As
illustrative, I would cite the peculiar blend of theory
and of practical appHcation in the methods of Edison
and Burbank. They are both instances of the intuitive
character of the American mind. It was equally manifested
in the financial methods of Americans like Harriman and
Pierpont Morgan. These men comprehended the markets
of the world with an eagle's sweep of vision, but with equal
agility darted to the strategic point of central control.
UnUke Germans, Americans suspect all custom and tradi-
tion and all authority in every walk of life ; and yet even
in business their utilitarianism is idealistic. They know
that yesterday's knowledge is already obsolete this morn- •-
ing. On the other hand, they have no mystic faith, like
that of the Enghsh, in the somnambulism of instinct.
44 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Another instance of the intmtive character of the Ameri-
can mind is that very American movement in cormnercial
enterprise called "Scientific Management." This method
of avoiding aU possible waste in manufacture and in busi-
ness, when closely examined, is fotmd to consist primarily
in concentrated observation of the actual practices already
in vogue, in an alert challenge and beating back of routine
habits and devices that may have outlived their efficiency,
and in a casting out of every element in accepted methods
that cannot justify itself by its utility in the present cir-
cimistance. It is gratifying to observe in America that this
same method of scientific management is already beginning
to be taken over from the sphere of material wealth to that
of the nation's mental and moral resources, with an eye to
doubling the output of the nation's spiritual insight and ef-
ficiency. America beUeves in an intuitive mastery of facts
in the interests of utilitarian ideahsm, and will discard in
rehgion as well as in industry both the blindness of instinct
and the mechanism of intellect. Facing the immediate facts,
she will allow the di\'ining will of the people to advance
without chart or compass. 'M. Bergson points out that
the method of the creative artist is never that of logic
or of instinct, but is always that of intuition. In the United
States business men, the leaders of pohtical parties, and the
champions of reUgion are beginning consciously to realize
that their method must be that of constructive and creative
imagination — the method of poets. And now that her
preachers and teachers, philosophers and statesmen have
caught this psychic secret of the makers of her original
Constitution, and of the triumphant materiaUsm that has
mastered her economic opportunity, it is easy to beUeve
that the himian day in her creative evolution has come.
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 45
6. Where the Educated, Leisured, and Revered Class consists
of Women
The transition from the foregoing characteristic of the
American nation to the third and last which I wish to
point out here, is a natural one. One-half of mankind are
proverbially intuitive. The social position of women in
America and the moral attitude of men towards them are,
in my judgment, unprecedented in the world's history, and
are fraught with deepest significance for the future of the
nation, especially for the future of its Soul and of the part
which organized religion will play in the developing of its
spiritual resources.
Probably next to the women of the United States those
of England are the best educated in the world; yet to
anyone well acquainted with the educational aspects of
the two countries it must seem that for one woman with
a college education in England, there are a thousand in
America. Now, to be subjected for four consecutive years
to systematic instruction and study produces an enormous
effect upon the power of voluntary control over the in-
tellect and upon the systematization of one's acquired
knowledge. Throughout America one is continually meet-
ing women who immediately pigeonhole and tabulate in
their college-learned scheme of things any chance remark
that one may make ; so that one becomes aware that one
is being placed in the classified universe in which one's
interlocutor Uves. A person with a four years' college
education has an enormous advantage over those who
have not enjoyed any such opportunity. But the more
remarkable circumstance about the intellectual position
of women in America is that there is no corresponding
class of men. I do not know the exact figures as to the
relative number of men and women who receive a coUege
education; but it is no uncommon thing to meet with
46 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
families who send their sons into business, while they send
their daughters to college. The real educational superi-
ority, however, of the women of America is due to the fact
that, after they leave their academic halls, they continue
through the rest of their Hves their acquaintance with philo-
sophy, history, literature, art, and science, while the men
from the same families do not. These go into business and
work from morning till night so exhaustively that they
have neither time nor mental energy left for the continued
pursuit of purely intellectual interests. As more than one
friend of mine has said to me, "I have read nothing since
I left college ; ever since I have been married, I have
handed over the 'culture' to my wife." For the first time
in the history of the world, so far as I know, one is con-
fronted in America with the fact that the men are inferior
to the women of their own social set as regards philosophic
outlook, historic insight, universal information, and the
quahties of mind due to a disinterested pursuit of the ideals
of truth, beauty, and character. No visitor from abroad,
acquainted with the facts I am presenting, can fail to realize
that they disclose something distinctively and universally
American. By a typical incident the intellectual Hfe of
the well-to-do women of America was brought home to me
recently in New York City. Having learned that my friend
Professor Zuebhn was to deliver a discourse at eleven
o'clock, Tuesday morning, on "The Conservation of the
Natural Resources of America," I made my way to the
theatre where the lecture was to be given. Having paid
a fashionable price for a ticket, I found myself in a large
auditorium, one of some eight hundred human beings.
But, with the exception of Zueblin and myself, there were
only women present. After the admirably constructed
and informing discourse had been finished, I approached
the lecturer with the remark : "But how preposterous that
you should be talking on the Conservation of the Natural
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 47
Resources of America to nearly a thousand persons, no
one of whom has any political ofi&ce or any directive power
in the organized industries of the nation, and not one of
whom can vote. Why waste your time? Why not,
instead, lecture to men?" "Ah, but you forget," was the
reply, "that the well-to-do men of America are too busy;
only the women have the leisure or the mental energy to
attend lectures. But it is not so futile to speak to them ;
for they go home and tell their husbands ; and their hus-
bands do what they tell them !" This kind of thing exists
throughout the length and breadth of America. The
women are everywhere organized into clubs, where they
hear the great questions of modern thought presented,
while the men, so I am informed, have no time for such
pursuits. Perhaps the only exception, as regards the men,
is that of the ever increasing groups, in all the larger cities,
of those who have founded clubs devoted to civic reforms
and where the members, limching together, spend upwards
of an hour a week in the consideration of problems of im-
portance. On the whole, however, the men are absorbed
in earning a Uvelihood or acquiring a fortune ; while their
wives, sisters, and daughters are equally strenuous in pur-
suing those ends for which one earns a Hving.
The women of America, so far as I am aware, are the only
class of human beings in the world who have equipped them-
selves intellectually with no scope for action. For, while
America has provided and lavished upon them opportuni-
ties of intellectual discipline and acquisition, it has fur-
nished no more outlet for the will of women than any other
country has provided. To one who is accustomed to the
new psychological interpretation of the Intellect as a mere
instrument of the human will in the execution of its designs,
it seems a moral enormity that the women of America, who
have no more scope for voluntary self-reaUzation in poUtics,
law, medicine, reUgion, business, or handicraft than the
48 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
women of the Old World, yet constitute the intellectual
aristocracy of their nation. The men of the country so
wiU it. This, on their part, is either a national madness,
or else they have been, imconsciously, prophetically, and
without knowing it, preparing their womankind for some
great and significant responsibility which they had not
designed and have not even foreseen. It is often true that
unique national trends make for several generations to-
wards no foreseen goal, and yet they arrive at a point of
destination which, when discerned, is immediately recognized
as a full justification for what seemed a meaningless drift-
ing. If, now, the vote should be granted to all women
in America, they will be the best-prepared class in
the world, as regards their knowledge of the ultimate
ends and ideals of human existence. At the same
time, the new responsibility will open up avenues of
volitional self-reaUzation, which will justify their mental
equipment and wiU save them from the pathological effects
of being without scope for the will. But, I repeat, in-
tellectually the equipment of women in America is unique.
The women of America, also, have more freedom from en-
grossing cares and responsibiUties than have the women of
any of the older nations of the world. It would seem here,
again, that the menfolk of a nation who are ready to slave
that the women of their famihes need not work, must be,
in some mystic way, the instruments of a cosmic or col-
lective trend of humanity. It is unprecedented in history
that men should not care to share in the freedom which
they secure for their wives and daughters. When Ameri-
can women get the vote, the significance of the revolu-
tion will consist in the fact that, relatively to the present
voters, they are persons of education and leisure.
But there is one other national peculiarity of the attitude
of American men towards the mental and moral qualities
of the women of their class. In one of my many voyages
THE CULTURAL UNITY OF AMERICA 49
to America from England I overheard a German, an
EngKshman, and an American discussing the relative
character and ability of women. The German gave true
utterance to the tradition of his nation in maintaining that
women were by nature inferior and should hold a corre-
spondingly subordinate social position. The Englishman
maintained tliat men and women were equal, however
different, and should be comrades on the same level.
He pleaded that for a man to place all women on a pedestal
was degrading to himself and that for women to be en-
couraged to tliink themselves superior would tend to
destroy their most beautiful characteristics. But the
American insisted that there was something peculiarly
holy and divine in the nature of womanhood and that men
ought to know it; women were to be worshipped.
Whether such an attitude be one of folly or not, it is un-
deniable that in America the spiritual relation of the sexes
is different from what it is anywhere else in the world.
And as regards the conservation and development of the
spiritual resources of the nation, this difference gives a
tremendous significance to the approaching poUtical
emancipation of women and the opening of the intellectual
professions to them. In a nation where the menfolk, for
three generations have had no leisure and no surplus brain
energy to devote to politics or to rehgion, a class of human
beings better educated than the present voters, more
leisured and highly revered by the community at large,
is suddenly to receive equal powers of initiative. I
prophesy, therefore, that in America the granting of the
vote to women will advance the spiritual Ufe of the nation
far more than it will in England. In the interests of
democracy and of humanistic religion I rejoice that the
half of the population which has the better intellectual
equipment and the more leisure and is the more respected
and trusted is about to enter into full civic opportunity.
CHAPTER IV
THE JEWS IN AMERICA
I. Jewish Enthusiasm for America
One of the most interesting narratives in Mr. Wells' book
on "The Future in America" is his account of how one
of the women leaders of a college settlement in New York
City led him to the building of the Educational Alliance,
a Jewish Institution in East Broadway, to show him how
the Uttle immigrant children were being transformed into
enthusiastic patriots of their new home. There he wit-
nessed the ceremony, performed by recently arrived
Jewish children, of the Salutation of the American Flag.
Each child, it seems, held two small specimens of this
symbol of the soul of the new coimtry to which they had
come; and in the midst of the ceremony the children
repeated aloud in unison these words : "Flag of our great
Republic, inspirer in battle, guardian of our houses, whose
stars and stripes stand for bravery, purity, truth, and union,
we salute thee ! We, the natives of distant lands, who rest
under thy folds, do pledge our hearts, our lives, and our
sacred honour, to love and protect thee, our coimtry, and
the Uberty of the American people forever." After quoting
these words Mr. Wells gives the following comment :
"The Educational AUiance is, of course, not a public in-
stitution; it was organized by Hebrews, and conducted
for Hebrews, chiefly for the benefit of the Hebrew immi-
grants. It is practically the only organized attempt to
Americanize the immigrant child."
I am here reminded that a Jewish Rabbi in New York
City, after listening to my theory that reUgion in America
so
THE JEWS m AMERICA 5 1
should be essentially the higher patriotism of the country,
remarked: "We Jews in the United States have been
charged with going too far in that direction already."
In that same direction some Jews in Boston also seem
to have moved. I recall that a few years ago a Jewish
Rabbi there gave up his synagogue and established an or-
ganization which in its printed circular declared in so many
words that the essence of its reUgion was American ideaUsm.
Its formula ran thus : —
Religion should answer the insistent questionings of the hu-
man mind, should relate itself to the universe and human
beings to one another. An American religion must meet the
needs of our peculiar civilization, and must grip and govern the
facts of life for us here and now. A nation is in danger whose
doings and aims are not given meaning through ideal purposes.
We believe that real religion is practical idealism, not apart
from, but a part of, the everyday life and the actual interests
of the people; we believe that our homes must harbour
mutually respecting equals, that education must help to call
forth and harmonize all the powers of the individual, that science
and art must prove their use to man, that law must serve the
ends of absolute justice, that politics must express the will of
the people, that the Press must be the honest agent of publicity,
that business must be made moral and human ; in short, that
every social interest and undertaking must further the demo-
cratic purpose of America, — to make strong, creative men and
women, and to give them larger and fuller life.
Our aim is to dignify the life of America, so that every in-
dividual may know and work for its spiritual greatness and
splendour, — through the dedication of each to all, the devotion
of all to each, and our common consecration to all the nobler
ends of life.
Recently Rabbi Hirsch of Chicago has been urging whole-
hearted devotion to the United States, so that the patriotism
of all immigrants should be unqualified, and that they
should call themselves simply Americans and never Italian
52 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
or Swedish or Jewish Americans. I have heard other Jews
in America express a similar sentiment in saying that to
them "America is Zion" ; nor can there be any doubt that
the national ideality oiE the Jews is deeply stirred when
they reflect that, at last, there is one city in the world,
now after nineteen hundred years, that has a greater
Jewish population than even Jerusalem had in the period
immediately before its destruction, and that this modern city
is one no less significant, in commerce, finance, and educa-
tion, than New York. The educated Jews the world over
also have not been slow to recognize that in very many
particulars the American RepubHc more resembles their
own theocratic nation of old than does any other State in
the world. Their ancient theocracy in many of its laws
was even more democratic than America has yet become ;
but the newer trend of American legislation concerning
land and capital moves towards the ideal embodied in the
ancient Jewish code. But in order fully to understand the
tendency of the Jews in the United States to deify the
national spirit, we must bear in mind that the Jews are the
only people of the Western world who since the ascendency
of Christianity have identified religion with the higher
patriotism. It would seem the most natural thing in the
world, therefore, that the Jews in the United States should
/ be in the vanguard of those who recognize the divinity and
the redemptive grace of the Soul of America.
It is not enough, however, to remember the Jewish
identification of patriotism and rehgion if we are fuUy to
explain the incident which Mr. Wells narrates; we must
also remember the workings of human nature when a man
transfers his allegiance, spiritual and political, from one
country or one ideal nationality to another. It is the
greatest error in social psychology to believe that a man,
in becoming the citizen or subject of a new State and nation,
empties his soul, or ought to empty his soul, of the love and
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 53
gratitude and the stored-up traditions of the land of his
birth or of his ancestry. It is one of the preposterous
pedantries of the mechanical and atomistic psychology of a
century ago to imagine that the highest honour and loyalty
toward one's new psychic environment is to forget and deny
the old. But the natural and the right thing is for an
immigrant to America to preserve all that is finest and
best in the tradition which he has inherited and pour these
treasures of historic humanity into the new nation's com-
mon fxmd of mental wealth. Thin and mean, indeed,
would have been the Ufe of the United States of America
if the Pilgrims and Puritans, and the Cavaliers who went
to Virginia had not brought with them and contributed to
colonial life all that they thought good in the old hfe of
England. It would have been as great a loss to them
and the nation they were creating to have left behind the
human values which they had inherited as it would have
been to forget the Enghsh language and, like primitive
savages, to begin with rudimentary babblings and attempt
out of these to construct a new speech. Nobody will deny
the truth of what I am saying as regards the original
settlers ; and happily some will agree with me, that all the
immigrants who have come to the United States since 1828
have also been Pilgrims, and that they should have been
taught that their chief contribution to the vital wealth of
America must be the highest tradition which they received
from ancient Palestine or directly from the social Hfe of
modem Bulgaria, Lithuania, Greece and Armenia, Poland,
Italy and Spain, Norway, Sweden and Ireland. We
should know, if we were not historically and poetically
blind, that all the immigrants come into America traihng
clouds of glory from whatever nations were their homes,
and contributing a softness of beauty, a pathos and tender-
ness, a dignity and depth to this still early dawn of Ameri-
can democracy.
54 THE SOUL OF .AMERICA
2. Subsidiary Patriotisms
Mi. Arthur Balfour, in speaking of the Scotch in Eng-
land, calls attention to the fact that there is such a thing as
patriotism and subsidiary patriotism. I want to urge that
patriotism is the richer for aU the subsidiary patriotisms
it can contain. I want further to urge, as concerns the
Jew, that the alternative before him in the United States
is not whether he shaU be a Jew or an American in rehgion.
The alternative is not whether he shall regard America as
existing in order to advance the Jews throughout the
world, or the Jews in America as called upon to use their
religious tradition in the service of the United States, bring-
ing it as a thank-ofEering to the altar of the God of America.
The Jews living in America see, as I have said, an astonish-
ing hkeness between that Moral Genius of their own race
which they have worshipped and the Moral Genius that is
revealing itself in American institutions and history. They
feel that they are in America now not from any adverse
necessity, but by supreme good fortune; they would not
go back to Palestine, even if the powers of the world con-
ceded to the people of this race an independent political
state there. A Jew, in adopting such an attitude of mind,
becomes a better Jew and a better ^\merican than he would
be if he felt any incompatibiHty between Judaism and
Americanism.
As a native-bom American, with thirteen generations of
New England Puritan ancestry behind me, and as one
who has transferred his poKtical and spiritual allegiance to
England, I wish to give my own testimony that the longer
I have lived abroad and the more I have become EngHsh
in my tastes and judgments, the more deeply and con-
sciously American have I become at the same time. My
very loyalty of sworn allegiance to Great Britain assumes
the form of contributing something to Britain's life and
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 55
thought which I feel she needs, but which only those of her
subjects can contribute who have inherited the American
tradition.
I therefore can understand that Americans of Hebrew
descent and tradition are faced by no such unquaUfied
alternative as that between Jew and American ; but there is
confronting them only the choice indicated by the young
Jewish philosopher, whom Mr. Zimmern quotes in a passage
I have already cited, — the choice between an American Jew
and a Jewish American. Surely, however, the choice, if it
be rational and disinterested, must be to become a Jewish
American. The assertion that a Jewish American is a
mere amateur Gentile, doomed to be a parasite forever, is
simply malicious libel and grossly untrue. In the venom
secreted with the words and poured out upon the
Hebrew American I seem to detect the disappointment
of some antisemitic Jew whose personal effort to enter into
GentUe society had failed. I am not unacquainted with a
number of the leading Jews of America and, irrespective of
whatever label they may give themselves, or others may
attach to them, I make bold to affirm that they are aU
Americans and not a single one is an American Jew. Neither
is a single one of them in any degree whatever an amateur
Gentile or a parasite even for an instant. It is a cruel
prejudice, fostered by some sinister and malignant motive
of a selfish nature, which would stigmatize the Jewish
American as a counterfeit. The man whom Mr. Zimmern
quotes may have been a philosopher; but many a man's
philosophy is an exudation of his own pettiness.
For years I have studied the character of the Jews
in America, and all whom I have met were thoroughly
Americans, and not simply those who had discarded their
rehgious allegiance to Judaism. Those who still remain
most loyal to the sufferers of their own race and in out-
ward conformity to synagogue or temple are in culture and
56 THE SOUL OF AAIERICA
spirit Americans first and Jews only by virtue of subsidiary
patriotism. My valuation of the Jews is the very opposite
to that presented in Mr. Houston Chamberlain's chapter on
"The Entrance of the Jews into Western Civilization," in
his popular book called, "The Foundations of the Nine-
teenth Century." There is no psychological impossibility
in a man's becoming the better American, the more he
remains a Jew ; just as the more a man is loyal and devoted
to his own family, the more he may love and serve the city in
which he and they hve. An American of Hebrew descent
can, in this way, be true to the people of his own race the
world over, and in proportion as he lifts them out of pov-
erty and oppression he knows he is illustrating in his life
the organic laws of American citizenship.
3. Two Voices in the Old Testament
Men like Mr. Houston Chamberlain, who have become
obsessed by anrisemitic hatred, can present a plausible his-
torical argument for their interpretation of the Jews ; but
the argument is only specious, not genuine. If one goes
back to the Old Testament, one finds two distinct voices :
the one, that of race-egoism and self-conceit ; and the
other, that of race-humility and reverence for the moral
genius of other nations as well as for that of Israel. In
short, the Hebrew scriptures reveal both a vxilgar jingoism
and what I have in these pages often spoken of as "the
higher patriotism, " — that which is identical with a sense of
national responsibility towards its own members and the
world at large. It is in the Hebrew scriptures exactly as it
is in Enghsh Hterature. There are the same two voices in
English poetry and prose — the voice of the national egoist
and the voice, as that of Edmimd Burke, of the national
ideaHst. If one judges the Enghsh by their vulgar jingoists,
England is as race-proud and domineering in temper and
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 57
purpose as was ever Israel. But no one who has studied
England in the great historic manifestations of her moral
genius will deny that the voice of the idealist is the real
voiqe of England ; and the other is that of pretenders and
cHmbers. Now, when I turn to the Jews of to-day in Ger-
many, England, or America and ask them which voice in
the Old Testament is the true voice of the Hebrew people,
they all, without exception, declare that no Jew of to-day
thinks for a moment that the Jewish people have ever been
the only chosen people of God. None of them, I find,
believes that the Jews ever had any spiritual monopoly of
moral insight and creative energy. One Jewish EngHsh-
man has expressed the sentiment prevalent among Jews
to-day in these words : "In the later Rabbinic days it has
never been contended that Jews alone make for spiritual
regeneration. May I remind you of the Rabbinic saying :
'The good of aU creeds have an equal share in the world
to come'? Could there be a more exquisite recognition
that there are people of other faiths who act for the benefit
of mankind?"
The two voices in the Old Testament are not equally
frequent nor equally loud ; that of the baser jingoism is
far more insistent and frequent. The same thing is true
in English literature. The other voice in Hebrew writings
is a very stiU small voice and it speaks in clear tones and
with unequivocal articulation perhaps only once. Hun-
dreds of passages might be cited to prove that the Jews
claimed a monopoly of the spiritual resources of humanity.
I shall not quote them ; for I hate them as I hate the similar
voices in England or in Germany, but the still small
voice which is of infinite prophetic significance when it
speaks with perfect distinctness is that which is heard
in the 19th chapter of Isaiah, verses 24 and 25: "In
that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria,
even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the
58 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying: Blessed be Egypt
my people, and Ass}-ria the work of my hands, and Israel
my inheritance." This the Jews of to-day, the world over,
recognize as the essential spirit of Prophetic Judaism
towards the rest of the world. It shoiild be noted that
here there is no cosmopoHtanism of the kind that overlooks
or obHterates national distinctions. Here is true and vital
intemationahsm, the recognition of all nations as coequal,
coordinate, but separate spiritual entities. The Lord, here,
is the Lord of Nations, not simply of indi\'iduals. Israel
is stiU a Holy Nation ; but only the third with Egj-pt and
Syria. The Socializing Spirit of humanity has formed
Israel; but the prophet here knows that to that Spirit
Egypt its people is equally blessed, and equally blessed is
Assyria the work of its hands.
I have said that Mr. Houston Chamberlain can present
a plausible defence of his charge of spiritual arrogance
against the Jews. But his argument is only specious ; for,
after all, the one and final question is : WTiat is the senti-
ment of representative Jews throughout the world to-day ?
So far as I have been able to receive answers, and I have
not been without adequate opportunity, I am certain that
no educated Jew to-daj' denies that Israel is only one with
England, America, China, Japan, and some fifty other
nations ; and that the same Holy Spirit which calls Israel
its inheritance blesses America also as its people and China
as the work of its hand. If I am wrong in saying that
every educated Jew in America is a Jewish American, I
am sure that before long after the pubhcation of this book
my error will be brought to my notice by American
Jews. But any Jew denying that Egypt "my people"
and Assyria "the work of my hands" are equally
blessed along with Israel, would prove an enemy of his own
race and his own religion. He would play into the hands
of the antisemites Uke Sombart and Chamberlain. He
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 59
would confirm their judgment that the Jew is spiritually
race-proud, a reUgious egoist, or a would-be monopolist of
ethical insight and redemptive energy.
4. Jews must declare their Attitude
Some two years ago, after reading Mr. Chamberlain's
indictment of the Jews, I preached at the Ethical Church
in London on the question: "Is the Jew a Menace to
Western Civilization?" I said that the answer wholly
depended on whether the Jews living to-day do really claim
a spiritual monopoly of moral insight and energy, or not.
// they claim such a monopoly, they are a menace to the
religious originality and autonomy of every nation in which
they sojourn. But if they recognize that Egypt and Assyria
are equally with themselves manifestations of God, then
they are not a menace to Western civilization. I took the
position, however, that it was for the Jews themselves to
say which of the voices in the Old Testament they followed,
and that it was not for me to declare. And I suggested
that, in the face of the strong antisemitism which boldly
expresses itself in Germany and which mutters under its
breath in some circles of America, the Jews of our day
should loudly and unequivocajUy demonstrate to the Gentile
communities about them what their inward attitude is
towards the spiritual equality of other nations.
I regret that there has been no adequate attempt on the
part of the Jews to make their present attitude on this
question felt throughout the world at large. But at least
for my own satisfaction, as a result of my individual in-
quiry, I am convinced that no educated Jews of to-day,
anywhere, lay any claim to be the only nation begotten of
God. It is not enough, however, that here and there an
individual like myself should be clear on this question;
and if the Jews themselves, from any sensitiveness or pride,
6o THE SOUL OF AMERICA
refuse to educate the Gentile world concerning their present
attitude of mind, it would seem that then, on a matter of
such universal importance, individual Gentiles like myself
should do their best to remove the misunderstanding. It
must be remembered that the Gentile world has from the
beginning of the Christian era been inoculated with the
idea that the Jews were the only chosen people of God.
They have taken the Jews at the self-valuation of the
race as appraised by the louder but now repudiated voice
that speaks in the pages of the Old Testament. The Jews
of to-day, therefore, cannot much blame the Gentiles for
beheving that the descendants of Israel are spiritually
race-proud and still think that no other nation can compare
with them in rehgious, moral, political, and economical in-
sight; for it requires a very careful searching of the Old
Testament and a close listening for its finer voice to detect
any other utterance. I myseh should never have heard
the voice that speaks in verses 24 and 25 of the nineteenth
chapter of Isaiah except for the scholarship of Canon
Cheyne, who, in his notes on Isaiah, directed me to it.
And if I mistake not. Canon ChejTie speaks of this passage
as a very wonderful and strange utterance, which has no
parallel in more than a thousand years of Prophetic ut-
terance and of hterary editorship.
If any reader is of the opinion that in devoting a chapter of
"The Soul of America" to the Jews I am giving the ques-
tion an altogether imdue prominence, I would refer him to
]\Ir. Houston Chamberlain's reasons for devoting upwards of
two hundred pages of his " Foundations of the Nineteenth
Century " to the Jews. He coimts the Jews a menace, I
count them a blessing, to every nation of the West ; but
the facts which he gives in apology for assigning them so
conspicuous a position hold good with one who counts their
influence salutary instead of sinister. For in any case their
influence is becoming very great. The mere numbers,
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 6 1
2,000,000, I believe, in a population of 90,000,000, would
seem to indicate that the Jews in America are a negligible
quantity ; but it must be remembered that 2,000,000
people who stand by one another in friendly aid, who have
a common tragic past, who have inherited also mental
vitaKty and will power without parallel, and whose intel-
lectual genius has been speciaUzed both by artificial selec-
tion and by social tradition in the field of finance, may be
more than equal to 20,000,000 individuals unorganized in
purpose and anasmic in brain power. The Soul of
America, if her spiritual resources are to be conserved and
developed, will need the organizing genius of the Jew as
much as the haute finance of international capitalism has
required it. It must also be remembered that the con-
servation of the spiritual resources of a country will require
as much financiering and as large an investment of capital
as would the conservation of its natural resources. But
it also must not be forgotten that among the Jews there
are in this day, as there were in ancient times, two types
of genius, the financial and organizing type, and the ethical
and spiritually quickening type. In America, unless the
great misunderstanding of Judaism which has led to the
ostracism of the Jews be continued, the religious t5^e of
Jew, with his prophetic passion for economic justice and
domestic fidelity, will be called in to supplement the pre-
dominantly inward and transcendental idealism of the
Christian tradition. Ancient Judaism stood for justice;
historic Christianity has stood for love and faith ; but, in
the religious synthesis of the twentieth century in America,
these two will unite ; and a balance of the outward and in-
ward aspects of moral experience will now be attained,
such as has never before been manifested in the sentiment
and practice of any nation.
62 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
5- Mr. Zangwill not Explicit Enough
I reiterate that in the bringing about of the required
synthesis of Christianity and Judaism, the first step must
consist in the removal of the notion from the Gentile mind
that the Jew of to-day is spiritually arrogant. Unfortu-
nately, in all that I have been able to read of the writings
of the most humanistic and catholic Jews of our time, I
have found no sufficiently unequivocal repudiation of the
claim to spiritual supremacy over all the other peoples of
the world. For instance, even Mr. Zangwill, whom I
know to be not obsessed by any such illusion of race egoism,
in his brilliant and passionate paper delivered in 191 2 before
the First Universal Races Congress in London, never quite
meets this point. His language squints and might in some
passages imply that the finer Jews still believe themselves
to be the only medium and missionary of a righteous
social order and an ultimate unification of mankind. In
one place he says: "The soul of the Jewish race is best
seen in the Bible, saturated from the first page of the Old
Testament to the last page of the New with the aspiration
for a righteous social order, and an ultimate unification of
mankind, of which, in all specifically Jewish literature, the
Jewish race is to he the medium and missionary." A critic
like Mr. Houston Chamberlain would seize upon this sen-
tence and say: "There, you see the Jew as I depict him
illustrated even in a modernist like Mr. Israel Zangwill.
Does not Mr. Zangwill confess without shame, if he does
not even boast, that the Jewish race counts itself to be the
one and only medium and missionary of the ultimate uni-
fication of mankind ? He practically says the Jew thinks
his race has a monopoly of spiritual power, that is, of the
ability to unify the human race and establish the reign of
righteousness." Now, of course, I know, and every one
who is acquainted with him knows, perfectly well that in
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 63
Mr. Zangwill's judgment the Jewish people have no such
spiritual monopoly. Mr. ZangwiU sees, as clearly as I do,
that Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were as
great moral geniuses and unifiers of the human race and
builders of the ultimate righteous order as were the Isaiahs,
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, or the editors of the Book of Deuteronomy.
But if this is so, then America is equally with Israel a
medium and missionary of the unification of mankind.
Yet Israel did not produce America ; and the moral genius
of Washington and Lincoln cannot be traced to the in-
fluence of the Old Testament upon them any more than
each succeeding genius among the ancient prophets was the
product of the preceding geniuses. For the essence of
originality is that it is the direct and immediate mouth-
piece of an excellence prevaihng immediately around it
and forming, as Froude says in the passage which I quote
elsewhere, the environment in which it grows. America
may be more like the ancient Jewish theocracy, I have said,
than any nation in the interim between them ; but let
anybody read the Book of Deuteronomy and then read
the Constitution of the United States and of the several
States ; and, if his judgment be impartial, he will feel that
to trace America to Israel would be to convict oneself of
obsession by an idee fixe. Nor could such an idee fixe
obsess any one who was not the victim of racial self-
deification. Yet because such self-deification has been ex-
pressed in the Bible, and ever since by the vulgar jingoists
of Israel, exactly as it has been expressed by the vulgar
jingoists of America and of England and of Germany, it is
essential that the finer Jewish patriots should be quite un-
equivocal in rejecting the lower patriotism ; just as every
American, the moment he speaks of his country, is in duty
bound to guard himself against what could be interpreted as
national self-conceit and egoism. This duty which I am
urging upon the Jews is one which the finer patriots of every
64 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
other nationality are scrupulous in fulfilling. They should
prefer to give no expression to Semitic sentiments than to
be mistaken for the vulgar and rampant counterfeit. Mr.
Wells says that in America patriotism is now Httle else than
cheap flag-waving ; yet the opposite to this is not a shame-
faced silence, but an overt branding of it as coimterfeit.
If the modernist Jew says that it is preposterous that
he, whose pohtically independent State was annihilated
some 600 years B.C., should be required to explain what
sort of patriotism his loyalty to his ideal nationality is, I
reply that it is by no means preposterous. The deepest
insult that one nation or the survivors of one nation can
give another is the denial that it, too, is a medium and
missionary of the ultimate unification of mankind. A dis-
tinguished American Rabbi has recently said: "The most
menacing foes of Israel are not the brutes and rufl&ans who
inflict physical hurt upon her sons and daughters, but the
more subtle and insidious creatures, such as Sombart and
Chamberlain, who out of their minds evolve the creature
which they call menacing Israel." In the spirit of this
most discriminating utterance, I would say that the most
menacing foes of America would not be the brutes and
ruffians who inflict physical hurt upon her sons and daugh-
ters, but the more subtle and insidious creatures who, by
claiming to be themselves the only medium and missionary
of the ultimate social order, would thereby insult the
Soul of America by denying the divinity of its power and
of its unique spiritual task in the world.
The present-day champions of Judaism must remember,
furthermore, that while every other nation in the world
has been tainted with a strain of vulgar jingoism, no other
nation's cruder self-deification has ever taken the form of
the highest insult to other peoples — the claim to a spiritual
monopoly ; no other nation's jingoists have claimed a right
to supremacy and the sole initiative in the unification of
THE JEWS IN AMERICA 65
the human race. England pretends no such thing. Ger-
many does not dream of that form of self-worship. Indeed,
the arrogance of all other peoples has been of a far more
materiaUstic order. But a materialistic national pride is
merely that of brutes and ruffians, and does not inflict the
deepest and most fatal wound.
6. An Injury wrought by one of the Voices in the Old
Testament
I maintain that spiritual originahty has been checked at
its sources for two thousand years in all the nations of the
West, exactly as musical creativeness in the Jews, according
to Weismann, was compelled to He absolutely dormant
from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first
century to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Jews hung up their harps by the waters of all the
rivers of Christendom, because they were forbidden to sing.
During all these centuries of terrible oppression, throughout
the ghettos of Europe, they gave evidence neither of musical
appreciation nor of musical creativeness. Through all this
period, they were not even conscious themselves of the
faculty which their artificial social environment prevented
them from exercising. But, the moment the Jews were
liberated in the nineteenth century and allowed to come
into contact with the formative musical atmosphere of
European culture, they began to manifest a keener musical
appreciation than did the people of any other ancestry and
also a far greater and higher average musical productivity.
Christendom had breathed a bhght which, as it were, atro-
phied these splendid psychic gifts of the Jews for two thou-
sand years. In the same way, the idea, so often reiterated
in the Old Testament by the spurious representatives of
Judaism, that no other people but the Jews were spiritually
elect of God has paralyzed the latent power of spiritual
66 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
prophecy in the soul of every Western nation for two thou-
sand years. I have just said that Washington and Lincohi
were equal in moral genius to any of the Hebrew prophets,
but I did not overlook the fact that they were barred out
from the sphere of reUgious insight and utterance by the
two thousand years of Christian-Hebrew tradition, and thus
their genius was compelled to work on lower planes of
human interest and to minister to needs below the highest.
It should be fully conceded to the Jews that, thus far in
the history of the West, they have been preeminent in the
mission, on the religious and spiritual plane, of the righteous
social order and the ultimate unification of mankind. But
why is it that the other nations have not equalled them
in the sphere of rehgion? I answer, without hesitation,
because that spiritual arrogance of the meaner Jewish
patriots, which is now dead and universally repudiated by
educated Jews, has breathed a bUght over all the nations of
the West. These nations, having accepted the Jews
at the spiritual self-valuation of their rehgious jingoists,
have quite logically, instead of relying upon their own
spiritual initiative, looked wholly for Hght to the Jews —
to the Old and New Testament. The result is that the
whole of Christendom has been thus far, in rehgion and in
all matters spiritual, a parasite to the Jews. It is this
parasitism which now every lover of every nation of the
West must end, by extracting the initial falsehood that
caused it, the deadly microbe that has paralyzed the
highest spiritual centres of the brain of every Christian
nation. And I feel that it is the duty of educated Jews to
assist the ideaUstic patriots of all other nations in ridding
their countries of the false notion that the Jews have ever
had a monopoly of religious genius. Mere history must
not browbeat us ! The nations in religion must now
become superhistorical ; we must begin an era without
parallel or analogy in the past.
CHAPTER V
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS, AND SOME OTHERS
I. The Importation of Spiritual Wares
It would be a sin against the Holy Ghost of America
that fanatics from other countries should be allowed to
overrim her territory and introduce ideas, political, econo-
mic, domestic, or religious, that give the He to her Consti-
tution, her historic development, and the great personahties
who have lived and died to save her from disruption. That
she herself should feel no alarm at the moral prejudices,
the vices and blindnesses, the ignorance and superstitions
of the hordes she annually welcomes to her household,
would be, to say the least, a short-sighted levity. As if
the market value of the merely physical strength of her im-
migrants were to count with her, and their standards of
conduct and character were to be treated as a negligible
factor ! As regards the importation and exportation of
material commodities, free trade may at times be expe-
dient and even necessary; but when we turn to consider
spiritual wares — ideas, doctrines, disciplines, habits, moods,
and purposes — we see that the only poUcy consistent with
national autonomy must reserve the right to exclude.
What is true policy, however, for America must be
equally vaUd for every other nation in the world. China,
for instance, has a right, and it is her duty to herself, to
say what reUgious propagandists she will admit into her
territory. Often in recent history countries have been em-
broiled in misunderstandings and even in bloodshed,
through the interference of foreigners with the religious
67
68 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
beliefs and practices of the people of the East; and the
time must soon come when Western nations will not permit
their subjects to go as missionaries to foreign lands unless
they are wanted there, nor to indulge in spiritual encroach-
ments any more than in territorial aggressions.
But this question as to the moral interference of one
nation with another is more intricate and involved than
would seem on the surface. Often at the root of the inter-
nal imrest of a nation is a spiritual protest arising from
a new vision of a higher moral order ; then the conservative
ruling classes, who are enemies of internal progress towards
democracy and social justice, are prone to call in foreign
powers. These, it is true, do not send missionaries, but
soldiers ; and yet they abet the spiritual violation of great
masses of men by coercing them into submission and con-
formity. This was the case when, in the middle of the
last century, the effete Manchu dynasty in China called
in the British Government to suppress the Tai Ping Re-
bellion. Then it was that General Gordon, with his blind
mystic sense of duty, lent himself as an instrument to the
powers of darkness. The recent Revolution in China,
which to-day all the nations of the earth respect as a mani-
festation of the awakening self-consciousness of an ancient
people, should have come about sixty years ago. The
leaders of it know and have pubhcly announced why it
was not feasible then but has proved so now. They tell
us that fortunately there is no General Gordon now to check
the spiritual and poUtical self-reaUzation of the Chinese
people.
As regards material wealth, the universal poUcy im-
pUed in the dictum, "America for the Americans," may
or may not be a sound one. I would not even advocate
" America for Americans " in respect to intellectual resources.
But the inverse proposition, "Americans for America,"
involves a principle universally true and always applicable.
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 69
We must see the wisdom and justice of the aphorism,
"The Chinese for China"; for if not for their own land,
for what country would they be? We cannot say, "My
country, right or wrong" ; but we must admit that when
our country is wrong, that is just the time when the citi-
zens are most bound to set it right, not to separate them-
selves from it and leave it in the lurch. One's country
being right, one may not be needed and might be excused
from duty ; but my country being wrong calls to me.
When our private friends violate our principles and stand-
ards, we may be at liberty to drop them ; but to wash our
hands of our country's stain is to stain them.
The dictum, "Americans for America," does not deny
the larger truth that America must exist for all humanity.
It is illogical to maintain that patriotism is necessarily
national egoism ; for the moment you universaUze the prin-
ciple of patriotism, you afl&rm the equal inviolability of
all organic units of national Kfe.
But the advocate of universal patriotism, that is, of
the virtue of loyalty towards each nation by its own sub-
jects, is confronted in the sphere of spiritual interests by
cosmopoHtanism on the one side and on the other by
sectarianism. Of the latter I shall speak at length in a
future chapter. Here let me point out that cosmopolitan-
ism manifests itself in five different forms, four of wliich
are highly organized and have been directed with consum-
mate astuteness. They are : Roman Cathohcism, the lower
form of Judaism, Marxian SociaUsm, and the International
Finance-Peace movement. The fifth form of cosmopoli-
tanism is that vague but widely diffused sentiment (rather
than an integrated enterprise) which is usually spoken of as
"humanitarianism." Every one of these tendencies denies
the ethical right of a country to exist as an autonomous
unit of spiritual Ufe, and overlooks the patent fact that
each recognized nation is practically a self-contained
yO THE SOUL OF AMERICA
psychic sphere and as such deserves respect. They all
aim to obliterate and paralyze the spiritual autonomy of
nations. In the last chapter I have shown that the lower
form of Judaism is obsolescent and no longer a menace
to any nation. I therefore need not discuss it further.
2. Individualistic Humanitarianism
Let us here begin by considering that abstract philo-
sophical feeHng which is sympathetically summed up in
the saying of Thomas Paine: "The world is my country,
and to do good is my reUgion." Now, except in the vaguest
sense, it is not true that the whole world is any man's
country ; for the whole world is xmorganized, and it never
wiU be unified except by a federation of nations; and if
there are no nations to federate, there will be no universal
coimtry. It is not a fact, and cannot be, that a German
or an Italian or a Chinaman, in his own country, is just
as much to you, an American, in your own country, as your
compatriots are. Undoubtedly, you wish your feUow-
mortals of every nation well ; but they are not interde-
pendent members with you of the same economic, poHtical,
and spiritual organism. Try as you wiU, you cannot know
them and feel with them and serve them, physically or
morally, nor can they you, as would be possible if you were
all members of one economic and psychic whole, with
traditions of cooperation and with a common opportunity
and destiny. The needed multipUcity of points of contact
fails you in your relations with a human being who hves
in another historical and social environment. Very few
are the benefits, even of science and invention, that flow
spontaneously from one country to another. Science is
not automatically cosmopoUtan, as is often declared;
American scholars themselves import German science into
America; or, if it is not the scholars, it is the capitahsts
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 7 1
or the statesmen that do so. Science does not pass from
one country to another of itself, but moves in response to
a call.
It is passing strange that, while the rank and file of
sentimental humanitarians would discount nationality,
and boast that every man should train himself to act without
the mediation of his nation, as if he were a citizen of the
world, the two greatest philosophers and prophets of the
unity of the human race in the nineteenth century —
Auguste Comte and Giuseppe Mazzini — were both na-
tionalists. Both maintained that, exactly as the family
is the cultural group through which a man's country plays
upon him, so every man's country must be the mediator
for him if there is to be any communion between him and
humanity as a whole, or between him and individuals in
the outlying groups of humanity. Mazzini, who preached
the brotherhood of all men, preached first and foremost the
brotherhood of all Italians. These, until Italy could be
restored, could not perform their function in the universal
fraternity of nations. Auguste Comte, who set up
Humanity as the object of religious worship, had so pro-
found a sense of deference for every nation that he looked
beyond our period of empire-making tyranny to an age
when each aspiring nationality, however weak and poor,
would be allowed place and scope for self-development.
It might be well also in this connection to call the atten-
tion of persons who have not sojourned in foreign lands to
the fact that nothing so demoralizes character and destroys
individuahty and the capacity and achievement of service
for one's feUow-men as the cultivation of the cosmopolitan
spirit — the training of one's affections and interests so
as to be no more directed towards one's own country than
towards any other. Of all the amorphous characters in
the world, none are so disintegrated as those of the isolated
individuals who feel equally at home in any land, and who,
72 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
boasting that they belong to every nation, really belong to
none. They have not the virtues of the French, nor the
Itahans, nor the EngUsh, nor the Americans ; but they tend
to acquire the vices of all, plus an incoherency into which
the stay-at-home workers of any people never degenerate.
The ethical law here undoubtedly is that if a man detach
himself from his own land, he must forthwith begin to
attach himseh to the redemptive trends in the Hfe of some
^ other nation. Wherever he be, he dare be neither pleasure-
seeker nor spectator ; and in proportion as he sojourn long
in any country, he must permit his whole being to be in-
fluenced by those needs and aims of the new country which
command his reverence. And if any person move from
country to country, it shall be only when his object is self-
equipment and self-education, to be ultimately offered
at the altar of some one nation. When once we respect all
organic imits of spiritual Hfe, and understand the rela-
tion of individuals to these, we see that there is no neces-
sity that a man shall always serve himianity only through
the land of his birth; but wherever he be, that land
shall he serve. A man may expatriate himself, intending
from the first to devote himself to another nation either
for a time or for his whole hfe. If it be for the latter,
then even a complete transference of pohtical allegiance
would be inevitable and wholly consistent. The pohcy
in the interests of all mankind must be not retrospective
and conservative, but radical and forward-looking. A
man owes himself not necessarily to the country where
God Hi place him, but to that country "to which it
shaU please God to call" him. At all times, next in
sanctity to the god of his own land, must appear to any
man the gods of the other nations of the world.
But, of course, a metaphor which imphes a pluraHty
of gods is inadequate. The Formative Spirit in any one
nation is ultimately identical with that at the heart of
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 73
every other. It is under Humanity that the nations find
scope for their individuaUty. Indeed, the nations are
but so many forms in which Humanity fulfils herself, and
without which the manifoldness of her creative energy
could not be revealed.
The common-sense fact, however, must never escape us
that practically and normally a shifting from nation to
nation can be but a rare occurrence, and that even such
immigration as America permits, and Europe takes ad-
vantage of, will in a few generations be a thing of the past.
There is reason to think that humanitarian pity in the
United States, instead of welcoming from Russia the poor
whom the Czar casts out, will take the form of compelHng
the Czar to be humane, even in his own territory, to his
own subjects. There will be less and less difficulty in exer-
cising compulsion upon Russia, and it will be still easier
to constrain the less powerful governments of the world.
More and more, then, men will remain in the service of
the land of their birth. And this will prove only a blessing.
For the nation is naturally and rightfully the character-
building school of the individual; and, other things being
equal, a change of schools is no gain.
The sentimental humanitarian overlooks nationality
not only as the character-building school of the individual,
but also as the most conspicuous upward trend of human
history in a thousand years. He fancies that the main
current of progress has been towards the transcending of
national self-consciousness, and he therefore condemns
patriotism as a vice instead of extolling it as a virtue. He
is apparently so little skilled in concrete thinking that to
him an increase of conscious solidarity among all men as
human beings argues a proportionate decrease of the spirit
of nationaHty ; and this in spite of the fact that it is by and
through and because of the growth of national conscious-
ness and the intercommunication of nations as nations that
74 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
the very sense of universal humanity has itself developed.
I have no space here to trace the protest of nationahties
against the dominance of the Roman Empire and the
Cathohc Church. I must rely upon the historic informa-
tion of my readers ; but I would for a moment briefly caU
attention to the solidification of awakening nationahties
during the last two decades throughout the whole world,
the East as well as the West, and to the growth of general
humanitarian sentiment as an accessory to this uprush
of nationalism.
Recently Norway expressed by plebiscite her desire for
self-government, and was permitted to dissolve her poHti-
cal partnership with Sweden. Portugal is another instance
of the coming to consciousness of spiritual autonomy in
a nation, in that she, by changing her form of government,
asserted herself against the spiritual aggression both of the
Church of Rome and of the royahst parties throughout
Europe. Those who know the facts say that Portugal
would have become a repubHc a generation ago, had it not
been that foreign monarchies brought pressure to bear
against her internal self-expression.
Indeed, that movement which began with the reawak-
ened consciousness of the modern Greeks and led to the
restoration of Greece to a place among the nations reap-
peared in the enthusiasm of the makers of modem Italy,
and triumphed in Norway and Portugal ; it is now asserting
itself with magnificent poise in Finland, and is on the
verge of victory in Ireland. There is no sign anywhere
of a growing anti-nationaUstic cosmopoHtanism that can
compare with the power of the national spirit evidenced in
the recent awakening of Japan and Turkey, in the revolu-
tion in China, and the prophetic unrest of India.
But I have said enough to show that between the spirit
of true humanitarianism and of nationaUty, instead of an
antagonism, there is a vital and organic unity of purpose ;
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 75
only in this unity the nation is the primary and creative
factor, humanity the derived and dependent result. On
this account, the individual men and women of the whole
world have a stake in the spiritual self-realization not only
of their own, but of every nation on the earth.
3. "Five per Cent. Bonds of Peace"
Wars may be condemned from two points of view. From
the one, every individual human being is counted so holy
that no institution, no social group, no principle or idea is
worth shedding any one's blood for. This attitude of mind
found its most influential protagonist in Count Tolstoi.
Wars are wrong because they involve a sacrifice of human
Hves ; it is nations as poHtical units that wage war, and
therefore all governments are at enmity with men.
The leaders of the so-called International Peace Move-
ment continually defend their cause from this point of view.
In so far, they condemn patriotism as a vice, and they
would sacrifice the idealism of nations to the interests of
peace. They are champions of that form of cosmopolitan-
ism with which I have already dealt at length.
Here, therefore, I need only call attention to other mo-
tives which are dominant in the Peace Movement, and
which masquerade as humanitarian and altruistic, but
which at heart are really commercial, and emanate from
and appeal to the financial greed of individuals. These
self-interested supporters of cosmopohtanism oppose war
in the interests of trade, and they back anti-patriotic
sentiments, because national self-consciousness, if not
beaten down, might sacrifice commercial interests, in order
to maintain the existence and the integrity of national
imities. They proclaim a new and newly discovered factor
that tends powerfully to prevent war between nation and
nation. That factor is the increasing international invest-
76 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ment, during recent years, of private capital. How can
England upset the commercial interests of her own subjects
in Turkey or Russia or Germany by warring against these
countries ? So we are to find in our foreign investments a
motive strong enough to prevent our injuring another
people. The advocates of this Norman Angell argument
cite as parallel the influence of domestic commerce in pre-
venting civil war. But just at present this beautifully
specious analogy is rudely shaken by what is going on
in Mexico. The citing of Mexico, however, proves
something still more to the point — a something positive
as well as negative. Foreign investments in Mexico
for thirty terrible years suppressed the civil war which,
in the interests of justice and honour and humanity, ought
to have been allowed to break out there at the very first
inception of that Peace of Slavery and Fear and Shame,
which Diaz established.
To prevent rebellion on the part of the oppressed of any
country, in order to secure the dividends of foreign capital-
ists, is an idea which only a born criminal can entertain
without horror. Law and order within any one land must
never be judged as a good until you have looked beneath
it and seen what it is that wails and mutters there. Peace
for the sake of oppressors is the devil robed as an angel of
light. In the same way it would seem that no one can
prejudge whether international peace in any given case is
relatively a good thing. We must first find out that no
money power is causing some entrapped nation to be bled
to death. A war of China against England, when
the opium traffic was introduced, would have been
infinitely more ethical than the smiling, shameless peace
that prevailed, pandering to the sensual mammon of inter-
national trade.
It cannot, of course, be denied that the wide-awake self-
interest of private capital invested all over the world will
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 77
sometimes secure peace. The White Slave traffic, for in-
stance, is international ; it ships its goods most discreetly
to foreign lands, and a war would disturb the even tenour
of its ways. It, accordingly, would throw in its dead and
deadly weight on to the side of peace. But some things
which peace abets are worse than bloodshed. It must be
proved, therefore, on other grounds, that the foreign in-
vestments of a private profit-monger are good for races,
sexes, and nations before we dare give our sanction to the
peace they engender. It may be wiser to cast in our
influence with those who see the greatest hope of true
and final peace in the awakening of the classes in every
country who have no land or capital, and who maintain
that every one who means to get rich without serving
society by hand and brain is a dangerous enemy to those
wars that ought to be, and to that peace which is not
gagged despair.
It is self-evident, then, that "five per cent, bonds of
peace " are not to be trusted. The motive of commercial
greed will advocate peace only until war would serve its
ends better ; and yet if one studies the oratory of the leaders
of the Peace Movement, one notes that next to sentimental
humanitarianism is set up this foreign investment of private
capital as an argument in favour of peace. So prominent
and so closely interwoven are these two individualistic
motives that an impartial observer is forced to declare
that the Peace Movement, so far as it trusts to international
capitalism, has no right to call itself international ; it would
be glad to dispense with nations altogether, so that dividend-
seeking capital could flow unchecked from land to land.
It would disintegrate mankind into individual atoms, be-
cause it is the mental clash of social group with social group
that sometimes precipitates bloodshed. Now, such a poHty
is an enemy of civihzation, which is identical with sociaUzed
Hfe. In my judgment, the Peace Movement, with its eye
78 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
on foreign investments, is a coimterfeit. We cannot sur-
render the psychic integrity of nations merely in order to
avoid wars.
There is another point of view from which war can and
should be condemned. A true Peace Movement would be
nationahstic. It would find out what organized interests
within each nation make for war ; it would insist that aU
Governments become champions of economic Justice the
world over, because private greed is the War God. There is
not too much patriotism, but too Kttle of the right sort.
A true Peace Movement would educate the masses of the
people, and especially the statesmen and poUticians and
voters of aU countries, in the higher fimctions of nations.
It would identify rehgion with the patriotism within every
nation, and beat out of existence all those commercial
private enterprises which for the sake of higher dividends
are hostile to the moral consciousness of nations. The
true inspiration to peace must be one and the same with
the motive that would lead men to die rather than permit
a foreign power to annihilate their own nation or to practise
outrage upon a neighbour. It would say with Mrs.
Browning, in her "Casa Guidi Windows" : —
I love no peace which is not fellowship,
And which includes not mercy. I would have
Rather the raking of the guns across
The world. . . .
Such things are better than a Peace that sits
Beside a hearth in self-commended mood.
And takes no thought how wind and rain by fits
Are howHng out of doors. . . .
What 1 your peace admits
Of outside anguish while it keeps at home ?
I loathe to take its name upon my tongue.
'Tis nowise peace. 'Tis treason, stiff with doom, —
' Tis gagged despair, and inarticulate wrong,
ROM-^N CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 79
Annihilated Poland, stifled Rome,
Dazed Naples, Hungary fainting 'neath the thong,
And Austria wearing a smooth olive-leaf
On her brute forehead, while her hoofs outpress
The life from these Italian souls. . . .
O Lord of Peace, who art Lord of Righteousness,
Constrain the anguished worlds from sin and grief,
Pierce them with conscience, purge them with redress,
And give us peace which is no counterfeit !
4. The Anti-nationalism of the Church of Rome
The anti-Catholic feeling is spreading rapidly and
deepening in intensity among the non-Catholics of America.
I shall not enter into the question of the relative merits of
Catholic theology, discipline, and influence, as compared
with those of the various Protestant denominations. For
the purposes of my argument, the whole of ultimate reli-
gious truth and goodness may be on the side of the Catholics.
Even if this were so, however, their allegiance to a foreign
bishop and their denial of the spiritual autonomy of Amer-
ica is a sociological heresy so deep and vicious as to
more than offset the worth of any abstract spiritual truth
of which they may be the depositary. From my point
of view, at least for the purposes of my argument here,
America may voluntarily adopt the whole of the Catholic
system of redemption, minus the "Roman." The ques-
tion is not : To what conclusions will America come in
matters religious ? but : Shall they not be the result of
her own free, independent, and dehberate insight and re-
flection ? She must be true to the moral genius of her own
soul; but, if she is this, her Catholicism cannot possibly
be Roman. Her Pope cannot possibly sit at the Vatican.
Her cardinalate must consist of Americans, chosen demo-
cratically, territorially, from America alone by American
Catholics. It is not at all a question of the Seven Sacra-
8o THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ments ; it is a question as to where the final seat of authority
in matters spiritual for the people of America shall reside, and
from what human source it shall spring. I speak not as a
Protestant, but as a humanist ; I speak as one who knows
what a mighty curse it has been to Italy that so great a
part of her organizing and moral genius has been drained
off from attention to the higher needs of Italy towards the
> keeping up of a world-wide cosmopolitan organization. If
there ever is to be a World-Church, it will not be Roman any
more than American or German or British. It will have its
spiritual centre in no historic territory, but wiU manifest
a diffused sovereignty with centre everywhere. It will
consist of a federation of nation-churches, coordinate and
recognizing absolute local autonomy in matters spiritual.
I foresee only calamity of a direful order for America
if she opposes the Roman Cathohc organization on the
ground that Protestantism is truer than Catholicism. The
one hope for the spiritual unification of America, as regards
this Roman Cathohc controversy, is that aU American citi-
zens, Protestant and Cathohc alike, shall be educated,
A drilled, and steeped in the doctrine of national ideaUsm as
the essence of true rehgion. The crux of the question is
^ not what the rehgion of America shall be, but who shall
dictate it. Were it not for the overpowering influence
of America in moulding the sentiments and habits of all
her citizens, I should share the alarm of the extremest anti-
Cathohc fanatics. But there is one Church mightier than
Rome in the United States, with a still greater organizing
genius and an infinitely closer opportunity ; and that
one Church is America herself. You can be a Cathohc ;
^ but you cannot be a Roman Cathohc and at the same time
be in spiritual hfe a true and loyal American.
It is just possible that when the hierarchy of Rome re-
aUzes the situation, it will, with its consummate instinct
for self-preservation, transform its whole pohtical struc-
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 8 1
ture so that the Catholic Church shall cease to be cosmo-
politan, and become truly international, reorganizing
herself so as to permit all the CathoUcs of America
to have complete local autonomy, both as regards the elec-
tion of ofl&cers of the .Church and as regards the choice of
forms, ceremonies, and creeds. She may become demo-
cratic ; but if she does, then the final authority in the
Church will henceforth rest in an international council elected
by nations from among the Catholics of each. This, how-
ever, is a very far-off vision ; no one need entertain it ; but
there is occasion most energetically to condemn every
trend in the Roman CathoUc policy which does not make
for the spiritual autonomy of all the Catholics of America,
in order that they may become simply one of the many
patriotic religious groups which count themselves as nothing
more than a means towards the spiritual integrity and
perfection of the United States.
So long as American schools are supported and controlled
by the various States, and so long as the Protestant de-
nominations omit to preach the doctrine of the identity
of true rehgion with the higher patriotism, the Roman
Catholic propaganda in America will be a menace to the
nation; but the moment the idea spreads that America /
is primarily a spiritual and not a mere poUtical or com- "^
mercial unit of social life, that moment the Roman Church
wiU have to deal with a Church which will tolerate no dic-
tation from any hierarchy of which the seat is in Europe
and of which the long tradition has been predemocratic
and prescientific. The Roman Church must be placed
on the same basis as any other importer and retailer of
spiritual wares from abroad. But America's policy must
not be one of destructive attack upon the Roman hier-
archy, so much as one of constructive development of her ^
own native insight and character. When once America
knows herself to be a church, the Church, she will ordain
82 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
a thousand priests of democratic humanity to every
emissary whom the Roman CathoHc hierarchy can intro-
duce. Then, the Roman spiritual jingoism would soon
become, as the Jewish jingoism has already become, a
thing of the past in America.
S- The Danger of Anti-patriotic Socialism
Marxian SociaUsm is a menace to the spiritual autonomy
of every nation. It must be pointed out that while it uses
the term "international," it means by it only "cosmopoli-
tan." Its followers do not believe in nations, and there-
fore have no idea of an intercommunication of autonomous
nationahties, either economic or moral. The Marxian
Socialists hate patriotism. They proclaim the dangerous
falsehood that the interests of the proletariat in any one
country bind its wage-earners more closely to the prole-
tariat of other nations than to the middle and upper
classes of their own nationaUty. As regards America in
particular, their notion is grotesquely unlike the truth. Their
assertion, moreover, is based upon the long-ago exploded
error that every human being is solely and purely an eco-
nomic, wealth-getting, or money-grabbing animal. We
may well grant that, under the present distribution and
ownership of property, there is an antagonism of economic
interest between the wage-earners and the employing
class; and if to eat and have possessions were the whole
of hfe, then it might be true that wage-earners all the
world over constituted, so to speak, one nation, and the
employing classes the other. But bread and butter is not
the whole of hfe ; it ceases to be so for any family the mo-
ment they are no longer starving. The working-men and
employing classes of America must instantly see, if they
stop to reflect, that they have a common life and ideal,
a common sentiment, education, opportunity, and out-
ROMAN CATHOLICS, MARXIAN SOCIALISTS 83
look, and therefore an identity of manifold interests ; and
that, despite economic injustices, they in fact constitute
one living, organic unit of psychic Ufe. It is therefore
treason against themselves for the working-classes of
America to claim a nearer kinship with those of Germany
than with the middle classes of the United States ; and it
would be not only moral death, but economic suicide, for
them to carry out such a policy. Despite every clash of
material interests, and despite the injustice of capitalists,
the working people and employing classes recognize
increasingly their common humanity. Who preaches to
the contrary either consciously falsifies facts or is blinded
by some anti-nationaUstic prejudice.
Two characteristics of American life furnish us with an
adequate disproof of cosmopolitan Socialism. First, the
American proletariat does not need and knows that it
does not need the cooperation of that of Europe in order
to extort — if extortion it must be — from the employing 1/
class a communal ownership and control of the sources of
the wealth of the United States and a fair distribution every
Saturday night of the nation's income. However feeble
American working people may be in intelHgence and power,
they are aware that they do not require intellectual any
more than material support from the working people of
other countries. The second fact that exposes the He at
the heart of Marxian SociaKsm is that the working people
of America, when they are in bitterest antagonism with
their employers, are educating and moralizing their em-
ployers as well as themselves. Two men or two classes
quarrelling with each other, unless their humanity be wholly
obHterated, grow nearer in their sense of a common nature,
and even in their moral influence upon each other, than
two masses of working people sundered not only by thou-
sands of miles of ocean, but by the whole difference between
two separate historic atmospheres. What have men reared
84 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
under Prussian autocracy in common with American work-
ing people, except the thinnest and abstractest, most arti-
ficial and enforced, identity of purpose ?
It is significant that Marxian Socialism, with a contempt
for nations similar to that of Roman CathoHcism, likewise
derives its poHcy primarily from that Jewish jingoism which
among the Hebrews themselves is dying out. Karl Marx
remained to the end a Jew of the lower type, in the sense
that be had no respect for any Gentile nation.
It is a marvel of self-contradiction that his sort of So-
cialism should have incorporated into itself this ancient
racial pride, inasmuch as it has everywhere made house-
hold words of the phrases, "the nationalization of land,"
"the nationalization of capital." At the same time that
it has popularized these valuable terms, it has been in-
sidiously undermining the whole conception of the nation
' as the integral unit of social hfe. The very idea that land
and capital should be nationalized points to national ideal-
ism as the only possible spiritual philosophy to justify the
new economics. And yet the Red Flag of Karl Marx is
anti-nationahstic ! Down with the Stars and Stripes, and
up with the Red Flag, to sjTiibolize the sohdarity of the
proletariats of all nations !
CHAPTER VI
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES
I. America not merely a Unit of Material Wealth
Oe all the ways to conserve and develop the spiritual
resources of America, it seems to me the first is to preach
in the churches, in the schools, in the homes, and in the
Press that America is primarily and essentially an organic
spiritual being. The notion must be beaten out of
men's minds that she is preeminently a great material
and wealth-producing entity. Any one will appreciate
what I mean in insisting that America shall be regarded
as an organic sphere of spiritual life, who has a family —
a wife and children of his own. Such a man, if he be con-
scious of his higher responsibilities, is aware of his home
as a spiritual organism, as a psychic sphere of influences
environing not only him and his wife, but especially his
children. The mother and father guard with a jealous
alertness the very possibility of the intrusion of any adverse
moral influence, through servant or neighbour or friend,
into the sanctifpng sphere for which they are responsible.
Their home is no doubt at the same time an economic and
a biological unit ; but what mother and father would not
resent the insinuation that it was primarily and supremely
this ? My contention is that the hope of America, even as
an economic and biological factor in the world's history,
will be henceforth dependent upon the recognition of her-
seK as a spiritual organism which is to be jealously and
unceasingly guarded against influences from within or
without that might lower her standards, corrupt the peo-
8s
86 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
pie's taste, bias their judgment, and weaken or sidetrack
the General Will of the nation. I have in an earher chap-
ter explained the spiritual resources of a nation as meaning
a sense among its citizens of the power and reahty of the
ideal order which the nation must embody if it is to f ulfil
its true destiny. But lest I shall seem to mean something
very abstract and remote from the concrete fulness of
life when I say that a nation is a spiritual organism or
psychic sphere of creative energy, let me add here that
the ideal order includes more than simply the moral charac-
ter and responsibihty of a people as a Puritan interprets
the word moral. Besides the ethical sphere of the ideal
in this sense, there are also the scientific and the ssthetic
spheres. And I wish to aflirm that for the American people
America is the formative sphere of creative power in the
domain of aU forms of art and science as well as of morals.
If America be not this, then Americans will have no art
appreciation or originality in art creation. Or if America
be a very anaemic sphere of formative art energy, then her
citizens wiU suffer proportionately. They will be crude
in aesthetic discrimination and appreciation and her cities
will fail to constitute what is called an art atmosphere.
As a result her artists for inspiration and Dlumination will
go abroad ; and they may possibly be tempted to remain
there, lest, returning, they should suffer the anaemia preva-
lent among their feUow-citizens. This law of the identity
of the ccsthetic spirit of nationahty with the creative art
atmosphere that environs any individual apphes not only
to music, painting, sculpture, and architecture, but to man-
ners, speech, and hterature. Let us consider here the last
only. It is always the nation as an organic unit of spiritual
life that stamps its qualities, both content and form, upon
its hterature. If anything in the world be Russian, it is
the books of Tolstoi and Dostoievsky. A Hterary artist,
in proportion as he is a genius, is one sensitive to and ex-
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 87
pressive of the contemporary trends of his own nation's
hfe. As far as the artist himself is concerned, it is only
an accident if his books hold the mirror up not only to his
own nation, but to the contemporary life of other peoples.
Dostoievsky, in "The Idiot " and " The Brothers Karam-
zov, " is not only Russian through and through'in the kind
of characters and of society he depicts, but equally in the
style and structure of these books. They are Russia her-
self reveahng her own soul. I need not multiply instances,
but the law of the dependence of literature upon nationahty
is universal.
This fact that only the genius of a nation, stream-
ing into the sensitive will of the individual artist, creates
great art is well stated by Froude in the opening
chapter of his "History of England," where he says: "We
allow ourselves to think of Shakespeare or Raphael or of
Phidias as having accompHshed their work by the power
of their own individual genius; but greatness Uke theirs
is never more than the highest degree of an excellence
which prevails widely around it, and forms the environ-
ment in which it grows. No single mind in single contact
with the facts or nature could have created out of itself
a Pallas, a Madonna, or a Lear ; such vast conceptions are
the growth of ages, the creations of a nation's spirit ; and
artist and poet, filled full with the power of that spirit,
have but given them form, and nothing more than form."
So essential is it to the hterary creativeness of a people
that the Uterature they study shall be the output of their
nation's own soul, that it is almost as fatal for a people to
read the literature of another country in the way America
has hitherto read British prose and poetry, as it would be
for them to read none at all. The same calamity that has
befallen America by accident of history befell ancient
Rome. The very proximity and dazzling splendour of Greek
poetry and philosophy overbore whatever native genius
88 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and originality in literary expression the Roman people
began with and might have developed. Happily, in another
sphere of purely idealistic creation the soul of America
has found original expression and has manifested her
individuahty — that of scientific invention. In American
inventors there is a unique blend of expert knowledge in
the specific sciences with originaHty in discovering the
laws of the universe and at the same time applying that
knowledge and those laws to the exigencies of material
and social hfe. I have already cited, as men typical of this
pecuHar genius, Edison and Luther Burbank. Science,
if anything is so, is cosmopohtan ; its atmosphere more
than any other transcends and overarches and vmifies
all the civilized nations ; yet no one can be acquainted
with the scientific methods and spirit of Germany, England,
and America without conceding that, despite the trans-
national intercommunication of science, Germany is one
formative sphere of scientific incentive and fertility;
England, another ; while America is equally distinct from
both. But I have said enough here to illustrate the ful-
ness, scope, and reahty of the truth that America is an
organic unit of ethical, scientific, and aesthetic Kfe, and that
to develop her ideahstic resources, she must be awakened
by direct instruction and challenged into responsible con-
sciousness of the fact that she is such a generating organism.
2. America the Living Church of all Americans
The second means of conserving her spiritual resources
is to teach that America herself is the Hving church of
which every citizen, whether he will or not, is an active
member. He may be a bad member and the church itself
may be far from perfection; but the fact that every citi-
zen is spiritually dependent for his character and for his
standards of manhood upon the psychic influence of his
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 89
nation is undeniable ; and the responsibility of the nation
for the individual and of the individual for the nation is
unescapable. It can be avoided only by death or by ex-
patriation; and even this latter means of escape is not
efficient. For whithersoever he flees, he enters into another
living church, another nation, and becomes of it an active
member, either for weal or woe, and enters into a new sphere
of duty.
To say that America is the church to which all Americans
belong is something more than to say that she is the forma-
tive sphere of spiritual influence in which they all Hve.
For the word church links up the idea of the national sphere
of spiritual influence with that of rehgion. The word
•church is the name of that specific kind of society the bond
of which is religion and the practice of which is worship —
praise and prayer. In urging, then, that the nation her-
self is the Hving church of her citizens, I am advancing to
the position that national ideaUsm in the hearts of the
citizens is in the nature of worship, of religious praise, and of
that sense of spiritual communion and dependence which
inform prayer.
Furthermore, when it is taught that America as the
standard-bearer of her own ideal is the church of which
every citizen is an active member, her citizens' eyes will
be opened to the fact that she is really doing in a very full
and powerful way what the various religious denominations
within the land can only possibly achieve in a minor and
most subordinate, although necessary, manner. Indeed,
it becomes apparent that everything which the sects
themselves accompUsh must somehow be assigned to the
nation itself ; for they are a vital and organically dependent
part of the nation, even though their discipline was im-
ported originally from abroad and although, in some in-
stances, they continue to be manipulated and dictated to
by foreign authorities. In all the sects the moral spirit
go THE SOUL OF AMERICA
is impregnated with the genius of the nation. What is
more, if we were to take even the devoutest member of the
most exclusive religious denomination and trace the in-
most quahties of his soul — his yearning for truth, his
craving for beauty, his longing for holiness — to its social
sources, we should find that for one impulse which he had
received from his special denomination, he had received
ninety-nine which the nation would have communicated
to him even if that particular denomination to which he
belonged had not existed. When we make a psychic
analysis of an American's moral, intellectual, and aesthetic
values, we find it difficult to discover whether he had been
a Methodist instead of a Baptist, or an Episcopalian instead
of a Congregationahst, or whether he had been a member
of any professedly reUgious communion ; but it is by no
means difficult to discover that he is American and to de-
tect even whether he were American-born as well as reared.
But the spiritual dominance of the nationaUty in general
is in no wise impugned by the fact that the immigrant or
the child of the immigrant is not exclusively the offspring
of the soul of America. For whatever in the child is not
derived from America is nevertheless traceable to some
other nation ; it is therefore, forever and everywhere,
nationahty. Nations are always the formative environ-
ments from which special characteristics of the individual
have been engendered. And of the things American in
origin within the soul even in the sphere of religion, it will
scarcely ever be found that the individual has derived
more instruction and edification from the discipline of his
own denomination than from those of other religious or-
ganizations. Nothing has in contrast with England struck
me on recent visits to America more than the fact that
through the newspapers all the ideas of the newest organi-
zations in religion are communicated to the citizens at
large. I meet no American, though he be an Episcopalian
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES QI
or a Calvinist, that has not been forced by the newspaper
into an acquaintance with the method and message of Mrs.
Eddy and been challenged to think more about the truth
and falsity of Christian Science than about the tenets of
his own rehgious communion. Equally have the ideas and
sentiments of Spiritualism, through newspaper publicity,
pervaded all homes and exercised an influence even when
they have been rejected. America herself by her daily
press mothers "freak rehgions"; but also in more subtle
ways she foster-mothers even such historic importations
from abroad as AngHcanism, Roman CathoUcism, and
Judaism. Whoever knows by close comparison the differ-
ences between the Episcopal Church in America and the
EstabHshed Church in England knows that America has
had infinitely more structural influence upon the Episcopal
Church in America than the Episcopal Church, with its
less than a million adherents, has had upon the soul of
America; and many who are close observers of the func-
tional life of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America
think they have reasons to believe that within a decade
or two it will become far more Americanized both in char-
acter and in conscious aim than it has been hitherto. De-
spite, also, the utmost efforts of the Vatican, the CathoHc
Church in America is becoming less and less Roman and
more and more Americanized. Why, then, should not all
the denominations wake up to the fact that the one real
and hving Church to which all their members belong is
America herself, and that all the denominations are but
so many distinct congregations attempting to interpret
her and serve her?
It was recently my privilege in New York City to sub-
mit the idea that America herself is the church to which
all Americans belong, to a company of liberal ministers of
religion. I went on to say that America should hold
the same place of preenainence in the religion of Ameri-
92 THE SOUL OF AlIERICA
cans as Israel had occupied in ancient Judaism. I argued
then, as I am doing here, that the indwelling moral genius
of the Jewish people, the will of the race as it pressed forward
in creative yearning to fuL&l the nation's iimate destiny,
was the reality which the Jews called Jahweh, and was
their God. In the same way, I pleaded that the moral
destiny of America as it was foreshadowed in her history
and opportunity must be regarded by Americans as the
Hving and inmianent presence of God. Among my audi-
ence was a Jewish Rabbi of distinction, who in the confer-
ence following my discourse repKed to this effect: "No !
Israel, we must remember, was no mere ordinary nation.
Her prophets and rabbis had from the first seen that she
was a congregation of the Most High as weU as a nation;
that she was, as her own prophets expressed it, the bride
of God, the wife of God. Her God was far more than an
indweUing socializing spirit ; it was a universal God. And
the fact that she lost her poHtical independence, but con-
tinued as a theocracy to survive for five centuries and has
since existed as an ideal community scattered over the
face of the globe, proves that, with her, religion was some-
thing more than the spirit of nationality and God than the
indwelling genius of a race." When my opportunity to
reply came, I met not only what the Rabbi had overtly
said, but what he had also impKed. I asked: "Who dare
suggest that America is merely an ordinary nation? You
have begged the very question which I have raised, in imply-
ing that America is not just as much a holy people, a con-
gregation of the Most High, as was ever Israel. My
whole object is to induce people in the United States to
view their nation in this hght and set exactly this value
upon her. I concede that Israel was the bride of God and
that her prophets had the insight and the wisdom to think
so and say so. But I at the same time maintain that for
an American to acknowledge Israel to have been a bride
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 93
of God and not to see that America must be Ms bride of
God is an abomination. The one unforgivable sin among
the Jews was that any one of them should follow after the
God of another people instead of their own. Why, then,
should it not be equally an unpardonable offence in an
American to transfer the highest homage of his soul to a
manifestation of God in an aUen people ? That each people
should worship God primarily as the Redeeming Power
among themselves is my contention.
" There is no antagonism between a universally applicable
nationahsm such as I advocate and a recognition of the
oneness of the spirit which is sociahzing each of the several
nations of the earth. It is perfectly consistent ; just as it
is, for instance, to say that the sunKght that actually
falls on EngHsh soil and quickens vegetation there is not
the same as the light that falls on the territory of the United
States, and yet at the same time to affirm that it is one
and the same sun that sheds its rays on all the surface of
the globe. I jam not denying that God is the God of Abra-
ham, Isaac, and Jacob ; I am only protesting that it is
morally preposterous for Americans to think of him in
that way instead of regarding him as the God of Washington,
Jefferson, Lincoln, and Wilson. It does make a great dif-
ference whether a nation thinks of the Power it worships
as the genius of another people more than of itself and as
having directed their history more than its own. I am
not denying that Israel was the chosen people of God ;
but I am urging that it is high time that the citizens of
the United States shall count themselves as one of some
sixty peoples now suffering and struggUng on the face of
the earth who are as much the chosen of God as was Israel.
There is no shadow of jingoism or chauvinism or appeal
to national vanity in the doctrine I am setting forth ; but
I maintain that the notion prevalent throughout Christen-
dom that Israel was in some unique manner or degree the
94 THE SOUL OF .'UVDERICA
chosen people of God has acted like a blight upon the spirit-
ual originaHty of all Christian nations. That bUght can
never in my judgment be removed imtil each nation counts
itseK equally with aU others preordained, by its unique
position and experience, to discover and contribute to the
world moral truths, duties, and visions which no other
people has had as good an opportunity to perceive and
formulate. The Rabbi has further offered the fact that his
nation survived the destruction of its political independence
as a proof that its reUgion was far more than mere patriot-
ism. To me that fact is the supreme proof of the opposite,
that its rehgion was nothing less than patriotism. The
Jewish State was destroyed ; but the spirit of nationality
was able to survive, because it had been regarded as the
most high, the most real, the eternal."
But that the young men and women of America shall
be brought up to regard her as the Church to which they
belong wiU require a mighty reformation and transforma-
tion in aU the religious denominations of the land, — -a
transformation, however, that wiU make of them the great-
est factor in the nation's total hfe, and will coordinate and
consoKdate them through the unity of their ultimate aim :
the service of the nation as a spiritual organism.
3. The Denominations as Parties in the Nation-Church
The third means, then, of conserving and developing
the spiritual resources of America is that all the religious
denominations throughout the land shaU make themselves
the centres for the propaganda of the higher patriotism, and
of the principle that the nation as a standard-bearer of
the ideal is the Church in which each denomination is only
a party, and that the God of the Christians, the Holy Spirit
of the creeds, exists and acts here incessantly, and is none
other than the unifjdng Soul of America.
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 95
As one religious congregation after another adopts this
modernist point of view, each will begin to modify its
conventional phrases and ceremonies accordingly. The
religious denominations will rewrite American history
from the point of view of the evolution of social justice on
American soil and will count American history and Htera-
ture sacred. This idea will also become incorporated in
their canticles, hymns, anthems, and prayers, as well as
their sermons. On one occasion recently when I gave
utterance to this suggestion, an American professor of
theology informed me that I was mistaken in thinking
that such was not already the sentiment and custom in
American churches, at least in those of the Congregational
order. These all, he said, recognized and expressed the
identity of reUgion with the higher patriotism in general
and, for Americans, with loyalty to their own country in
particular. In proof of his contention he referred me to
the Pilgrim Hymnal. And, surely, the title seemed to
furnish an argument on his side. The word Pilgrim pointed
to American origins ; and that was wiser and more sincere
than if it had pointed to the deHverance of the Jews out of
their house of bondage. In high hope of finding that my
view of religion was already incorporated in the active
gospel of one great American denomination, I hastened to
purchase the volume that had been recommended to me.
But, alas, I was doomed to disappointment. Except for
the inclusion of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and
"America" and one or two other hymns with vague allu-
sions to this country, the book did not embody the idea of
the identity of patriotism and rehgion in any place except
in the word Pilgrim on the title-page and cover. I turned
to the department of the book entitled "Responsive Ser-
vices." They were all taken from the Old and the New
Testaments ; and, so far as there was any reference to any
cities, they were those of the Jews and of their enemies
96 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and neighbours. This hymn book is issued from the head-
quarters of the Congregationalists on Beacon Hill in Bos-
ton — Beacon Hill, from whence in more than one dark
hour for humanity a Ught has issued forth to cheer the
suffering and the oppressed. But in the Pilgrim Hymnal
there was no mention of Beacon HiU ; and, where one
woiild have expected it, the hiU spoken of was Zion ! Nor
was there any reference to the streets and marts and slums
of Boston, but only to the palaces of Jerusalem. I am by
no means so much of a hteralist that I cannot see and am
not moved by the imaginative and poetic significance of
Moimt Zion and the palaces of Jerusalem, even for the
citizens of Boston ; but I maintain that the reason we
count Jerusalem and Zion holy is because the ancient dwell-
ers there had poetic imagination capable of discerning the
divine meaning and transcendent beauty of the very ground
they walked on and of the sufferings and hopes of their
own feUow-citizens. I maintain that the real significance
and beauty of the Hebrew poetry caimot be rightly ap-
preciated among Bostonians until Beacon HiU is as
hallowed in their public worship as ]Moimt Zion was by
the Jews.
The rehgious congregations of America must assume
the task of educating the American pubHc to deify the
Moral Genius of the United States. It is the task of the
churches to bring vividly before the imagination of the
people the invisible glory and hidden meaning of their
own responsibility and opportunity.
From the Pilgrim Press on Beacon Hill I chanced to
pass into the State Capitol, which I had not entered for
twenty-five years. Straying into the newer part of the
building, I found myseff in a beautifiil rotimda, restfvd in
colour, dignified in proportions, and modest in size ; within
niches covered with great panes of glass I saw the trophies
of the Civil War, the b\illet-riddled flags taken from its
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 97
battlefields. Now I knew why this rotunda was called
Memorial Hall, and my soul was thrilled with the deepest
and most vivid memories of my childhood. While gazing
at these historic battle flags of the Republic with eyes
not undimmed, I observed the notice placed conspicuously
on a card : "Honour the Flag by removing your hat." I
obeyed gladly the command, but not without an added
emotion of the sense of fellowship in my religious reverence
for American history. I could not refrain, however, from
asking myself, "Instead of always remaining here, why
should not these sacred flags be brought into the religious
fanes of the nation — into the buildings set aside for the wor-
ship of the Most High ? Why should there not be in every
church in the country at least once a year a great Festival of
the Nation, when the congregation gathering should honour
the historic flags of the Union grouped about the altar?
Would not such a festival be a means of bringing vividly
before the minds of the worshippers the reaHty of the un-
seen but eternal Meaning of American History? But if
at the opening of such a ceremony there were to be a salu-
tation of the flags of America, there should be before the
close, lest America forget, another ceremony when the
baimers of all the other nations of the world would be
brought in and borne to the altar and grouped about the
sacred trophies of the Repubhc, to symbolize America's
gratitude to all the other peoples of the earth for the repre-
sentatives that for generations have been flocking to these
shores as to the Promised Land, and to symbolize America's
recognition of the equal sanctity and inviolability of all
other nations."
It should be noted that the change which I propose is
not that churches in addition to their religious ceremonies
should become institutional and as adjuncts of rehgion
should group about themselves various secular activities.
Such undertakings never have strengthened the rehgion
gS THE SOUL OF AMERICA
of any denomination nor have they ever brought to the
people whom they attract the thing they most need — the
sense of the divine meaning within oneself and within
the social opportunity of daily hfe.
What I am proposing is the introduction of that sort of
a national ideahsm into the church services which during
the last thirty years has increasingly entered into and
emanated from the universities of America, so that all the
world knows of the fact and talks of it. Such an influence
must now proceed from the churches, from their services,
from the altar, from the pulpit and the pew. If I am wrong
in affirming that the churches of America are not yet the
centres of idealistic patriotism, it is astonishing that I can
scarcely turn to a book on America without finding the
statement that her universities are centres of a new civic
enthusiasm, but that I search in vain for any such refer-
ence to the churches. In Professor McCarthy's " Wisconsia
Idea" is quoted the following from Professor Turner of
Harvard : —
"Nothing in our educational history is more striking than
the steady pressure of democracy upon its universities to adapt
them to the requirements of all the people. From the State
universities of the Middle West, shaped under pioneer ideals,
have come the full recognition of scientific studies and especially
those of applied science devoted to the conquest of nature, . . .
all under the ideal of service to democracy rather than of indi-
vidual advancement alone."
There is no doubt that there has been just such a steady
pressure of democracy upon American universities as Pro-
fessor Turner declares, but no mortal who studies Pro-
fessor Carroll's book on "The ReUgious Forces in the
United States" can discover any analogous steady pressure
of democracy upon the churches to adapt them to the re-
quirements of all the people. What strikes one is the
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 99
astonishing imperviousness relatively of all the churches
to the requirements of the people. It would seem as if
democracy had not troubled itself enough about religion
and religious organizations to bring its pressure to bear
upon them. It is only in the slightest degree true that
the rehgious denominations of the Middle West, for in-
stance, have been shaped under pioneer ideals. I have
above asserted that America has more modified the churches
than the churches have modified America, but I have in no
way committed myself to the belief that America has done
anything hke what she might have done in this direction.
This book itself is a cry to the churches to do what they
might for America. The churches must accept as fully,
heartily, and intelUgently the whole method and spirit and
results of modern science, and especially of applied science,
as the State Universities of the Middle West have done,
and turn the conquest of nature through applied science,
to an infinitely greater degree than the University even of
Wisconsin has done or has pretended to do, to the service
of the Ideal Democracy rather than of individual advance-
ment. But the universities have set an example towards
the founding of an American Kingdom of Heaven which
the chiirches would be wise to follow. As far back as
1883 President Andrew D. White of Cornell, speaking
at Yale, pointed out that the hope of America lay in the
American colleges and universities, and it was with uni-
versities in mind and their professors, not of churches and
their preachers, that he said : —
Mercantilism, necessitated at first by our circumstances
and position, has been in the main a great blessing. It has been
so under the simple law of history. How shall it be prevented
from becoming in obedience to such a law a curse? ... I
answer simply that we must do all we can to rear greater fabrics
of religious thought, philosophic thought, Hterary thought,
scientific, artistic, poUtical thought, to summon more and more
lOO THE SOUL OF AMERICA
young men into these fields, not as a matter of taste or oppor-
tmiity, but as a patriotic duty; to hold before them not the
incentive of mere gain or of mere pleasure or mere reputation,
but the ideal of a new and higher civilization. ... I would
have the idea preached early and late.
It was the new patriotism of the universities that de-
termined the careers of both President Roosevelt and
President WUson and made them representatives of a new
type of American citizenship. It was from the colleges
that the great movement represented in the 400 social
settlements of America emanated. I speak here from per-
sonal knowledge and reminiscence. The chief inspiration
in America which I myself received in founding in 1886
the first University Settlement in the United States, came
from Professor Julius Seelye, who was then president of
Amherst College and who had been my teacher in philo-
sophy.
There can be no doubt that the new conscience to which
Mr. H. G. Wells so often refers in his book on "The Future
in America " first became articulate in the colleges. "There
is every sign," says' Mr. Wells, "that a great awakening, a
great disillusionment, is going on in the American mind.
The Americans have become suddenly self-critical, are hot
with an xmwonted fever for reform and constructive effort."
Again he says, "America for the first time in her history is
taking thought about herseK and ridding herself of long
cherished illusions." But this national repentance the
country does not owe to revivals in churches ; it might be
said rather that American colleges have become churches,
while American churches have become universities of
mediaeval learning.
Now, this third means for developing the spiritual re-
sources of the United States which I am suggesting is based
upon the natural inadequacy of imiversities as such to meet
alone the nation's spiritual needs. The efforts of the col-
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES lOI
leges in this direction must be supplemented by an or-
ganized undertaking on the part of the great profession of
the teaching of adults as distinct from the teaching of mere
youths and maidens. There are in the United States, ac-
cording to the statistics of W. D. CarroU, in his "Religious
Forces in America, " 110,000 professed ministers of religion !
Here are 110,000 men who devote their whole time (and
earn their hving thereby) to teaching, presumably, the high-
est ideals of manhood and womanhood. It seems, therefore,
an appalling indictment that no observer of social pheno-
mena has traced the new awakening of the social conscience
in politics and philanthropy to the ministers of religion.
It would seem to me, however, that scarcely more would
be needed to replace this sin of omission on the part of
ministers by a magnificent record of service than the mere
bringing home to the attention of preachers the splendid
opportunity which the nation offers them. The higher
patriotism requires at least 110,000 preachers who identify
it with religion. Must the nation produce and subsidize
another 110,000? If so, what is to become of the existing
profession for the moral teaching of adults ? The ministers
must be converted. Will not the teachers which the new
patriotism will call forth make use of the one day of rest
in seven and the traditional hours for the assembling of the
people in the churches ? Then the churches will be opened
every evening in the week for instruction, discussion, con-
ference, and edification; and throughout every day com-
mittees and small groups be meeting in them to think out
together and plan the great campaign for that development
of the nation's spiritual resources which shall be able to
sweep away forever the injustices and iniquities that now
threaten the nation's health and life.
102 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
4. A National Committee Needed
But I have already anticipated a fourth (which should
perhaps rather have been counted as the first) means of
storing up the moral dynamic of the nation. It would
seem as if some sort of a national committee should be
formed for permeating the churches with that patriotism
which Andrew D. White and others introduced into the
imiversities.
In England was formed last year a Church Comprehen-
sion League, the object of which is to educate the public,
but chiefly the 50,000 preachers of religion, to the idea that,
while rehgion is the service of the universal human ideal,
the nation, being the individual's spiritual environment and
sphere of duty, is the Hving church of every Enghshman,
and that the various denominations are the parties in the
church. This League proposes, as the first means of edu-
cating the pubhc and the clergy to its idea, the sending out
of leaflets, pamphlets, and books setting forth its principles
and the appointment of special men and women to teach
and preach throughout the country the identity of rehgion
with the higher patriotism. It would seem that a similar
method of propaganda would be as natural and inevitable
in America. It would involve the estabHshment of a na-
tional committee or league in which sympathizers, on the
payment of an aimual subscription, would become members.
Out of such subscriptions and donations the expense of the
publication of hteratxire and the sending out of missionaries
could be met.
5. The God oj Personal Salvation
I cannot pass on to the next chapter, in which I shall deal
with a fifth means of conserving the spiritual resources of
America, without anticipating in the reader's mind an
objection which is sure to arise if he has not grasped the
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 103
total bearing of the thought. The idea that reHgion and
patriotism are one and the same thing, whenever the re-
ligion is sound and the patriotism is high, is so imfamiliar
and even strange that it naturally seems as if it must in-
volve some great heresy. I therefore wish to point out
that the kind of change which would be involved in religion
would not involve the denial of any of the fundamental
doctrines of theology, or the discarding of any of the clauses
of the great historic creeds. The teaching of this book
involves only the seeing of the old ideas in new relations.
It is as if I invited my readers to view the old reahties of
their faith from a new point of observation. I ask them to
shift from the individualism of the old (eighteenth-century)
Protestantism to the vantage-ground of the new social psy- 1/
chology, and to view the old teachings of religion in relation
to the interests of organic society. Nothing that I propose
involves denial of the personaKty of the Creator or of a
life after death or the doctrine of the Trinity or of the In-
carnation. To say, for instance, as I have said, that the
Holy Ghost in America is the socializing spirit of the nation
is not to deny the Holy Ghost nor its manifestation as re-
ported in the New Testament or as manifested in the
historic Church. To say that America is the church of
Americans goes counter to no historic creed or dogma. To
say that the moral genius of America is God is by no means
to deny that God is an infinite person. For I have not im-
pUed that the moral genius of America is not an infinite
person. For anything I have said or anything that I
beheve, the moral genius of America may be a self-conscious,
intelligent Will, infinite, and, in some sense or other, onmi-
potent.
It is possible, also, that some readers, because I have not
yet pointed it out, may have failed to see another side of
the teaching of this book. Recently after I had been giving
some arguments in favour of the identity of sound religion
I04 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and the higher patriotism, a clergyman present said that
my interpretation of religion was preposterous, in face of
the fact that to everybody else in the world except myself
rehgion did not refer to these externals of national Hfe, but
to the hoHest and most inward experiences in the depths of
the individual soul. He said that to most human beings
rehgion was a personal matter, and that in their private
griefs and temptations they went to God as the strengthener
^nd saviour of their own soul. Now what had such a God
j as theirs, he asked, to do with the sociaHzing Spirit of a
nation, with the Moral Genius of a people ? Let me antici-
pate the like objection from some of my readers by giving
here the substance of my answer to this clergyman. I
said that I, too, in my duties as the head of an Ethical
Church had been sought out as a spiritual adviser by many
persons in their hour of deepest inward anxiety. It was at
such time especially that I had found out the efficacy of
my own faith and the adequacy of the God who is identical
with the Indwelhng Spirit of every social group drawn to-
gether in devotion to the Moral Ideal. I tell those who seek
my advice that they can find the power to resist temptation
and to Hft themselves out of their individual and private
grief or shame or disappointment only as they identify
themselves with the Quickening Spirit of some great re-
demptive work for others. Let them enter into any great
Social Cause which they beheve in but have neglected, and
they will find — I tell them so on the strength of my own
personal experience — that their personal wounds will be
healed, their very weakness transformed into unwonted
strength. I warn them that there is no consolation for
sorrow and no redemption from sin except as they identify
themselves with some group of fellow-workers or as they
themselves start out alone to redeem others. I tell them
that the Spirit of Social Service is God, Christ, the Holy
Ghost, or whatever they want to call it. I often give them
HOW TO CONSERVE AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL RESOURCES 105
the version of a well-known story in the "Buddhist Scrip-
tures" which was told to me by an Englishman who himself
passed a year with the Buddhist monks in their retreats in
the mountains of the East. According to this version, a
woman who had lost her only son came to Buddha that he
might cure her grief. He told her that this he could do
if she would bring him a grain of mustard seed from any
household wherein no loved one had died. She set forth
on her quest. After many years the Buddha met her again
and he questioned her about her grief. "What grief,
Lord?" she asked, "I have no grief." She had even for-
gotten her former anguish ; for, in her attempt to assuage
the sorrow which she found in every household that she
visited, she had not merely lost her own grief, but had
found it transformed into some rare power to soothe the
suffering of others. The Spirit of Social Service, then, is a
quickening, redeeming God to the individual soul in its
hour of weakness and despair. But this statement of
mine is no heresy. The promise of the Spirit in the New
Testament is not to the isolated soul, but only to the two
or three gathered together. There, in the group — in a
family, in a reUgious meeting, in a city, in a state, in a
nation — there and there only, is the Power that keeps us
from falling ! Let no one, then, cast any disparagement
upon the Moral Genius of a Nation as if it were subordi-
nate to or other than the God himself of personal
redemption.
CHAPTER VII
ONLY ONE NEW CENTRE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP IN EACH
STATE
I. As an Object Lesson and Laboratory
The interpretation of religion here presented may, to
some readers, seem so different from Christianity as ordi-
narily understood, as to appear incapable of unforced adop-
tion by the historic denominations. Those who receive
such an impression may therefore be inclined to conclude
that everywhere, side by side with the old churches, new
organizations must be started if the new interpretation is
to be incorporated into the creeds, sermons and prayers,
rites and ceremonies of popular rehgion. But, in my judg-
ment, the founding of a new sect upon the idea that sound
rehgion and ethical patriotism are identical would be an
error in poHcy fatal to the very object it wished to advance.
There are already enough churches to serve the country's
unmediate need. In many towns and cities there is a
lamentable overlapping, due to a refusal to cooperate
merely on account of difference of intellectual interpreta-
tion. It is not multiphcation of religious centres, so much
as coordination of propaganda, that is at present required.
Let us, then, have no new sect.
There is occasion, however, for having in the largest city
in each State in the Union one new rehgious centre, where
the sermons and all the items of public worship will be in
harmony with the principle that America herself, as a spirit-
ual organism, is the Church to which all Americans belong,
and that God, in America, is the Historic Moral Genius,
the Socializing Spirit, that would animate the nation.
io6
ONE NEW CENTRE IN EACH STATE I07
One such centre in a State would be able to disseminate
the idea by illustrating it. As a result of its activities, in
twenty or thirty years all the other denominations would
have become familiar with its principle and poUcy and
would have decided for themselves how far to accept and
incorporate the new forms and methods.
Such a new centre of reHgious expression would appeal
not simply to persons who have discarded the old creeds
and forms, and not simply to those who have severed their
connection with the old rehgious organization. On the
contrary, the modernist members, both ministers and laity,
of all denominations would welcome an experiment by an
organization made up of those representatives of all the
churches and persons of no church who stand for the re-
hgious significance of the higher patriotism.
One of the great difi&culties in the way of gradual re-
visions and new developments in rehgious forms and cere-
monies is that nobody seems to have thought of making
new experiments outside of all the existing church services.
The result is that any preacher with new ideas has had
no laboratory in which to test the effect of his new scheme.
He has had first to convince his committee and possibly
a majority of his members ; and always with the risk of
turmoil and confusion, misunderstanding and controversy
which are not in harmony with the spirit of worship.
Scarcely any preacher, therefore, has ever been an inno-
vator; and those who have dared to be exceptions have
generally ceased to be ministers of reUgion. If experiments
could be weU tried and tested and the ceremonial embodi-
ments of the new thought illustrated and demonstrated to
be good, without in any way disturbing the even tenour of
ordinary church life, then any one congregation, having
participated in the demonstration which proved the beauty,
dignity, and suitabiUty of any one given item, could adopt
by majority vote one innovation after another. Even
Io8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
such adoption might be only tentative — for a year or
six months. Or it might be only permissive, not coercive ;
that is, it might allow the minister or committee the liberty,
at discretion, to introduce the item. Or some new feature
whose worth had been tested elsewhere might be counted
sufi&ciently valuable to be introduced once a year, but not
oftener, or once a month or on special occasions.
When it was clearly known that such a centre of public
worship existed only as an object lesson and was of the
nature of a religious experimental laboratory, it would be
seen by the church-going pubHc in general not to be a com-
petitor, a new sect, or a rival. As a result, all those church
members who beheve that evolution in rehgious forms,
statements, and intellectual interpretations should be en-
couraged rather than opposed, at least those along the line
of making rehgion of greater moral service to the nation at
large, would support financially and would attend occa-
sionally the centre of the new worship, in order that they
themselves might participate in the experiment and share
in the enthusiasm of aiding in any new discoveries or de-
vices that would contribute to the spiritual deepening of
humanity.
2. Institutes for Religious Research
I recently had the privilege of being shown over the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, in New York
City, and of talking with each of the great investigators
there retained for the benefit of mankind. Ever since
then, I have been haunted in imagination with the possi-
bihty of Institutes for Religious Research along similar
lines. The ultimate object of such an institution would
be the moral cure of souls, of cities, of nations. The
methods would be those not only of experience, but of ex-
periment, of test conditions, and of verification in religion.
It is as possible to know that the effect of a religious meet-
ONE NEW CENTRE EST EACH STATE IO9
ing has been morally curative as to know that the effect
of medical treatment has checked the disease and saved the
patient. The past has preserved the testimony of thou-
sands of patients who have had inexact experience of God ;
but the true believers to-day all over the world are anxious
for experiment in God. God must be placed beyond all
possible scepticism ; he must be verified by the most rigor-
ous methods. The time will come when to doubt his exist-
ence and beneficent activity will be a proof either of per-
versity of will or derangement of intellect; for no church
wiU teach an unverified and unverifiable God.
Even the sUght advances that have been made towards
a scientific psychology of religion during the last twenty
years have already strengthened all the churches of Chris-
tendom. Whatever elements of historic reUgion transcend
all possible verification or go counter to the results which
have been verified, it has become quite manifest that re-
Hgion as a whole is well founded in human experience and
can be explained, but will not be explained away, by scien-
tific observation and test. It has become undeniable that
there are certain factors in experience not of the nature
of hallucination or illusion which are denoted by the words
God, Christ, Heaven, Hell. It has further been proved
that some elements or other in prayer, in praise and worship,
private or public, and in rites and ceremonies, have most
beneficent moral effects upon all who participate in them,
effects which never could have issued if religion had been
a figment of fancy, or a deception imposed by priests.
These great positive results favourable to religion have al-
ready been attained, although as yet psychological inves-
tigators have limited their attention almost exclusively
to the one phenomenon of "conversion," which is only the
starting point of rehgious experience and is often very ob-
scure. Another crudity of psychological investigation up
to the present time is that it has studied the individual soul
no THE SOUL OF AMERICA
in isolation, as I have criticised Professor James for doing.
The Sociology or Social Psychology of rehgion has scarcely
begun. The chief results of my own investigations in this
field are presented in this book.
Now the new synthesis which will hnk up rehgion with
patriotism and God with the Spirit that quickens men into
Moral Fellowship will enormously advance the cause of
the churches, even while it induces minor modifications in
rites and ceremonies, in the phrasings of rehgious utterance,
and in the interpretation of ancient documents. Espe-
cially will this reenf orcing of the churches, even during any
period of changing forms, be sure to take place, provided
experimental work be done outside of the regular denomi-
nations and provided only those results which experiment
has proved valuable be adopted into the historic places
of worship.
3. Argument rendered Superfluous
Let it not be supposed that scientific research for the
finding of more effective forms and statements and of deeper
meanings, will require any initial discarding of the rehgious
experience and practice of the past. No science, in its
begimiing, is ever anything more than a development of
common sense towards greater exactitude and scope. An
institute for rehgious research of a constructive order,
that is, in the interests of the moral health of the commu-
nity and of its individual members, would be devoted to a
psychological and sociological search for the mental as well
as material causes of moral disease and to the creation of
ideational influences, social and personal, that would
strengthen and purify the civic and individual will. Nor
could it conceivably fail to bear fruits for the heahng of the
nation.
It is also difficult not to beheve that such an institution
for rehgious test and verification must itself be of the nature
ONE NEW CENTRE IN EACH STATE III
of a church, that is, of a place of pubhc worship. For it
must be an institution which attempts to create a sense of
the immanent reality of the moral ideal. It might, of
course, carry on experiments in personal and private spirit-
ual advice and in mental therapeutics ; but its chief work
must be preventive and social and pubUc. It must chiefly
consider normal hioman beings, that they may not through
adverse influences become morally abnormal. The goal
of all constructive reUgious research must be the creation
of a spiritual atmosphere, without resort to unverified ideas,
which favours the growth of such character as the nations
need.
In the past there has been far too much dispute and
controversy concerning reHgion. But this has been because
there has been almost no scientific experiment or test.
The period of rehgious dispute will cease the moment that
of constructive research begins. It is quite evident that
mere logical arguments can lead nowhere, because we have
not yet secured the facts upon which to argue. Mere
argument is also inadequate, even after constructive re-
search has attained most valuable results, to convince a
person who has not himself witnessed and taken part in
the experiment. Arguments based on demonstrations
which one has not participated in oneself are as unsatis-
fying in religion as in art. But arguments not based on
any one's experience are of no worth. Suppose it is a ques-
tion as to whether a play, which has never been seen by
any one on the stage, will delight and entrance an audience
or not. How can we ever settle the point except by pro-
ducing the play on a stage in the presence of an audience
and noting whether as a matter of fact it does delight and
entrance them or not? New forms of public worship
embodying new ideas are in the same predicament. Ar-
guments about them cannot possibly so excite the construc-
tive imagination that it should supply details which any
112 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
abstract reasoning must have omitted. We must suspend
judgment until we have some basis for judgment. The
testimony of others also can arouse the enthusiasm only
of the very few who by precedent trains of thought and
experience are already ripe. For instance, suppose my
arguments, which are based on experiments in new forms of
social worship, have made it seem altogether plausible that
it would be possible to conduct a purely humanistic church
service and preach a sermon along the Hnes suggested by
this book, which would create in all present a powerful
sense of the reahty and hoUness of the ideal social order.
This is what all the churches now attempt to create and
in great part succeed in doing ; but most persons attribute
the spiritual atmosphere induced to a supernatural and
transcendent order of things. Suppose now that the ar-
gument of this book either has or has not opened some
minds to the possibiUty of creating the same atmosphere
without any reference to the transcendent order of things;
let us further suppose, however, that the persons in question
attend such a religious service as I am pleading for and
observe that others are moved with a sense of the reahty and
redemptive grace of the moral ideal, and that even they
themselves also feel its presence ; such an experience will
have accomplished what no argument could achieve.
Indeed, a demonstration by an object lesson renders much
argument superfluous. It would therefore seem that while
no new sect should be foxmded, there should be estabhshed
at suitable centres throughout the nation humanistic and
nationalistic church services, so that all could see and
know for themselves. Then, those ministers and congre-
gations who found any items in the services congenial to
their own thought and temper could introduce these at
least tentatively.
In a generation of such trial, with final acceptance or
rejection, as experience dictated, there would gradually
ONE NEW CENTRE IN EACH STATE II3
grow up a type of service and sermon which would be ex-
pressive of the living conscience of our day.
4. Creeds the Last Documents to be Revised
I should like to point out that long before the ultimate
creeds of any historic Church can be modified or set aside,
it may be possible to revivify the whole of the sentiment
embodied in hymns, anthems, readings from sacred litera-
ture and sermons. It is also further possible that there
will be no occasion for either restating or discarding any
of the fundamental creeds of Christianity. Possibly all
that wiU be needed will be a frank and avowed reinterpre-
tation of these old documents from the humanistic point of
view. But I deal with this theme in Parts II and III, and
therefore need not dweU upon it here. I wish instead to
illustrate in this chapter how a church service, incorporat-
ing the idea here advocated, might become universally
adopted in the course of one or two generations. Suppose
the National Committee, which I suggested in the last
chapter, for teaching the identity of ReKgion and Patriotism,
besides issuing pamphlets and books, should establish in the
chief city of every State an illustrative church service, to
be held every Sunday morning and evening. The con-
structive idea with which they would set out would be to
create in the congregation a sense of the unifying spirit
which animates any group of men and women who are
drawn together in devotion to the human ideal. Their
first object would be to make them One in vision, in heart,
and in will. There might be many devices to bring about
this unity and a realizing sense of it. But the device which
has been adopted in hundreds of congregations of the his-
toric churches is that which most naturally suggests
itself for the beginning of the meeting. It is that at
the very opening of the service all present should rise and
114 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
stand and that the first word of the conductor of the ser-
vice should not begin until there were perfect silence —
not only an absence of noises but of restless motions. In-
stantly and inevitably, everybody present would be aware
of one Will, one Idea animatirig and controlling the various
individual wiLls and intellects. There would spring up a
sense not only of the two or three hundred present in in-
dividualized bodily form, but of the "I" in the midst of
them who is not only greater than each, but constitutes
the inmost selfhood of each, — the social seK of every
one. Such an act in common, as that of each person
standing in silence to hsten for the opening words of
the service, not only creates a sense of the Unifying and
Over-arching Will but also of a mystic identity with that
Will. The individual in rising contributes to it; he feels
that he makes it, while he is also thriUed with the feeling
that it is remaking and regenerating him. It is clear,
then, that before a single word is said, so simple and natural
an act has created a sense of the Presence of the Unseen
Order, the Order of the Universal Will, the Will of the
Social Whole, made up of individualized self-respecting
units and yet greater than the arithmetical sum of them aU.
They are in it and it is in them, interdependent and in-
separable ; yet the whole is felt by every one to take pre-
cedence, in dignity and power, over each and over all
severally.
5. The Liberty of Intellectual Interpretation
I am aware that any person may interpret this experi-
ence as an evidence of the supernatural and the transcen-
dent realm of Spirit, and in my judgment the liberty of so
interpreting it should be denied to no one. I would only
claim a like liberty for all those who have no love for meta-
physical theories whatever, to account for the Most High
ONE NEW CENTRE IN EACH STATE II5
which they have experienced, and who almost regard the
metaphysical habit as an impiety in the presence of the
Divine ReaHty itself. They are quite ready to allow those
fellow-mortals whose intellects crave metaphysical expla-
nations, to indulge in them ; but they resent, and rightly
so (it seems to me), any spiritual or intellectual airs which
the cravers for transcendent reaUties may assume. I
would also plead for a like Hberty, with that of the meta-
physicians and creed-makers, for those who are not satisfied
with the simple, unexplained experience of the Divine
Presence, but who crave only a scientific explanation. A
scientific explanation, of course, in the ultimate meta-
physical sense, explains nothing ; but it does coordinate the
factors of one's spiritual experience and formulate the law
of sequence. For instance, it is only a scientific, merely a
psychological and sociological, explanation, when I trace,
in part, the spiritual atmosphere of a rehgious meeting to
the fact that all the individuals rise and stand in silence
together with one direction of thought and heart and will,
and when I posit the General Will of the Group as a factor,
real in a scientific sense, as accounting for and justifying
the belief in a Universal Self. This initial act on the part
of a congregation of rising and standing in silence illus-
trates the effect of all other acts in common by the congre-
gation in inducing a spiritual atmosphere, and I need not
therefore dwell at length on other details.
6. The Contents of Things Said and Sung
Here I will dwell only briefly upon the contents of things
said and sung. I will purposely select illustrations which
omit the words God and Christ or any of the terms which
are common in Christian theology and are generally under-
stood as referring to reahties that are more than human and
natural and are therefore called superhuman and super-
Il6 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
natural. If I selected such phrases and declared that I
knew by experience and experiment that they induced a
spiritual atmosphere, I should fail to prove the point for
which I am contending. But if I omit all of them and use
in a rehgious service only sentences which refer to factors
within universal moral experience and which no rehgious
scepticism has ever dreamed of denying, but if, neverthe-
less, everybody present experiences a still deeper intimacy
of communion and feels his wiU enlarged by a new influx
of moral power, I have gained a scientific demonstration of
the adequacy of mere references to the Socializing Spirit
to redeem the members of any group united in devotion
to the ideal of the perfect. Suppose the words I select be
these : —
Let a man be of good cheer about his soul, who has cast
away the pleasures and ornaments of the body as alien to him,
and has foUowed after the pleasures of knowledge in this Ufe,
who has adorned the soul in her own proper jewels, which are
'^ temperance, and justice, and courage, and nobUity, and truth.
Immediately the great reahties of the Universal Will, of
which the words temperance, justice, nobihty, courage, and
truth are the accepted symbols, present themselves to each
mind in the congregation, and begin to adorn the soul of
each and, by their radiance, induce the good cheer of the
spirit. Or suppose I say : —
It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by
standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it. Act
the Good, and you will believe in it.
Forthwith every mind present, which has come in good
faith and has not with mahce prepense set itself against the
influence of the meeting, will move to enter into the nature
of the Good and will predispose itself to act the Good.
For each soul needed only to be reminded, in order to have
ONE NEW CENTRE IN EACH STATE II7
its own moral faith reenforced. Or the sentences might
consist of the following invocation to what I have called
the Group Spirit : —
Thou Soul of All in the soul of each,
Blessed shall the nations be when thy glory is recognized,
When all who love thee unite to succour and raise the weak !
We praise thee in thy power, thou Soul of our Souls,
We praise thee in thy sanctity and thy wistful hopes.
We praise thee, thou Dweller in the Innermost,
O strength and secret nourisher !
No voice can duly proclaim thy majesty.
No heart can comprehend thy glorious destiny,
Thou Mother of all our spirits.
A similar effect is produced when the following words
are used : —
Let not Moses speak to me, but Thou, O sacred Self of
my selfhood, eternal Truth ; lest I die and bring forth no fruit ;
being inwardly admonished, but not enkindled within ; lest the
Word, heard but not followed, known but not loved, believed but
not obeyed, rise up against me in the days to come.
Or this : —
The prophets utter commandments, but Thou, Spirit of
Holiness, helpest to the fulfilling of them. They show the
Way, but Thou givest strength for the journey.
If all that is said in any one service be selected in rela-
tion to the dominant idea that is to be presented in the
sermon for the occasion, that idea would give unity to all
the items in the service. The Uberty on the part of a
preacher always to select for each occasion whatever items
will give supreme unity to the whole of the service, is in-
dispensable, if the service is to exercise its full power upon
the minds of the congregation. No prescribed forms, even
though so beautiful and great as those of the Episcopal
Il8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Church for Morning and Evening Prayer, can lit all sermons
and can equally suit every occasion. It seems quite cer-
tain, therefore, that within the next thirty years in America
an ever increasing right of discretion will be left to the
minister even of denominations which forbid extempo-
raneous prayers. From hundreds of items approved by
the church as a whole, the minister will be allowed to select
those he thinks best fitted under the immediate circum-
stance. Nor can I avoid the conclusion that the illustra-
tions which I have just given contain nothing out of har-
mony with the spirit and purpose of the Episcopal Church
and possess some mark which would upon occasion com-
mend them to any minister of any denomination who
was alive to the needs of his congregation and to the
demands of modern Kfe. Any person, therefore, attend-
ing a service where any of these sentences were pronounced,
if he had felt the power in them would, upon going away,
become a propagandist of the new idea and would help
create pubhc opinion in the direction of a rehgion of nation-
alistic humanism. By his propaganda he would be hasten-
ing the day when every denomination will be ready to
admit new forms and phrases expressive of the living
habit of thought and of the conscience of our age.
I have no space in which to cite the contents of further
items in a purely humanistic service ; but I may point out
the fact that every participant in such a service interprets
all references to social hfe or to duty or to character,
although expressed in universal language, in relation to
the human world in which he himself immediately Uves.
All such utterances, therefore, have a reference to his own
personal conduct, his own family, his own city and state,
and, when he is an American, to the United States. It is
not necessary, therefore, to be forever saying, "America,
America," or "Ilhnois, Ilhnois," or "San Francisco, San
Francisco." All this will be understood, as the essential
ONE NEW CENTRE IN EACH STATE II9
meaning of great literature always is in what it suggests
rather than in what it Hterally expresses. Only occasionally
need there be a direct naming of the immediate social
group ; then, the very infrequency will enhance the efifective-
ness of the naming. There is, however, often a great power
added to words, if the congregation know that the author
was one of their own nation, and his hfe was identified
with its history and that its history poured itself into his
prose or verse. For instance, the congregation at the
Ethical Church in London, England, sing with keen appre-
ciation — it is one of their favourite hymns — the poem of
Emerson's containing the stanzas : —
Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old ;
The Litanies of nations came.
Like the volcano's tongue of flame,
Up from the burning core below —
The canticles of love and woe.
O'er England's abbeys bends the sky,
As on its friends, with kindred eye :
For out of thought's interior sphere
These wonders rose to upper air ;
And nature gladly gave them place,
Adopted them into her race.
They are grateful for the exquisite reference to Eng-
land's abbeys; but I cannot resist the feeling that these
words, of America's greatest philosopher and prophet of
democracy, would find their way the more readily to the
heart of an American congregation.
CHAPTER VIII
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES
I. A Voluntary Kational Church
The separation of Church and State in America has
thus far been a political necessity ; but, unfortimately, her
citizens have drawn the wholly illogical conclusion that if
it was necessary to separate the institutions of religion
from the State, it must have been because rehgion has no
vital connection -n-ith nationahty. Colour is lent to this
notion by the large part which supernaturaHsm has played
in theology, and by the close association of rehgion with
behef in another world. But, despite the plausibihty of the
inference, I have shown that reUgions, in their great periods
of creative and beneficent energy, have always been iden-
tical with the souls of nations, and with the enduring in-
terests of this world. At this stage of our argument it is
only necessary that we bring to mind again the distinction
of nation. State, and Church, and the relation subsisting
between these three social entities.
The State is the nation organized and acting with sove-
reign power through its Government. Where a State
does not imdertake certain enterprises, it may be only
because it beUeves that they can safely be left to indi^'iduals
and voluntary groups of indi\'iduals. The reason, there-
fore, for the separation of Church and State need in no
wise be that rehgion is not a mundane interest, and is not
essential to the common weal. A nation's hfe is infinitely
more rich and complex than that part of itself which is
organized imder pohtical government. My reader must
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES 121
therefore concede that the mere separation of Church and
State can in no wise be taken as proving a separateness of
rehgion and nation.
Let me venture to point out, further, that the separation
in America between Church and State is not so absolute
as the ordinary language of Americans would lead one to
suppose. I am alluding not to the indirect influence which
powerful reUgious bodies may exert upon legislation, but
to the fact that the State in America has throughout the
country the whole task of education. Now, any one
accustomed to resolve the religious life into its sociological
factors knows that, until the last century, throughout the
world, the rehgion of a country has always been its system
of popular education, and that in Christendom the Church
has, until quite recent generations, organized and con-
trolled intellectual as well as moral instruction and disci-
pline. We may fairly say, then, that so far as the State
has adopted education as one of its functions, it has taken
over the work of the Church, and is in so far a Church-
State. If it be retorted that such education as the State
in America gives is not religious, the answer may be hurled
back. Is it then education ? If it does not cultivate moral
taste and direct the instincts and organize the sentiments
to serve the great ends of national life, can it be anything
but pseudo-education ? — can it be really of ultimate
benefit to the country? And, if not, why should the
nation lavish money upon it ? If the schools simply train
the intellect to be a more efl&cient instrument of self-
centred egoism, are they not turning the children into
enemies of the State itself ?
To return now to our general analysis : Whenever a
State includes in its purview those activities of a nation's
life which are called religious, we have a State Church.
But there might be a highly developed and organized and
unified national Church wholly aloof from the State. There
122 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
might even be only one religious organization throughout
the nation, comprehending all religious persons — and that
a purely voluntary one. We should then have a national
Church which was not a State Church. This would be
possible where all the members of a nation were of one
mind in regard to rehgious doctrines and methods ; or,
there might be nothing like imanimity of doctrinal opinion,
and there might be many separate groups standing for
distinct philosophies and points of view ; yet still each
group might see the necessity of cooperating with others
for the social and national ends which religion serves.
Common loyalty to the nation might override differences.
Each denomination might value highly the benefits of con-
ference with persons of opposite opinions, and even prefer
to submit temporarily to adverse majorities on special
issues, rather than suffer the disadvantages of isolation.
I have implied that the development of national ideahsm
would require the organization into one voluntary Church
of all the rehgious trends in the nation ; but I must quaUfy
this sweeping statement. It is evident from the inherent
nature of allegiance to a foreign bishop, that no national
Church could find place within itself for a body pledged
thereto. And on the other side, no organization in alle-
giance to an alien hierarchy could consistently do any-
thing but refuse to cooperate in a national Church.
But if this is true of the Roman Catholic body, it would
also be true of any community which should beHeve itself
to possess a monopoly of spiritual insight, as some Jews
have beUeved of their race. Self -excluded from every
national Church would be the few surviving Hebrew
jingoists and all Roman Cathohcs who had not become
converted to modernism.
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES 1 23
2. A State Church Un-American
The further fact ought to be again recalled, that even
where there is not one voluntary organization embracing
all separate religious groups, nevertheless the seemingly
separate sects do reciprocally influence one another. The
Episcopalians of America, for example, are not the same
in their teaching as they would be, had there been no such
thing as the New England Unitarian Movement, blossom-
ing in Charming, Parker, and Emerson.
We may therefore say that there always is a national
Church where there is a nation containing groups of spiritually
minded men and women devoted to the higher ends of hu-
manity and not wholly uninfluenced, as groups, by one
another. Just as we can speak of American architecture
and American commerce, although there is neither a State
nor a voluntary organization of all the architectural or com-
mercial interests of the country, so we may speak of Ameri-
can religion and the American Church. In regard to
architecture or commerce, however, so long as their pur-
poses and technique and ideals are unorganized throughout
the country, it is apparent that they cannot be developed to
their highest degree. Any interest, if we take the point
of view of the nation as a whole, must be greatly handi-
capped in proportion as it is left exclusively to individual
effort or to scattered groups in private cooperation. Like-
wise, a nation's rehgion cannot at any period have advanced
far beyond the degree to which there has been established
an intercommunication of all the forces involved.
As there is always a certain national spiritual unity, we
may, as I have just done, imply that there is always a
national Church ; for the nation is a Church. Yet because
its growth is retarded by lack of organization and its
energy checked by the notion that rehgion is not vitally
boimd up with national life, we may, without being mis-
124 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
understood, sometimes say of any country that it has no
national Church — meaning no coordination of all the
religious efforts within it.
For the sake of clearness in poUtical thinking, it is for-
tunate that we have the two words, nation and State, the
only difference between the two reahties indicated being
that the nation is the whole hfe of a people, whether organ-
ized pohticaUy or not, whereas the State is only the nation
in so far as it is organized with sovereign power, levying
taxes, passing laws, and enforcing them by means of a pohce
and of an army and a navy. But it is most adverse to
clearness in rehgious thinking that the word Church has
to serve both for the imorganized national spiritual life
and also for the rehgious organization, whether under the
State or volimtary, and whether national or sectarian.
Despite this equivocal reference of the term, however,
we can remain clear in our thinking if we bear in mind
the great difference between a State Church and a Na-
tional Church. There may be a National Church where
there is no State Church, but also there may be a State
Church which is not a National Church ; that is, there may
be a religious organization established and endowed by the
pohtical Government, highly organized, centralized, and
powerful, and yet it may by no means embrace all, or
even the greater part, of the ideaUstic trends in the nation.
Such a State Church would imdoubtedly be a part of the
National Church, and yet it would incontrovertibly be one
of the chief causes hindering the coming into existence
either of a voluntary National Church or of a truly national
State Church.
This is the present condition of affairs in England. The
Estabhshed Church is not national. There is a National
Church — because there is a nation — but it is still rudi-
mentary ; and perhaps the chief reason why the Nation
as a Church is in such a backward stage of development is
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES 1 25
that the Establishment retards the cooperation of all the
national religious forces. This condition of affairs can be
denied by no one ; even those who believe in the existing
Establishment deplore that in attempting to unify the
nation it has disrupted it spiritually. They admit that it
offends one-third of the population and never touches an-
other third. Likewise, many Englishmen who advocate
disestabhshment of the present State Church do so chiefly
because they see that it mihtates against England's becom-
ing an organic unit of spiritual life.
Happily for America it has no State Church professing
to be national when it is not, and so preventing the advent
of at least a voluntary National Church.
Whether America will ever organize her spiritual life
xmder the sovereign power of the State is a question which
we need not here discuss, because every one who knows her
genius and tradition must agree that a national State
Church, if it is ever to be established, ought not to be founded
until after there had grown up a voluntary organization
of all the reHgious groups in the nation. Moreover, even
those who would bitterly oppose a State estabUshment of
rehgion need feel no alarm at the voluntary unification of
aU voluntary churches ; for there is nothing inherent in a
truly national voluntary church that would incline it to
become a State Church. The only vital question, then,
for America is the relation of the nation as an organic unit
of spiritual life to the various religious denominations
already in existence.
3. Religious Parties versus Sects
The theory that a nation, in so far as it reverences ideals
and aims at their realization, is a Church does not in the
least overlook the fact that there may be violent party
strife among various rehgious groups. Nor does it even
126 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
involve a disparagement or condemnation of such strife.
A nation does not lose its unity in religion because of theo-
logical controversies any more than it ceases to be a unit
in civil life because of the antagonism of various political
parties. On the contrary, the idea of a nation as a Church,
far from favouring the suppression of reUgious differences or
opposing discussion and the continual creation of new
groups to advance new ideas, recognizes that ultimate har-
mony, real uniformity of behef, and deep inward identity
of insight and aspiration can never arise throughout a
nation except by way of the freest and boldest expression
and propaganda of every fresh sentiment. It is only by
means of a struggle for existence among competing stand-
ards and principles of personal and social life — it is only
by experience and experiment, by trial and test — that a
people can ever become able to select those ideas and
standards which wiU really best serve the spiritual life of a
nation. In our day, so patent has become the beneficial
effect of religious freedom and of hberty to proselytize by
moral suasion that before many decades priests and
preachers wiU, I beUeve, accept discussion and democratic
baUots on the first principles of reUgion as legitimate in-
struments of spiritual advancement. They will count
these devices equally sacred with private prayer and with
meetings for worship and praise. Only by continual fric-
tion of sincere intellect with intellect and by clash of devout
character with character, can a whole nation ever come to
see and rightly value righteousness, duty, and truth, and
the means to the actualization thereof in life. When once
the idea of the nation as a quickening sphere of spiritual
power becomes prevalent, sectarian aloofness must fall
away. Sects will cease to be sects ; each one of them will
become a recognized party among the many within the
nation as the Church.
Our argument has now brought us face to face with a
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES I27
national danger — the idea which every voluntary religious
group now entertains of itself, that it is a self-contained
unit of spiritual life. This is the principle of sectarianism,
in antagonism to which I wish to plead for such a reinter-
pretation of the various rehgious denominations that they
shall look upon themselves not as self-contained churches,
but as parties ia the one spiritual hfe of the nation.
The doctrine of sectarianism stands seemingly at the
opposite pole of thought to cosmopoUtanism ; and yet the
two are mutually compatible outgrowths of one and the
same philosophy. Cosmopolitanism, as we have seen,
denies that the nation is the spiritual unit of mankind ; but
it carries with it no objection to the voluntary organization
of private individuals into rehgious groups. On the con-
trary, inasmuch as such groups, if they set themselves up
as whole churches, deny that the nation is the living Church
of all citizens, cosmopohtanism encourages them. Every
advance in the organization of sects constitutes a corre-
sponding dechne in the spiritual self-consciousness of the
nation. An American who thinks that the Methodist or
the Baptist society is the real organic being from which his
soul derives its sustenance, is naturally as jealous of the
new philosophy which holds the nation itself to be his
living Church as are the sentimental cosmopolitan, the
individualistic champion of peace, the Marxian SociaHst,
the old-fashioned Hebrew jingoist, and the anti-modernist
Roman Catholic.
But while the sectarian looks with jealous antagonism
upon the doctrine of rehgious nationalism, it must be noted
that the attitude of national idealism towards sectarianism
does not consist in the demand that private-enterprise
churches should be disbanded. On the contrary, it is in-
conceivable how national ideahsm could propagate itself
except through the instrumentaUty of voluntary bodies
of rehgious enthusiasts. All that the national ideaUst
128 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
would ask of the various sects is that they should Hnk
themselves up in thought and purpose with the spiritual
life of the nation as a whole, and become its glad servants.
In other words, its demand is that the sects should cease
to look upon themselves as sects — that is, as self-contained
spheres of spiritual energy, underived from any larger
whole — and that they shoidd regard themselves rather as
so many participants, both dependent and determinant,
in the Hfe of the nation as the one true Church.
The distinction between a rehgious sect and a rehgious
party has been almost wholly overlooked. Yet this dis-
tinction is vital to the adoption of a poKcy that will lead
to the spiritual imification of a nation. The pecuHarity of
a party as distinct from a sect is that it never withdraws
and stands aloof from its antagonists. It knows that it is
not self-feeding, nor is it ever self-centred. It knows that
for it to hold aloof would be its death. A party always
saUies forth and presses forward in order to grapple and
wrestle with opposing parties. The policy and the philoso-
phy of parties is to meet face to face and contend — bitterly
if you will, but always with the hope of changing the an-
tagonist into an ally.
The truth is, antagonistic parties are, in the nature of
their relation, not enemies, but friends disagreeing. They
aim at the same goal, and serve the same interest. They
are always understood to be but sections of a larger whole.
They seek intimacy of contact in struggle, in order that they
may win over opponents. Indeed, the whole method of
government by majority is based upon the evident fact
that one party modifies another, and that each is influenced
by the forces of opposition, as well as by its own doctrines
and its own leaders. The philosophy of government by
majority is due to the experience that what was a majority
yesterday may become to-morrow a minority, and vice
versa.
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES 1 29
These facts in civil polity are familiar enough, but it
sounds strange to suggest that, in the same way, rehgious
sects should be forced, or should force themselves, to enter
into cooperative antagonism. Sects as sects hold aloof
from one another. Each considers that it is spiritually
self-contained and self-feeding, and when it ventures forth
it attempts only to convert individuals — not other re-
ligious groups as such — to its own point of view. As yet,
unfortunately, there is no such thing as a meeting of Baptists
with Methodists, or of both with Episcopalians, in organ-
ized conference and discussion, for the purpose of beating
out some larger, wiser formula of ultimate religious truth
than each in the past has been able to express. It is true
that there are interdenominational meetings, but only for
the discussion of matters unrelated to fundamental prin-
ciples.
When once the members of the various religious denomi-
nations of America become imbued with the principle of
national ideaHsm as the essence of religion, it is hard to
believe that they will not adopt it. Then they will cease
to be sects. They will voluntarily and spontaneously co-
operate as so many parties in one spiritual community.
The first result may be an embitterment of antagonism,
but this effect caimot last long. Inevitably and quickly
there must ensue a rapprochement of all the denominations,
drawn together by their common effort to conserve,
strengthen, and purify the soul of the nation.
Let me cite as analogous to ecclesiastical, the case of
political parties. The latter meet face to face in the legis-
lative halls of the State. They are professedly dominated
by the desire to serve their country. They differ only as
to the means to be adopted and as to the philosophy of
society. So long as the State is in no great danger, oppo-
sition may run high ; but the moment any menace to the
country becomes evident to all, and in proportion as it
130 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
seems imminent, party strifes and diiJerences are over-
borne. What a boon if among religious bodies theological
hatred always ceased the moment the spiritual hfe of the
nation was in danger of disruption ! — and it would always
cease at this point if rehgious denominations met as parties
instead of holding aloof as sects.
From the point of view of America's spiritual destiny,
sectarianism is the sin of sins ; aloofness is a denial of the
one organic being of which they are incontrovertibly mem-
bers. For any rehgious body this is schism — to remain
aloof from other spiritual groups within the same nation.
4. Sectarianism Anti-democratic
Private-enterprise organizations in religion are, if self-
centred and if assuming to be independent units of spiritual
life, by their very nature undemocratic in method, in ma-
chinery [and principle ; and if it be true that America
is fundamentally democratic, then sectarianism is anti-
American. The notion is prevalent and almost universal
that a httle group of persons may segregate themselves out
of the general community in which they live, and yet still
remain democratic in character, provided they practise
self-government by majority vote among themselves. But
surely a self-selected group of persons, as compared with a
whole nation, is always but a few ; and government of a
few by that few, in the interests of the same few, can never
constitute democracy. Nor can a nation which is demo-
cratic on a territorial basis, and governs all the people
within its area by all for all, tolerate for a moment the
notion that httle voluntary groups of picked individuals
are democratic simply because they imitate the national
machinery of democracy. A httle group, however demo-
cratically governed, is always but a chque. What is more,
it never has the character of democracy on a national ter-
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES 131
ritorial basis, because the clique is always vitally in touch
with, and absolutely dependent upon, the whole nation in
which it lives ; whereas the nation is dependent upon no
corresponding larger whole. If a rehgious clique counts
itself an organic unit of spiritual Hfe, it is blind to the most
patent of all facts — the dependence of each of its mem-
bers, and even of itself as a whole, upon the enveloping hfe
of the nation. It is against the very spirit of democracy
in religion — and therefore of America — that the religious
elements of the nation should be segregated into mutually
isolated private-enterprise churches. Such groups generally
betray the vanities of petty aristocracies. Indeed, the
more fully they imitate democratic forms and methods, the
more grotesque and preposterous a counterfeit they become.
It is a fact generally overlooked, but one which can never
be denied, after attention has once been called to it, that
there never can be real democracy except where the privi-
lege of cooperation is extended to all the individuals
Hving in any geographical area. That area may be only
a small section of the territory of a whole nation, for
democracy may be decentralized; but the moment the
privilege of cooperation is denied to any of the inhabitants,
there is a discarding of the territorial basis, which is the
essence of democracy.
Now, every reUgious denomination, whether acting as
a sect or as a party, by its very nature excludes from its
membership persons who do not accept its distinctive
tenets. Such exclusion is inevitable, and is wholly com-
mendable. The disbelievers in Methodism are not found
inside of Wesley's organization, nor is it conceivable that
they should be found there, for their presence would destroy
the very character of the body upon which they had in-
truded. It will be noticed that I am not pleading that
denominations should surrender their distinctive tenets
when I advise that they transform themselves from sects to
132 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
parties. My thought is that they should continue to
reject heretics, but at the same time meet heretics in a
larger organization devoted to the spiritual unification of
the nation. I am not proposing that every Christian
body shoiild become simply an ethical society, and then as
such cooperate with all others. I am not proposing that
before they organize nationally, they should drop any of
their present conditions of membership ; I am only plead-
ing that they should rid themselves of their prejudice of
sectarianism. In future generations every denomination
may be ready to discard any tenet which is foimd to be not
essential to the highest service of the nation; but such a
change within any one rehgious denomination may well
be left to the reaction upon its members of contact with
other rehgious groups, under the inspiration of a national
ideal.
It may further be noticed that what I am advocating
in no wise involves the necessity that any reUgious denomi-
nation should in its own government be representative.
Just as such a denomination does not become democratic
by adopting for itseK the machinery of government by
majority vote, so, on the other hand, it does not cease to
be so because it is episcopahan in its government. It
becomes democratic, whatever its own form of government,
the moment it seeks to cooperate in a national organiza-
tion for the spiritual upUft of the world, and it does not
cease to be so imtil it becomes self-centred in its interest,
and denies its moral dependence upon the psychic reservoir
of the whole people.
In the spiritual interests of America, sectarianism must
be stamped out of existence ; then every denomination,
becoming a party, will assume a new Ufe and virihty. All
the defects of the various denominations in Christianity
may be traced ultimately to sectarianism. Because they
have counted themselves as autonomous churches, they
THE NATION, THE STATE, AND THE CHURCHES 1 33
have outlived by centuries the times which originally
caused them and needed them. How unUke in this respect
are they to the life of a whole nation, either as a Church or
as a civic body !
One of the differences between a sect and a true democracy
is that the latter does not attempt to exclude or suppress
geniuses for promulgating new opinions. Geniuses, re-
maining within the nation, whatever turmoil they stir up for
a time, in the end react upon the nation's life, and are
recognized of it. Religious denominations, however, not
regarding themselves as parties, are noted for being founded
by men of rare originality, but are notorious for never
afterwards providing scope for prophets of fresh insight.
In other words, the fundamental difference between a sect
and a democratic religious party is that in the latter, by
meeting with the members of other parties, every individual
is stimulated to independent judgment; and parties are
compelled in self-defence to modify their formulas and
change their point of view.
Organized contact with the life of other rehgious groups
being thus vivifying, any one sect transforming itself into
a national party would become sensitively solicitous for
the nation's half-conscious needs and groping trends.
It would illuminate these and turn them into conscious
demands and self-directing principles. By virtue of such
contact and of such service, it would deserve to be recognized
as a democratic body.
The preposterous notion that a sect holding aloof from
cooperation with other reUgious denominations is demo-
cratic, has evidently sprung out of the individuaHstic
psychology of the eighteenth century. This regarded each
individual person as originally the real unit of spiritual
life, and any society as but a voluntary aggregate of separate
atoms. Such a philosophy, however, cannot, by the very
make-up of the word democracy, be rightfully designated
134 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
by this term. From the point of view of history, etymology,
and sociology, the real unit of democracy, as I have already
pointed out, is always ultimately either a whole nation
or some geographical section of its inhabitants, and not
a voluntary group of selected individuals. Or, if the term
cannot be thus limited after its long use in a vaguer sense,
we must discriminate between individualistic democracy
and social democracy. No one will deny that a sectarian
denomination is not an instance of social democracy.
The aloofness of one sect from another has been the
curse not only of the nation as a whole, but of the reHgious
bodies themselves. We find throughout America that
organized religious Kfe, as compared with other forms of
social activity, is weak and ineffectual. Its thoughts and
methods are petrified. The preachers are not the dominant
factors in the intellectual and moral enKghtenment of the
nation that religious teachers ought to be. If the people
are being led forward to new heights of self-control and
vision, it is not the churches which are leading. They are
timid, apologetic, alarmed, and cautious. Why is it so ?
Why are other social agencies more progressive, valiant,
confident, and beneficent ? It is because they are in demo-
cratic contact with one another and with groups with
which they disagree. Such contact is the great vitalizing
agent ; but the churches have not yet learned the wisdom
of seeking it.
CHAPTER IX
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES
I. Religion not merely a Private Concern
Our age is turning more and more away from the old-
time habit of trusting to intelligent beings other than man.
The help we once expected from invisible and incorporeal
agencies we are now demanding, with the enthusiasm of
a new faith, from our fellow-mortals. Although each of
us be weak and bhnd, we feel that infinite is the help,
spiritual as well as material, which Man collectively can
yield to men individually.
Among the morally intelligent, religion is accordingly
ceasing to be regarded as a merely private concernment.
The individual is looking to society to dehver him from
sin and suffering ; and the society he looks to is nothing
less than the nation to which he belongs.
Until the last decade of the nineteenth century, those
who had discarded communion with supernatural beings
inchned to the belief that adequate consolation could be
drawn by each person from the inner recesses of his own
soul. The profounder Ufe of the human spirit was sup-
posed to be of such a nature that to attempt to communi-
cate it was to expose it to degradation. "We descend to
meet," said Emerson. To crave religious communion
with one's fellow-mortals was thought to be a denial of
the sufficiency of one's own inner store of spiritual wealth.
Solitude and the vastness of isolation were the only im-
mensities befitting the self-contained soul. Thus those
who discarded communion with supernatural beings with-
drew into themselves.
I3S
136 THE SOUL or AMERICA
Even within the churches, the discipline, except in special
centres, had been more and more falling into disrepute.
Whole classes in the community, although they retained
a belief in a personal Creator and in the traditional teachings
of the Church, iacHned to count cooperation with other
human beings in rehgious practices as superfluous. The
very fact that they found the consolations of fellowship
in commimion with personal agencies outside of the social
organism made them the more ready to dispense with
rehgious commimion with other men.
Many observers interpreted this tendency as indicating
a decline of rehgious conviction. But such an interpre-
tation is incorrect. The rehgious hfe became less social,
but there was not anything like a corresponding decrease
of behef in the existence of a personal Creator or in the
divinity of Jesus Christ, or of reverence for the Bible.
The whole fact is that the doctrine of an individuahstic
psychology, while on the one hand injuring church hfe,
had on the other hand been temporarily intensifying the
rehgious devotion of those who already had attained a
spiritual consciousness of their own. It had injured church
hfe in the same way that in poHtics it had been working
against the fuU functioning of the State. By the year
i860, the theory of laissez-faire had caused the Govern-
ment of England to restrict itself almost entirely to pohce
duties. In the previous century, the Constitution of America
had in similar manner been framed under such distrust of
pohtical regulation that the Federal Government was not
given fuU powers of sovereignty. No wonder that the
Church was severed from the State, and that finally the
identity of rehgion with the spirit of nationahty was wholly
forgotten. Nor is it a wonder that individuals preeminently
rehgious by nature, accepting the doctrine of individuahsm,
interpreted rehgion as a merely private concern.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 137
2. Professor William Jameses Error
The individualistic interpretation of the inner hfe so
possessed the mind of the late Professor William James that
in his " Varieties of ReHgious Experience " he begins his
investigation of "personal religion" with adehberate setting
aside of churches and all their works as worse than irrele-
vant. He justifies this procedure on the ground that eccle-
siastical organization emanates from individual geniuses,
but that individual genius is not quickened by contact
with church organization.
A survey of history [he says] shows us that as a rule religious
geniuses attract disciples, and produce groups of sympathizers.
When these groups get strong enough to "organize" themselves,
they become ecclesiastical institutions with corporate ambitions
of their own. The spirit of politics and the lust of dogmatic
rule are then apt to enter and to contaminate the originally
innocent thing; so that when we hear the word "religion"
nowadays, we think inevitably of some " church " or other ; . . .
but in this course of lectures ecclesiastical institutions hardly
concern us at all. The religious experience which we are study-
ing is that which lives itself out within the private breast.
First-hand individual experience of this kind has always ap-
peared as a heretical sort of innovation to those who witnessed
its birth. Naked comes it into the world and lonely; and it
has always, for a time at least, driven him who had it into the
wilderness, often into the literal wilderness out of doors, where
the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, St. Francis, George Fox, and
so many others had to go.
Now, in the name of history, I protest that all conclusions
drawn from this premise are rendered worthless by the
initial blunder of imagining that ecclesiastical institutions
have no significant and helpful bearing upon the inmost
rehgious experience. It is the very opposite of truth to
say that such experience comes into the world "lonely."
138 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
There never was a great religious innovator who was not
nourished and fostered, as it were, at the bosom and in
the very heart of an ecclesiastical organization. Jesus
was conceived in the womb of Judaism ; Savonarola and
Luther, of Catholicism ; Wesley, of Anghcanism. They
all loved their spiritual mother, the Church. Their very
innovations were for her sake. Their sacrifice was for her.
Not one single rehgious genius known to history dis-
covered and brought forth, in isolation and by direct ;m-
mediated communion with the Infinite, "the originally
irmocent thing" which the Church at first perhaps failed
to appreciate but afterwards adopted. Nor has any re-
hgious genius known to history ever been the product of
what is called "the world" as distinct from the Church.
Even the withdrawing into the wilderness on the part of
innovators was a taking with them of the precious secret
of the ecclesiastical organization, that they might penetrate
deeper into its spirit.
It is psychologically unwarrantable, therefore, to imagine
that a man's mind is isolated from social institutions simply
because he has withdrawn for a period to meditate. Even
George Fox did not get by isolation the new truth he
uttered ; he got it by contact with the quickening social
hfe of his time, when all England was a church, and reh-
gious controversy filled every nook and corner of the nation.
Thousands were feeUng what they could not express. In
him, exquisitely sensitive as he was to the needs of the social
organism about him, these feehngs became conscious,
articulate, and effective.
If it were impossible for Professor James to see the whole
truth, that personal experience comes from church or-
ganization as much as church organization grows out of
some one's personal experience — if he could only see half
of this truth — it is a great pity that he should have seen
the less significant half, and devoted his rare gifts to that
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 1 39
side of it which of itself alone can never bear fruit unto
life. The world's need is to know under what controllable
conditions geniuses with fresh religious experience appear
in society. If the world knew these conditions, it would
bring forth a thousand where now, by haphazard, it pro-
duces only one.
3. The Quickening Influence oj Churches
If we are ever to deepen personal reUgious experience,
it wiU be by intensifying, developing, and systematizing^
church discipHne. Only ecclesiastical institutions quicken
religious emotion and clarify insight to the degree that
drives men, stung with the splendour of new vision, into the
desert, and then back again into the slums of the city,
with plans thought out and purposes and policy fixed
and matured. If we want a Jesus to appear on earth,
some nation like America must do what the Jewish theocracy
for five whole centuries did — focus the attention and desire
of men and women, by means of national Temple services,
in expectation of faith, upon the necessity of a deliverer.
As regards Savonarola, if we remember that the Catholic
Church consisted not only of the immediate phase which
dominated in Italy in his day, but of the whole reach back
to the time of Jesus, and even, through Judaism, to Isaiah,
we cannot deny that all that was new and most characteris-
tic in Savonarola was old and most distinctive of the Church.
The same is true of Luther. Had he not been a monk,
he never could have made Germany. And in the case of
Wesley, it was no accident that such unique first-hand
experience of rehgion as his came to one whose father and
mother both had been preachers and even fanatics of church
discipHne, as were also his remoter ancestors, and that he
was bred in Oxford, the hotbed of ecclesiasticism.
How could any one, in the face of these well-known facts.
I40 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
hope to account for personal religious experience from the
point of view that ecclesiastical institutions hardly concern
it at all? Even Emerson, with his fresh democratic
American gospel of self-trust, never could have gained his
unparalleled penetration and insight had he not been trained
to be a preacher of an organized rehgious body, had he not
studied at a university founded to equip preachers, and
had he not sprung from generations of ministers of religion.
The truth which a study of the historic facts brings to
Hght is that great heretics, as well as the most powerful
defenders of the old order, are formed only at the heart of
ecclesiastical institutions. Heresies are but vital mani-
festations of the spirit of the old order, as it adapts itself
to changes in the intellectual and social environment, to
meet for the Church's sake the exigencies of the coming
hour. The spirit of orthodoxy and the spirit of heresy
are one ; the opposite of both is worldly indifference. Let
heretics remember their kinship with orthodox enthusiasts.
Let them beware ; for if they destroy instead of trans-
forming ecclesiastical institutions, they will involve their
own inspiration in a common ruin. Instead of Hving
humanistic ideaHsm there will remain only the dead matter
of sel&sh conventionaUty. It is as unscientific to think
that fresh spiritual insight can be gained in isolation from
organized rehgious bodies as to imagine that scientific
discoveries and inventions Hke those of radium and wire-
less telegraphy will come to men and women who have
been kept all their hves aloof from chemical and physical
laboratories and from the great educational institutions of
technical research.
This error is the more astonishing at the beginning of
an era when at last the law of cause and effect and the idea
of the spiritual interdependence of mankind have taken
practical hold of all the great thinkers of the world. The
truth is, Professor James was the victim of a false individ-
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 14I
ualism. His psychology was blind to the fact that those
whose minds are most self-reliant, intuitive, and creative
are the ones most sensitively receptive to the higher
tendencies of the age and society in which they Uve. When
they were least aware of drawing spiritual vitality from
the community about them, then most was the common
life streaming into them and invigorating them.
During the last fifteen years, not only has the main trend
of enlightenment been away from communion with super-
human agencies, but the religious geniuses of our day have
at the same time become acutely conscious that they have
no ethical life apart from the men and women who con-
stitute the world about them. They know that if from
these they cannot derive the inspiration which men in
former times undoubtedly did receive under the discipline
of the old religious practices, their souls must wither at
the root. But they are begirming to realize that a man may
be all the time absorbing spiritual sustenance from his fellow-
mortals, although he be under the illusion that he is draw-
ing the waters of Hfe wholly from some iimer well unfed
from social sources. They are becoming convinced that
those who attribute their salvation to supernatural agents,
and to the behef in such, are, in fact, deriving their power
and enthusiasm not ultimately from within any more
than from above, but from round about — from the spirit-
ual reservoir of their nation, their city, their church, and,
through Uterature and history, from the past of human
society carried over and flowing on into the present time.
4. The Self-made Man in Religion
Now, it may be contended that a man can be spiritually
in touch with the rehgious hfe of his times although he
be not a member of any church. He may go from one
rehgious meeting to another and hear all the preachers
142 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
of his town. In periodical literatiire and books he may
follow the great controversies of the hour on theology.
Through the daily Press he may become aware of aU the
currents and cross-currents, the main stream and the eddies
and back-waters of the spiritual consciousness of the time.
What, therefore, it may be asked, is the need of his entering
into the routine and the dogmatism of active membership
ia any one church organization? Let him spare himself
such trammels, and in the freedom of independence let him
draw vitality from aU the sources round about him. It
may be maintained that by thus holding aloof and yet
remaining receptive he would avoid aU the pettinesses and
corruptions which inevitably manifest themselves in the
life of any organized body of human beings, and yet gain
that which is highest and of endiuing worth in them aU.
In answer to this contention, I would reply : A person
who is outside of aU reKgious organizations is less likely
to gain an expert intimacy with reHgion. However much
he tries, he will remain veritably an outsider, and all those
who are iinder the discipHne of the organization will realize
that he has missed something that is essential to a correct
imderstanding. Experience does not justify the notion
that a man quite aloof from the reKgious life and thought
of others wiU possess any highly developed spiritual life
of his own. The very organs of reHgion in his spirit wiU
become atrophied. After twenty years of isolation he
may become a fanatic, but he will be one whom every
member of organized Hfe wiU know to pity rather than
respect. He will have no message for his age or any other
age, because messages come from that source from which
he has cut himself o£F.
Would Professor James have maintained, in regard to
scientific insight and enthusiasm, that it also Hves itself
out within the private breast, unrelated to the organized
scientific life of the community? If a man makes great
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 1 43
discoveries in chemistry or physics, it is due, at least in
our age of more than primitive knowledge, to his disciple-
ship and discipline in scientific organizations. In with-
drawing for greater concentration on some special problem,
he takes with him the whole tradition and apparatus of
scientific investigation. Further, if in his isolated in-
vestigation he remains long aloof and drops out of touch
with what other men are doing in the privacy of scientific
organizations but have not yet pubHshed to the lay world,
he will be overtaken and left behind.
Now, what is the difference between the insight and
enthusiasm of religion and the insight and enthusiasm of
science that would make any one cast something Kke
contempt upon ecclesiastical organizations ? In science,
art, and Kterature, the idea of the self-made man has been
forever exploded. But religion being still more compli-
cated and its tradition still longer and more involved
than the scientific or artistic interest, the self-made man
in rehgion must be more grotesque and impossible
than in other domains of human effort. One may trace
almost all the follies and vanities of reKgious men to their
notion that in rehgion one need not take counsel of one's
feUow-men either for warning or example, but may open
up in isolation infinite inner sources of hght and Kfe. It is
the self-made prophets and prophetesses who bring forth
such "abortive, monstrous, and unkindly mixed" fanati-
cisms as Mormonism and Eddyism.
Lest I seem to exaggerate the radical significance of
Professor James's individuahsm, it must be remembered
that the sentences which I have quoted from him contain
no merely passing observation, but are introduced to justify
the entire omission from his whole volume of any tracing
of spiritual conversions and illuminations to the influence
of churches upon the innermost centre of men's souls.
It may be true that ecclesiastical organizations begin
144 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
to develop corporate ambitions of their own, and that the
spirit of politics and the lust of dogmatic rule enter and
contaminate the originally innocent thing. But is not
this imperfection equally to be noted in schools, in imi-
versities, in cities, in states, in famihes, in business organiza-
tions ? Yet would anybody expect a man to become richer
or more learned or more civic by standing outside these
imperfect institutions than by entering into them ? Further-
more, does a historic knowledge of churches lead us to think
that they are any more corrupt than other social bodies?
And does not a knowledge of others lead us to think that
their ambitions, their poUtics, and their lust of domination
are often more than offset by a still greater development
of their true ends and methods ? Harvard University,
if one knew intimately its inside workings, would no doubt
show its fair proportion of frailties and corruptions; yet
in the eyes of the world it stands not for these, but as the
foster-mother of such geniuses as the writer of " The Varie-
ties of Religious Experience."
5. "Omne Vivum ex Vivo"
Again I would meet rehgious individuahsm by pointing
out the fact that even innovators and heretics in reKgion de-
rive their followers not from "the world, " but from among
those who have long undergone the disciphne of church
communion. Those who have withdrawn into temporary
isolation gladly turn to some new prophet who is voicing
their living convictions. The men who have always been
outside of churches may care for music or painting or the
drama or athletics or wealth; but they have been too
much occupied with these concerns to have attended inti-
mately to the new religious promptings of the age.
It is to be feared that as a residt of the wide popularity
of Professor James's book, the impression has arisen and
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 1 45
become fixed that on account of something in the nature
of the religious life, religion is necessarily individualistic;
whereas the truth is that the psychological study of rehgious
experience must trace it to the nutrition and stimulus which
the ecclesiastical organizations give to the growing soul, just
as biology traces the embryonic hfe of a child to the en-
vironing and vitalizing organism of the mother. When
the new organism has become severed, its vitaKty carmot
again become dependent upon that of the parent ; yet this
very independence is undeniably the result of its prior
vital dependence ; so although a church may be the cause
of new insight and of religious energy, yet the innermost
experience of the soul, when fully ripe, may be vitally self-
sufficient. Nevertheless, it is so because within the church
organization a long period of gestation had been taking
place. So patent are these facts that one wonders whether
Professor James was not rendered blind to them by some
imconscious bias. It would almost seem as if he had ap-
proached his investigation of personal rehgion on the pre-
supposition that its phenomena are the manifestation of
occult powers in the soul, which are not derived from the
environing social organism of mankind, but which emanate
directly from a transcendent and supersensible world of
spirits. A person holding such a beHef might naturally
become obKvious to the historic social causes of inner ex-
periences. How else could any one overlook the obtrusive
fact that personal conversions to rehgion are nearly always
special instances of religious epidemic, and that such
epidemic spreads not wholly unintentionally and unplanned
from those centres of organized life called ecclesiastical
institutions ?
The high value I place upon the spiritual discipHne of
ecclesiastical organization arises from my recognition of
the perfectly patent connection of cause and effect existing
between moral fellowship and personal enthusiasm. My
146 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
protest, on the other hand, against the tracing of conver-
sions to supernatural or occult causes is due to my accept-
ance of the fundamental presupposition of all psychological
reasoning — that no special mental phenomenon shall
ever be traced either to occult or supernatural sources if it
can be accounted for by the action of specific social in-
fluences and stimuh. Professor James, although he does
not commit himself overtly to a spiritistic source of inward
illumination, nevertheless seems to favour it. At the same
time he traces conversion to subconscious and unconscious
processes, which, in turn, by the very limitation which he
prescribes for himself at the outset of his investigation,
he refuses to trace to definite social circumstances and to
the influences and organized efforts of other human beings.
6. The Social Genesis of Conversion
Now what is it that actually takes place during a revival ?
We can easily discover the essential nature of what goes on
if we remember that reHgious folk, have "lumped together
as the grace of God" — to use the late W. T. Stead's
expression — all the diffused and disseminated influences
and agencies throughout the community that are beneficent
and ethical. A revival is an organization of these good
influences and agencies so as to bring them to bear with
their full force upon the character of individual members
of the community. Conversion is the surrender of the
individual to these influences. He may not be a member
of any ecclesiastical organization, but it is such an insti-
tution which directs the influences, and by concentrating
them intensifies their power.
If we assume that conversion is an advantage to the man
converted, we can but regret the tendency to trace it to
supernatural or occult causes ; for no one except a believer
jn magic would presume to be able to constrain the super-
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 1 47
natural and the occult in the same manner in which he
would expect to control purely human and natural forces.
It is a pity that an effect hke conversion, which is capable
of being wrought in milhons of men by the society in which
they hve, should be generally declared to be beyond direct
human control. It is especially a pity, because ever-
increasing numbers of men refuse to believe in the super-
natural and the occult, and yet are told that the sudden
transition from badness to goodness is a supernatural event.
They accordingly are bewildered and hardened, they are dis-
tracted from entertaining and absorbing that holy influence
which the revival irradiates, merely because it is labelled
miraculous. Indeed, the majority of organizers of re-
vivaUstic movements require of every convert, not simply
that he shall renounce the evil and turn to the good, but
that he shall also accept supernaturalism with its accom-
panying occultism. They brand as counterfeit every
transition from badness to goodness not effected under
their peculiar interpretation.
There are thousands whom the churches do not convert
because the old theory offends the modern scientific spirit. '
Countless numbers would be wakened up to their own
higher selfhood who now remain spiritually dead, if only
Christian teachers would but drop their supernaturalism
and their individualistic psychology with its naive moral
trust in the subconscious and the occult. These theories
are antagonistic to the complete and thorough control by
the community of the good influences latent within itself.
7. Spiritual Environment deliberately Prepared
The pernicious effects of individualistic psychology and
of supernaturaUstic theology are seen in the preference given
by most people to whatever is purely spontaneous in the
religious Ufe, and their disHke for whatever has been planned
148 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and worked up with deliberate intention. Many persons
entertain this prejudice against conscious and systematic
effort without being aware that it is the off-shoot of super-
naturalism and occultism. Such persons might readily
admit that individual conversion was due to the spiritual
state for the time being of the community at large, but they
would shrink from the idea that this spiritual state might
have come otherwise than spontaneously. They could
scarcely beheve that it really was holy and sacred if it
had been plarmed months ahead and if definite means
of propaganda and organization had brought it into ex-
istence.
Although those who dislike the conscious efforts of
ecclesiastical institutions, as somehow incompatible with
true spirituality, may not be aware of it themselves, this
sentiment of theirs is essentially opposed to a belief in the
spiritual organism of society as the source of redemptive
energy. They maintain that a revival is more genuine
and more holy if it comes quite spontaneously. But why
should man's purposes, his reason and foresight have a
polluting effect? Have they in science, art, poUtics, or
domestic life ? Are not consciousness and self-consciousness
the highest manifestations of humanity, and the chief
blessings which society engenders in its individual members ?
Why, again, is an event in the individual soul, if induced by
occult and mysterious forces or by unembodied spirits,
any more beautiful or beneficent than if occasioned by
human purpose and foresight ? Such a sentiment can only
arise from a preference for the superhuman, which casts
discredit upon and so paralyzes the efficiency of the human.
Why is the conscious less to be treasured than the sub-
conscious? Why is effort less holy than spontaneity?
And if it be not less holy, why is a revival systematically
planned and controlled less sacred and beneficent than an
unpremeditated outburst? Those who discourage the
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 1 49
effort of others in bringing about a man's conversion cast
a slur upon conscious human effort altogether.
Now, there is urgent need that the beneficent influences
and ethical agencies latent within the nation should be
wisely directed and applied for the healing of the people.
So far as these influences are uncontrolled and unorganized,
and not even recognized as existing and as controllable,
they are practically non-existent. So frequently do they
remain latent and unperceived that whenever by any
chance, or by the half -unconscious efforts of supernatural-
ists, they begin to operate, they are so unusual and unfamil-
iar that they seem to the unreflecting mind to emanate
from some source outside of our accustomed universe.
Society itself thus gets no credit for the best that is in it.
Only the evil is attributed to human beings and their social
organization. All this beautiful freshness of the spirit,
this wonderful influx of energy, insight, and joyous,
unselfish Hfe are laid to the credit of some transcendent
world. What is good in society has brought it about
that men who were morally dead have become alive ;
yet society, rightly blamed for their death, is not rightly
praised for their resurrection. Society has saved them;
they lacked motive to Kve, and the power to live aright
was beyond them ; but now it is as difficult for them to sink
to their former level as it was before for them to rise to
their present height. Yet society, which has hfted them,
is the very being from whose clutches they imagine that
they have now at last happily escaped. Such is the mental
confusion of our day that churches do not see that the only
philosophy which fully appreciates their function is what
I may venture to call social mysticism or mystical sociahsm.
The supematuralism and the individualistic occultism with
which the churches are now saturated weaken enormously
their vitaHty and their power to quicken individuals into
original centres of spiritual insight and enthusiasm. Mys-
150 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
tical socialism or social mysticism is the only philosophy
which fully realizes that when a man is converted, it is be-
cause into his central personality have rushed those higher
social influences and agencies hitherto latent, and perhaps
undiscemed, which before scarcely touched him. Now
they have become his very self ; and not only that, but he
him self has become a creative point of ethical energy*
8. The Power that Saves
What takes place at every revival is exactly analogous
to the physical phenomenon which is witnessed when a
burning-glass is so held between the sun and a piece of wood
that first there is a bright spot of focussed light, and then
a charring and smoking, till finally the wood itself bursts
into a blaze shining back to its parent sun. It becomes a
flame, with power to communicate its own heat and light
to other objects of like nature with itself. Now the organi-
zation of ethical agencies by ecclesiastical institutions
forms a burning-glass which gathers and directs the love
of men and the love of duty, hitherto diffused and therefore
weak, upon individual human beings who have never be-
fore felt the good in overmastering strength. Lonely iso-
lated souls, timid and shy natures, the cynical, the violent,
the envious, the jealous, the maHcious, self-indulgent
victims of vicious habit, now for the first time experience
the quickening intensity and wholesome joy of being cared
for, respected, and sought out as of infinite worth. Di-
vinely tender is the message with which every ecclesiastical
institution heralds its revival — that the lowest and most
degraded sinner is precious beyond all price. This mes-
sage is coupled with the announcement of the infinite worth
of purity, justice, and all personal and civic virtues.
If conversions ever took place unrelated to revivals, either
undesigned or prearranged, there might be some ground
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 151
for the individualistic or the supernaturahstic theory of
the origin of personal rehgious insight and enthusiasm.
But in the face of the undeniable connection of institutional
life with the conversions, one is forced by all the canons
of logical inference to beUeve that religious genius is made
luminous through the action of society upon it.
Where there is no concentration upon individuals of the
redemptive influences and agencies which are already
stored up within society, there are no conversions. There
must be at least a few persons actively united in devotion
to the higher life, else others who are spiritually cold and
dead do not experience a new birth. It is quite true that
there may be no actual prearrangement to bring about a
revival; also, the persons converted may not have been
attending religious meetings of any kind. In such cases,
however, the spiritual energy overflows the accustomed
centres, where it has been preserved in the community
from past experiences. By some happy chance it lodges,
like a flake of fire, in the soul of some isolated individual
and sets it aglow. Always — unless the methods of infer-
ence universally acknowledged as valid cannot be applied
here — conversion is due to social forces of a moral order
impinging upon the rational will of an individual.
The more one investigates religious experience, the
more one is led to the conviction that there never has been
a conversion where such social forces were not, at least
accidentally, impinging upon the individual's mind. And
wherever the forces reach a certain degree of power and
persistence, conversion is inevitable, even against the set
determination of the individual himself. Thus it happens
that what is called the working of the Holy Ghost in the
inmost spirit of a man can always be brought about by the
right sort of social organization, and it will always be pre-
vented by unfavourable social environment. Given the
conditions, the Holy Ghost is always manifested. This
152 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
is not surprising if the divine Spirit be identical with the
informing will of society as a spiritual organism. By
psychologists who have no individuahstic bias, the Holy
Ghost is readily identified with the Higher Will, the deeper
selfhood, of some social group bound together in devotion
to the moral ideal. It is true that the Holy Ghost caimot
be arbitrarily and dictatorially summoned ; but one may
be certain that it can be induced whenever any ecclesiasti-
cal institution is devoutly and wisely bent upon a manifes-
tation of its presence and power. The Holy Ghost is a
visitant that always comes, either in response to a given
summons, or whenever by unpremeditated circumstance
the avenues into which it is forever pressing are opened.
This simply means that the moral influences and agencies
within the community have been so gathered together and
directed that no one upon whom they are brought to bear
can prevent himself from being lifted to and borne along on
a higher plane than he would otherwise have reached.
If social mysticism discloses the secret of personal rehgion,
it is evident that the real rehgious interests of the nation
are not only assailed by the old-fashioned supernaturalism,
but are also being undermined by the new-fashioned in-
dividualistic occultism. It is essential to rehgious develop-
ment that we should check the social heresy that rehgious
conversion is a merely private or subjective change, effected
by subconscious incubation within the individual's own
mind, unrelated to society round about him.
It well may be that the soul's own energies have been
secretly developing hke a folded bud, and that now in the
fulness of time the blossom bursts of itself into an ex-
panded flower. But what are the forces which have been
warming and moistening the subsoil of the individual's
conscious mind ? These, I maintain, are social influences ;
new moral vitality from the community round about is pass-
ing quietly but effectively through the normal channels of
THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE CHURCHES 1 53
the senses, — by words, looks, gestures, expressions of face
and tones of voice — into the most secret recesses of the in-
dividual soul ; and we have no right to trace that vitality
to a self-feeding source far within the individual, for we can
plainly detect its social origin.
Every human soul is a member of a spiritual organism ; ,
but that organism is not some transcendent invisible reality
in the heavens above consciousness or in the dark depths
beneath. It is the mental life of the historic nation within
which the individual lives, although that nation be not
uninfluenced by the group of interdependent nations upon
the earth. During a revival, the idealistic forces of the
nation flow in upon the individual in such vitahzing abun-
dance that he becomes conscious of the General WiU as
identical with himself.
Of the two theories hostile to ecclesiastical institutions,
individuahstic occultism is more to be feared than super-
naturalism. It teaches, if I may be allowed to reiterate,
that the source of spiritual vitaHty is some inward, mys-
terious, non-social centre of eruptive psychic powers. It
further teaches that these psychic centres are closely related
to the secondary and subordinate nerve-centres. It accord-
ingly dethrones man's primary conscious selfhood and
hnks itself on to hypnotic states, favouring trance. It
sweeps aside and even rejects, as adverse to real religious
Hfe, the systematized discipUnes and instructions of a
church ; it imphes that the true religious hfe is in spite
of ecclesiastical institutions. A truer psychology, or-
ganic and social, is sure to supersede this fashionable cult
of the individual subconsciousness. Then will the leaders
of our ecclesiastical institutions discard individualism
and adopt social mysticism as the working hypothesis
in ecclesiastical polity. They will teach that the
organized spiritual forces in society itself constitute the
incubating environment of each individual soul. They
1 54 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
will count it as a mark of degeneracy to trace religious
quickenings to self-generating subjective psychic sources.
They will become fuUy aware that the invisible social
energies are incessantly playing upon and modifying each
individual's inmost mind, without his necessarily being
conscious of them, and even against his purpose. The
leaders of ecclesiastical institutions will come to look upon
the notion of a subliminal spiritual seK as an mmecessary
postulate, and will see that nearly aU the excesses and ab-
surdities of religious enthusiasm are traceable either to
supematuraHstic or occultistic presuppositions. The man
who does not consciously attach himself to the organized
spiritual environment of the nation, but burrows inward
to some psychic centre remote from the invisible but real
social organism, is making for the abysses of insanity,
criminal egoism, self-dei&cation, and the primordial slime
of sensual occultism. When the leaders of the churches
realize this tendency, they will shrink in alarm from every
form of individuaUstic psychology.
PART II
CHRISTIANITY TO BE REINTERPRETED
IN THE LIGHT OF SCIENCE AND
AMERICAN IDEALISM.
PART II
CHAPTER X
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MHtACLE
The reinterpretation of religion and the revision of its
rites and teachings which I have been recommending con-
sist in the elimination of every trace of trust in moral
inteUigences who are not members of human society, and
in a corresponding expression of faith in combined human
effort tmder natural law. Before considering the moral
justification of this principle and before appljdng it to cur-
rent religious formulae, it would be well for any one to bring
fully before his mind which those factors are, in the ordinary
orthodox scheme of reHgious instruction, that must be re-
jected as coming under the head of "intelKgent agencies
who are not members of human society." For this phrase
may be so vague to many that they will not otherwise realize
exactly its specific appKcations. At the outset it must be
noticed that all events in being traced to supernatural in-
telligences are thereby regarded as miracles, and that a
Christianity no longer tracing events to such sources would
be Christianity minus miracles.
I. No Guidance from the Dead
Let it then be observed that in setting aside supernatural
agencies as a source of redemption we give up the possibiHty
of any help from any human being after he has died, except
such as he had set into operation before his death. We
close the spirit world as distinct from the human, and refuse
direct assistance from human beings after they cease to
IS7
158 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
be responsible members of society, excepting always such
wisdom and character as they left behind them when they
died. But we lose nothing hereby.
This general principle permits intimate communion with
our personal friends after their death through the work
they did and the character they revealed when on earth,
and thus prolongs to us their redemptive influence; but
it shuts us off from any trust in them as agents operating
directly upon and within human souls.
The rejection of this kind of intercourse with human
beings after their death, however, in no wise involves a
denial of their continued individualized existence. For
of all the things which we may or may not say of death,
only this is undeniably a moral fact : when a man dies,
whether he live again or not, he must by universal consent
and law cease to be any longer a constituent member of
organized society. After death he may still be living, but,
although he may communicate with us, he ought not to
be allowed to vote ; he may still be living, but he must not
be permitted to amend the last will and testament he
made before dying ; he shall inherit no property ; he shall
not stand for election to any political office ; he shall not
marry ; we must refuse to accredit him with the paternity
of any children except those he begot before death. Other-
wise, himian society becomes a madman's last dream !
Whatever else death is or is not, it is certainly a moral re-
moval of that individual agent from within the pale of -^
the political and biological fellowship of human society.
In thus refusing to trust to the departed as agents in the
scheme of human activity, we are only acting along the line
of common sense as it has embodied itself increasingly in
the laws and customs of all civilized peoples, and we are
attempting to bring into the sphere of religious economy
what is already the principle of all other departments of
social utility.
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MIRACLE I59
2. Help from the Historical Christ
The chief application of this principle to the dead which
I wish here to insist upon is that concerning Jesus Christ.
The historic Christ is ours, to use us and to be used by us ;
but we know that the transcendent Christ is beyond our
sphere of right and duty, even though we may not doubt
his continued existence. He shall be no exception. That
social righteousness with which the Christian rehgion pri-
marily concerns itself is made up of the very tissue of the
poUtical, economic, and physiological life of human society.
To preserve the integrity of this, society must concede no
powers to any human being after his death and can ac-
cept no benefits from such a source. It is in the name of
righteousness and not simply for the material and intel-
lectual interests of mankind, that the moral judgment of
the world can give no place to the post-mortem activity of
any spirit. When reUgion is brought into line with ethical
reaUsm it will, I beheve, give greater prominence than be-
fore to the earth-life of Jesus Christ, and to the wisdom and
moral power still issuing from it ; but for the very sake of
that subUme heritage it will refuse to attribute to him any
operation or render him gratitude for any benefit which
he may be conferring upon society since his death.
It should be noticed, in passing, that the exclusion of any
effect which Jesus Christ may have been causing since his
death is in no wise to be traced to a denial of him as the in-
carnate Creator of the universe. Although he were that,
we must cUng exclusively to his historic existence. Mor-
ally we dare not give him place except in his humanity
while he lived on earth and as the bequeather of an earthly
record. Even if he were, while on earth, the personal
Creator of the universe incarnate, we could not be at liberty
to recognize the transcendent aspect of his nature. All that
was ethically valuable and, therefore, aU that is humanly
l60 THE SOUL or AMERICA
to be recognized was his natural humanity. Such was the
right attitude towards him even while he was living on
earth ; how much less can it be permissible to depend upon
him after death has emptied him of human accountabiHties !
So far as I am aware, the current Christian theology has
never been designated as "Christian Spiritism," but such a
phrase may not seem an unwarrantable combination of
terms, as it well indicates the practice, still permeating all
the historical churches, of direct communion with the
transcendent Christ; that is to say, a personal agent still
consciously loving mankind and working for its redemption.
This practice is one of trust in an intelUgence energizing
not as a member of human society, and therefore super-
human and supernatural.
3. The Communion of Saints
In the same way, reverence and gratitude to the Virgin
Mary for what she was before she died are entirely legiti-
mate ; but the moment she is regarded as a conscious being
still interceding for us with her son and attending to our
human woes, the practice of supplication to her becomes
spiritistic ; it is anti-social, because it attempts to draw
moral strength from beyond the spiritual organism of
society ; it is therefore ethically iUicit. As of the Virgin
Mary, so of all the other saints of the Church. There is a
purely ethical and natural communion with them. But
the moment they are trusted as inteUigent agents still
operating in the manner in which they worked before their
death, the communion cannot be morally tolerated. The
^ spiritual power within society is a jealous God and will
allow none other.
Besides personal friends departed in death, besides Jesus
Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other historic saints, the
Christian scheme of redemption, in a subordinate degree,
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MIRACLE l6l
recognizes the intervention of angels and of the devil.
These also, however, must be denied, not as non-existent,
but as outside the morally recognizable pale of human
causation.
4. Against Demonism
Happily, there is in official Christianity no recognition
of that class of spirits which in the orient are believed to
inhabit natural objects and specific places and to control
outward events. Yet, now that Christian nations have
come into reciprocal contact with the East, where such be-
lief is rampant, it is well that this form of spiritism should
be stigmatized along with the distinctly Christian kinds,
in order that the Churches, in the revision of their rites
and teachings, may make provision against the possible
spread among us of oriental demonism.
If the principle of discarding trust in supernatural agents
were to be applied to any of the other great reHgions of the
world, it would effect changes in them more drastic than
those which it would bring about in Christianity. For all
the other great religions, even Buddhism as it is actually
practised in Thibet and China, are still more worm-eaten
with spiritism than is Christianity. Our canon, therefore,
for the revision of Christian formulae is no petty rule ani-
mated by a specific antagonism to the particular supernatu-
ralism found in the Christian scheme of redemption. It is
a universal principle, based upon the fact that righteous-
ness is vitally dependent upon the belief in redemption
whoUy from within the social organism of mankind.
5. Against Monistic Spiritism
There is current throughout Christendom, however, one
other form of trust in invisible agents which seems not
to have been recognized as being spiritistic. For some
l62 THE SOUL or AMERICA
reason which I cannot explain, spiritism has seemed to
refer exclusively to a belief in many spirits, and Christian
theologians have assimied that if you have ceased to believe
in any but one, and that an infinite spirit, you have ceased
to be a spiritist. But surely in the conception that there
exists one all-wise and omnipotent personal Creator who
interposes directly in human affairs, we have spiritism par
excellence. If the churches are to turn from trust in in-
visible agencies outside of society and look for redemption
only from within its own actual and latent resources,
they can no more tolerate the idea of one outside will,
although onmipotent and omniscient, than of a multitude
of finite wiUs. The only God consistent with the integrity
of mankind as a spiritual organism is one who is identical
with the universal human spirit acting from within man,
identical with his constitution, and under natural law. In-
asmuch as an intelHgent Creator of the imiverse cannot be
treated as a responsible member of human society, he must
be excluded from our scheme of salvation on the same
grounds as those on which we would exclude any other
superhuman intelligence. Human salvation would not
be salvation if it were not wrought by men as well as for
them.
There is no occasion of a practical order for denying the
existence of a Creator or for doubting it; but the moral
sanity of society compels us to insist that he must not be
made either an object or a subject of human rights or duties.
His majesty and power can be of no avail, for they would
obliterate our initiative and responsibility. If he were to
come among us in immistakable bodily presence, even if
only to advise, political society would be at an end. His
will, in so far as it is not identical with the general good
of the community and the organic bent of individual men,
must be overlooked. Despite all this, however, we may at
the same time acknowledge that all the imiformities and
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MIRACLE 1 63
regularities of natural law are embodiments of his will.
These uniformities fortunately manifest themselves to the
moral judgment of man not as purposes of transcend-
ent inteUigence, but as conditions, inevitable and inex-
orable, under which and within which our kingdom of
ideal ends is to actualize itself. Every rule of righteousness
is a condition laid down in the sequence of nature — in the
objective order of things — for the attainment of the ideal
ends of humanity. Happily, the order is never broken and
the beneficence of the sequence of things is bound up with
its inexorability. In a scheme of moral redemption, there-
fore, the cosmic order, the laws of nature, the uniformities
of cause and effect, must be revered not as themselves
animated with a purpose of their own, but because they are
our opportimity for fulfilhng the human ends of social
justice. The moment transcendent intelligence is ap-
proached for help, that moment there is a shirking of human
responsibility, a denial of God as our Cosmic Opportimity
and as the Immanent Source of Redemption.
6. A Presupposition of All Moral Judgments
If any one wiU consider the universal practice of men,
where their ideas have not been warped from common sense
by priests of the supernatural, he will see that they refuse
to attribute any event in human experience to intelUgent
agencies beyond human society. He will see that this
refusal is well founded; for the tracing of human events
to superhuman agents is socially and morally suicidal.
Suppose you were suddenly to come across the dead body
of a man who had been evidently kiUed by the bullet of a
pistol. You see the pistol lying near the body and it is
obvious that the man has bled to death. Could it enter
your mind, as a sane human being, to entertain for an in-
stant the thought that some supernatural agent had fired
164 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
the shot? It could not. The extremest spiritist would
not so far wander from the common-sense belief that all
events are caused either by purely physical forces alone or
by these together with human vohtion, as to think for a
moment that a man had been murdered by an unembodied
spirit. The presupposition that imderhes aU moral reason-
ing is that no supernatural agent ever commits the deeds
which we call crimes. And what I am pleading for is that
this presupposition of all sanity, of all thinking upon moral
conduct, should now at last be extended so as to cover all our
hohest deeds and aU our most inward aspirations and in-
spirations, and should enter into and control reHgious prac-
tices and teaching. It must now become the principle for
the revision of pubhc worship. If spiritism is not to be
driven out from the realm of reHgious practice as it has been
driven out from other spheres of human thought and action,
it should be reinstated throughout the whole domain of
experience. Such a reinstatement, however, is too pre-
posterous to be entertained even in jest.
7. No Mediums hip
If it be conceded that no incorporeal spirit has ever
directly and unaided by a human being committed any
crime, it might still be maintained as a possibihty that some
supernatural agent might take possession of a human being
and make him the instrument of its will. But is this sup-
position any more tenable than the notion of uiunediated
agency ? If it be true that a human being may suddenly,
against his wiU, and possibly even without his knowledge,
be transformed into the medium of some bodiless intelligent
agency, is not the attribution of deeds to human doers
forthwith and forever at an end? How can we nail any
deed to any human doer, if we concede the shadow of a
possibihty of truth to the suggestion that some other in-
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MIRACLE 1 65
visible being than himself is instigating from within him the
crime which his body commits? It is of course possible
that a man may suddenly become insane ; but then there
is no longer any question as to our assigning his deed to any
personal agency. His act itself then ceases to be a moral
deed, and becomes a meaningless accident. But the
moment we assign the motions of a man's body to some
supernatural agency within himself, we are landed into a
state of mental anarchy fatal to moral judgment. If all
events without exception are not to be traced either to
unconscious nature or to nature animated by some human
self-direction, where are we ? If the doer be not the same
person in whose present consciousness the memory of his
past deeds lives on as his own, how can we approve or dis-
approve of any human being ?
Let me then once more state that presupposition of all
moral judgments, in accordance with which I plead that the
religions of the world should be reconstructed : No crime
nor evil thought and no good deed nor holy desire of ours
should ever be traced to any other spiritual agencies than
those actually inhabiting our human bodies, and recogniz-
able by all other human beings as fitting subjects of human
rights and privileges. Let me also point again to the most
important appUcation of this principle. To attribute the
highest impulses of our hearts to Jesus Christ as directly
operating upon us from some celestial sphere of his present
existence is morally and religiously a mistake. Whatever
influence of his we now experience must be traced back
to what he did and said while living on earth, and to per-
sons who since then have transmitted to us his quickening
spirit. This new interpretation in no wise tends to over-
look the power of his spirit ; and under it the influence of
his example will undoubtedly grow. Those are not wise
disciples of his who are not ready to attribute all his present
power to his actual short life on earth. They unwit-
1 66 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
tingly sin against him in undermining the fundamental
presupposition of all social life.
8. Naturalism
Before we consider the changes which this new idea
will work in religious forms and expressions, we must pause
to guard it from being grossly misconceived. The prin-
ciple which I am setting up is generally spoken of as nat-
uraUsm. This is the term which even Sir John Seeley
selects as the most fitting, and he calls the type of religion
which is in harmony with it "natural reHgion." Yet the
term naturahsm has become increasingly associated with
the materiahstic and atomistic theory of existence. It
is generally supposed to imply that the ultimate reaUty of
things consists of atoms of matter. Yet such a notion has
absolutely nothing whatever of kinship with the principle
which I have been advocating, and which is the presupposi-
tion of aU of Sir John Seeley's thinking. That presupposi-
tion does not trace all events to material atoms or to physi-
cal forces, for it assigns many happenings to personal
agencies. It is true that it assigns none to spirits who are
not members of human communities; but the recognition
of one single finite person in a human body as the cause of
any event is incompatible with the theory that the ultimate
substance of all things is physical energy. Naturalism,
therefore, as it is held by many physicists, and as it is cen-
sured by the philosophical ideahsts, — such as Professor
James Ward, in his book on " Naturalism and Agnosticism,"
— is not at all the naturahsm which Sir John Seeley re-
spected and defended. Nor is it in any sense the naturahsm
which is opposed to rehgious supernaturaUsm.
In the hterature of rehgious controversy, supernaturahsm
means nothing more nor less than the attribution of cer-
tain events in hmnan experience to personal agencies who
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MIRACLE 1 67
are not members of human society. But after we have
excluded superhuman we may fall back upon human agency
as a cause of events, and if we trace any event to the human
will, we are still recognizing spiritual causation. Natural-
ism, then, if it is used to describe the philosophy of this
book, means the recognition of only such spiritual agencies
as are within the organism of human society, and the doc-
trine it opposes is only that supernaturahsm which insists
on recognizing the intervention in human affairs of inteUi-
gences beyond the pale of humanity. But how clumsy and
awkward are both these words to convey such meanings !
For this reason, I have occasionally presumed to adopt the
term "spiritism" and avoid the word "supernaturahsm."
But even the word "spiritism" is very inadequate. It
is generally Hmited to the theories of those who call them-
selves modern spiritualists, and it has never been made
to cover the spiritistic implications in ordinary Christian
theology. I have, therefore, quaUfied the word and spoken
of "Christian spiritism." But there is a still deeper objec-
tion to the term. The word "spirit" ought by right to be
applied as much to a personal agency Hving in a human body
as to one that is bodiless. The latter is no more spirit
than the former. To designate by the word only those
agencies beyond the pale of poKtical society is to rob human
agencies of a useful epithet and is to imply unjustly and
illogically that a moral agent in a human body is somehow
more akin in its nature to mere matter and bHnd force
than is an unembodied agent ; whereas it is easy to see that
a spirit is no less spiritual when it animates a body than
when denied a tenement of clay. I hope I have said enough
to prevent any critic from confusing the naturalism of the
religion for which I plead with materialism of any kind
whatever.
For the word "naturalism" must be retained, even at
the risk of its being misimderstood by persons lacking in
1 68 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
acuteness of discrimination and logical rigour. There is no
other word that indicates the inexorable uniformity of the
sequences of mental as well as of physical phenomena.
Like John Stuart Mill, one may resolve all physical phenom-
ena into sensations, and the whole reality of the physical
imiverse into a system of permanent possibilities of sensa-
tion. One then abandons completely the materialistic
dogma ; but one retains the validity of the law of uniform-
ity. This law constitutes nature ; for nature, whatever else
it is, is at least a system of permanent possibihties of sensa-
tion. Such an interpretation is, in fact, idealistic, for it
declares that the physical universe has no existence except
in so far as it is or may be perceived. Thus one may hold
to the theory that to be perceived and to be are the
same thing, and still one may remain a naturalist. Indeed,
all disciples of Immanuel Kant affirm the universal and
necessary vahdity of the law of cause and effect. They be-
Heve in the integrity of nature ; and yet they do not believe
that nature has any existence except as it is perceived by
the observing mind. The teaching, therefore, which I
have been advocating may equally well be called idealistic
or humanistic reahsm. But the best name for it might
be ideaUstic humanism, for that term does not commit
one to the philosophic crudity of believing that the physical
imiverse exists independently of its being perceived.
9. Man a Spirit
When we cease to believe in the intervention of psychic
agencies from beyond human society, it may be because
we have a deeper insight into the nature of living human
beings as spirits. Whatever trust we have withdrawn from
the imembodied, we may have reason to transfer to em-
bodied spirits. When we reject spiritism, we still have
left both man as a moral agent and physical nature ; and
CHRISTIANITY MINUS MIRACLE 1 69
man by no means becomes reduced to a phenomenon or an
epiphenomenon of physical nature. We may regard him
wholly from the point of view that his mind is real and is a
positive cause not only of events which take place within
the realm of his own mind, but also of changes in his own
body and in the physical world round about him. Ethical
ideahsm, although it restricts itself absolutely to the
study of the hearts and wills of living human beings, deals
essentially with Will as a creative cause. It recognizes
the effect of mind upon outward nature through the human
body. But no one could confuse it with atomism, material-
ism, or a merely mechanical view of cause and effect. It is
well nigh an imbecility to attempt to resolve human pur-
poses, affections and thoughts, human ideals and visions,
and the distinctions between right and wrong, into differ-
ences in the arrangement of atoms of matter. Although
atomism may never for a moment be denied in the domain of
physics and chemistry, it is an utter irrelevance in a scheme
for the moral redemption of mankind; for ethics treats
of realities wholly disparate from, although possibly always
accompanying, material atoms.
Professor Hoff ding's book on " The Philosophy of Reli-
gion" very clearly sets forth a distinction now widely re-
cognized between science as a presentation of the relations
of cause and effect in events, and ethics as a presentation
of a scale of values or goods. Hoff ding recognizes the
validity of the law of uniformity in all mental events, but
he maintains that the hierarchy of values is in no wise
touched by the scientific arrangement of sequences. Even
the scientific arrangement does not involve the acceptance
of physical force or the atom as the ultimate and indepen-
dent reality. But much less does the scale of values in-
volve such an acceptance. Ethics starts with human
purposes and ideals, with the human will and the human
heart, in the same way in which physics and chemistry
170 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
begin with sensations of the senses. It is, accordingly, no
more shaken by any doubt as to the reahty of the factors
with which it starts than physics by any doubt as to the
reahty of time and space.
While it has accorded with my argument to give here
a succinct elucidation and defence of the principle by which
I wish to test the rites and teaching of current rehgion,
it is inconsistent with my purpose to present now in detail
the various apphcations of that principle to rehgious ex-
periences in general. To do so would require a volume by
itself. My intention now is simply to try to justify the
idea which I think should be concretely embodied in a
nation's manuals of rehgious services. The idea I am sure
will appeal to thousands and will find ready acceptance in
the moral reason and emotional experience of many. It
is already widely current and is the regulative principle
of conduct with many American ideahsts. It is the in-
spiration and consolation of those who in my judgment
represent most truly the spirit of our age and the char-
acteristic trend of American hfe. This book, therefore, is
in the first instance not written for those to whom its pre-
suppositions will not appeal; it seeks rather to win the
cooperation of those already ripe for the thought it starts
with. It hopes to convince them of the necessity of
revising the language and forms of devotion prevalent in
all the churches and of organizing public opinion so as to
hasten the adoption of rites and ceremonies, of sermons,
hymns, anthems, meditations, and lessons which shall be
expressive of the Uving inheritance and purpose of national
life to-day.
CHAPTER XI
THE HXTMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE
I. The Rethinking of the Old Realities
The supreme need of our day is not so much revision
of statements as a rethinking of the realities to which the
statements refer. Reinterpretation of terms has always _
been the chief method of progress in thought. A study
of the evolution of religion exposes to view not so much
a restatement of old truths as an attachment of new insight
to the old words. The discovery of new religious truth
has not been a discovery of another universe ; it has been
only a better understanding of the same, a fresh insight
into the relations of the factors which were always there,
but veiled.
Accordingly it is as it should be, that throughout the
ages the words used have not changed even where there
has been a complete revolution of the understanding of
the realities to which they pointed. Nor has the retention
of the old words ever produced any confusion or mis-
understanding. Indeed, to have introduced new terms,
when one had only gained new Hght on an old factor,
would have produced chaos and confusion.
Let us not forget that the sun used to be thought of
in a manner totally different from that in which we to-day
perceive it and conceive it. To us it is an enormous
sphere of Hght and heat, moving at a certain pace, possess-
ing certain chemical properties, and so on. Such, of course,
was always its reality. But our truth about it is new and
scarcely has a point in common with the primitive con-
171
172 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ception of it. Yet with the new interpretation we have not
discarded the word "sun." We have continued its use,
and we read the new truths into the old term. Old words
are never worn-out wineskins. Our justification for pour-
ing new meanings into the word "sun" is that the reahty
for which the term stood is still the same reahty that it
was when savages first named it. So with the stars. They
are not to us what they were to men of primitive tribes ;
but we need not on that account discard the word and
invent a new term. I cite the case of the sun and stars
as typical of all the factors in the physical universe. Our
view of that universe is new, but the words to designate
its factors and phenomena are, as they ought to be, the
same old words. If we turn from the physical universe
to the human world, we find the same law : the growth of
new ideas and the retention of old words with changes of
meaning corresponding to that growth. Woman, in the
twentieth century after Christ, is begiiming to be looked
upon as a being essentially different in nature and powers,
rights and privileges from what she has hitherto been
understood to be. Yet it were the merest folly on account
of any such evolution and revolution of our understanding
of her to drop the term "woman" and invent a new sign
in speech to stand for our new conception of her. Like-
wise with the word "child." Children, like women and
like the physical universe, are newly revealed to our under-
standing ; but there is no occasion for not caUing them
children. No embarrassment or misunderstanding will
arise.
The same situation holds concerning reHgious termi-
nology and the new conceptions of the factors in our deeper
moral experience. When we discard supernaturaUsm, we
do not discard any of those elements of fact in experience
which were the occasion that induced our primitive an-
cestors to adopt a supematuralistic interpretation of the
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 73
inner moral life. If we follow the analogy of the evolu-
tion of language in all other departments of experience,
we shall retain the word "God" and all the rest of the
nomenclature of rehgion, to denote the factors in our pres-
ent experience which perform the same functions that
were designated under the supematuraUstic terminology.
2. Theological Terms Indispensable
Many times in the foregoing pages I have used theo-
logical terms to indicate factors and relationships in a
naturahstic scheme for the moral training of the human
race. So entirely do the reinterpretation and revision of
the forms of pubUc worship which I advocate depend
upon the justifiabiUty and expediency of such a use, that
it may not be amiss to examine here, with some degree
of thoroughness, the general question of terminology.
Without reintroducing arguments set forth incidentally
in the preceding chapters, I shall attempt to deal with
questions which have not been directly considered.
In the first place, let me point out that what are called
theological terms are also the only specifically rehgious
expressions. If we discard them, we deprive ourselves y
altogether of the language of rehgious Hfe and practice.
Even the word " rehgion " itself is a theological term, inas-
much as theology is always a theory which justifies rehgion.
This being the nature of theology, one may fairly say that
if the word " rehgion " be not a theological term, then there
is no such term. Or take the word "God." Of all language,
there is no expression more essentially of the nature of
rehgion. Yet theology is, as the very word imphes, a
doctrine of God. If, then, the word "God" be not a theo-
logical term, theology has no term of its own. The word
"prayer" designates the distinctive act of rehgion; yet
whoever has studied theology knows that theology on that
174 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
very account is chiefly a theory of prayer. Of course the
words "religion," "God," and "prayer" are first religious
and then theological. But this is true of the whole lan-
guage of theology. It possesses no terms which are not
first rehgious. Its nomenclature is wholly borrowed from
rehgion. Such being the case, it becomes self-evident, as
I stated above, that if we discard all theological terms, we\
rob rehgion of its own language. This result would not
seem a calamity to one who had abandoned rehgion al-
together, but one who means to retain it must feel the
necessity of retaining its verbal notation. And the fact
that that notation is also the language of theology will not
for an instant tempt him to discard it — at least, if he has
a fuU grip of the situation. Unhappily there are many
persons who have not.
3. Religion and Theology
Many imagine that if we retain theological terms, we
commit ourselves to some existing system or other of
theology. But this is a mistake which our foregoing ana-
lysis clearly exposes to view. The language was rehgious
before it became theological, and it may return to its orig-
inal state of innocency. A man may use the words " God,"
"prayer," and "rehgion," and recognize them as elements
in a possible system of theology, and yet temporarily have
suspended judgment as to whether any system so far pro-
pounded is or is not true.
But I wish to plead for the retention of rehgious ter-
minology not simply to indicate factors and relations in
the rehgious hfe, but also as elements in a new system of
theology. Many persons who think for themselves have
grown to loathe theology and all its works; and yet they
chng to rehgion. They respect the rehgious man; but
they turn the cold shoulder upon the professed theologian.
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 75
They will not listen to him. Religion, they say, is a life,
an attitude of mind, a thing of the heart and the will, which
is good. But theology, they say, is only theory, and it is
the theory of religion which philosophic criticism and scien-
tific research have discredited. So, they urge, let us away
with theology in the very name of religion.
Now, in my judgment, this off-hand method of renounc-
ing theology and all its works is suicidal. To discard all
theory of religion is to play into the hands of those who
are experts in manipulating the emotions and the will,
without appeahng to human intelligence. There is no
more fit victim for the religious demagogue than the person
who protests against theology altogether, and yet attempts
to be religious and to respect rehgion in others. What
finer subject for the priest who assumes to control other
men's souls, than the man who boasts that it is well to have
a God, but folly to attempt to have a theory of God ? A
religion which bars out all theology is a religion minus
theory ; and rehgion minus theory is religion minus intel-
lect. And that, in turn, is exactly what the enemies of
human reason have always commended in the laity.
If any sort of religious discipUne is to be preserved, we
must set out in search of a new theory the moment we put
aside the current systems of dogma. We must analyze
religion afresh, and its relations to the rest of life and of
experience in general. We must bring also our construc-
tive faculties to bear, for although we may never attain an
absolutely rational system, we must hold tentatively as
consistent a theory of rehgion as we can attain, to serve us
as a working hypothesis for rehgious practice. The new
theory may contradict every point in the current systems
of dogma, and, when applied to Ufe, it may overthrow the
rites and ceremonies of existing cults ; but it will be a new
theology pitted against the old.
The notion prevalent amongst so-called advanced
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thinkers, that theology is necessarily based upon authority
and opposed to reason, is wholly false. It is certainly
conceivable that a tentative theory favourable to religion
might be constructed without contradicting or transcending
experience, and without violating the method and spirit of
science.
4. The Word "Theology"
Theology, then, is the first theological term which we
must retain if any sort of rational rehgion is to be preserved. u
We must retain it in the name of reason and science. If 1
we are to have rehgion, we must have a theory of reUgion,
and to have a theory of rehgion is to have a theology.
Inconceivable is it that persons should refuse, in the name
of science, to seek for a theory of God, and yet retain a
behef in him.
It is easy to see the consistency of those who, in dis-
carding rehgion, discard theology ; the one act necessitates
the other. When they abandoned the hope of a theory
about God, they did so because they had abandoned God.
He had become to them nothing. But the reverse pro-
cess is by no means a necessity. One may discard every
known theory of God, yet retain God, and make him
the starting-point, the element of fact, from which to
construct a new theory. It is evident that we must
discriminate between theology and every or any special
system of theology. As one may reject the sociology
of Comte and Spencer and every other sociologist and
yet not abandon sociology as a task and an ideal goal
of scientific effort, so also one may reject the current
theologies and cling the more tenaciously to theology as
a theory yet incomplete. Making this discrimination,
we may say that if theology must go, religion must go ;
and that if rehgion is to stay, theology must stay. If
we are to retain a belief in anything which we call God,
HXJMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 77
or which performs the same function in the economy of
experience as that performed by what other people call
God, it is a primal necessity of critical thought to con-
struct the best possible doctrine of God.
There are some who imagine that a new scientific and
rational theory to justify a scientific and rational religion
should not be called theology, but should be described as
ethics. But an acquaintance with the history of reHgion
shows that no theory of ethics or of the moral life can
possibly cover all the facts of the religious life of man.
In the first place, there have been hundreds of religions
which have not been essentially or even perceptibly
ethical. Religions have only gradually become ethical.
The best historical judgment also sanctions the statement
that moraUty is by no means essentially religious. The
moral experience and the moral judgments of men have
developed out of commerce, pohtics, and other spheres
of experience which the religious consciousness scarcely
touched at all, or, at most, only incidentally. Only after
the moral Hfe and the theory of morals were considerably
advanced did they enter into, give colour, and dictate
the shape to the rites and dogmas of religion. It is
altogether imcritical and unscientific, therefore, to set up
any theory of morals as a theory of reHgion. It is almost
as unscholarly as it would be to set up religion to account
for morality.
We may approach this question of the relation of
ethics to theology from another point of view. Ethics
is a theory of right and wrong, of human ends, and of
standards of human conduct. If one turns to the books
which have been written by ethical thinkers, one sees
that they treat of the questions : what is right, what is
wrong, what is the essential characteristic of right con-
duct as distinct from wrong, what peculiar activities of
the human mind are involved in arriving at the dis-
1 78 THE SOTJL OF AMERICA
tinction between right and wrong, how do men's moral
judgments vary with their varying experiences, is there an
absolute and universal standard of right? These are the
problems which ethics covers. There is another question,
however, which ethics never has been made to cover, and
nobody who imderstands the subject-matter has ever yet
suggested that it should now be made to cover. That
. question is. Is the universe favourable or unfavourable
to the realization of our moral ideals? Granting that
we have standards of conduct and of character, granting
that there be certain ends of human Hfe which we sanc-
tion as great and good and worthy of our devotion, what
are the chances that we can ever fulfil these standards
and attain these ends? This question involves in itself,
as is quite plain, the problem of man's moral weakness,
incapacity, and perversity. Put in another way, the
question is, Are men bad? If they are, is it in the
nature of things possible that they may become good?
If they can become good, what are the instrumentahties
by which the cure is to be effected? And even of men
whom we call good, are they absolutely good? If not,
what is the cause of the deficiency ?
This problem of evil in life and therefore in the
imiverse — how is it to be solved ? If even good men
have a touch of badness in them, how are they to become
absolutely good? Here are questions most intimately
and vitally connected with ethics; and still, by the con-
sensus of all philosophers, they are outside of ethics
proper. They deal not with what is right and wrong
and how we come to know what is right and wrong;
they deal with the existence of evil, and how we are to
put an end to evil and establish a reign of righteousness
on earth. The relation of life or the universe to the
moral ideal, the degree in which the universe is favour-
able or adverse — this is not a problem of ethics. Even
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 79
as I have been stating it, my readers must have realized
that it is the question of ethical religion and of the theory
of ethical religion. Theology as the theory of religion
and of God is quite clearly a theory as to the relation of
the universe to human ends and ideals; and the relation
of the universe to ethical ideals becomes the specific
problem of theology the moment religion has become
ethical. Then the question as to the existence of God
is whether there be any great power, tendency, or Being
favourable to the actualization of our standards of duty.
Within us has grown up a terrific sense of personal
responsibility, an overwhelming feeling that we are under
obligations to walk certain paths and to set our eyes
on certain goals. But is it possible in this universe, with
our human nature, to fulfil the task that we feel in our
inmost heart must be done or we fail and forfeit self-
respect ?
No one, even of those who reject both theology and
religion, can deny that this, philosophically stated, is the
import and significance of both. Persons may reject
every theory as to the favourableness or unfavourableness
of conditions to the reaHzation of our moral ideals, but
then they are face to face with a further problem. They
must decide whether they will reject not only the
theoretical, but also the moral, problem before them.
Will they drive out of mind, in their daily business and
in the midst of all their aspirations and sufferings, the
whole question as to whether it is feasible to lead what
they regard to be the right fife ? If they reject not only
the theory as to the relation of the universe to the feasi-
bihty of the right Hfe, but also the practical problem it
involves, they reject not only theology, but reHgion. And
if they reject this practical problem of religion, it would
seem as if they must somehow suffer in their moral life.
They would still retain the distinction between right and
l8o THE SOUL OF AMERICA
wrong ; but, granting that there is such a thing as wrong,
they would shirk the difSculty of finding means within the
universe of overcoming it.
We have now arrived at a point where in the very in-
terests of the good Ufe itself it would seem that we must
resort to reUgion. For the rehgious Ufe, when once moral
judgments have coloured and outlined it, deals almost
exclusively with the practical problem of toning up the
motive to do right by finding circumstances favourable
to morahty. Thus we have come out again to the
conclusion that theology must stand if morahty as a Hfe
is to stand. It would seem that those persons who, in
the name of the ethical hfe, reject every particular system
of theology which has prevailed in the past must do so
on account of the beginnings of some counter-theory
of religion which has begun to crystalHze itself in their
reason. For righteousness' sake they must find some
sort of a theory of the relation of the universe to the
human ideal. Otherwise it is almost inconceivable that
morahty as a hfe could flourish. Therefore I would rescue
the term theology from the clutch of those who wish to
hmit it to their own pecuhar theory of rehgion.
It argues a lack of philosophical knowledge and training
to imagine that there is no theology except there be a
beUef in superhuman agencies. Discard that behef,
and still the universe remains, the moral ideal remains,
and the question is to be solved as to the adverseness
or favourableness of the universe to the ideal. If one
holds, as I do, that the moral ideal is itself a part of the
'universe and that the idealistic trend in human hfe is
natural, the problem becomes one as to the relation of
the whole of the imiverse to a part of it. And it would
seem that one who has discarded the supematurahstic
hypothesis would not only be more keenly interested than
before in the problem of theology, but would have a surer
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE l8l
basis for the expectation that the problem can be solved.
Whether the solution would be more favourable to the
right life than were the dogmas which he had rejected
is another matter. But no one can deny that in and of
itself the quahty of being verifiable would be a factor in
the new theory favourable to morality. We should know
how we stood. We should know how to reckon with
the imiverse ; and this of itself would be an incalculable
moral gain. For if there be anything that weakens moral
purpose it is the twilight of uncertainty, the moving about
in the half dark, not knowing whether or not our efforts
may not be arbitrarily or at least incalculably thwarted.
To know the worst is always better than not to know cer-
tainly. But the only point for which I am contending
here is that what we shall come to know about the relation
of the universe to the human ideal must be called a theology.
It will be an enormous stride towards the settling of reli-
gious controversies and the clearing up of the problems of reli-
gion, when scientifically trained men turn to the problem
of the relation of the universe to human ideals and ends,
and when so turning they know, and they make the pubHc
know, that they are theologians.
5. The Word "Theism''
The word "theism," like "theology," has been monopo-
lized by the supernaturalists. But any doctrine con-
cerning that factor in experience to which religion points
when it speaks of God should be called theism. If a natural-
istic theory could explain better the elementary factor to
which the word God points and throw more light upon the
task which religion sets itself than supernaturalism does,
its claim to the word "theism" would be estabhshed. It
might be impossible to prove that the real factor was a
personal self-conscious agent. But what of that?
l82 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
The word "monotheism" has also been unjustifiably
monopolized by those who say that God is a personal
agent over and above the personal agencies who are living
human beings. If we can fix the factor which is pointed
to by the word God, and if we find that there is only one
such reality, then there is but one God. Our knowledge,
systematized, would accordingly be monotheism — the
science of the One God. Still greater would be the claim
of such a doctrine to the term, if we found that our moral
judgment backed the intuition of religious men and de-
clared that there ought to be but one God and that the
real factor which is pointed to in positive religions is that
which all men ought to worship.
6. The Word ''Atheist"
Some object that the terms "theism" and "mono-
theism" are exclusively theological, and not at the same
time reUgious, like God and prayer. This stricture I am
wilHng to accept; but I have devoted a few sentences to
them in order to lead up to the word "atheism," which, by
derivation, is akin to "theism" and "monotheism," and
yet is by no means hmited to theoretical use or associated
with the coolness of temper and the calm love of truth sup-
posed to be characteristic of philosophical discussion.
The word "atheism" has been venom on the tongue, when
it darts out Hke a fang. One cannot deny that it is a
rehgious term, although the religiousness be turned
bitter and cruel. It is, moreover, an altogether indis-
pensable word ; in proportion as one loves one's God
and is jealous of his honour, one is in need of a term of
utmost contempt and horror, to apply to those who
deny or blaspheme or mock him. Men should not stand
by and, without crying shame, allow others to insult that
Being which is to them most real, to which they owe every-
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 83
thing, and which they beheve to be the only power that
saves men. They must at least utter a word of moral
censure. Nor may that word be mild. Under humanity,
short of cruelty, indeed for the sake of humanity and with
as much cruelty as is needed to be kind to those who reject
that which one beHeves to be their best friend, the term
of reproach must be the strongest which language affords.
The word " atheist" has always emanated from such senti-
ments of moral horror. There is thus nothing the matter
with the word itself. It is wise and good. It is needed
as an expression of a feeling which is inevitable in propor-
tion as one reveres any reahty as God. The only objection
to it is that in the past it may have been hurled at the wrong
persons. The question is, Who is the atheist and what is
atheism? I answer, not without a touch of the emotion
which those always feel whose God has been denied, that
the prevalent notion about atheism is altogether erroneous
and inhumanly unjust. The root of the error and injustice
is the age-long fallacy that a god must be a supernatural
personal agency, and that one who trusts to no personal
agents except those who are living human beings is an ^(
atheist.
The tables ought to be turned. This word of anathema 1.
should be hurled, as I think, against those who believe
there is no God this side of the outer limits of man and
nature. Such deny the good in man and nature to be >
God. They do not beUeve in the moral law itself as
divine and yet as immanent in human personahty. They
insult human nature by a most polluting suspicion. I
will not again attempt at this point to argue the respective
merits of naturalistic and supernaturaHstic religion. I
here wish to restrict myself logically to the question of
religious terminology. As a matter of language, I assert
it to be proper that everybody should brand as an atheist
every one else who denies his God. Only those who have
184 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
no God or having a God are unfaithful or indifferent to
him should never presume to cast this epithet at others.
In proportion as a man is filled and chiUed with horror
by the denial or ridicule of what he counts most sacred,
in that proportion he has the right to hurl this term of
censure.
I remember once, many years ago, sitting in a public
meeting and Ustening to a poHtical demagogue. He
aroused vmcontrollable merriment in his audience. Sit-
ting near me was a clergyman, who entered into the rough
but innocent fun. Suddenly, however, the demagogue
quoted, in a flippant if not ribald manner, some saying of
Jesus. Instantly the clergyman's face turned ashen white,
and he sat throughout the rest of the meeting as one dead.
Now any man, I maintain, to whom anything whatso-
ever is as sacred as Jesus Christ was to that clergyman,
has a God. That man is rehgious; and he cannot help
shrinking in horror from those who speak lightly of what
to him is all-holy. They to him are atheists. And has
he not a right to name them so? It would be a moral
impoverishment of speech, were the word atheist to cease
to be a term of reproach. It is a word which in the struggle
of humanistic reUgion to estabhsh itself there will be much
need for.
7. The Word '^Religion"
Let us now turn to the word "reUgion." It is a very
common error to think that there are innumerable defini-
tions of it, and that there exists some pecuHar difficulty
in finding out just what religion is. During the last
twenty years, however, a line of investigation has been
pursued assiduously by students in various countries,
which is gradually clearing away whatever difficulty ex-
isted. So long as people turned simply to the etymology
of the word, they got no further than two rival Latin
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 185
origins ; and even when they attained the primary mean-
ings of these two words, no hght was thrown on the problem
in hand. Likewise, the attempt to evolve out of certain
fundamental principles what religion must be only led
to hopeless pedantry and subtlety. During the last
score of years, however, empirical psychologists have
said: "We will not go back to logic and abstract defini-
tion, nor to the origin of the word ; we will go straight
to the lives of those men and women who the world over
have been conspicuous for the attitudes of will and states
of heart and acts and Hnes of conduct which are called
rehgious. We will compare them and their lives with
persons who are indifferent to religion, and then again
with those who are conspicuous as being positively ir-
reUgious." Now this is a truly scientific method of in-
vestigation. What religion is, is not a question of words
and is not primarily a question of logic. It is a question
as to what lines of conduct, what qualities of heart, what
dispositions of the will have struck the minds of observers
as being distinctive, and have induced them to designate
these quahties as religious.
During recent years another cause of confusion has
also been removed. In trying to find out what reHgion
is, persons are often seeking to discover not what it is, but
what it ought to be, what it would be if it were morally
perfect. When they have found that, they have got not
a definition, but a standard by which to gauge the moral
worth of religious practices. Mistaking this standard
for a definition, they generally end by declaring that there
is only one religion, and that is their own. But in seeking
to know what reHgion is, we ought to keep clear of the
problem of what it should be morally. In seeking a defi-
nition of it we must look only for that peculiarity which
marks all its varieties and distinguishes it from everything
else.
l86 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
If we keep in mind what we are looking for, we shall
avoid another error into which many investigators have
fallen. I refer to that which was committed by Mr.
Herbert Spencer. He argued that if you collect the
religious opinions of all men, and then, striking out all
differences, retain only those beliefs and practices which
are common to all, you get the universal religion. Edu-
cationists in England during the last thirty-five years
have fallen into a similar blunder. They have thought
that they could find the essence of Christianity by dropping
out the tenets peculiar to each sect and to the Church, and
retaining what they taught in common. This they called
undenominational reHgion, and they sought to make it
the bond of union among all Christians. Now the trained
psychologist would have known that often a man himself
is not conscious of that which is his own pecuHar char-
acteristic. Likewise, two persons working together may
not themselves be aware of their points of identity. They
may be altogether lacking in self-criticism. Their opinions
may by no means be an index to what they are. The
psychologist might discover it to be the peculiarity com-
mon to all persons so far as they are religious, that they
focus their attention steadfastly and reverently upon some
source from which they beheve that they derive the greatest
benefits, and from which they beheve that they will de-
rive still further benefits by this focussing of the attention.
Yet it is quite possible that ninety per cent, of the persons
whose rehgious life is scrutinized are totally unaware that
they are exercising attention in practising religion. They
may never have heard of such a thing. They may not know
what the word "attention" means; they may never have
observed the mental process, and be quite unacquainted
with its peculiarities and its place in the economy of re-
ligious discipline. But because a man does not know
that he is focussing his attention is not the slightest proof
J
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 87
against the assertion that he is. Thus, reverent attention
to the source of life's chief blessings may be the distin-
guishing mark of religion, and yet no religious person be
aware of it as such.
As a matter of fact, this is what psychologists have
discovered in regard to reHgion. Religion is the focussing of
men's attention steadfastly and reverently upon some Source
from which they believe that they have derived the greatest /
benefits, in order to derive still further benefits. "Benefits,"
it should be observed, are not limited to external advan-
tages to oneself. At least, I use the word here so broadly '
as to include the advantages to one's country or to the world
which one desires. Whatever we long to see actuahzed as
a blessing to others, we cannot but count as a benefit to
ourselves. Hence, let no reader interpret the term in a
lower sense, and think the man necessarily selfish who prays
for benefits.
This focussing of the attention may be more or less
systematized. The more systematized it is, the more
highly developed is the religion. This systematization
may consist in an elaboration of thoughts, of disciplines,
and of forms and ceremonies.
What makes a form or ceremony religious is that it is
an LQstrumentality for thus focussing the attention stead-
fastly and reverently. What makes a thought or doctrine
or dogma rehgious is the same. So, too, with any disci-
pline Uke fasting or prayer. It is religious when it is an aid
to what is the essential psychological peculiarity of religion.
The differences in religions never consist in the total pres-
ence or absence of this peculiarity, but in the degree to which
it is present and in differences as to the object to which
attention is steadfastly and reverently turned. It follows
inevitably that those who thus look to the sun will be
different in their religion from those who turn their at-
tention, in order to receive further benefits, to some do-
l88 THE, SOUL OP AMERICA
mestic animal like the ox or elephant, or to the lightning,
or to a fountain of water welling up in the desert, or to
nature-demons, or to trees. Rehgions, however, do not
differ merely because the objects attended to are not the
same. They are felt by us to vary in worth according to
the ethical effects of attending reverently to the objects
they set up.
Rehgions differ also in their rational value. If the object
to which attention is turned is a pure figment of the mind,
a creation of the fantasy, if it be something which to the
scientific judgment does not exist, the rehgion is an error,
and hence a superstition. Rehgions also vary in general
practical value as well as moral and intellectual worth.
The object set up for reverent attention may be either one
to which it is a waste of time to turn, or one to which it
pays to turn. For instance, attention to the stars was not
primarily an ethical rehgion, but for shepherds and nomads
in general it paid. By such attention, they came to know
the regularities of the heavenly bodies at night, and so
learnt when it was safe to move and when discreet to wait
where they were.
We have found, then, a strictly scientific definition of
rehgion. It covers every case and includes nothing which is
not rehgion. It is true that there are some practices in the
least-developed forms of rehgion which seem to contradict
the quahfication that in rehgion there is a turning of the
attention reverently to some supposed source of blessings.
The case is cited of savages who get out of patience with
the objects they worship, and beat them, to pimish them.
But it becomes quite clear that in proportion . as himian
beings beat their gods, in that proportion their rehgion
ceases. If these feehngs of contempt became habitual
and constant, it is evident that the being so maltreated
would cease to be a god. On the whole, the fetich-worship-
per respects the Being from which he thinks to derive bene-
HXJMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 189
fits. He, of all religious persons, pays the respect in order
to secure further favours. The respect may be external, but
then his whole Kfe lacks inwardness. It is, moreover, only
in the most rudimentary stages of rehgion, i.e. when it
can scarcely be detected as a religion at all, that we see such
deviations from reverence.
The same comment holds good in regard to the qualifi-
cation of steadfastness. In proportion as a man is not
steadfast in his attention to the source of his greatest
benefits, he is not rehgious. He has religious moments
or days or seasons only, but these are all marked by the
quahties I have specified.
It will be further noticed that I have hmited the benefits
derived by implying that they are only the greatest. For
one would not turn one's attention steadfastly and rever-
ently to the source of benefits which were not highly prized.
A man may err fatally as to what object it is worth while
to attend to. The benefits which he derives may prove,
in the issue, to be things not worth making life's chief
concern. There have been many religions, the object of
which was to increase pleasures of special kinds, and the
result has been the downfall of the men and the nations
who cultivated attention to the means towards such ends.
It must have become quite clear, then, that religion is a
term which should not be used as if it always stood for a
wise mental practice. Religion is not always beneficent
in its effects. Those persons err in judgment who say that
any religion is better than none. The simple irmocence of
no religion is better than the focussing of the attention
steadfastly and reverently upon the means towards ends
the pursuit of which leads to effeminacy, disease, and the
extinction of a race. Accordingly it is a regrettable use
of current speech which identifies the word religion with
what one regards to be the only true and right religion,
for all sorts of illogical inferences are made.
1 90 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
But the chief advantage, for our purpose here, of a
sound definition of religion is that it exposes the absurdity
of those who declare that rehgion always has to do with
the supernatural and with belief in personal agencies who
are not Hving members of human society. It is perfectly
true that many rehgions have been the focussing of atten-
tion steadfastly and reverently upon such agencies. But
to say that all religions have to do with the supernatural
is mere bhndness to the facts of religious hfe. It must,
however, be pointed out that naturalism in a religion is
only one characteristic in its favour. Natural beings vary
in dignity and worth. It is worse than a waste of time to
attend devoutly to some of them. It must also be noted
that an object might be conceived of as purely naturalistic
and yet be wholly imaginary. One might beheve that there
was a Mahatma in Thibet and attend to him as a source of
spiritual benefits. He might be conceived of as a Hving
human being ; but if he did not exist, rehgion, so far as it
trusted to him, would be worse than futile.
8. The Word "God"
Let us now turn to consider the significance of the word
"god." May it or may it not justly be used as a term to
designate a natural object? It must be quite clear that
in our definition of religion is already involved the definition
of the word "god." If rehgion be as I have defined it,
then any object towards which steadfast and reverent
attention is turned, in order to derive the greatest blessings,
is a god. Any object, natural or supernatural, moral, im-
moral or non-moral, actual or imaginary, mental or phy-
sical, abstract or concrete, powerful or weak, becomes a god
the instant steadfast and reverent attention is f ocussed
upon it for the purpose of gaining the supreme blessings.
Our definition immediately exposes to view the fact
HUMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 191
that a being is not a god by virtue of any inherent quahty
in itself, but only by virtue of a relationship established '
towards it by a human being. To bear this fact in mind
throws a helpful light upon the use of religious terms in
general and the fundamental problems of religion.
People ask : What is God ? but they forget or have
never realized the import of the question they put.
They mean : What is that real being which men ought
to focus their steadfast and reverent attention upon in
order to derive from it those benefits which are really J^
the greatest blessings to mankind? They are asking a
moral and a scientific question. In its scientific aspect
the search is for a real, as distinct from an imaginary,
being. They want the true God, for nothing can be
more terrible than the suspicion and scepticism that,
after all, the being one has been reverently attending to
may not exist at all. The question in its moral aspect,
assuming that the being is real, inquires whether it
actually is the source of the highest good. But all the
while it is clear that the word god does not refer to an
inherent quality of the object itself, but to the fact or the
moral requirement that men turn, or ought to turn, their
reverent attention towards it.
Akin to the question. What is God ? is the often-heard
inquiry. Is there a God? Again, light is thrown upon
the nature of this question by substituting for the word
god the definition of it. To ask. Is there a God? is to
ask whether there be in very fact any source from which
supreme blessings will be gained if one attends steadfastly
and reverently to it.
It will be seen, in pointing out that there are many
different beings or supposed beings which people attend
to, that there are, as an actual fact of human experience,
many gods. It will further be clear, however, that there
can be only one true and living God, only one Being
192 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
whom we could speak of not simply as a god, or as the
god, but as God. God must be the real Being from
whom the highest conceivable good is derived if we
attend to him. In the Hght of these explanations, how
fooUsh is the contention of the majority of persons that
a god is not a god unless he be a personal agency who is
not a human being ! If there be a supreme good and
that supreme good be attainable by any natural and human
means, then that natural and human means surely is the real
and aU-worthy source of the highest conceivable blessing !
Now, there are those who contend that a naturaHstic
humanist should altogether drop the word god. Yet
these same persons may agree that it is necessary for the
humanist to focus his attention reverently and steadfastly
upon the natural source from wliich the greatest benefits
of life come. But, in the name of common sense
and Hterary usage, of accuracy and of the need of
making oneself understood, I ask them why should we
drop the word god if it is a term wliich is always appHed
to anything whenever it is treated in the manner in
which these persons concede we ought to treat a certain
verifiable source of human blessings? Because some
other person's gods are supernatural does not make the
object we attend to any the less a god. One might as
well refuse to caU one's clothes "clothes," because the
garments of beggars are repulsively imclean and torn.
Clothes do not simply mean good and expensive clothes;
so, gods are not simply those wliich we approve. When
once we have cleared up this question of rehgious termi-
nology, we find that the question of naturaHsm or super-
naturaKsm does not touch the essence of religion and the
problem as to the existence of God.
One who bears clearly in mind that the word god
is a purely relational term, applicable to any object to
v/liich men steadfastly and devoutly attend, will see that,
HTJMANISTIC MEANING OF THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE 1 93
the moment a thing is so attended to, it is necessary not
only to call that object by its own name, but also to call it a
god; for its own name does not indicate that it is an
object of worship, but the word god indicates exactly this.
Suppose, then, that, following Matthew Arnold, we should
teach that Goodness is God, there would be a lack of
judgment displayed if any one should say: "Why not
simply call Goodness, Goodness? What is the use of
saying Goodness is God ? " Of course the answer is
that when you say Goodness is Goodness, you have made
no advance in thought ; but when you say Goodness is
God, if what you say is true, you have added the state-
ment of a relationship in which some person stands or ought
to stand to Goodness. You have said that Goodness either
is or ought to be the reality worshipped. To feel that the
word god becomes superfluous because we know what the
object is which is worshipped would be as if a man, know-
ing his wife's name to be Mary, should imagine that
there were no occasion for calling her his wife. But
when he says, "Mary is my wife," he says very much
more than "Mary is Mary." Likewise it would be an
astonishing proposal that we should never speak of Mr.
Woodrow Wilson as the President, but simply as Mr. Wilson.
One might ask. How should we ever communicate the fact
that Mr. Woodrow Wilson is President if we never called
him the President ? The only way would be a circumlocu-
tion, by which in place of the word we should introduce the
definition of "President." And so, as the word god is a
relational term, we must use it if we wish to designate the
relation. Nor let any one imagine that this defence of my
use of the word god as applying to Goodness, which I
think is the object worthy of supreme worship, is alto-
gether superfluous. During the last twenty years I have
been reiterating in ethical societies that as an actual fact
Goodness and all living tendencies that make for its realiza-
194 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
tion constitute the God of those who are sincere and clear-
thinking members of such societies. The result has been
that many a time the criticism has been offered, "Even if
we do reverence whatever makes for Goodness as the su-
preme necessity and reality of life, why need we call it
God? Why not simply say that Goodness is Goodness?"
The answer is that to many a person Goodness may be Good-
ness, and yet not be that person's God. The general use
of relational terms justifies, and the need of communicating
our thought necessitates, our calling Goodness our God.
In connection with the naturalistic use of these two
terms god and religion, I would have my readers
clearly understand that in declaring that Goodness is God,
I do not imply that goodness has always been everybody's
god. Even impHcitly and unconsciously men have not
by any means always been worshipping goodness. But
I do contend that ancient Judaism was an ethical reHgion,
and that the Jews were worshipping Righteousness as a
Real Power in the world, and that Righteousness there-
fore was their God. I declare the same in regard to the
founders of Christianity and the Christian theologians of
all ages. In spite of themselves, despite their metaphysical
theories and their growing insistence upon the supernatural
character of the being they worshipped, they nevertheless
were devoutly ethical. Moral attributes, moral acts were
the power which they saw and felt to be the source of the
highest blessings to mankind. Their religion and their
God may not have been exclusively, but were supremely,
ethical and naturalistic. The fact must not be overlooked
that supernaturaHsm does not exclude the natural in the
sense that naturahsm excludes the supernatural. Persons
who believe in the supernatural also believe in the natural,
while the naturahst excludes every factor which one cannot
beheve in except on the supposition that there exist personal
agencies who are not Hving members of human society.
CHAPTER XII
HXTMANiSTic MEANINGS (continued)
I. The God of the Bible
It is sometimes difficult to understand how Christian
theologians dare stake their reputation as educated men
upon the statement that it is a misuse of the word God
to apply it to anything but a supernatural being. The
comparative study of rehgions has been going on for a
hundred years, and it is inexcusable for a person to speak
as if he had never heard of any rehgion except those which
set up a personal Creator of the universe as the object of
attention.
It is also growing difficult to understand how theologians
can any longer assert that the doctrine of a personal Creator
of the universe is the essential presupposition and the mes-
sage of the Old and New Testament teaching. For half a
century scholars have unearthed the truth, which Matthew
Arnold and Sir John Seeley so ably set forth, that the Bible
is not a book concerned chiefly with a life after death or a
speculative doctrine about an infinite personal Creator and
Governor of the universe. It is becoming an ilKteracy of
a kind that one ought to be ashamed of, so to misimder-
stand the Bible. And, as I beUeve, we shall find the current
forms of public worship, if we analyze them, essentially
natvurahstic ; their supreme interest is the moral perfection
of men on earth, and their supreme means are those which
are verifiable, are at hand in human experience and equally
at the disposal of those who totally reject all supernatural-
ism.
I9S
196 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
When we turn from mere definition to literary usage,
we find not only that those poets and prose writers who
have been endowed with the finest sense for the differences
between words employ the word god exactly in the ways
which our definition would justify and establish ; we further
find that poets, somehow instinctively, in their better and
higher moods designate as God Hviman Goodness itself.
Take even so unlik ely a writer as Swinburne, and you will
find such stanzas as this : —
A creed is a rod.
And a crown is of night ;
But this thing is God,
To be man with thy might.
To grow straight in the strength of thy spirit,
and live out thy life as the light.
If God can never refer to anything but the personal Creator
of the universe, this sentence makes no sense. Who could
say that the personal intelligent First Cause of the universe
is " to be man with thy might " ? If, again, it be maintained
that this is only a poetic and Hterary use, it must be an-
swered that that is nothing against it. It is poetic and
hterary, but it is absolutely exact and precise. Let us
substitute in Swinburne's sentence for the word god the
definition of God which we have arrived at above, and it
will read : This thing is that which is supremely worthy of
being attended to steadfastly and reverently in order to get
the greatest blessings possible to man — to be man with thy
might. Manliness, in short, is the thing which should be
reverently attended to.
Or let us turn to the use of the word god found in a poem
written by a former Secretary of the English RationaHst
Press Association. Mr. Hooper is a professed RationaHst.
Yet we find that he does not discard the word god. On
the contrary, he appKes it not only in a naturalistic, but in
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 1 97
a purely ethical, sense. The poem to which I refer is en-
titled "The Spirit of Man," and it begins, "Spirit of Man,
ascend thy throne." Still addressing the Spirit of Man, the
poet continues : —
That path where saints and prophets trod
To one supreme confession leads :
The god in man — for man — is God.
Be thou that God enthroned below,
With calm-eyed Truth at thy right hand,
Who bids us dare all doubts, to know
What men can fitly understand.
Be Knowledge linked to Love and Peace,
Break down the barriers of pride.
That self, self-centred, may decrease.
And thou, the boundless Self, abide !
Again applying our definition, we find the absolute exac-
titude of the poet's terminology. He wishes that the
spirit of man should be the power to which men turn their
attention steadfastly and reverently in order to receive
the highest blessings. What could make more fitting
sense ? What greater proof of the accuracy of a definition
can one find than that one can substitute the definition for
the word wherever the word is used by the best writers
and the sense will not only be preserved but elucidated ?
2. The Personality of God
As the personification of certain factors in moral experi-
ence is involved in the very form of prayer, it may be well
here to call attention to what personification is.
We personify when we attribute in speech the qualities
of personal agencies to factors which we do not believe to
be self-conscious. Now, the question that arises is this : Is
personification an exaggeration ? Do we feel less iatimate
IqS the soul of AMERICA
spiritually with impersonal than with personal beings?
Towards that which cannot consciously love us do we in
fact feel a less absolute and glad sense of inward union
than we experience with conscious beings? If we do,
then to personify is to exaggerate the facts. If we do
not, personification is legitimate, expedient, and truly
poetic. If you feel nearer to America than you have ever
felt towards any individual Hving person, if you have foimd
more peace or more of love's solicitude in the thought of
her, more inspiration in her history, and have been more
ready to die for her than for any one human being, then to
personify America is still for you to fall short of the truth
that is in you. For you to personify America is to come
nearer to the reality of your relationship towards her than
if you did not, but it is not to reach the full truth. Thus
personification becomes a necessity of expression.
If, then, Emerson be filled with the sense of the absolute
reality of Virtue, Emerson must personify Virtue. In so
doing he will not go beyond the literal truth ; he will not
even reach it. The mystics have always personified the
ethical reaHties. But, in proportion as their vision was
clear, they have never dogmatically or metaphysically or
literally attributed personality to the great tendencies of
which they find and feel themselves to be an essential part.
To do so would have been to lose grip of the facts which
inspired the personification.
There is another peculiarity in the language of poetic
personification which in the judgment of some renders its
use impossible for naturalists in religion. This is the
appHcation of the masculine pronoun to the factor which
is called God. How can virtue be called "He"? And
why "He" instead of "She"? But why either? Why
not "It" ? The answer is that if "It" be used, the personi-
fication is lost. We human beings are acquainted with no
personal agents that are not either masculine or feminine.
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 1 99
Our speech has no pronouns to apply to a personal agent or
to a being personified, except those which are either mas-
culine or feminine. Like Mr. William Watson, we may
all lament that we
must use a speech so poor
It narrows the Supreme with sex.
So the fault, if it be a fault, of calling goodness "He"
when it is personified, is a fault inherent primarily in the
limitations of himian experience. But when we personify,
we know perfectly well, imless we have lost our reason,
that the object personified is neither masculine nor feminine,
and has no attributes of sex. It is therefore childish to
protest against the use of the masculine pronoun to desig-
nate the object we worship.
Or, if there be occasion for protest against calling God
"He," it is only because we ought perhaps to use the
feminine pronoim.
In speaking of the personification of virtues and of
such social groups as America, I have implied that these
are impersonal entities. But it is only the poverty of
language which makes us divide all things into personal
and impersonal, and then use the word "personal" as a
term of praise and "impersonal" as one of disparage-
ment, as if personal entities were always higher than
impersonal. Now, it is true that they are higher than
stocks and stones. If speech, however, were quite exact
and adequate, and if our analysis and classification were
complete, we should include under "personal" all the
attributes, fimctions, structures, and growths which
emanate from personal agents. Virtue, love, mercy,
pity are attributes of personaHty. They are of the nature
of mentality; they have no existence apart from per-
sons. Is it not, then, an error of classification and of
speech to call these "impersonal"? The word "im-
200 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
personal" ought to be used to indicate only non-personal
entities or the attributes of non-personal entities. Now,
my contention is that a quahty which inheres exclusively
in a personal agent must of its very nature be personal,
and therefore should be comprehended under the terms
"personal" and "personaUty." So that if a man wor-
ships Virtue as his God, it is wholly misleading to de-
clare that he worships something impersonal. The high
dignity and value which we ascribe to personal agents
must surely cover and embrace all the attributes pecuKar
to personality. No one, then, who worships the Moral
Law or Duty or the Moral Sentiment ought to concede
for a moment that his God is an impersonal one. In-
stantly by so doing he plays into the hands of some wily
opponent, who knows that if he can only brand, these
abstract qualities as "impersonal," he attaches to them
the disparagement which that term carries with it.
Instead of an abstract quahty Uke Virtue, let us con-
sider for a moment a concrete xmity like the historic Chris-
tian Church, or like America. Is the Christian Church an
impersonal thing? It is made up of millions of personal
agents, interacting and interdependent. It has no existence
apart from these. Its very tissue is personahty. Also its
form and structure and functions are derived exclusively
from the nature of personal agents. The Church is nothing
more nor less than an organism consisting of persons. We
ought not to say, then, that the Church, or America, is an
impersonal entity.
If we are not to be allowed to apply the word
"personal" to abstract moral quahties, then, to be quite
exact, we ought to call them interpersonal. But we
must remember that what is interpersonal cannot be
classed as impersonal ; for the relationship between persons
must be of the nature of personality.
If concrete reahties like the Christian Church or America
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 20I
cannot be fairly called personal, yet they are more than
interpersonal. They are not so ntiuch the bond between
persons as the comprehensive unities overspanning a
plurality of persons. In very fact, we have no experience
of individual personal agencies who do not derive their
existence from a social organism into which they were
born. It is equally true that there are no social organisms
where there are no personal agents. A social organism,
then, if it is not to be called personal, might very well be
designated superpersonal.
Thus, any one who worships either a concrete social
group or an abstract moral quality may justly protest
against the charge that his God is impersonal ; he may
insist that it is either superpersonal or interpersonal, or
both.
In order to offset the supersubtleties of his enemies, a
man is sometimes compelled to cultivate an equally keen
dialectic. But having once indicated the interpersonal
and superpersonal character of Virtue and of organic
groups of persons, he may well proceed confidently to
declare that his God too is personal.
It may further elucidate the factors which an analysis
of prayer brings to view, if it be pointed out that the
word spiritual preeminently applies to such realities
as Virtue and social groups. No one could for a moment
deny that that which is interpersonal and superpersonal
is spiritual, even if he protested that it was not personal.
The University of Cambridge is not, as the idealistic philo-
sophers who live there have pointed out, a material thing ;
it is a spiritual entity. If, then, a man worships America,
or Hmnanity, or the Moral Ideal, or all of them, his God is
undeniably spiritual. But how strange it sounds to follow
up such a concession by declaring that it is impersonal !
We never associate the word impersonal with the spiritual.
202 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
3. " Worship," " Prayer," " Church "
If our definition of religion is correct, it will not only
provide us with a definition of the word "god," but also of
the word "worship." For worship is used to describe
the distinctively religious mental act. Now what, in fact, is
worship but, as our definition would lead us to think, the
turning of the attention steadfastly and reverently to a
source of supreme blessings ? The word worship then
would strictly apply to the turning of reverent attention
to human goodness, as the chief source of the supreme
blessings of life.
And is not this same turning of attention called prayer,
when one's mind is especially focussed upon the blessings
which one wishes to receive? It is the same act as
worship, with emphasis thrown on the things desired.
The word "church" is a theological and a religious term,
the use of which cannot be discontinued with the adoption
of a scientific view of the imiverse. A church is a society
for the worship of a being whom its members believe to
be the source of the supreme blessings of life. The churches
differ if the beings differ which are worshipped. A naturalis-
tic church would be one for the worship of a being which
was a verifiable factor in human experience. If it be true,
as I believe, that the Christian Churches have always
essentially worshipped human goodness as the real re-
demptive power, then they have always been naturalistic,
even if their champions thought and said to the contrary.
We students of the psychology of religion may understand
them better than they have ever understood themselves in
the past. A naturahstic church, therefore, need not count
itself as essentially different from the great Christian
Church. It is the Church at last awake and understanding
itself better than before. We may, then, speak of the
Church, meaning what it will ultimately be in its forms
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 203
and dogmas, as well as what it has been in the unconscious
principle vitally controlling its life from the first.
4. " Repentance,'" " Saint," " Holiness "
The essentially rehgious acts of worship and prayer
may be deeply coloured by the consciousness that one
has neglected one's reUgious duty. Then the reUgious
act, instead of being wholly joyous, is tinged with a feehng
of sorrow for the past neglect. The person is glad and sad
at once, and we call him repentant.
The forgiveness of sins is the inrushing of new con-
fidence and strength and hope, due to the reestablished
relation between the worshipper and his God. Forgive-
ness is a characteristic experienced in every religion,
although it rises in the scale from the most superstitious
to the wholly verifiable, and from the non-moral and
immoral to the purely ethical types of rehgion.
The word "saint" must be retained in a naturahstic
scheme of religion to indicate the person in whom the
imion of the worshipper and the worshipped is habitual
and for the most part dominant, so that any wajTvard
impulses of his nature submit without protest to the
spiritual discipHne. And the word " holiness " must be
kept as a term to designate the saint's ability to do right
effortlessly. Some one has defined ethical rehgiousness
as glad conscientiousness. The sense of duty is to most
the sense of a burden and of a task that is heavy; the
saint is one whose burden, strangely enough, lifts him
instead of his having any longer to Hft it.
5. The Word "Christ"
Most persons who have discarded the traditional theology
have felt themselves called upon, in speaking of the
Founder of Christianity, to drop the word "Christ"
204 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and restrict themselves to the name "Jesus." But such
a procedure on their part is again due to lack of con-
structive insight and imagination. When we discard the
supernatural offices of Christ, he does not become for us
simply a private person. He remains still official as a
Saviour of the world. Just as King George is both George
and King even when the kingship to us impHes no super-
natural grace, or as President Wilson is both Wilson and
President, irrespective of our theory of government, so
Jesus Christ is both the individual and private person
Jesus, and also the organizer, the point of departure, of a
new movement, the representative of an objective and
universal principle in man. Christ is the anointed one in
that he is the embodiment, the illustration, and supreme
instance of the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. The
more one knows of the special mission of Socrates, the more
one sees that Socrates is the philosopher and not the moral
saviour of the world. The more one knows even of Buddha,
the more one realizes that he is not the principle of pro-
gressive manhood among nations, not the founder of a
kingdom of righteous men on earth. Forever and ever
Buddhism, by its denial of time and space and individual
progressive existence as a good, has shut itself out, except
for an Eastern people in their period of stationary sus-
pension of ethical development, from rivalry with Chris-
tianity. Buddhism will not redeem the world, whereas
Christianity, if it be true to what the new criticism and the
new knowledge of evolution reveal to our gaze, will estabhsh
a world-wide kingdom of righteousness for nations and
individuals. Whether it ceases to call itself Christianity
is a matter of indifference. The Redeemer-principle, the
Christ-principle, came to consciousness in the man Jesus,
and he is therefore in the highest degree what the rest of
us may in part attain. Even should any one ever in the
future transcend him, still it will only be by him and in
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 205
glad acknowledgment of the debt to him. There never
can in the future be a dividing of the world into Christi-
anity and not-Christianity. It will only be a new and
more Christian Christianity, compatible with hberty and
reason. Thus it seems that not only the word Christ as
the epithet of Jesus must be retained, but also the term
Christianity must be applied to a civihzation which
has discarded all supernaturalism and miracle and has
ingrafted social democracy and science upon the tree that
has now grown from the grain of mustard-seed which
Christ planted.
From another point of view, also, the word Christ is
preferable for a naturalist to the word Jesus, to indicate
the Founder of Christianity. The authenticity of the
personal life of Jesus, as narrated in the New Testament,
has been questioned, so that, in the judgment of some
whose scholarship and impartiahty are to be respected, to
speak of Jesus is to speak of a purely mythological or
imaginary personage. But nobody (except Nietzsche),
so far as I am aware, has ever denied the fact that in the
New Testament there is figured forth an ideal or type of
manhood worthy of our respect and admiration. Nor has
any one ever doubted that this ideal has been the mighty
power of the New Testament; and many would go so
far as to say that, the ideal being there and commanding
our spontaneous but rational admiration, it makes very little
difference whether the person Jesus was a myth or not.
It wotdd seem to me that the word Christ may weU
designate the ideal which the Gospels shadow forth. For
in the case of every individual person, whether mythical
or historical, the ideal he suggests is the universal in the
particular, is prior to it, is not fully realized in it, and will
last independently of it when once it has dawned as an
ideal upon the imagination of men.
There is much discussion among supernaturalists as to
2o6 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
the nature of the Incarnation of God in Christ; while
persons who have discarded the supernaturahsm seem to
have lost all use for the word incarnation. Yet it must
not be overlooked that this word is a very common one
in everyday, non-religious speech and in general litera-
ture. We say that a man is the very incarnation of
selfishness or of loving-kindness ; we sometimes even
say that a man is the devil incarnate. And so there are
a hundred phrases of this kind which are perfectly clear
and legitimate. In all of them, however, it will be found
that what is referred to as being incarnate is a principle,
an idea, an abstract quality, a great tendency. Surely,
then, of all human beings it must be said that in this
sense Jesus was an incarnation ; and few will deny
that he was an incarnation of the Moral Ideal of
Manhood. The principle of the beneficent service of
mankind was incarnate in him. It is because he was an
incarnation of this principle that thousands have lived
by him and will to the end of time. The incarnation
then must forever remain a fundamental conception of
reUgion. No science, no social democracy can render
to any degree superfluous this notion of incarnation.
Incarnation is always the actualization of a imiversal
principle in a particular moral agent. Until all men are
incarnations of the principle of constructive moral benefi-
cence, and to a higher degree, Jesus will remain pre-
eminent, and, as I have indicated above, it is quite possible
that, in proportion as he is approached or excelled,
gratitude to him will increase rather than diminish.
6. Matthew Arnold's Insight into Christian Meanings
The presupposition which constitutes the working hy-
pothesis proposed here for the revision of church services
is one which has already received some acceptance. Even
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 207
the application of it to the historic language of religion has
been well begun. One of the chief pioneers in this under-
taking was Matthew Arnold. In his "Literature and
Dogma" and his "God and the Bible," with inexorable
logic and dazzling brilliancy of insight he applied
to the literature of the Old and New Testaments
the principle of society as a self-feeding spiritual organ-
ism. As the result of his investigation, he became con-
vinced that the great writers of the Bible were purely
and profoundly humanistic and naturalistic in the sense
in which I have used these terms. He maintains that a
man of disciplined mind and adequate scholarship, if un-
biassed, caimot escape the conviction that all the Bible
terms which are used to describe God refer to verifiable fac-
tors in imiversal human experience. He goes even further,
and would sanction a continuation of the use of the Church's
favourite formula for the Trinity in a naturalistic sense.
On this least hkely subject, he arrives at profound and
beautiful meanings for words and phrases which have been
understood for centuries in other ways. In the chapter
in "Literature and Dogma," entitled "Our Masses and the
Bible, " he says :
" Suppose the Bible is discovered, when its expressions are
rightly understood, to start with an assertion which can be veri-
fied : the assertion, namely, not of ' a Great Personal First
Cause,' but of ' an enduring Power, not ourselves, that makes
for righteousness.' Then by the light of that discovery we read
and understand all the expressions that follow. Jesus comes
forth from this enduring Power that makes for righteousness, is
sent by this Power, is this Power's Son ; the Holy Spirit pro-
ceeds from this same Power, and so on.
" Now, from the innumerable minor difficulties which attend
the story of the three supernatural men, this right construction,
put on what the Bible says of Jesus, of the Father, and of the
Holy Spirit, is free. But it is free from the major difficulty
208 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
also ; for it neither depends upon what is unverifiable, nor is it
unverifiable itself. That Jesus is the Son of a Great Personal
First Cause is itself unverifiable; and that there is a Great
Personal First Cause is unverifiable too. But that there is an
enduring Power, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness,
is verifiable, as we have seen, by experience ; and that Jesus is
the offspring of this Power is verifiable from experience also.
For God is the author of righteousness ; now, Jesus is the Son
of God because he gives the method and secret by which alone
is righteousness possible. And that he does give this, we can
verify again from experience. It is so ! Try, and you will find
it to be so ! Try all the ways to righteousness you can think
of, and you will find that no way brings you to it except the way
of Jesus, but that this way does bring you to it ! And, there-
fore, as we found we could say to the masses : 'Attempt to do
without Israel's God that makes for righteousness, and you will
find out your mistake 1 ' so we find we can now proceed farther
and say : ' Attempt to reach righteousness by any way except
that of Jesus, and you will find out your mistake ! ' This is a
thing that can prove itself, if it is so ; and it will prove itself,
because it is so.
"Thus, we have the authority of both Old and New Testa-
ments placed on just the same solid basis as the authority of the
injunction to take food and rest; namely, that experience
proves we cannot do without them. And we have neglect of the
Bible punished just as putting one's hand in the fire is punished ;
namely, by finding we are the worse for it. Only, to attend to
this experience about the Bible, needs more steadiness than to
attend to the momentary impressions of hunger, fatigue and
pain; therefore, it is called /a«%, and counted a virtue. But the
appeal is to experience in this case just as much as in the other ;
only to experience of a far deeper and greater kind."
If even the epithets descriptive of the Trinity are appli-
cable to factors in the religion of humanistic idealism, and
not only are applicable, but become freshly beautiful and
inspiring, it is likely that all the language of the Bible may
be appropriated. But even if certain passages could not
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 2O9
be used without an unnatural forcing of the text, that would
not invalidate the worth of passages which required no
forcing. Equally appropriate is much of the current lan-
guage of rehgious worship, which is not directly taken over
from the Bible. It may be the outcome of the metaphysi-
cal thinking of the theologians of the Middle Ages. But
the question is whether their metaphysics has necessarily
distorted the factors and the relations of factors in univer-
sal moral experience. If the metaphysical language of the
creeds is f oimd to have some exact appropriateness in a natu-
ralistic scheme of redemption, it too should be embodied
in a nation's ritual. It should be reinterpreted; that is,
our new insight should disclose a truer meaning and then the
language should be preserved. My own study of the creeds
leads me to see that the metaphysicians also were among the
poets, and that while their doctrines are bad science, they
are admirably constructed products of imaginative think-
ing.
Many of the theological terms which were inflexible and
absolute on the lips of the supernaturalists will become rela-
tive and assume the plasticity common to words in general
literature. As Arnold says, the language of the New
Testament is not that of science ; and the person who uses
its phrases as if they were rigid terms in a technical nota-
tion simply rules himself out of court as one incapable of
judging. But although Matthew Arnold insists upon the
ethical meaning of the fimdamental message of the Bible,
he does not for a moment deny that interblended with that
message is a belief in miracles and in supernatural agencies.
These, however, are altogether subordinate features. Like-
wise, the Bible can never again lay claim to a monopoly
of our religious reverence. Henceforth the revisers of
religious services will find occasion to appropriate from the
literature of all nations whatever commends itself as morally
true and inspiring.
210 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
7. The Words "Sin" and "Devil"
The word "sin," next to the word god itself, is ex-
clusively a religious term. Transgression is never sin
except it be against that which is counted a god —
i.e., against a being to which steadfast and reverent
devotion is turned as to the source of life's supreme
blessings. It follows inevitably that worship of the Moral
Ideal and all the Powers that make for its actualiza-
tion wovdd transform all violations of the moral law
into sins.
Of all theological terms, possibly none has fallen into
more utter disrepute than the word "devil." Even persons
who are still professed theologians avoid the word, and
are generally ready to confess that they have ceased to
believe in the thing. This is the more strange, for there
has been no corresponding disbelief in the existence of
evil, nor has the sense of horror of iniquity diminished.
On the contrary, one of the striking characteristics of our
age is the deepening of the sense not only of one's own
sin, but of the reaUty of sin stamping itself on laws
of property and on politics, and manifesting itself in
domestic institutions. Indeed, the very institutions
which once seemed to us almost perfect are now dis-
covered in great part to be unjust and untrue. Many
are beginning to feel that it is a dishonour to be rich, de-
spite the legaHty of one's ownership of property.
The devil may not exist as a personal agent beyond
man ; but it is strange that at the very moment when we
have discovered his non-existence, we have a new and
appalling sense that all the attributes which constituted
his supposed personahty are more rampant in the world than
we in our former ignorance had ever dreamt. We are also
awakening to a new reaUzation of the unity in all the
various forms of evil. Things seemingly so different as
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 211
lying and murder and stealing and licentiousness and love
of display, and their efifects on mind and body — disease,
poverty, pain, insanity, despair, and early death — all these
things seem to be one in nature. They are evil because
they are identical in their tendency — deathward. They
make for the destruction of joyous Ufe, not only in the
individual, but in the race. Furthermore, we discover
not only the identity in the essential trend, but the
organic unity, the cohesive afl&nity, among all forms and
elements of evil. If Plato was right in saying that all
virtue is one, we are right in saying that all vice is one,
not only in its abstract definition, but as a consolidated
army. It is an organized enemy against health, gladness,
long life, mutual confidence, and trust and hope among
men. And all evils tend to cooperate. There is an
evolution of evil as well as of good. Following Spencer's
definition of evolution, we may say that evil tends to
develop from the incoherent, indefinite, and homogeneous
to the coherent, definite, and heterogeneous. It is glar-
ingly true that prostitution has become capitahzed,
systematized, coordinated, and elaborated. If virtue is
health, evil is a disease hke cancer ; it has a virility like
that of quickening life and a power of growth as intense
and rapid as it is monstrous.
In proportion as one is conscious of this unifying,
growing, begetting power among the various forms of
evil, one is led naturally and irresistibly to do what is
called personifying evil. But this personifying of evil is
grossly misrepresented, if it is understood as hteraUy
attributing self-conscious intelligence to all evil, as if it
actually possessed a memory and senses and purposes and
plans over and above the memories and senses and pur-
poses and plans of individual men and women. The
personification is simply to indicate the organic unity
which springs up among all evilly minded persons, unify-
212 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ing all evil tendencies in institutions and traditions and
drawing to itself all the evil propensities which exist even
in Comparatively good men and women. Although in the
literal sense we cannot attribute a unified personality or
ego to the evil in the world, we can still less declare that
evil is impersonal. It consists of a pluraUty of persons —
of living men and women who are bad and plot mischief,
who feed cancerously upon the organism of society. We
all see that the good people of the world tend to become
a unified spiritual organism. But we are beginning to
detect that the evil people of the world, and all people in
so far as they are evil, in a similar manner, although under
cover of darkness, tend to become a imified spiritual organ-
ism. Evil not only exists — it is aHve. It is not only alive,
but transmits Hfe ; and all the elements of its life tend to
become organized. The intense, vivid sense of this organ-
izing principle of unity among the elements of evil forces
one to personify evil. If one does not do so, one falls
short of a concrete, full and alert reahzation of its nature.
One needs a name for all forms of evil as constituting a
power which begets after its own kind in the world. Now
the literary name for evil thus thought of is devil.
We may not beUeve in a personal devil, but we must
beHeve in a devil who acts very like a person. All
spiritual organisms so act. A political party acts hke a
person ; the Roman Catholic Church, and every nation, in
proportion as we have imagination, seem to us to act like
persons and to have individuality, although we are perfectly
aware that they do not possess a self-consciousness distinct
from the consciousness of the individual human beings
who constitute them.
It is greatly to be deplored that the belief in the devil
and the use of the word devil have gone out of fashion.
Only one other possible decline of faith and of use of a
word could be worse. The decline of behef in God and the
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 213
disuse of the word god would be a greater calamity; for
God must stand for Goodness as a unifying and unified
power in the world. But goodness until it has triumphed
is in a terrible conflict with badness. It is not only that the
idea of the good suggests the idea of the bad and that these
are correlative terms. It is that the good and the bad
both exist and both have vitahzing strength ; accordingly,
it is a danger to the cause of the good if by dropping
the word devil we undervalue the quickening capacity of
evil. Evil may spring up in a day, in a night, almost
before one knows it, in dark places, in disguised forms,
in beautiful shapes; and to make light of it, to think
that the forces of evil are only a chaotic mob, is the
devil's chance. The forces of evil, if scattered, have been
scattered by the organized efforts of the good. The
moment they have a chance and the moment the capitalists
and statesmen of evil give the word, they will fall into line
as an armed battalion. Witness the growth of private
capitahsm into antisocial and antihuman trusts.
Although the devil be not a person, we must not
imagine that evil is a thing dead, inanimate, and material.
Evil, as much as good, is of the nature of mind; it is /'
spiritual. It is interpersonal and superpersonal. Then
let this old theological term be reinstated in the Hterature
of rehgion, and let us educate the people to know exactly
what is meant by it, and why and how we use it.
8. The Word " Hell "
In "National IdeaUsm and the Book of Common Prayer,"
I dwell at length upon the naturalistic and ethical use of
the word "heaven," in treating of the phrase, "Our Father
who art in heaven." I therefore here only mention the
word that my reader shall not imagine that it may not
have a place in the nomenclature of men who insist that
214 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
religion must become scientific. But the word hell
must not be allowed to pass unnoticed. As we find
that the word heaven is the religious term for a perfect
society, so the word hell is one which the rehgious
consciousness has put forth to designate any society where
evil is triumphant, and where the consequences of sin —
disease, insanity, hate — are rampant. The word God
points to an individual, to persons, and to interpersonal
and superpersonal relationships and factors. Likewise
the word devil. But the words heaven and hell designate
the opposite moral extremes of types of society. Shelley
illustrates this notion in his famous Une, "Hell is a city
much Hke London." Hell is thought of as a company of
agents in whom moral insight has faded to darkness, and
enthusiasm has burnt to ashes ; hardly a memory remains
of the early dream of heaven as the fellowship of the good.
In the New Testament and in the Prayer-book hell is a
kind of society rather than a place and a time. We may
accordingly cease to believe in a life after death and a
place in which the vicious will then congregate and plot.
Still we need a word to designate the fellowship of evil.
There are plague-spots on earth and times in human
history and even in the obscure proceedings of groups
of nobodies, which are hell. By our using the word in
this manner no one would be misled into thinking that
we beHeve in a life of torment after death, and the
vocabulary of humanistic religion would be the richer.
When I was considering the word devil, I dwelt upon
our growing sense of the reahty and power of evil in modern
life. It would be very strange if, during the break-up
of the old interpretations of religion, and while the con-
sciousness of sin and the chill of moral isolation are casting
us down, we should have no more use for a word to desig-
nate a society of the wayward and cynical.
The word hell will again point to a physical torment of
HXIMANISTIC MEANINGS 21$
the damned, as well as a purely mental horror. As men
advance in refinement of nervous organization and in the
capacity and leisure for reflection and self-criticism, hell
on earth will become more and more dreaded as the
abomination of horrors. Preachers will, more and more,
teach a doctrine of hell-fire. Out of kindness they
will terrify by presenting the evil effects, indirect and
remote, of selfish thoughts and dispositions. We must
frighten people away from the edge of the abyss which
yawns this side of death. It is the duty of the more
experienced to warn the inexperienced and the unwary
of the awful consequences of certain thoughts and deeds
upon mind and body, not only to themselves, but to wife,
child, neighbour, and nation. Those are probably not
far from the truth who maintain that no sane being would
yield to moral sin if in the moment of temptation there
stood out in his imagination all the terrible consequences
to everybody concerned as do the momentary and
immediate pleasures to himself accompanying the deed of
transgression. Many a wrong deed bears no perceptibly
bitter fruit for ten, twenty, or forty years in the Hfe of the
individual; then only does it blossom into dishonour,
disease, and despair. A deed may never come back
to its doer, but it wiU to his child, to the wife, the
neighbour, the casual comrade, and to the nation. With
the nation it may be only in a hundred years or five
hundred that the germinating seed of misery will spring
up to choke the goodness, happiness, and efficiency of a
people. We must preach hell-fire, and by that name.
It is an effeminacy akin to the indifference altogether of
our day to questions of religious discipline which has
made us dwell more upon the tender mercy of God, and
less upon the inexorable rigour with which evil deeds
beget sin, misery, and early death. We hear much of
heaven and little of hell, because preachers have not yet
21 6 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
gripped the effects of mischievous deeds in this world.
The discarding of the old belief in a supernatural hell
has led them to the foolish conclusion that all the conse-
quences of sin are relatively slight.
9. " Redemption" " Salvation," " Eternal," " Infinite "
The word "redemption" Ukewise describes a certain
experience and a certain purpose in humanistic rehgion.
Man's very constitution, his organic structure as a whole,
is moral ; and wickedness is always the excess or de-
ficiency of some special impulse of his nature. Every
person who sins falls away from his normal state. That
state, however, despite every deviation from it, is stiU
prefigured in man's constitution. In wrong-doing, the
deHnquent feels that he is sacrificing his entire being in
the long run to some special or transient interest. In
such a case, the wrong-doer can be set right only at a
cost, only by suffering. The metaphor, therefore,
involved in the word "redemption" is a fitting figure to
suggest this fact. A price must be paid for restoration
to the rightful owner, and this price may be the happiness
and self-reaHzation of others.
"Salvation" is a word commonly used in general litera-
ture in a non-theological and non-religious sense. It
means "rescue from any sort of danger, calamity, or destruc-
tion." In a naturahstic religion it must be retained in the
distinctive religious sense of deliverance from the power
and penalty of sin.
The word "eternal" has plainly two meanings, that of
ordinary literature and that of current theology. In the
latter it signifies Kterally unending existence, but in
Hterature it means the kind of fife Hved by one who is
more interested in the remotest and most pubHc issues
than in momentary and private concerns. It means moral
HUMANISTIC MEANINGS 21 7
superiority to transient troubles. In addition to this, it
signifies in literature the relatively lasting, as when one
speaks of the climate of the tropics as eternal summer,
or when one speaks of an eternal round of duties. The
word, in this sense, is justifiable. It is pedantry that
would restrict it to the rigid sense given it by the old-
fashioned theologians. In the Hterary sense the word
eternal must be preserved as a distinctively religious term.
For whether human interests be Hterally everlasting,
continuing on after death, or not, there is a striking differ-
ence between hving for pomp and vanities and living in
the real service of all men for all time. The ethical life
is therefore an eternal Hfe, in that the individual himself,
although he has but an hour of continued existence be-
fore him, is interested in concerns that will abide practically
forever. He is not only interested, but is himself contri-
buting to this unending hfe. His character and his con-
duct are means to enduring ends.
There is stiU another justification of the use of the
word eternal in naturalistic reHgion. The quaHties which
distinguish the higher life, as reinterpreted, are the same
which were characteristic of the eternal hfe as described
by the older theologians. The finer spirits of Christianity
have always noted that the word eternal points not so
much to continued existence after death as to a quality
of heart and soul attainable here and now as well as here-
after. As Schleiermacher said, we may be eternal in each
moment of time — superior to personal disappointments.
Likewise with the word "infinite." It will be a great
gain to rehgion and to Hfe when the grotesque subtleties
which certain schools of metaphysicians have woven about
this word have been stripped away. Infinite is a term
for the emotions ; it should treat of values instead of limits
in space and time. When one's sentiments rise above a
certain intensity, differences of degree caimot be discerned
2l8 IHE SOtrL OF AMERICA
or felt ; one experiences a distinct and peculiar emotional
sensation of Hmitlessness and vastness. Wherever this
emotion is experienced, it is justifiable to speak of "the
infinite," describing as such that which causes the emotion.
Now, it happens that the great principles and ends of the
moral hfe and the presence of persons devoted to these
ends awaken in us a degree of awe and admiration so
intense and profound that exact distinctions of measured
difference become impossible. That which produces this
emotion seems to be witliout Hmit and without bounds.
With this interpretation, the word infinite ceases to of-
fend our scientifically disciphned judgment.
The word "almighty," as an epithet of God, like the
words eternal and infinite, should be rescued from the
falsely rigid and pedantic use of the supernaturahsts. For
the emotions, that power which exceeds measure is prac-
tically almighty ; in this Hterary usage the word means
mightier than one can measure. Such an epithet fits
most congruously the notion of the active good in the world.
The more we study the good as a power, the more we are
conscious of its immeasurable might. But, what is still
more significant, when we look to the future we see that
that might will be augmented by leaps and bounds and
more quickly than it has ever been in the past. In propor-
tion as the physical universe comes under the control of
nations, the power of the good in the world will be increased.
CHAPTER Xm
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN
I. The Efficacy of Petition
The notion prevails that praises, expressions of grati-
tude, and petitions addressed to some Higher Power must be
dropped out of rehgious practices when once the trust in
superhuman agencies is abandoned. Who remains, it is
asked, to be thanked for blessings received? What is
left to praise ? Could there be any sense in appealing to a
Being not conscious and therefore incapable of knowing
what we asked ?
Less extreme are other conclusions as to the practical
consequences of Hmiting our moral trust to human beings
under natural law. It is declared that prayer, when we
give up the supernatural, can have efficacy only by reflex
action. Mere aspiration, it is said, is a prayer; and it
does us good to aspire. The practice of asking, praising,
and expressing gratitude, although no one hears us, is
wholesome for us. Sweeping is good for the broom, even
if the floor be made no cleaner. It is said that, after all,
the essence of prayer was not the asldng for anything of
any one, but the inward meditation, the serene contempla-
tion ; and that such reflection is involved in all communion
with a superhuman deity and yet is independent of it.
Thus prayer, even the form of address, may be preserved
on account of the mental exercise it entails.
These conclusions seem to me to have been reached be-
fore making any analysis of the mental processes involved
in prayer and without any comparison of attitudes of mind
219
2 20 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
towards natural factors of experience analogous to attitudes
towards supernatural agents. They seem to have been
reached without a preKminary study of the general custom
of petitioning, praising, and expressing gratitude to one's
fellow-men and to natural beings, as practised by all great
imaginative writers both of poetry and prose — with no
shadow of reference to behef in supernaturahsm.
If we approach the question of the use of prayer in natu-
ralistic rehgion from the point of view of hterature and
psychology, we find that prayer — not simply mental but
spoken, not simply private but social and public — will
be more than justified. Such prayer is efl&cacious not only
on account of its reflex action within the suppHant, but also
because it is positively answered by outside beings and
powers. This efficacy of prayer will also be found to con-
cern not simply inward and spiritual states, but material
possessions and outward circumstances — health, wealth,
and success in life. Nor will it consist simply in passive
contemplation of great reahties and ends, nor in any
imaginary communion with these. On the contrary, prayer
wiU retain as its essence petition to an outside Being, and
the nature of the answer to prayer will be the actual re-
sponse of a Higher Power. These responses will be such
that they are veritably dependent upon the petition. Had
the suppliant not asked, he would not have got what he
asked for.
2. Human Beings who answer Prayers to God
Now to our analysis, psychological and Hterary. When
we give up supernatural personal agencies who might an-
swer petitions, we have not altogether lost out of our lives
personal agencies who may hear and answer supplications.
Human beings, close at hand and powerful to help, still
remain in countless numbers round about us. Only on
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 2 21
the notion that supernaturalism is essential to religion
can it be maintained that a supplication to a personal agent
for help is religious so long as the agent is supernatural
and superhuman but ceases to be religious the moment the
agent appealed to is human and natural. The fundamental
contention of naturahstic rcHgion is that if a practice is
reHgious when done in relation to beings outside of man and
nature, it must be equally so in relation to beings within
the universe of our social experience.
Apply this principle to. the Lord's Prayer. If the pe-
tition " Give us our daily bread " is reHgious when addressed
to a personal Creator conceived of as hearing and caring
and able to provide for us, it is none the less so if addressed
to fellow-mortals round about us. Likewise with the sup-
phcations "Lead us not into temptation" and "DeHver
us from evil." Suppose any one should utter these petitions
to men and women round about him, beheving that they
coidd give him the bread and the moral protection he needs,
and would do it if petitioned. Suppose he were filled with
a profound sense of his dependence upon them and upon
their willingness. Suppose he were in dire necessity —
not only he, but his family. Then all the elements of re-
hgious intensity and yearning and humiHty and hope would
be manifested in him. Also there would be the powers at
hand, mighty to save, ready to help, needing only to be
asked in sincerity and with good cause. How, then, at
least as regards these three clauses of the Lord's Prayer,
can it be said that the moment our beHef in a supernatural
personal agency vanishes, that instant we must perforce
cease to cry out, " Give us this day our daily bread," "Lead
us not into temptation, but deKver us from evil"?
Or take the clause, "Forgive us our sins, for we also
forgive those who are indebted to us." If this suppHcation
be an act of religion in the soul and on the hps when ad-
dressed to an invisible agency, our contention is that it is
222 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
equally so — equally a prayer, equally a petition to an
outside Personal Power, to a source of redemption and
consolation — when addressed to one's fellow-men. They
can forgive. Morally, they must forgive. The impera-
tive is absolute ; and there can be no hint of superstition
or presumption in asking fellow-mortals to forgive us in
proportion as we have forgiven other fellow-mortals. No
scepticism, no materialism, no agnosticism can in any
degree imdermine the foundations of this prayer when
addressed to fellow-mortals. The occasion for both think-
ing and uttering it remains as great after we have discarded
supernaturahsm as it was before. Nay, the consciousness
of the need for forgiveness from one's fellow-men becomes
intensified. It becomes exalted into a higher degree of re-
ligious fervour and passion than it ever could have been when
the chief anxiety of religion was to appease a supernatural
agent. No stronger vindication of a naturalistic faith and
practice could be conceived than this heightening of the
significance of the forgiveness of sins between man and man.
We have, then, already justified prayer as a form of pe-
tition to an outside Being imder a naturahstic scheme of
human redemption. Nobody ever dreamed of denying
that it is perfectly rational to pray in the manner here
indicated. Furthermore, it is quite plain that the efiicacy
of prayer when directed to personal agencies within nature
is not merely subjective ; it is objective and real. The
answer is dependent upon the asking. Let it further be
noted that prayer of this kind is not limited to asking for
spiritual blessings. It secures material help as well as
outside spiritual safeguards and spiritual reconciliations.
3. Outward Expressions of Prayer
Further, how self-evident it has become that prayer
within the limits here xmder consideration need not be
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 223
merely mental; nay, must be spoken as well. Not only
speech, but the very bodily attitudes of prayer should re-
main intact. It is fully justifiable to bow the head, to
stretch forth the hands, and on occasion to fall upon the
knees. Such practices are not only justifiable, laut are
actually carried out by everybody. Who can deny that
the use of these towards supernatural agents is simply
borrowed from the universal and everyday practice of
falling on the knees, stretching forth the hands, and bowing
the head towards fellow-mortals, when, in great need and
dependence, men and women cry out for help, either phys-
ical or spiritual ? After analysis of the case, then, instead
of conceding that reUgious petitions to an outside Being for
help must cease when supernaturalism is discarded, one
rather is astonished at the presumption and audacity, or
else the lack of reflection, of those who declare that men
must cease to pray in a religious sense when the super-
natural is given up.
For, whatever else must be abandoned, certainly petition
to outside beings in whose visible presence one stands or
kneels, and within range of whose hearing one's words are
uttered, will forever be its own justification. The only
change with the decay of supernaturalistic creeds will be
that such petition, which before had been counted secular
or profane or what not, will rise now into the dignity of
rehgious ceremonial. This asking from a fellow-mortal
within earshot for help is the eternal and indestructible
nucleus of the substance of prayer.
4. Prayer to the Absent
But we have not surveyed the whole range of the prac-
tice which naturalism in religion must inculcate. We are
by no means limited, in our requests, to persons within ear-
shot. There are coimtless channels for communicating peti-
224 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
tions to those absent or remote. A prayer may be written,
it may be printed. Yet not even these direct means of
conveying a suppKcation to the Being implored exhaust the
possibihties of reaching the ear and the soul of others.
Sometimes it is not necessary that one should direct one's
petition to some particular and definite individual. Every-
body knows that a petition sent forth vaguely and generally
often touches the heart of this or that hearer, quite irrespec-
tive of any personal friendship or any individual responsibil-
ity towards the needy suppHant. We ask we know not whom
in particular, but we get in response from some one in par-
ticular. Men and women out of work insert in the daily
papers a statement of their predicament ; and their prayer
is answered. Somebody hearing of a case of distress an-
nounces the circumstances in the Press and vouches for
the accuracy of his statement; and the money that is
wanted comes. The home in the country which the in-
vaHd needed is offered. The journey to a warmer clime is
provided. Verily, many have found that a Personal God
is round about them, ready to hear and help. Experiences
so common as these are known to every one. The only
novelty in my argument is that I bring them into relation
with the deepest necessities of our Kves and open up close
at hand an infinite scope for reUgious trust, faith, and ful-
filment.
5. Prayers that are Overheard
Sometimes the prayer is directed in no such vague and
general manner, but is misdirected. It is addressed to a
definite individual, yet one whose heart is hardened or
whose eyes are blind or who proves after all incapable of
answering our request. And still the prayer is answered.
Some chance onlooker overhears and forthwith assumes
the role of Providence. It must never be forgotten that
prayers may be not only heard, but overheard. When not
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 225
even overheard in the literal sense by one who can answer,
they may be reported to somebody else who can.
Nothing could be more naive in its simplicity than the
testimony frequently rendered by evangelical enthusiasts,
who boast that in their philanthropic work they have never
asked any human being for a penny, and yet the infinite
Creator of the universe from on high has heard their prayer
to him. Money has poured in from this and that rich man
or woman. Such enthusiasts are, without doubt, sincere.
But they and the persons who believe their testimony over-
look the fact that there are many forms of prayer besides
direct begging. People see for themselves a man's sincerity,
single-naindedness, and self-sacrifice, and the need in which
both he and his work stand. One who has fainted by the
wayside need not tell me that he has fainted and requires
my help. If I am but half human, I know before he asks,
and may answer because he does not ask. So with the self-
sacrificing worker among the poor. We see the needs of his
mission, and our hearts are forthwith touched to proffer
our support. The evangelist who testifies that without
natural means the Creator has directly moved the rich to
support his mission must prove that some one who has
never heard of it or of its merits has sent money. The
truth is that dogmas exacting faith in supernatural agencies
make those who implicitly accept them blind to what com-
mon sense reveals as plainly as the day — the human
agencies and the natural connections binding one hiunan
spirit with another.
6. Prayers to Historic Personages
Petition, however, to one's fellow-mortals is not limited
to those actually living. All hiiman agencies who have
once constituted a part of the living social organism and
whose character and purposes have been preserved to us
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226 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
in books or by tradition are potent factors to-day in the
lives of human beings. Literature, in proportion as it is
imaginative, poetic, and patriotic in its sentiments, teems
with illustrations of direct addresses to human beings long
since dead. These addresses consist not only of praise
and expressions of gratitude, but of appeals and petitions.
If our reasoning thus far has been correct, such petitions
do not cease to be prayers simply because they are not
addressed to superhuman agents. Upon close analysis
we shall, I believe, be forced to confess that they are an-
swered, and not simply subjectively. Take Wordsworth's
sonnet, beginning : —
Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour :
England hath need of thee : she is a fen
Of stagnant waters : altar, sword, and pen.
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness.
The Milton living in history and not simply the Milton
already subjectively a part of Wordsworth does, through
the suppHcation, become a more intense, vivid, and potent
reality to the petitioner because of his prayer. Milton is
one of "the choir invisible," living "in minds made better
by their presence," but in other minds as well as that of
the petitioner. But more than this, Milton is hving in his
poems and his prose and in the historical record of his times.
No one focussing attention upon Milton, and reconsidering
his works and his Hfe, can fail to derive from them new
strength and inspiration. It is impossible to say that one
studying the works of Shakespeare is benefited only sub-
jectively. It is impossible to say that any one indebted to
Shakespeare's liberating and humanizing spirit can turn
the attention fresh upon him and not derive from him new,
real, and objective inspiration. So with Milton. In open-
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 227
ing our minds to him, he becomes more vividly present to us ;
and thus he makes us better and quickens us to new hero-
ism and new dignity. It is only by prayer to him that more
of him enters into us than mere chance allowed. Surely it
is a petty and mechanical logic which would lead us to
believe that the 240 years between us and Milton are in
any way a barrier to his response to our spiritual appeal to
him ! Time is no barrier. Pathetic is the fooKshness of
those who, in order to interpret the inspiration which we
may derive, feel forced to presuppose that the spirit of
Milton is actually present in the sense in which Hving men
are at hand. It is to be hoped that most of us are poets
enough, without any spiritistic theory to encourage us and
without any materiaUstic doctrine to prevent, to cry out
to Milton, vmder pressure of oiir inward shame and con-
scious of his character : —
We are selfish men ;
Oh ! raise us up, return to us again,
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power !
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart ;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea :
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free ;
So didst thou travel on life's common way
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
When the services of the Anglican Church become —
and they will so become — the native poetic outgrowth of
national history and of national character and of national
genius, as well as the outgrowth of the religious services
of ancient Jerusalem and of the Roman Catholic Church,
this supplication to Milton will find its place in England's
pubUc worship. The disciplinary efficacy of the repetition
of it would in no wise require, as a presupposition, a belief
in any doctrine or dogma as to supernatural powers
in general or as to the self-conscious living presence
2 28 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
of Milton to-day. To the truly historic imagination the
past is verily present, not only as the unconscious energizing
principle of our lives, but also in the literature and record
of its meaning and its lessons.
In a naturalistic view of religion all such appeals as this
of Wordsworth to Milton would be recognized as essentially
and intensely religious ; and such recognition would en-
hance their beauty, dignity, and influence.
7. Prayers to Jesus
Not only, however, will treasures of so-called secular
literature be seen to be sacred and be appropriated by the
Church. The best prayers of the Church itself, which
hitherto have been interpreted in a supernaturalistic sense,
will not on that account be discarded by humanists.
Generally in our day nobody prays to Jesus Christ, un-
less he accepts the idea that Jesus Christ has continued
since his death to be a living, self-conscious spirit and is
still operating upon human society and cooperating with
his disciples to the end of its redemption. But the time
will come when persons who in no wise entertain this idea
will not be in the least ashamed to turn, as much as any
spiritistic Christian, to Jesus Christ for help and inspira-
tion, for strength and consolation, just as they will repeat
Wordsworth's prayer to Milton. To-day it may seem almost
preposterous to think that such a time will come. But
how can the discarding of supematuralism separate us from
Jesus the Man, from Jesus the Christ, from him who exem-
plified in his sayings and in his Hfe the principle of our
humanity to a degree far transcending that of any other
character preserved to us in hterature and tradition ? We
need Jesus as we need Milton ; and the only way to get
him is to turn towards him as we would to Milton — to
study his life, picture it, visualize it, know by heart his
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 229
sayings and his influence, and thus focus our attention
upon his imique personality. To do so mentally will be to
cry out mentally, "Christ, have mercy upon us; Lord,
have mercy upon us !" and what we shall say in our in-
most soul that we may utter with the lips. Thousands
who to-day discard the supernatural office assigned to
Jesus are ready to testify to the inspiration of his Ufe. It
is inconceivable that a religion which will turn to the ex-
amples of all good men should omit that of Jesus. Nor
will any deficiency of historical evidence as to the actuality
of the details of his Hfe have a weakening effect upon the
power of his personality, any more than the same deficiency
would have in the case of any other man. In the case of
all men the valuable element in their lives depends not
so much upon the authenticity of every incident as upon
the ideal character which the incidents somehow inevitably
suggest or inevitably create through our constructive
imagination in our own minds. The true triumph of
Christ will be the survival of his power for good over men
after they have totally discarded all belief that he was
unique in origin or in kind or even that he actually did or
said any one of the things which have been assigned to
him. Somebody, something, many persons or many
things, did, somehow, suggest to the writers of the New
Testament that ideal of manhood which therein is shadowed
forth. Whatever suggested the ideal there depicted is, in
the ultimate analysis, the Uving reaUty from which the ideal
issued. Though the whole narrative of the Gospels be
proved to be mythical, the reality it presents cannot, from
the ethical and sociological point of view, be denied. The
myth somehow grew out of Hving needs and Kving experi-
ences. Destructive critics will have difficulty in destroy-
ing the ideal suggested by the story of the life of Christ.
Nor can they destroy the belief that it emanated from living
experience of some kind. It, moreover, is in no wise de-
230 THE SOUL OP AMERICA
pendent upon the authenticity of the narrative. It is its
own witness and its own justification. It will, accordingly,
grow more and more to be a positive redemptive energy
throughout mankind, in proportion as all spiritism falls
away from rehgion. Naturalistic rehgion will not only
rescue the characters of secular literature, but will deliver
Jesus out of the hands of those who in their jealous adora-
tion of him have made him a preternatural — and there-
fore a monstrous — being.
8. Prayers to Spiritual Tendencies and Ideas
Even now we have not exhausted the range through
which the spirit of prayer may sweep without passing
beyond its legitimate confines. Equally justifiable with
petition to Hving human beings and to the great characters
of the past is direct address in the second person to the
great tendencies and institutions of human society. The
very tissues of the Kving organism of humanity are sensi-
tive and vibrate in response to our supplications. The
ideal relations and standards of human fellowship glow
with new Hfe and move responsive to the petitioner's im-
portunity. Such abstractions as America, Democracy,
the Spirit of Man, Womanhood, the Moral Ideal ; such
virtues as Purity, Equality, Fraternity — these are no mere
abstractions. Although abstractions, they are energies,
potencies round about us. To turn the mind towards
them, to fix the eye of the spirit upon them, is to cause
them to pass from vagueness and indefinite passivity into
distinct and precise activity. We cannot mention their
names without beginning to grow into their Hkeness. As
ideas, as principles formative and directive in human so-
ciety, they have a real existence independent of any one
individual who may or may not revere them. Take Emer-
son's immortal prayer : "I love the Right ; Truth is beauti-
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 23 I
ful within and without forevermore ; Virtue, I am thine ;
save me ; use me ; thee will I serve, day and night, in great, in
small, that I maybe not virtuous, but Virtue." Let any man
pray this prayer, and he will see that from Virtue as a real
power, from the idea and from the Hving principle of it in
human experience, strength will issue to transform him
into its image and into identity with it. The result of ex-
periment with this prayer will be the conviction that even
petitions to personal agents, supernatural or natural, are
efficacious only in so far as they involve, though but im-
plicitly, an appeal to the abstract qualities of ideal manhood.
The suppHant will find that William Blake expresses the
inmost truth of prayer when he says :
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
All pray in their distress,
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
9. Prayer not merely Communion
If such be the intimate and vital relationship between
us and the whole of human society past and present, it
cannot be said that there only remains to us a sort of ideal-
istic communion with the great and good, and with those
groups which have been the inspiration of the great and
good. Besides such union and communion, direct petition
is also possible. This being the case, those reUgious iimo-
vators who have discarded supernaturalism, and have on
that account felt themselves compelled to discard petition,
have erred in judgment.
Typical among such innovators was Dr. Congreve. He
retained the word "prayer." But unhappily he went out
of his way to assert that from Positivistic prayer all idea
of direct petition is excluded. Why should he have ex-
cluded petition? Surely only because he had failed to
232 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
analyze carefully the factors which remained within Posi-
tivism. The supreme being to which the Positivists pray,
Humanity, is verily present wherever any human beings
are present, and hears whenever they hear. To each indi-
vidual in the congregation all the others are an outside
Kving reaUty which may and does respond to petitions.
But over and above this, did Dr. Congreve even under-
stand the prayers he himself formulated? Was he not
still so dominated by the supernaturaUstic presuppositions
to which in youth he had been trained, that by oversight
he failed to recognize the most virile and effectual charac-
teristics of Positivistic prayer ? Dr. Congreve's error seems
also to have fastened itseK upon the understanding of an-
other devout and unflagging disciple of Comte. Mr.
Malcolm Quin, who has conducted the services in the Church
of Humanity at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, divides the
forms used by him under three headings only. Commemora-
tion, Communion, and Dedication. He allows no place
for direct petition. This would exclude the asking that
justice be done, that health, wealth, leisure, and knowledge
be granted to all those from whom these necessities are now
wrongfully withheld. No wonder that the poor and women
in general have not been attracted in large numbers to the
Church of Humanity ! It has fallen into commemoration.
It has dropped into quietistic piety and receptivity. It
has inculcated dedication of one's powers instead of self-
assertion and the demand that forthwith those who can
deliver shall arise and redeem.
Yet, fortunately, both Dr. Congreve and Mr. Malcolm
Quin have builded better than they thought and professed.
In spite of their conscious theory, they have not omitted
petition from Positivist prayers. I find in their printed
rehgious services, it is true, no asking for material help.
But their prayers are far more than mere aspiration of the
individual soul, unrelated to the reservoir of spiritual hfe
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 233
round about. There is in the Positivistic prayers very
much of direct petition for spiritual help from an outside
Being ; or, to be more precise, from that portion of the
whole being of Humanity which is outside of the petitioner
himself. What, for instance, are these invocations of Hu-
manity in Mr. Quin's ritual but a direct petition, and what
could be more consonant with the real character of Posi-
tive polity than such appeals as these : "Humanity, Spirit
of Love, arise in the souls of thy servants" ; "Yea, free us
from this darkness, that we may behold thee in the glory
of thy past " ; " O power of present guidance, unveil thy
grace to us and be near to us in these depths" ; "O life
that wast, O life that reignest now, reveal to us all the
majesty of thy hfe to be." Surely here is a petition on the
part of the individual worshipper to some power outside
of his own actualized selfhood. Or take Dr. Congreve's
form for the Sacrament of Presentation of Children. There
you will find this petition, clearly directed to aU humanity
as well as to the intelligent heart and wiU of the parents
who dedicate their child : " Great power whom we adore
as the source of all good to men, Humanity, we thy servants,
met for the consecration of a new life to thy service,
humbly and earnestly pray that the child by this sacra-
ment presented and consecrated may be lovingly, faith-
fully, and wisely trained, that under all wholesome in-
fluences of affection and submission and reverence she (or
he) may grow up to be in her turn rich in such influences,
taking her part in thy continuous work."
Thus even those who intend to omit petition spon-
taneously and wisely retain it. The ultimate substance
of prayer is the act of opening the soul towards the moral
universe beyond oneself. It is a drawing back of the cur-
tain to let in the sunlight. Or — to change the metaphor
— the human spirit, too long shut within the prison house
of the senses and bound to the claims of the pettier self,
234 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
is cramped and stifled. It was born for liberty and loving
sacrifice ; and when it fears that it can no longer breathe,
it strikes against its prison windows, and, breaking them,
lets the Kfe-giving air from beyond rush in.
lo. Prayer not merely Mental
From what we have said above, the minor question as
to whether prayer shall be purely mental or may also be
expressed in words is easily settled. Prayer is, of course,
in the first place, mental. But it is a grievous blunder to
imagine that it has no need to be formulated in words and
uttered in speech. No mental activity can become definite,
coherent, and systematic and remain so, except it be em-
bodied and repeated in words. Afterwards we may come
to say the words in a suppressed whisper or only mentally ;
but originally and essentially a prayer to be definite must
be formulated in language. And it must be actually spoken
again and again, or it will waste away into vacancy of soul.
A petition that does not or cannot or wiU not formulate
itself in words and let the Hps move to shape them and the
voice to sound them and the eye to visuaHze them on the
written or printed page, becomes soon a mere torpor of the
mind or a meaningless movement of bUnd unrest or a trick
of pretending to pray. Perfected prayer is always spoken.
II. Public Prayer
Moreover, in its fulness a prayer uttered by the private
soul alone carmot be adequate to its own fulfilment. One
may not say that the prayer in solitude is ineffectual ; for
indirectly, if not directly, through its effects upon him
who prays, it will reach not only the humanity stored up
to us in Hterature and tradition, but the actual Hving men
and women constituting the present-day community.
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 235
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that prayer in its fulness
is not only spoken, but is social. It requires for its com-
pleteness the presence of two or three uniting together in
petition. Ultimately, prayer is the surrender of the in-
dividual's private whims to the general will of society;
and that general will is most powerfully present and effec-
tive when at least a few are visibly together in community
of purpose. Again, the very fact that the prayer is entered
into by several persons proves that it is already a movement
not only of the individual towards the spiritual organism,
but of the spiritual organism towards each of its members.
It is an insane heresy of rehgious individuahsm to regard
private prayer as being deeper and intenser than public.
According to this heresy, the height of prayer is for the
individual to be alone with the Alone — as jealous theists
describe it. The truth, however, of our spiritual life is
that in order to ascend spiritually we must meet and help
one another up. Social prayer is the coming together in
order to enter into the unifying spirit of all society. Articu-
late utterance is manifestly the only means for rational
communion, and the words uttered, in order to express the
turning of the mind to the redemptive influences within
the spiritual organism of society, must consist not only of
statements in the third person concerning those influences,
but of address. It is not enough that we speak about the
Being whose help we crave ; we must speak to it. It is
qioite true that, when we cease to trust to personal agencies
outside of society, we can no longer address them either in
thought or words ; but this is no reason why we should
cease speaking to the personal agencies within society. We
may henceforward only talk about supernatural beings ;
but surely we are not restricted to talking about our fellow-
mortals. We must address them directly.
We dare never forget that moral realities stand to us in
a different dynamic relation from the grass and the stars
236 THE SOUL OP AMERICA
and the sea. No effects upon us or upon these would re-
sult from petitions, even of a most righteous man, to them.
But no one can deny that prayers to Purity, Serenity,
Faith, Humanity, America, Man, Woman, to Milton, to
Jesus, do create a new moral heaven and earth for him
who thirsts after righteousness.
12. The Emotional Elevation of Prayer
It may well be conceded that only when a man's emotions
are profoundly stirred and his imagination quickened can
he feel the significance and dignity of addressing a petition
to such abstract quaHties and comprehensive realities as I
have been considering. The moral will, although it does
go out in suppUcation to these so-called abstractions and
generalizations, never does so when a man is neutral and
apathetic. But when in such a state of mind, why should
any man trouble to address either natural or supernatural
powers ? The prayers I have been advocating presuppose
exalted states of mind in which principles, ideas, and the
main tendencies and goals of human effort are felt to be
supreme reaUties and constitute a Kving presence. The
mood of all prayer, supernaturalistic no less than naturaHs-
tic, if it be genuine, is akin to the spirit of poetry, wherein
the invisible, the universal, the ideal is felt to be more real
than one's own body. It is nothing against the interpre-
tation of prayer which I have given, that it presupposes
imagination and a state of profound emotion. The prayer
that is prosaic and drags along the ground of Hteral fact is
a contradiction in terms. Let persons who are not deeply
moved, and whose spirit is not aflame, speak only in the
third person or not at all. The exaltation of prayer which
has always characterized it in supernatural rehgion will
be equally required when the redemptive influences to
which we turn are wholly within social experience. The
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 237
emotion must be high; then the speech will correspond.
A spoken prayer must give expression to the exalted emotion
that inspired it by majesty of style, by sweep of rhythm
and greatness of imagery, or else by the closeness and
simpHcity of its truth.
Some of the Positivist innovators in rehgion to whom I
have before referred attempted to write prayers in an un-
imaginative mood of cold, logical effort. They supposed
that a mere recognition of their right to address Humanity
would enable them to produce a prayer. They did not
reahze that only at the white heat of passion and by creative
imagination would come forth a form of petition able to stir
moral passion in others. The result of their efforts was
sometimes grotesque enough. Yet in humanistic religion a
foolish and incapable utterance no more proves the inabihty
of humanism to inspire sublime and stirring expression
than would a similarly dull utterance in supernaturalistic
religion be a disproof of its possibilities. An analysis of
certain prayers which have been offered to the pubKc and
are used by EngHsh Positivists simply shows that the
special writers were not poets ; it does not show that
Positivism is in itself prosaic, but that Dr. Congreve was
not a poet. Let the Positivists wait, if need be, for a
Shelley or a Browning or a George EHot before they begin
to offer up prayers to Humanity.
But they need not wait. Already EngHsh literature is
abundantly rich in Positivistic prayers, as subhme and
quickening in melody and passion as anything in the
Hebrew prophets or the liturgy of the Church. Let any-
one read Swinburne's "Songs before Sunrise." There he
will find a whole anthology of prayer suitable for use in the
Church of Humanity. Swinburne does not invoke in very
name Humanity as a spiritual organism, but he does what
would seem less promising. He breathes forth prayers to
the Ideal Republic. When "Songs before Sunrise " was writ-
238 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ten, he was aflame with democratic enthusiasm, and his soul
burnt itself in sacrifice at the altar of republicanism. Yet
not a line nor a word of his could any one find grotesque.
Our conclusion, then, as regards the prayers of naturalism,
is that they are in no other position than those of super-
naturaHsm. They presuppose a poet.
13. Statements of Fact in Prayer
We have noted that a petition addressed to a Being need
not differ in content from a simple statement of fact.
Take the General Confession in Morning and Evening
Prayer of the English Book of Common Prayer. It is a
petition to God ; it says, "We have erred and strayed from
Thy ways like lost sheep." If we drop the pronoun
"Thy" and in its place put words descriptive of what the
"Thy" undoubtedly indicates, we shall have destroyed
the form of prayer, but the matter of the sentence wiU
remain wholly intact: "We have erred and strayed from
the right ways like lost sheep." How little difference,
whether we speak to Righteousness or speak about it !
We see that the difference between the third and the
second person is not a difference in truth or in kind, but
only in warmth. The form of prayer marks an intensifi-
cation of intimacy, but nothing more. We caimot even
say that statements about a thing fail to draw it nearer
to us. When we declare that we have erred and strayed
from the right ways like lost sheep, the right ways become
less far off ; and they loom higher and grander before our
inward vision. They awaken an impulse to start forward
and enter into them. Only to speak about Virtue is in
fact a supplication. It is an asking without the form of
asking ; and beyond all doubt such formless prayers are
answered.
When speaking of the form of prayer, we found that
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 239
it might be addressed to a person or persons within ear-
shot or to those living but absent. Or we might ask of
the community as a whole, or of persons and tendencies
remote in history, or of ideals and abstractions. Now
exactly in the same way, although in a lesser degree, to
make a statement in the presence and hearing of a person,
although with no form of petition, may virtually be a
petition. If I come pale and haggard into the presence
of some one capable of assisting me and simply declare,
"I have had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours and
am penniless," the effect is probably quite the same as
if I added, "Give me something to eat," or, "Give me
something with which to buy food." The efi&cacy of the
statement is of the same kind when the words touch the
heart of an absent person whom they indirectly reach.
Likewise even the influence of the dead and of abstrac-
tions may be secured to our benefit. Almost all the effect
of Wordsworth's sonnet addressed to Milton would have
been obtained had it been a statement about Milton in-
stead of an appeal to him.
Persons, then, who boast that they have discarded prayer
and who regard it as childish or fantastic to address peti-
tions to beings who cannot literally hear, do not escape
the charge that their minds virtually go out to meet the
great realities of the moral universe, whenever they make
sincere and truthful statements about virtues or great
historic tendencies. They may say that they have
abandoned the form of prayer, but they cannot maintain
that they have dropped its substance. Modern indifference
and the lack of analysis have led to a widespread discard-
ing of the form of prayer, but we have no reason to think
that persons have in any degree ceased talking about virtue
or ceased going out to meet it halfway. Nor, in fact, have
they, in abandoning prayer to supernatural agencies,
fallen off from the poetic habit of using the form of prayer
240 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
to the dominant factors in moral experience. They have
not yet become accustomed to denominate such addresses
prayers ; but when once the identity, in disposition and
efficacy, of petitions to human agents with prayers to super-
human beings is seen, the form of petition will not only be
used, but will be designated by the rehgious name for it.
Thus we see that the form of prayer is legitimate when-
ever the sense of intimacy with the object from which bless-
ing is derived rises beyond the everyday level of emotion.
We might say that a statement about virtue represents the
positive degree of moral emotion, while an address to
virtue represents the comparative degree. The latter indi-
cates more perturbation of the heart; there is a bursting
of the ordinary boimds and channels of feeling ; the emo-
tions overflow and rush forth in imwonted abundance and
with increased momentum towards the object they seek.
14. A Mystic Union with God
There is, however, a superlative degree of moral senti-
ment. The sense of intimacy with virtue may rise to
a level where it transcends even the form of prayer. The
plane of feeling where excitement, imrest, and yearning
dominate is not the highest. Such a state is often trans-
cended. The soul enters into a realm of spiritual clarity,
of calm and radiant fulfilment, where it no longer is aware
of any separation between itself and the whole of virtue
which it craved. In this state of emotion it becomes as
impossible to speak to the influences and agencies which
redeem as of them. The intimacy of the Good in the
individual with the Good beyond it has become for the
instant identity of being. In such moments of lucidity
one neither speaks of virtue and the good in the world nor
to virtue and the good in the world, but lets virtue and the
good in the world speak for themselves in and through one's
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 241
own soul. Thus it was with the ancient Hebrew prophets.
They identified God with themselves and spoke in his person.
Such, likewise, was the sense of mystic union with God ex-
pressed time and again by the Founder of Christianity.
He saw himself to be one with the Powers that redeem.
The highest state of rehgious emotion is this, which can
only express itself adequately in the first person. And
the line of religious development in the future under nat-
uraUsm will not be marked by a falling short in that
emotion which needs the form of prayer, but by a tran-
scending of it.
Not only in Hebrew and Christian literature do we
find this higher form in which petition is transcended,
but also in the sacred writings of the East. It is like-
wise to be found in such mystic poets of the West as Emer-
son and Tennyson. Emerson, without explaining who it
is that speaks, uses the first person, where it is quite evident
that his own finite personality is not the speaker. In the
following verse he uses it as an Eastern seer would : —
They reckon ill who leave me out ;
When me they fly, I am the wings ;
I am the doubter and the doubt.
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
In "The Higher Pantheism," Tennyson, although he
does not use the first person, expresses exquisitely that
consciousness of identity with all reality and with the ideal
of all good of which we have been speaking : —
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see ;
But if we could see and hear, this Vision — were it not He?
If in the future the form of prayer is to be less used
than it has been in the past, it will not be because we
shall fall back in coldness and apathy to the third person.
242 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
but because we shall more frequently rise, like the great
mystics in their rarer moments, to identity with the real
and with the good. In its fulness communion with the
redemptive powers is such that he who prays is one with
that to which he prays.
15. The Value oj Ethical Declarations
It is, however, an error to imagine that address to God
and address by him are the only rehgious forms of speech.
In our recognition of the ecstasies which break out into
petition and praise and into utterances as from God him-
seK to man, we must not forget that plain, quiet state-
ments of moral experience and of moral judgment serve
the same high ends. Mere assertions of our wants, ac-
knowledgments of our limitations, confessions of our
debts and hopes ought to make up the main body of reh-
gious utterance. Simple, unimaginative expressions of
principles and needs strengthen those principles and meet
those needs in ourselves and others. The more sober
thinkers of our day have therefore sometimes discarded
the form of prayer, only because they were more sensitive
and discriminating ; they were anxious to avoid the sUghtest
exaggeration. They have disciplined themselves to modest
declaration of moral experience. They have preferred to
understate in order to escape the vice, to which professional
religionists are prone, of overstating the intensity of spiritual
desire and hope. They see that religion in the past has
often fallen into contempt because of indulgence in the
comparative and superlative degrees in speech, when only
the positive degree of emotion was felt. It is consonant
with the character of true reUgious feeling to check hysteri-
cal talk by restraint of the tongue.
Commendable is the self-control which can feel and will
greatly and yet keep temperate in phrase. In nearly all
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 243
the prayers of the Book of Common Prayer there is an
ahnost imperceptible merging of plain statement, of peti-
tion, and of oracular utterance into one another. In the
greatest prayers are most frequently to be found plain
statements of facts of the moral life. For instance, in
the prayer from which we have already quoted the sen-
tence, "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like
lost sheep," there immediately comes the declaration, "We
have followed too much the devices and desires of our own
hearts." After the clause, "We have offended against
Thy holy laws," is the plain statement, "We have left
undone those things which we ought to have done, and we
have done those things which we ought not to have done ;
and there is no health in us." Here there is no form of
address or petition, but the spirit of prayer is incarnate.
Such merely positive declarations may at any moment
mount emotionally and assume the overt form of petition ;
then, subsiding to a lower level of feeling, they resume
the third person. The form is as nothing if the substance
be present. To state, "We ask to be forgiven," is not
a prayer in form ; yet its import is the same as if we had
said, "Forgive us !"
In the meetings of some ethical societies are read declara-
tions of principles which make no pretence to imagina-
tiveness. They do not rise above the positive degree of
emotion, but — not presuming to — are in taste. They
are honest, homely confessions of moral purposes, aspira-
tions, and duties. Yet no one could hear them read and
not be aware that they in their degree appeal to the human-
ity of every Hstener and set him turning towards all good.
They stir in him both a sense of responsibility and a con-
sciousness of his own need. Such a plain, matter-of-fact
statement is this : —
We are here to-day to deepen our sense of personal respon-
sibility towards those who may need our ministering care. We
244 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
dedicate our lives to all with whom we are joined by the ties of
duty and by opportunities of service; to our neighbours, to
kindred, to the children who are dear to us, to fellow-citizens,
to our countrymen and to any one we may help — even to those
as yet unborn.
It is a terrible thought that beings, frail, without experience
and yet precious, are thrust into a world oftentimes thoughtless,
selfish, and cruel. We would offer our lives as a shield to guard
the wayward from their own folly and to protect the innocent
and ignorant from pernicious customs and the designs of evil
persons. We would summon all men and women now living to
the high office of benignant Providence, to which their position
as fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, as elder brothers
and sisters, as neighbours and citizens, and as fellow-mortals calls
them. We commend to the fortunate, to the powerful, to those
of preeminent ability or in positions of influence, to the governors
of our cities and of the nation, all children whose parents are
worldly or destitute, illiterate, intemperate, or overworked.
To those who might bring relief we cry out : " Have mercy
upon these helpless victims, and deliver them out of their un-
toward conditions ; create for them a new environment, both
physical and social ; preserve their bodies from hunger, pain,
and disease; and to their minds bring the truths that reveal
the glories of the universe, bestow upon them the beauty that
graces life and pour out the love that hallows it."
Above all, we plead that henceforth no human life shall come
into existence unless it has been desired, and will be welcomed,
cherished, and revered.
Here is a petition to one's fellow-mortals without the
form of appeal. It does not pretend to emanate from a
mood of unwonted intensity, and so need not attempt to
rise above the level of workaday phrase.
As an instance of the natural transition from statements
in the third person to direct petitions and then back again,
I may cite another confession of moral need, used in the
services of some ethical churches : —
To all who might influence us either for good or for evil, we
PRAYER TO THE GOD IN MAN 245
who are here assembled, being each of us conscious of our own
moral weakness, send forth the time-honoured petition, " Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We cry out
to those about us, appealing to the best that is in them : " Help
us to do through hours of blindness what in moments of insight
we see to be right. Bring home to our unwilling thoughts the
fact that the triumph of righteousness on earth depends in part
on our own effort and our own wisdom. Infuse into us this day
the strength to resist evil and to do good ; make us just and kind
in all our dealings. Deepen in us the desire to love, know, and
do the right. Save us from hasty opinions, words, and deeds.
Teach us to consider what we are prone to forget — the cause
of the poor, the unfortunate, the stranger, of the aged, of chil-
dren, and of dumb animals. Help us to root out from ourselves
race hatred, class prejudice, and religious intolerance, as well as
all other forms of cruelty and malice. Encourage us to make
the common weal our end. Lead us to cherish truth and beauty
and all institutions which make life noble. Lastly and once
more, we ask : Increase our power to hve every day of our lives
in the spirit of this appeal."
A statement which never once rises out of the third
person and above the positive degree sometimes reaches
the heart for which it is meant as potently as would a
direct petition. I cite two more ethical declarations which
I have found to be not without the efficacy of prayer : —
The miseries and wrongs which degrade our nation require
no miracle to end them ; but only a good heart and willing wit
on the part of the intelligent, the prosperous, the electors, the
legislators, and the magistrates of our land; and, on the part
of the disinherited classes, a burning sense of the wrongs they
suffer. We address ourselves not to beings who are bHnd, deaf,
remote, or incapable of rendering aid, nor to an invisible de-
liverer beyond the skies. We importune men — fellow-men,
close at hand — of like nature and in like need with ourselves ;
for we know that importunity like ours overcomes both the
heedlessness of the proud and the apathy of the oppressed.
We call upon men and women of all classes, but we especially
246 THE SOUX OF AMERICA
summon the poor and overworked, to form themselves into a
mighty religious movement, for the teaching and doing of the
duties of man to man by man. If we who are pledged to social
regeneration become an organized multitude, the wrongs of life
will be quickly righted, for we ourselves shall have the power to
estabUsh justice in the land.
We utter this summons in the glad consciousness that in
doing so we are performing a part, necessary though humble,
in the great work of hximan redemption.
Likewise this : —
In the name of duty and humanity ; for the sake of the tens
of thousands of the suffering poor, for the unemployed, the over-
worked, the underfed ; on behalf of those who have no room to
Uve, and who must die without the sanctities of home ; for all
who dwell in uncertainty from week to week as to their means
of subsistence ; for the wives of the needy — especially in time
of childbirth ; for the children of the poor and of worldly and
dissolute parents ; in pity for all women whom neglect and want
drive into vice ; and for the many men and women whom
poverty and evil associations tempt into lying, drunkenness,
theft, and murder ; we call upon all to set aside their vanities,
to rise above greed of class and prejudice of birth, and, in the
spirit of wisdom and love, with energy and singleness of mind,
to look these terrible evils in the face, to trace their causes, and
to apply their cure.
The result of our analysis is that the discarding of
supematuralism does not involve the discarding of the
form of prayer and does not deprive us of its immeasurable
benefits — inward, social, and even material. Accord-
ingly, as regards Christian prayer, the question for religious
reformers is not so much one of revising as of reinterpreting.
Hereafter when we pray, if we use the old words, we must
recall definitely to mind what factors in moral experience
are involved. When we remember our own denotation
of the terms used, the form in which the thought is cast
assumes a fresh and deeper meaning.
CHAPTER XIV
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE
I. New Grounds for Millennial Hope
Christianity, as soon as it has become transfused with
the spirit and transformed by the method of modem science,
will bring about the Millenniiun.
This statement is suggested by a sentence of Ferdinand
Lassalle to the effect that the millennium will be bom from
the union of science and social democracy. Lassalle no
doubt had in mind the same confluence of historic tendencies
as I have ; but to me the earthly state of bliss which modern
socialists dream of is the same as that which entranced the
early Christians. The difference is not in the vision, but
in the means for its actuaHzation. If the two dreams are
identical, the refusal both of social democracy and of Chris-
tianity to recognize that identity must have been an injury
to each and to the whole world. In my judgment the so-
cialism of Lassalle and Marx has on this account lacked
inwardness, spirituality, and idealism, and has erred in link-
ing itseK to a materialistic interpretation of history ; while
Christianity is still groping ineffectually above the clouds,
instead of reconstructing the economic and poHtical life
of nations. But if once Christianity be wedded to science,
the dynamic of the spirit will forthwith devise, build, and
set in operation the mechanism of the cooperative common-
wealth.
I here define Christianity by what Christians of all de-
nominations would assent to as its essence — the historic
movement emanating from the personality of Jesus Christ
247
248 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and making for the establishment of a reign of personal
and social justice and purity throughout the earth. This
is Christianity. Its theory and dogma are but devices of
the intellect to interpret and justify it to the understanding
of man, but its reahty is a Hving tendency in society ema-
nating from the historic Jesus Christ and growing organically
in the world. It is to be interpreted by the end it has in
view, and no one can deny that its end is the triumph of
social justice on earth.
My dictum, then, means that when once this spiritual
organism of Christ's Church discards supernaturalistic
interests and adopts the method, spirit, and results of
science as dictating the means and the poHcy towards the
advancement of social justice on earth, its Kingdom of
God will come and come quickly. If the natural and
human means be discovered which would estabhsh so-
cial justice and personal purity on earth, and if they be
apphed, it is inconceivable that social justice and personal
purity would not come. It is a tautological proposition
to which we have reduced the statement ; but, being tauto-
lo^cal, it is self-evident. The only question remaining
is whether it be possible to discover the human and natural
means towards the estabhshment of the Kingdom of
Heaven. To many a mind the decision of this question
settles forever for the human heart the alternative be-
tween despair and life abundant. If we cannot discover
and apply the natural and human means to the end of
Christ's Kingdom, that Kingdom is worse than a phantom,
and it were better for us Christians had we never been
born.
2. The History of the Millennial Hope
The old-fashioned expectation of a Millennium, being
based on a belief in supernatural intervention, was on
that account the most unfounded of human delusions;
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 249'
but, notwithstanding, it was the sanest, sweetest, truest,
humanest bent which the moral idealism of man has ever
taken. In any case, it began in the third century after
Christ to be replaced by a hope of such an existence in a
Hfe after death and on another scene than the surface of
this planet. But never was there such a fall of man from
hope and insight. When the expectation of a second com-
ing of a supernatural founder of the kingdom of righteous-
ness was abandoned and the human heart turned for con-
solation to the thought of another world, it was the setting
in of an agelong night. Since then only for the briefest periods
and among smaU groups has the milleimial passion burst
forth into flame, but each time it has been quickly stamped
out by the powers that be, as if it were the very fire of heU.
Savonarola was a prophet not of a hfe after death in
another world, but of the Kf e on earth in his own time and
in Florence itself. But he paid speedily the price for having
returned to the millennial hope of Christ and his immediate
followers.
Martin Luther after his revolt from Rome was for a
time guided by the vision of an earthly Kingdom of Go^
And he continued to follow this gleam until the peasants,
taking fire of hope from him, meant in deadly earnest to
end the economic iniquities of the laws of property which
had reduced them to abject poverty. Then Luther him-
self denied Christ and sided with the princes against the
peasants. It required, however, the pouring out of the
blood of two hundred thousand peasant martyrs to quench
the spark in them which he himself had kindled. Before
Martin Luther, the milleimial hope had lighted up all
England for a time. Wiclif and the Lollards were its
prophets, but the powers-that-be smothered out the flame.
The result was that England during the fifteenth century
was intellectually, morally, and as regards joy of the spirit,
but a nation of ashes.
250 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Again, the hope of a redeemed earth gained strength
enough to flame forth in the moving times of Charles I.
The Fifth-Monarchy men under the Protectorate were
millennial, but on that account were suppressed as mad.
Sir Isaac Newton believed in the Millennium. In the
next century Charles Wesley was millennial — that is,
despite all his supernaturaHsm, his hope was for this world,
for the poor, for England in his own day.
It was the heat of the millennial passion which in 1789
melted to ruin the ancient regime of France. Its fire-
flakes were being wafted from across the Channel to Eng-
hsh soil, when Burke extinguished them with the floods
of his eloquence. It was fanned into flame again, however,
in 1849 among the Chartists ; and only the Iron Duke could
stamp it out by mihtary threat. Yet once more in the
eighties in England the millennial hope reappeared — now
not so much in the form of heat as of a light diffused
throughout all classes of the community. Not only were
the poor dockers of London on tiptoe of expectancy of a
human time coming for them, not only did the lowest
classes of labourers and even of women wage-earners begin
to organize their claims for Justice, but the towns of Eng-
land at last received a form of self-government which
brought civic ideahsm from the clouds of dreamland to the
soHd ground of practical politics. Quickly, however, the
forces of reaction set in, so that the last decade of the nine-
teenth century showed the priests of supernaturaUsm, the
princes of unscrupulous capitalism, and the soldiers of
imperial greed more powerfully organized and shameless
in England than they had been for seventy years.
America was conceived of millennial faith, and by that
same faith she freed the black slaves.
Except for these brief moments, the trend of organized
Christianity until the last ten years has been away from
a mundane heaven. The authority of teachers and preach-
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 25 1
ers of religion has been used to direct the attention of the
masses to a life after death, to find there the consolations
for the wrongs suffered here. Even Victor Hugo com-
mended the thought of heaven after death as the only pos-
sible palliative to the poor. Within church organizations
and from pulpits it was taught to be a heinous heresy to
doubt the existence of a Ufe after death. Nor was any other
evidence of total depravity required than a lack of interest
in that other world. And even to-day scarcely one Chris-
tian in a thousand is aware that all this interest is not
only imchristian, but antichristian, if we take the person-
ahty and thought of Christ as the standard. The New
Testament, despite all the supernaturaHsm of its writers,
is from beginning to end millennial ; that is, its heaven
is one the scene of which is to be earth, the centre of
which is the very city from which Christianity emanated,
and the time of the begiiming of which was their own
generation.
The great Joy which Christ commimicated to the poor
who listened to him and whom he touched was the millennial
thrill. It was the expectation of the quick coming of
justice, love, and the outward health and security which
these engender, that excited the first Christians to an
ecstasy of self-sacrifice. The Book of Revelation, which
is typical and is an authentic document of the sentiments
within thirty or forty years after Christ's death of those
who had known him personally, is a revelation not at all
of another world or of the individual soul after death in
its relation to its maker, but of nations here on earth and
of a state which was to supersede the organized power of
Rome. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . .
And I saw the holy city. . . . And the gates of it shall
not be shut at all by day : for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations
into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing
252 TKE SOUL OF AMERICA
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie."
To be niillennial is to be Christian ; whether the forces
by which the Millennium is to be ushered in are believed
to be human and natural or spiritistic is wholly beside the
point. Whether God is to be regarded as a personal
agent outside of the spiritual organism of human society,
or as the upward gaze, the passionate self-sacrifice in the
hearts of men for the establishment of the kingdom, is
not of the essence of the message of Christ ; all of his
language can be interpreted humanistically, and has thus
more meaning than if taken literally in the sense of the
supernaturaUsts. The mark of the Christian was his ab-
solute faith in and his restless desire to hasten the coming
of the Kingdom, the vision of which had smitten his soul.
We thus see that throughout the Christian era all the
periods of millermial enthusiasm have been brief; but
they have been the only periods of creative energy, of
prophetic originality and of magnificent and ecstatic
self-sacrifice.
If we direct our gaze back to Judaism, we discover the
same mental phenomenon. The great prophets were
millennial in their hope. Indeed, the ordinary Christian,
with his spiritual boast of his other-worldliness as the
very essence of true religion, looks down upon the Jews
not only of ancient times, but even of to-day, because the
Jews have preserved as the essence of Judaism the millen-
nial expectation. No oppression, no insult, no contempt,
no ostracism could extinguish the divine spark at the heart
of the Jew. The only question to-day is whether liberty,
social recognition, flattery, titles, riches imtold may not
kill out what persecution secretly sustained. If so, with
the ending of the millennial hope Judaism will cease to be
a factor or even a fact in the world. But if the Jew has
self-respect enough to withstand the seductions of pros-
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 253
perity, his ancient hope will burst forth anew and organize
itself into one mighty flame and again be a light to the
whole world, while incidentally disclosing a way to the
reestablishment of the Jews in Palestine.
3. The False Basis of the Old Hope
Yet, as I have said, the old-fashioned expectation of a
Millermium, being based on a belief in supernatural inter-
vention, was not well founded. Even if it had never been
extinguished by hostile powers and interests, it would
nevertheless have failed utterly. The old millennial hope
bore in itself the germ of its own defeat. Had it been
encouraged and favoured, it would have transformed the
very kingdom it established into anarchy, riot, violence,
and bloodshed. No supernatural redeemer ever did appear
on the clouds in glory ; nor could he have come ; nor would
it have been well had he come. There must not be a
personal agent outside the spiritual organism of society
to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. If such a
dehverer came, it would be our duty to reject him. The
very essence of our manhood is at stake. Man must
have no kingdom which he himself has not wrought out
through experience, by thought, by sovereignty over him-
self and mastery over nature.
The forces to which believers in the Millennium have
trusted in the past for the establishment of a kingdom
of righteousness were purely imaginary. Their existence
was not verifiable in experience ; their control and manipu-
lation were not within human power. On this accoimt,
the hope of reaHzing the vision was an instance of collective
insanity. It had no more substance than a sleeper's
dream.
254 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
4. A Heaven Material as well as Spiritual
The new hope of the Millennium is like the old in that
it is an expectation of a reign of justice and love throughout
the nations of the earth. Both the new and the old differ
from the pseudo-Christian hope of a heaven in another
world after death, in that they include our material,
physical well-being, health, wealth, leisure, and all the mani-
fold richness and beauty of the Ufe of the senses, as well as
the perfections of the inward and spiritual nature. It is
true that in the New Testament there was an intense and
profoxmd inwardness, but always with the full confidence
that if the behests of the Spirit were fulfilled, all other
blessings should be added. It is true that St. Paul be-
Heved, at least at times, in a material resurrection of the
bodies of the dead. But this was only to be a momentary
catastrophe ; and after it the living would go on Uving ;
and, so far as one can gather, the whole implication is that
human beings would go on propagating after their own
kind in the natural way. Furthermore, St. Paul's belief
in the immortality of the individual soul never for a mo-
ment diverted him away from the earth and the nations
of the earth and their future as the goal of all his effort.
The millennial hope anticipates, then, a material heaven
as well as a heaven reigning within the spirit ; and this
hope of a material heaven on earth was a part of the ori-
ginal Christianity, as it is of Christianity whenever it
reappears as it was in Christ.
5. The Sanity and Purity of the New Hope
But while the new millennial hope is infinitely nearer
to the old than either is to the counterfeit Christianity
which has usurped Christ's organization, the new hope is as
sane as the old was insane. Since the advent of science
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 255
and the awakening of democracy through the blending of
Science and Christianity, a man who does not accept the
Milleimium proves himself at least bad, if not mad. Only
prejudice of pride, of greed, of ascendency over others,
of class interests, of self-deification, of contempt for the
poor and for women can blind a man to the well-nigh
infinite resources which the Church of Christ would gain
were she to accept the discoveries and inventions of Science
and use them and trust to them instead of trusting to
miracles, to prayers to invisible spirits, and to the guidance
of supernatural agents.
The great material wealth of the modern world has
hitherto been associated with pride, greed, selfish ambition,
excess, and self-indulgence. But this is wholly because
the wealth has accumulated in the hands of a few and
at the expense of the many. The wealth, were it co-
operatively acquired and justly distributed, would in itseK
be perfectly right and good and its enjoyment innocent
and humane. But, more than this, wealth so produced
and distributed would itself favour spirituahty, inwardness
of Hfe, the love of righteousness, and the readiness to die
for it. For then the material wealth and all its blessings
would themselves, being just and fair and a result of
justice and fairness, illustrate the priority and necessity
of the inner spiritual hfe. It is only wealth unshared
that is unholy. But even then it requires httle discrimi-
nation to see that the selfishness and not the wealth is
really the polluted and the polluting thing. We must
remember that even the Kingdom of Heaven can only be
unlocked by a key of gold. But when the whole com-
munity, when the Church herself, holds the key and is
ready to open the Kingdom even to the least of these,
gold itself will become the symbol of righteousness.
There is no more anti-social teaching than that which
glorifies poverty and the renunciation of the physical
256 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
means of health, strength, comfort, and leisure. It is
a self-deception of the rich which makes them imagine
that the poor are as happy as those who have security of
necessities and a fair share of comforts and opportunities,
of education, travel, art, and every other blessing which
wealth can give to those who know how to use it aright.
Let the poor resent with their whole souls' indignation
the teaching of resignation to a poverty which compels
them to give nine-tenths of aU their attention to the means
of a liveUhood, while allowing them no leisure to Hve.
When the Church discards her supernaturahsm and adopts
natural means for the redemption of the world from sin
and misery, she wiU adopt an ideal not of poverty, but of
wealth.
There is a powerful argument for a naturahstic mil-
lennial hope in the fact that a seemingly shght change
in outward conditions or in the social atmosphere of a
commimity may produce well-nigh infinite differences in
inward happiness and moral character. In this respect
human nature is analogous to vegetable Hfe. Think what
a very sKght increase of temperature in April over the
average warmth of March is necessary in order to pro-
duce aU the difference in the plant world between an
appearance of death and a manifestation of hfe. Let there
be an average increase of warmth of from ten to fifteen
degrees, and every seed and branch will burst forth into
the splendour of bloom. Precisely parallel is it with
mankind. Hitherto for the great masses of the people it
has always been winter. Whoever has hved among the
working-classes knows that so shght a change for the
better as an increase of a few dollars a week in wages
throughout all trades makes aU the difference to the
home Hfe, to the children, in education, in self-respect,
in respectabihty, that April showers and April sunshine
make to plant hfe as compared with March winds and
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 257
the shorter daylight of winter. A decrease of working
hours from fourteen to ten is a change Hke that from
February to June. Suppose the Church transferred all
her interest in a life after death to the hfe before death,
from a society of unembodied. spirits to the society of
us spirits who are dependent for self-realization upon the
health and strength of our bodies. Suppose the first
object in the Church's poUcy of human redemption were
to shorten the hours of work of all wage-earners to the
possible minimum, and to raise all wages to the possible
maximum. Would it not be "kingdom come" not only
in freedom from disease, but in innocence of Ufa, in sym-
pathy, love, and the pursuit of truth and beauty for their
own sake ?
There is no shadow of ground for doubting that natural
means can be discovered for curing the chief maladies of
hfe, in the same way — to take a special instance — that
scientific men have discovered the causes and devised
a prevention of the blight of the grape-vines of France.
Possibly the very method and the causes of the social evils
will be found to be analogous. Parasites pierced the roots
of the French vines ; roots with a sUghtly thicker bark
were introduced ; the result was that the parasites could
no longer feed upon the vines; and the parasites died.
Which things are an allegory.
6. Children born Unbiassed
Another argument for a new millennial enthusiasm
hes in a fact which for a supernaturaHstic scheme had
no significance. The fact to which I refer is that the
individual men and women of the world at any given
time are absolutely removed from it after a period seldom
longer than fourscore years, and that the places of the
old are taken by new individuals, who come into the
2S8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
world completely ignorant of its traditions, its intrigues,
its wrongs and sufferings, and practically innocent. The
new-born babe may, it is true, come with predispositions
which may tempt it to active injustice and unsocial self-
indulgence. But, as we have just been pointing out, the
very same nature which certain circumstances would incite
to injustice and self-indulgence will, if another set of
circumstances act as stimuli, be quickened along hnes of
humane consideration for others and heroic self-control.
One cannot, therefore, argue from any degree of obHquity
and weakness which human nature has exhibited under
past circumstances of Hfe, that human nature would
exhibit the same characteristics if differently played upon
from the moment of birth. Those who are discouraged
from millermial hope on the basis that human nature is
corrupt are, therefore, fooHsh and thoughtless. The
question is whether the corruption of human nature must
under any circumstances whatever manifest itself. Would
the men who now for the most part yield to excess in
drinking intoxicants show this same weakness if for a
whole generation the hours of all work were shortened,
wages increased, every human being compelled to earn
his own living by his labour, and no financial profit allowed
to any individual or company, or even to the State itself,
from the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks?
Is drunkenness a sign of the depravity of human nature
or a proof of defect in the social and economic environment ?
Or take another type of moral irregularities. Suppose
men had not ascendency over women by being the ex-
clusive breadwinners, but that women had equal op-
portunities and were equally incited with men to earn
a hving and to pursue a career, and that both men and
women were made by their teachers fully aware of the
social and physiological significance of sex life. Would
the horrors that now exist continue ? Imagine, then, that
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 259
all the children in the nation, from the moment they were
born, came under the influence of an environment radically
changed — as it would be possible even now to change it
within a decade, if only the Christian Church were con-
verted to a beUef in purely human and natural means of
redemption. Then it would seize upon all the means at
hand, instead of continuing its colossally time-absorbing
and emotion-draining system of intercession with super-
human agencies.
I have said that children are born without traditional
prejudices ; but what does this mean for a humanistic
scheme of redemption? It means that children learn
from others class distinctions, pride of birth, contempt
for women and for persons of other colour and of other
nationalities. No child has any such prejudices until
these are inculcated by others. Every child is absolutely
and thoroughly democratic. No boy naturally and until
told counts himself superior to womankind. Free a
child from the corrupting contact with these ideas, illustrate
in his presence principles of Hberty, equality, and fraternity,
and there would be nothing in his nature or experience that
would ever throw itself against such principles.
7. Science, Wealth, and Religion
A scientific reHgion would be something new. There
never has been a reHgion hitherto which was naturalistic.
Yet it would be only relatively, not absolutely, new. It
would not be without historic roots. It would be new
only as Christianity itself was new, which had been growing
in the heart of Judaism for four centuries. It would be
new only in the sense in which the religion of the Refor-
mation was new. It would be a child of history and the
legitimate heir of all the ages. Its novelty would consist
in its arising out of the confluence of streams of tendency
26o THE SOUL OF AATERICA
which hitherto had been flowing in separate channels.
Its novelty woiild further consist in its arising out of the
awakening self-consciousness of a class which hitherto
had not had the education or the inteUigence or even the
leisure to think for itself and to act as a class. Science,
so long as its discoveries and inventions were monopohzed
in the interests of the leisured and rich, did not become a
rehgion ; for those classes had already transformed historic
institutions into an instrument of their own supremacy
and had interpreted Christian principles in a light favourable
to their own interests. It is this ilKcit union of inventive
science with class interest that has begotten the monster of
modern competitive industry. Once remove Science from
private capitaKsm and join it to Christ and the historic
tendency which emanated from him, and there will be
a rehgion new in resources, social philosophy, and cosmic
theory, but not new in the direction of hope or in ethical
standards.
If I mistake not the lesson of our times, it would be as
fooHsh now not to expect the quick coming of the kingdom
of righteousness as in Christ's day it was idle to look for
it. The apphcation of science in every direction shortens
not only space, but time. By scientific inventions, things
can often be done in a day which used to take a year,
and in a year which would have taken ages. Thousands
of things which never could have been done at all because
they could not be done rapidly are now attainable, and are
attained. The shortening of time is one of the most im-
portant of all conditions in bringing achievements within
human reach. Nor is it possible to find any ground for
the behef that scientific methods appHed to moral and^
spiritual culture would not be proportionately more rapid
than the pre-scientific methods of the old reHgious discipline.
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 26 1
8. How Long?
I am well aware that many scout the idea of the speedy
setting aside of institutions which have lasted for thousands
of years and the quick Uberating and educating of classes
of society which have remained in ignorant serfdom from
the beginning. That most brilHant defender of govern-
ment by the privileged few, Mr. Walter Bagehot, somewhere
ridicules the notion prevalent among reformers that "in
a Uttle while — perhaps ten years or so — all human beings
might without extraordinary appKances be brought to the
same level." And he adds that of late our perceptions have
been sharpened as to the gradual and slow nature of progress.
We realize, he says, the tedium of history, and the pain-
fulness of results. Only a few, he points out, have advanced
and participated in modern civihzation.
We have [he says] in a great community like England crowds
of people scarcely more civilized than the majority of two thou-
sand years ago. . . . Those who doubt should go into their
own kitchens. Let an accomplished man try what seems to
him most obvious ... in intellectual matters upon the house-
maid and the footman, and he will find ... his audience think
him mad. . . . Great communities are like great mountains
— they have in them the primary, secondary, and tertiary
strata of progress ; the characteristics of the lower regions re-
semble the hfe of old times rather than the present life of the
higher regions. And a philosophy which does not . . . con-
tinually emphasize the palpable differences . . . will be a
theory essentially misleading, because it will lead men to expect
what does not exist, and not to anticipate what they will find.
Here is the opinion of that upper world in which Mr.
Bagehot evidently Hved and moved and had his being —
so far as it has any opinion at all. It is the judgment of
the elevated classes of society when they attempt to gaze
down from the giddy heights of the drawing-room to the
262 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
servants' hall in the basement. It is also the philosophy
of many upper-class economists, calculators, and sophists.
Now the differences between the habits and conditions
of the dwellers in our lower regions and those in the higher
strata of society are not exaggerated by Mr. Bagehot.
The only point of dispute relates to the time which it might
take to raise the masses into that mental and social self-
fulfilment characteristic of the upper classes. I maintain
that under favouring circumstances, with such appHances
only as are already within the reach of practical economics
and poHtics, ten years would be time enough to abohsh
laws and customs which have lasted two thousand years,
and to estabhsh on a firm foundation other systems of pro-
duction and distribution of wealth and education and op-
portunity which would remain secure as long as they did
not deser\re to be superseded by systems socially more
efficient. History has shown repeatedly and in many
coimtries the power of man by conscious foresight and
energy to do in ten years what unconscious, unplaimed
natural evolution would require two thousand years to
achieve. As regards the appHances at hand which could
work such changes, they are extraordinary, not in the sense
that they are not thoroughly imderstood and accessible,
but in the sense that hitherto they have been monopohzed
by the few in their own interests. Multitudes of blessings
which now are exclusively within reach only of thousands
could, almost with no perceptible increase of cost, be dis-
pensed to millions. We live in an age of duplicators, mimeo-
graphs, linotype machines, and rotary presses. These are
analogous to many devices for the dissemination, with
enormous decrease of cost, of countless opportimities.
Mr. Bagehot forgets that the millions of individuals who
to-day Hve imder an oppressive system two thousand years
old, came themselves, as I emphasized above, fresh into
the world only twenty or fifty years ago ; and so recently
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 263
as at their birth they were altogether human in shape,
human in promise, and human in their ability to respond
sensitively to whatever environment might close in upon
them. When once it had closed in they were soon fixed
— doomed. So it is that an accomphshed man need only
descend to his kitchen and try intellectual matters upon the
housemaid and the footman to find that great communities
heap great mountains on human beings the instant they
are born. Furthermore, even the mountainous weight
superimposed upon them does not quite crush out the life.
It has been intelligent and rational self-abnegation which
has made the poor submissive ; they have seen as plainly
as day that it was altogether an impossibility for them as
individuals to rise. But we are now witnessing the growth
of a realizing sense among the poor that what they cannot
accompKsh as individuals they may by combination. The
working classes in more countries than one know that if
they combine they can in a decade pulverize structures as
old as the Pyramids, and bigger.
The truth is, Mr. Bagehot's view as to the stabiUty of
upper-class distinctions and as to the long, long time it
will take to render human the lower strata of society is
altogether superficial, pedantic, and mechanical. Human
beings, at the bottom even of Mr. Bagehot's England, are
not as yet by any means exhausted centres of spiritual and
social power. They still think, aspire, renounce, suffer,
and wait. In the highest things it is quite possible that
the housemaid and the footman are nearer the insight of the
Founder of the Kingdom of Heaven than is the accom-
plished man who thinks it will take them countless ages to
reach to the moral and intellectual standard of the higher
regions of present-day society. Upper-class men lack
sympathetic imagination, or they would see that their theo-
ries are unscientific as well as inhuman. They now fail to
detect so patent a fact as that which Lowell depicted.
264 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Thrones and altars are built on the bodies and soxils of
living men. We hear bitter cries under the very founda-
tion-stones ; we mark great fissures that rend the walls
and open wider as the living foundations heave and sigh.
Surely in ten years it will be possible for Christianity plus
Science to lift the maid and the footman a little higher
than the drawing-room of to-day ? Whatever height one
man has reached to-day, although it has taken ten thousand
years for the achievement, may easily be accessible in ten
years to every man and woman in the nation. Discoveries
known only to the finder one day may be the possession of
the whole intellectual world the next, and of every school-
boy the foUowtng year. One invention, the secret of one
man to-day, may revolutionize the practice of ten thousand
years in one year, and does so.
When considered from the point of view of psychology,
the permanence of the differences of education, taste, and
capacity in the various social strata is seen to depend al-
most whoUy upon the unconsciousness of the masses to-day
as to their own power and opportunity. UntU a century
ago, the masses of no nation could read or write. Now that
they can and do both read and write, and that hterature
in their interests is being systematically circulated among
them, it woiild seem no difficult feat, should a few set about
the task, to wake them up fully to their responsibilities and
privileges. There is no reason for not hoping for what at
first thought seems the most unlikely of aU occurrences —
the conversion of the priests and preachers of Christianity
to the spirit, method, and results of Science and to her
mastery over nature as the legitimate and rightful means
in hastening the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.
If Mr. Bagehot intends to imply that the inborn brain
power of members of the lower classes of society is as far
behind that of the upper classes as was the brain power of
all men two thousand years ago, the answer is that the
CHRISTIANITY PLUS SCIENCE 265
brain capacity of people of the same race two thousand
years ago was, for all we know, in no wise inferior to brain-
power to-day. There has been no evolution of the stock
of the upper classes as distinct from the stock of the
lower classes, and there has been no evolution of the
stock of the race in two thousand years, or apparently in
ten thousand. So it is fairer to Mr. Bagehot to assume, as
he does not say, that the inferiority he attributes to the
working-classes is not at all that of congenital capacity,
but of arrested development due to adverse environment.
9. The Religion of Eugenics
This question of native power and capacity leads us to
another aspect in which Christianity plus Science will be
able to do mightier works than ever did Christianity plus
SupernaturaHsm. The whole knowledge of our day,
especially that of plant and animal life, leads to the behef
that we can not only transform man's environment so that
it shall be favourable to whatever powers the individual
has, but that we may develop the stock of the race itself.
Man's artificial selection and control of the stock from
which plants and animals spring, and his gradually increas-
ing knowledge of the laws, both quahtative and quanti-
tative, which heredity reveals, together with our new
sense of the necessity of improving the human stock,
point to the prevention of the practice of bringing un-
desirable hmnan beings into the world. Persons not fit
to propagate the species will either voluntarily abstain
from doing so, or will be forced by public opinion to ab-
stain. On the other hand, when once the situation is
laid bare to the imaginations of men, those who could
transmit qualities desired of the nation will have large
families by personal preference, or will be moved by pubUc
opinion to render such service to the nation. If not in our
266 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
day, there is reason to believe that in the course of a century
of such investigation and reflection as have taken place
during the last decade a knowledge will be attained which
will guide us in these matters. Already we know that
famiUes distinguished for sobriety, intelligence, integrity,
and sympathy transmit such qualities to offspring, and that
persons descended on both sides from what is recognized
as excellent stock are more capable than others of serving
the nation well.
Imagine now that all the priests and preachers of Amer-
ica, adding Science to Christianity, should transform it
into a Religion of Eugenics, and — never once dogmatizing
beyond the tentative results and theories of observers —
should preach the duties of motherhood and fatherhood
as the foremost responsibihty of woman and man. What
a revolution, what a new strengthening of the foundations
of the nation ! Knowledge of heredity inevitably would
direct the choice of human beings in the selection of mates.
Those who know most of the psychology of sex know that
there is no instinct in human nature more susceptible to
domination by ideational forces than that which attracts
the sexes. Thus the successors of Christ in the organiza-
tion for the founding of the Kingdom of Heaven, besides
the new mastery of environment, will have also the new mas-
tery of man over his own offspring. Even the numbers of
the population of any nation are in the control of the re-
hgious teachers and educators ; the quantity as well as the
quahty of human beings will henceforth be under the
Providence of the nation, the State, the Church of Christ.
CHAPTER XV
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION
I. Church Services to express the Democratic Faith
Nobody seems to deny the failure of the Christian
churches to attract to themselves the masses of the people.
The outstanding fact to-day of gloomiest import is not so
much the breaking up of the Christian community into
mutually antagonistic sects as the division of the nation
into those who have some sort of religion and those who
have none — at least none that is articulate and organized. '
All America is divided into two classes — those who have
only their labour and self-respect to live by, and those who,
owning land and capital, control the labour of others. The
interests and sentiments of these two distinct sections of
the community are not only different, but mutually repel-
lent. The class war is on ; and agitators are inciting to class
hatred. Now the churches have hitherto appealed to the
self-respect and self-satisfaction of those who possess,
or expect to possess, land and capital. In other words, the
churches have appealed to the class that support them finan-
cially ; and they who pay the piper of rehgion call the tune.
That tune is discordant to the ear of the intelligent pro-
letariat. Those, accordingly, who have only their labour
and their self-respect to Kve by are outside the churches.
They have no organization, no recognized preachers of
religion who appeal to their self-consciousness and their
craving for self-reaUzation.
The inabihty of the churches to attract the working people
has seemed of late deeply to alarm and set musing the pro-
267
268 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
fessional leaders of religion. But these seem whoUy in-
capable of detecting that pecuharity in themselves and in
their equipment which is the cause of their inability to
draw the masses. They are conscious of no obHquity in
their own hearts ; they want to do good to the wage-earn-
ing classes. In our day they not only desire to save souls,
but to rescue the masses from poverty. One notes how
often they enjoin thrift upon the very poor. They have
not realized that however pure their hearts, their intellectual
outlook is wholly inadequate and has become the cause
of the churches' shame.
The whole tradition of preachers for centuries has taught
them to care very much for purity of heart and almost not
at aU for intellectual grip of present facts. It is this one-
sided tradition which has led them on a false scent in seek-
ing out the causes of the reHgious apathy of the masses.
When the spirit of social democracy enters into the heart
of the preacher and the method of modern science becomes
his habit of mind, his eyes will be opened. He will see the
inadequacy of the faith he has been preaching, and he will
begin not only to present that view of life and the universe
which modem science and critical philosophy have begim
to take, but he will turn back also to that kind of economic
teaching which first rang forth from the hps of John Ball
in England in the fourteenth century : —
Good people, things will never go well in England so long
as goods be not in common, and so long as there be villeins and
gentlemen. By what right are they whom we call lords greater
folk than we ? On what grounds have they deserved it ? Why
do they hold us in serfage ? If we all come of the same father
and mother, of Adam and Eve, how can they say or prove that
they are better than we, if it be not that they make us gain
for them by our toil what they spend in their pride ? They are
clothed in velvet, and warm in their furs and their ermines,
whUe we are covered with rags. They have wine and spices
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY EST RELIGION 269
and fair bread; and we oat-cake and straw, and water to
drink. They have leisure and fine houses ; we have pain and
labour, the rain and the wind in the fields. While it is of us and
of our toil that these men hold their state.
The ruling classes of his day thought John Ball mad;
and the rich parishioners of our time will either leave the
churches or dismiss the preachers of social democracy.
In another chapter I point out that the preaching of the
twentieth century is often ahead of the teaching embodied
in our traditional forms and ceremonies. I there have
in mind not social democracy, but only the methods, spirit,
and results of critical philosophy. It is equally true, how-
ever, from the point of view of democracy. Our present-
day preaching is deplorable enough, but our old-fashioned
rituals are abject. Our prayers, extemporaneous or writ-
ten, as well as our hymns, anthems, and litanies, give the
lie direct to the democratic faith, namely, that salvation,
spiritual as well as physical, can come only by the intelli-
gent enterprise of the whole people. Our hymns, anthems,
and prayers, it is true, need not be wholly rewritten ; but
only because they can be freshly interpreted. Even then
they will prove an inadequate expression of the new sources
of human hope ; original forms by the living poets of democ-
racy must supplement them. Only a democratic ritual
sung by a whole people can bring about the long-delayed
fulfilment of that prophecy in the Magnificat : "He hath
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He
hath put down the mighty from their seat : and hath ex-
alted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry
with good things : and the rich He hath sent empty away."
2. Sir Henry Maine's Error about Democracy
Many critical writers of the nineteenth century protested
against the association of popular enthusiasms and mil-
270 THE SOXJL OF AMERICA
lennial visions with the word "democracy." They seemed
to think they could dampen the ardour of democrats by
pointing out that democracy is, after all, but a form of
government. And how, they asked, can any one grow en-
thusiastic and poetic over such a thing as a mere form of
government? To them, differences of government were
only differences of machinery and routine. This was the
attitude taken by Sir Henry Maine, in his book on "Popular
Government," where he devotes a whole chapter to the
attempt to eradicate enthusiasm from the breasts of demo-
crats. How can any sane man, he argues, wax enthusiastic
over a mere form of government? Those who do so, he
declares, must be ignorant of what they are talking about
and need to be enhghtened. He instances Mr. Edward
Carpenter, although he concedes that Carpenter's Httle
volume entitled "Towards Democracy" does not lack
poetic force. He says : "The smallest conception of what
democracy really is makes his rhapsodies about it astonish-
ing. ... If the author had ever heard of the dictum of
John Austin or M. Scherer that 'Democracy is a form of
government,' his poetic vein might have been drowned,
but his mind would have been invigorated by the healthful
douche of cold water." But surely Sir Henry Maine
misconceives the situation. He can point to no single
word or Hne to prove that Mr. Edward Carpenter was not
fully aware that democracy is never anything but a form
of government. Indeed, this is the very thought which
created in Mr. Carpenter's poetic mind its ruddy glow of
enthusiasm. And how could it be otherwise? How does
it diminish the significance of democracy when we see that
it is only a form of government? Suppose the effects of
that one form upon mankind at large are stupendously
beneficent? Let any one read the poems of Whitman,
Lowell, Swinburne, Carpenter, and Markham, and at the
same time repeat mentally that the thing these poets find
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 271
SO inspiring is only a form of government ; he will see that
the dignity and meaning of the democratic chants, instead
of being diminished, are enhanced. Indeed, the wonder
of it all is the greater, that a merely mechanical device of
poUtics should be fraught with well-nigh infinite weal to
mankind.
The truth is that Sir Henry Maine was overlooking the
effects of the democratic form of government upon those
human energies which combine to create it, and those other
human energies which through it are liberated and made
effective. He abstracted it from the appetites and pas-
sions, habits and fears, ideals and systems of philosophy
which beget it and which it in turn begets. He regarded it
simply from the point of view of social statics. He thought
of it out of relation to human causes and human effects.
But the real meaning even of a trick of pohtics can never
be seen or appreciated until it is understood in relation to
the purposes and imagination which conceived it and to
the ends which it serves.
3. The Dynamics of Democracy
Poets have never praised wine on account of its chemical
composition, but they have very often sung in honour of it
because of its cheering effects upon the mind and body of
those who drink it. Likewise they praise sunHght, not for
its inherent nature as vibrations, but because of its immedi-
ate glory to the human eye and its beneficence to all living
creatures. Accordingly, if one must disparage democracy
because it is merely a form of government, one must Hke-
wise argue that there is nothing glorious, for instance, in a
mere prism because it is only a shape of glass. Yet into
that prism the light from the sun pours white, but rushes
forth drenched in all the hues of the rainbow. And on this
account there are some of us whose hearts leap up when
272 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
we behold the prismatic splendours, and who are not
ashamed to transfer the delight that we have in them to the
mechanism which produces them. We maintain that it
is folly to abstract the prism from the light which it
refracts. Indeed, to us it is a prism by virtue of the effects
it produces ; its meaning and value do not exist for us other-
wise.
The truth is, a merely statical study of popular govern-
ment is superficiality itself. The student must move on
to consider the dynamics of the institutions he is examining.
Then he will be rewarded with real insight into causes and
effects. And if he be capable of awe, admiration, disin-
terested terror, and humane sympathy, he will find himself
thrilled by the mighty meanings of that which at first was
merely a form of government. For in the end he wiU dis-
cover that democracy is a gateway opening into the City
of the Light. Or, if he have no faith in the people, it will
inspire him with alarm, as it did Edmund Burke, when he
sounded the note of terror against the French Revolution.
That which stimulates historians, statesmen, and poets
to outbursts either of terror or admiration when they re-
gard democracy, is the unprecedented magnitude of the
capacities of popular government for evil or for good. What
a people, when fuUy awake and determined, may do through
a democratic form of government is beyond all measure
greater than what any king or nobility or middle class may
achieve, while the masses of the people Ue apathetic and
passive. Nero were iimocence and harmlessness itself
compared to a whole nation of men and women, able to
express their will through their form of govermnent, in
moments of national vanity or lust for revenge. Some-
thing like this Edmund Burke foresaw in France and feared
for England. On the other hand, imagine a whole nation,
each one of its members inspired with an ideal of human
service and ef&ciency ; imagine each man and woman con-
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 273
tributing genius, skill, self-control and provident pity, and
expressing character through a form of government happily
devised to this end.
4. The Inside of the Democratic Cup
The dynamic point of view alone opens up to us the
essential secret of popular government. It furnishes us the
only approach to the inside of social institutions. The
study of social dynamics is an investigation in hmnan
motives and outward stimuli to those motives. The
forces that make and immake institutions are men's hopes,
ambitions, appetites, fears, fancies, doctrines, and faiths.
It is true that these psychic forces themselves are reacted
upon and modified by different institutions, but inasmuch
as institutions, economic and political, do react upon men's
hearts and minds and wills, they must never be regarded
as merely mechanical. They are so many irritants to
thinking, feehng, and wilHng. They must be viewed as
psychic factors in the moral imiverse of man, and not as
inert and outside facts. In studying the relation of popu-
lar government to organized religion, of social democracy
to church discipline, it is especially worthy of note that
this dynamic point of view — the study of motives as the
cause of institutions and the study of institutions as stimuli
to desires — is the one which each person always assumes
when observing and estimating himself. He sees and
feels himself to be a creative agent. Although he sees him-
self to be a creature as well as a creator, he is conscious of
himself as not having been fully created as yet. He is
waiting a chance to be created and is conscious within
himself of adequate power. He may be fully aware that
his character at any given moment is a balance of impulses
in equihbrium, but to him that balance is not a finaHty.
Even from within himself he may disturb it. He is, more-
274 THE SOUL OF AMDRICA
over, never interested in himself as an accomplished fact,
but always as a potentiality. He knows himself to be
capable of responding to forces that have not yet had a
chance to operate upon him. He is "moving about in
worlds not realized"; and when he judges himself he in-
cludes in his selfhood what he aspires to be equally with
what he has been. He takes to himself credit for what he
might have done but was prevented by accident from
achieving. For he knows his own secrets; and while
others may mistake his actual record for a revelation of
himself, he counts it rather as a concealment of what he
really is. He knows well enough what other circumstances
might have brought to light and Hfe. It is as if gunpowder
were conscious beforehand of what the accidental dis-
coverer found out only after a spark touched it. Now
this inward point of view in investigation and criticism is
the only scientific one when the subject for consideration
is oneself, another man, a nation or any institution within
a nation, even a form of government. The dynamic study
of social phenomena also furnishes the only standard for
judging of the moral worth and the political significance
both of individuals and institutions. Nor can any one
doubt that the exercise of sympathetic imagination, which
sees every hiunan being as a point of creative energy,
which views every one from the inside and recognizes him
as a creature sensitive to stimuli from without, is the motive
and original attitude of the Christian religion. There is,
therefore, an identity of nature between Christianity and
democracy ; they both unlock the hidden and secret springs
of spiritual energy within every individual breast. If this
be so, however, there is a tragic irony in the tradition of
the churches, which have held out longer than any other
human institutions against the spirit of democracy.
Religion to this day has been less touched by that spirit
than any other human interest.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 275
5. The Religious Individualism of Professed Socialists
But the churches must become social-democratic ; or the
people will see to it that they are "cast as rubbish to the
void when God hath made the pile complete." The re-
ligious organizations must act on the presupposition that
their whole end and essence is to develop the nation into a
spiritual organism; that is, one in which every moral
agent is at the same time both means and end to all the
others, no one in any particular being used merely as a tool
by others or by the whole, and no one becoming exclusively
an end, but always serving in turn. Such a nation would
be the Kingdom of Heaven — on earth.
The professed Sociahsts have always been blind to the
identity of religion and nationality. They believe that
reUgion is purely a private affair. But one is justified in
asking them whether they know anything about the real
nature of religion, or have ever carefully studied the
sociological function of the churches. Have they worked
out a philosophy of religion by noting its social causes
and effects, do they believe in religion at all, in the way in
which they beUeve in their economic remedies and political
theories ? It must never be forgotten, moreover, when the
authority of present-day Socialists is cited, that their
Socialism itself is still so permeated with its very opposite
— philosophic Anarchy — that it is not yet half itself.
Before one pays full respect to the authority of any man
who calls himself a Socialist, one must give ear to detect
whether it be the Socialist or the Anarchist in him that is
speaking. Social reformers, furthermore, have hitherto
so exclusively concentrated attention upon economic and
material wealth that they have fallen into the error of
imagining that physical possessions constitute the whole
domain for the application of the principle of nationaliza-
tion. This again proves that many so-called Socialists
276 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
are half Anarchists. They relegate to Anarchy one whole
half of human hfe, and that the better half — the higher
life. A thorough social philosophy would believe in the
nationaUzation not only of man's labour, but of man's love.
6. Isolation fatal to Churches
If I be right in contending that the churches of a country
are to be judged as centres for the moral education of the
nation, they have committed an almost fatal blunder in
holding aloof from politics and economic reform. They
have each shut themselves off from regenerating touch
with the present-day Hfe of the world outside their own
organizations. Each denomination began with a protest
against traditions which it believed to be evil ; yet they
are all to-day devoting the whole of their energy to the
upholding of some peculiar tenet which the critical world
at large regards as obsolete. Accordingly, each denomina-
tion has ceased to be a running stream of the waters of Hfe,
and has become a stagnant pool of ancient beliefs. Origi-
nally, every sect sprang from the democratic spirit ; but they
have all in turn, for the sake of self-preservation, guarded
their doctrine jealously from the modif}dng influences of
new thought and experience. Not a single Protestant de-
nomination fell back, as it ought to have done, upon the
authority of living reason and the progressive conscience
of the nation when it threw off the authority of priestly
Councils. In place of the priests it set up the Bible. It
did not look for redemption, as it would if it had originated
in an age hke ours, to the quickening and illuminating power
of the living social will. Every denomination also con-
tinued to trust to an outside and miracle-working Deity.
Nothing could have been more anti-democratic and im-
modern. The religious ideas of all the churches are an
inheritance from times against which the modern spirit
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 277
has revolted. That the churches still cling to their old
traditions can only be explained by the fact that when
they abandoned the ideal destiny of the nation as their
own goal, they cut themselves off from the source of spiritual
insight. Whatever institution severs itself from the cur-
rents of national Ufe is foredoomed, unless perchance in the
throes of some great social upheaval it again allies itself
with the aims and visions of the common life.
Nothing but the isolation of each denomination from all
others and from economic and poHtical interests can explain
the appalling fact that no religious sect has ever received
any new revelation after the initial impulse which organized
it. The only eternal revealer is the reason of a whole
nation, the Hving conscience of an entire people. To that
source of Hght and life no church, except at its inception, has
ever appealed. No wonder, then, that the reUgious organi-
zations of the nation are not in the vanguard of science and
reform. No wonder that they bring no message to our
day. Their religion is out of touch with modern thought
in the sense that its fundamental principle is antagonistic
to the motive, method, and results of modern research.
7. Not Toleration, hut Cooperation in Religion
The various religious bodies, in accepting toleration in-
stead of cooperation among themselves and with the world
at large, have rejected the democratic principle of religion v
for all and by all. Yet in spiritual as in civil Hfe, the appli-
cation of this principle is the only possible method of arriv-
ing at the moral unification of a people. It is also the
only way of attaining eternal and universal truth. Every
denomination has thus far closed its heart in pride against
the redemptive power of social democracy. It has failed
wholly to see that contact with the surging and conflicting
thoughts and efforts in the whole nation is necessary if it is
278 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
to keep quite sane and broadly human in its religious beliefs.
It has failed to reahze that every devout person must put
himself into receptive yet alert relation with the entire
genius of the times, in order to be able by reaction to con-
tribute his own wisdom and experience to the nation's
spiritual fund. As with each individual, so with every
rehgious society. As compared with the general life and
thought of the world to-day, the churches have become
morbid and dogmatic, priggish, self-satisfied, and almost
unconscious of the defects which their isolation has bred in
them.
From the point of view of social democracy, sectarianism
— the splitting off of sect from sect, and of all sects from
the nation as an organic unit of spiritual life — is a great sin.
Nor has that sin been without its inevitable punishment.
Witness the moral evils which have settled down upon
John Wesley's once vital, and quickening movement because
it cut itself off, or was content to be cut off, from contact
with the historic Church. Wesley's movement during his
hfe was the most ethical and vital since Luther's, yet until
quite recently it went on splitting up and splitting up again
within itself, and becoming more and more aloof from the
main currents of Kfe. And each new group of Methodists
grew proud of its own aloofness.
The glorious movement of the Society of Friends reveals
the same tragic decay from within because it also has not
remained in organized unity with the whole nation's life. At
first the Quaker movement was not only quickened by the
spirit of democratic and national unrest ; it was also clearly
conscious that the democratic spirit was the Holy Ghost.
The Society of Friends, however, as an organization and as
an upholder of the simple hfe, has until quite recently been
dying out. As a quickener of the nation's fundamental
thoughts it is still practically dead. But concerning none
of the denominations do I speak as a prophet of evil; I
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 279
believe in the resurrection of nations, I beKeve in the resur-
rection of rehgious bodies ; and I also believe in the resur-
rection of parties. There is no inherent necessity that any
organized group of spiritual or social Ufe shall ever die.
It may revive after continuing to exist for generations in a
state of suspended animation. But let me return to the
melancholy history of one other religious denomination
which began with glorious promise.
Witness the devitaUzation of Unitarianism. It was the
only rehgious organization to champion human reason;
yet it has scarcely been able in the last decades to preserve
its earlier hold in the community. Some Unitarians them-
selves incHne to beheve that its work has already been
accomphshed. They think that it has sufl&ciently per-
meated with its thought all the other rehgious denomi-
nations to justify it in retiring from aggressive propaganda.
But one must ask : Why has the Unitarian body absorbed
no new hght, no added strength, no fresh enthusiasm ?
Were there no further revelations ahead in the direction
of its first philosophic discoveries ? Were there no improve-
ments possible in its methods ? Could it not have become
the conqueror of new worlds of principle and fact, of pohcy
and discipKne ? I cannot otherwise explain the lamentable
decHne of Unitarianism than on the ground that it is always
a fatal error to accept isolation and toleration instead of^
demanding full recognition and complete organic inclusion
in the total rehgious organization of a nation.
Indeed, as one reads the history of all the denominations,
from their thriUing origin to their pitiable resignation, one
feels that to be content with isolation is worse than an
error. It is a sign of spiritual pride. It is a proof that it
has turned in some degree from social humihty to self-
worship. And nothing bhnds the judgment Hke self-
centred pride. It has been, therefore, not only an error,
it has been a sin of the churches that they were wilhng to
28o THE SOUL OF AMERICA
be in the nation but not of the nation. The deadening
effect of this sin in the case of all the denominations has set
rapidly in ; in a few brief generations the strength had
gone out of each of them.
8. Debate to he an Item in Public Worship
Social democracy in religion, as distinct from rehgious
toleration, would subject the moral idealism of each church
to incessant debate by the laity. Social democracy always
means correction and reform through debate. If it entered
into the churches, it would instantly begin to set up a process
of reorganization. It would mean in religion what it would
mean in industry — ownership and control by the living
community. The ownership would be that of the powers
in man and nature which make for righteousness. Social
democracy in rehgion means the ownership and control of
the instruments of discipKning character, of fostering
virtue, of opening the eyes of the spirit, of training the
moral judgment by bringing the attention of every man
and woman and child to bear upon the great issues of life.
Social democracy in rehgion means that the nation itself
shall lead the way to spiritual salvation, to moral health,
long Hfe, and innocent gladness. Social democracy in
rehgion means a church of the whole people, by the whole
people, for the whole people — women and men alike.
When we begin to compare the principles, methods, and
outlook of social democracy in religion with the forms of
anti-democratic government and teaching which have pre-
vailed among all religious bodies, we are especially struck
by one peculiarity which makes the prevalent governments
and doctrines of the churches harder to reform and remove
than are similar customs and prejudices in any other de-
partment of life. If, for instance, we consider the existing
systems of land tenure, we find that while the form of
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 28 1
ownership is that of the few for the few at the expense of
the many, nevertheless the few for whom the land is
monopolized are always at least the living, and never the
dead of a past generation. The monopoly is preserved in
the interest of the present landlords and of their children.
But if we turn to the systems of religion, we note the abso- y
lute dictation of a few persons of a past generation. The
churches are to-day preserving methods that spiritually
were of help in the time of Edward VI or Oliver Cromwell
or Charles II or George III. All of them are upholding
practices made by a few of a former generation for a genera-
tion long since dead. The Methodist churches of our day,
a century and more after the death of Wesley, are still
governed by his thought, and for a kind of people under a
kind of conditions which no longer exist anywhere. Social
democracy in rehgion would mean the spiritual life through-
out the whole nation organized and reinterpreted year by
year by all the men and women who are interested in the
ideal aims of humanity, in the interest of the citizens of
all future time.
Let it be clearly observed that a recognition of the claims
of social democracy within the sphere of rehgion does not
involve a committal to any specific creeds or rites. The
responsibihty to determine rites and doctrines must rest
with the people of any given time or place. Consistent
with this hberty perpetually to recast statements and adopt
new principles is the whole argument of this book. I have
not been pleading that my own individual convictions and
tastes deserve to be adopted. I have had no more in mind
than that my peculiar behefs should be allowed a place side
by side with hundreds of others in an organized cooperation
of all religious bodies in the service of the nation. I have
advocated rehgious inclusion and cooperation. I cannot
see why the champions of a hundred rival creeds and forms
should not work together in a national church in the same
282 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
way in which men of conflicting political and economic
theories work together on municipal and national councils.
And there is no reason why majorities in religion should not
respect minorities as majorities do in poKtics.
I beHeve that as a result of centuries of cooperative effort
complete uniformity may be brought about. But variety
of conviction and practice would be far better than any
forcible suppression of any one's individuahty. There need
never be any danger that the teachings and disciphnes of
the past will ever again trammel the spiritual evolution of
the nation. It would seem that we are on the threshold
of an epoch in which rehgious controversy wiU dominate as
never before. We are entering upon an era not unHke that
preceding the Civil War in England in the sixteenth cen-
tury. But then the leaders attempted to suppress free
discussion ; now the rehgious organizations themselves wiU
probably invite and stimulate the fullest and freest expres-
sion of the most original opinions. For many within the
churches see that honest doubt is the only way to positive
faith. Inside authority, as Whitman says, must take pre-
cedence of outside authority. Private judgment will be
encouraged because it is the only way for the individual to
arrive at universal reason. Only if a man thinks freely
can he think fully ; and to think fully is to drop all eccen-
tricity or whim or private bias. At first, if there be many
minds, there will be many opinions, but after a time a
consensus of opinion is inevitable if the minds be sane.
We have, I believe, already entered upon an era in which
many rehgious leaders are ready to act upon the principle
formulated by Milton, when he says: "Where there is
much desire to learn, there, of necessity, will be much argu-
ing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good
men is but knowledge in the making." We are all coming
to see with Martineau that, "A religion forbidden to im-
prove, instead of growing upwards into statelier propor-
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 283
tions, breaks into lateral deformities as the only vent for
its vitality." Or, to return to Milton : "Truth is compared
in Scripture to a streaming fountain. If her waters flow
not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy
pool of conformity and tradition. ... He who thinks we
are to pitch our tents here, and have attained the utmost
prospect of reformation that the mortal glass wherein we
contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific vision :
that man by this very opinion declares that he is yet
far short of the truth. . . . The light which we have
gained was given us not to be ever staring on, but by it
to discover onward things, more remote from our know-
ledge."
9. The Social Psychology of Religion
All the churches of Protestantism in their rebelhon against
Rome have rejected the organic and social conception of the
church and have adopted an atomistic and individualistic
psychology of rehgion. They regard themselves as aggre-
gates or federations of voluntary human atoms which
come together. They count themselves as nothing more
than the arithmetical sum of their separate members.
They are instances of Rousseau's social contract ; they are
private enterprise concerns as much as any business com-
pany, into which people enter on a bargain of gain and
mutual benefit. No Protestant, historic in temper, respects
his church more than himself, or certainly not more than
he does aU the members. An organic philosophy of reli-
gion tends on the other hand, so to speak, to a deification
of the church. It is the Bride of Christ. Its unifying and
quickening spirit is Christ, living and working in the world
to-day. According to the social psychology of our times, a
church is an organic unit of spiritual life, and the individual
man or woman is but a constituent part. According to
this new view, it is not so much the individual who gives
284 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
its moral power to the church as the church that quickens
the individual. The general is prior to the particular in
the order of a spiritual philosophy of society.
There can be no doubt that the real source of moral
enthusiasm is always the general will of a group of persons
in devotion to an ideal. If the Holy Ghost be interpreted
as the organizing spirit of the church, the unifying will of
its members, then some sort of a deification of the church
would seem justifiable. The group in its unity is felt to
be the indwelling Christ, the living God.
10. A Religion teaching Self-respect
Having set forth the vital significance of social democ-
racy as it bears upon the church problem of our day, let
me now indicate one of the chief characteristics of social-
democratic rehgion as contrasted with what is offered to
the poor in the sermons of the traditional churches. No
religion can be compatible with the spirit of social democ-
racy which does not teach seK-respect as the primary
reUgious virtue. Sacrilege has been committed against the
highest in humanity by those teachers of religion who have
traced to a superhuman and supernatural source every-
thing in man that was beautiful, pure, and holy, giving man
no credit for it, while they have assigned to human nature
whatever was base or mean. In order to glorify their
transcendent Deity, they have attempted to strip man of
every vestige of self-respect, declaring that whatever
emanated from his own heart was to be counted but as
filthy rags. Their method of conversion was first to awaken
self-loathing and self-abasement and a sense of dependence
for any spiritual strength upon a power which was neither
man nor nature, but which held man both soul and body
in its almighty grip. So far as I am aware, no single re-
ligious denomination that has acknowledged the divinity
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 285
of Jesus Christ has rejected this teaching ; even George
Fox the Quaker, when questioned by Ohver Cromwell,
asserted that the inner light was not man's light. When
Cromwell assented to the existence of the inner light, but
insisted that it was natural to man, George Fox protested t^
that it was supernatural. Thus every recognized Christian
denomination has given the he to man's higher nature, to
the very essence of his selfhood, to the witness of his own
conscious spirit. No wonder that the people, accepting
the priest's low valuation of themselves, have fallen under
the power of spiritual dictators and their allies, the princes.
How deep is the infamy of the priest's wrong against human
nature, we can see when we realize that even after well-
nigh two centuries of growing democracy in all other
spheres of human interest, religion is only now beginning
to see the spiritual significance of democracy. Only now
is the doctrine of God's immanence in the social con-
science beginning to be preached. Only now is it real-
ized that God is identical with the saving powers in our /'
social humanity and with the regenerating energy of our
higher selfhood.
At last we see that the perfect is the fulfilment of what
is prefigured in the constitution of man, despite his
wickedness and error. We see that evil is an abnormality,
and contrary to the fundamental trend of the human will.
It is true that evil is a part of the universe, and that there- ^
fore the universe itself, being both good and evil, may be J
said to be neither good nor bad. We see also that human
beings are never wholly good nor wholly bad. But the
good is organic, structural, and constitutional, while the J
bad is recognized as a foreign growth. We further find that
man, in his conscious purpose and in proportion as his
intelligence is awake and his experience wide, is distinctly
on the side of his own constitution and against the evil
that preys on him. This is true not only of individual
286 THE SOUL or AMERICA
human beings, but also of the general purpose of social life.
The wiU of the community, when awake, always sides with
the good, and sets itself to extirpate the bad. It is grossly
untrue and cruel, therefore, to assign only the evil to human
nature and to attribute all goodness to the inflowing of
superhuman grace. This is as false as it would be to say
that insanity only is natural, and that sanity is super-
natural in its origin. But we know perfectly well that in
proportion as a man is not sane he is not a man. Insanity
is natural in him ; but it is not constitutional, structural,
or organic ; it is something external, which obUterates the
human. What could be more unpardonable than that the
guides of the people should attempt to persuade men that
lunacy was the inevitable condition of every mortal, except
for some superhuman power, which by its own grace — • that
is, irrespective of man's right and desert — should communi-
cate understanding and wisdom? Yet it is just such an
unforgivable wrong, and a worse one, which traditional
reHgion has perpetrated. What could have been more
detrimental to man's spiritual insight than first to persuade
him that he was bHnd? Indeed, there can be no doubt
that the teaching has produced bhndness. The idea
thrown out has taken demoniacal possession and worked
out its detailed effects; and then the induced bhndness
has seemed to substantiate and fortify the he that induced
it. I will not say that all those who have taught that
goodness comes from a transcendent source of grace have
been conscious deceivers ; but one is justified in asserting
that this doctrine arose among people in the ruhng classes
of society who had tasted of power and found it sweet, and
were tempted to secure their privilege and prestige by teach-
ing a philosophy favourable to their own ascendency. This
doctrine sprang up as the Christian faith began to take
possession of the ruling classes of the Roman Empire.
Social democracy is at last beginning to interpret itself
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN RELIGION 287
spiritually and ethically; it sees the majesty of its own
motives. This revelation could not have come about were
it not that now for more than a hundred years, in the actual
struggle of class with class, the higher nature of man has
been asserting and organizing itself into a mighty power
for social redemption.- Filled with a new sense of justice,
the people have risen up and thrown off tyrants ; the moun-
tains are being brought low, and the valleys are being
raised. Out of these experiences and social trends, to
account for them and give them place in the philosophy of
Ufe, has sprung up the doctrine of the immanence of God,
of his identity with the truly human. What zest, what
clearing of the eye and steadying of the gaze, what new
elasticity of tread and consecration of the human body,
what a sublime sense of personal responsibility and of the
dignity of every human life, become the heritage of the
common people, with the throwing off of the old dogma,
and the taking to heart of the new philosophy of religion!
After a. generation has been reared on the doctrine that
one's deeper self is God, there will be no drunkards, no
prostitutes nor suicides, none driven, to despair and mad-
ness by the meaninglessness of life. After a generation has
been bred to the teaching of the religion of self-respect,
there wiU be no outcast class, no army of the unemployed,
no children bom of self-indulgence. The old-fashioned
teaching was a direct disparagement to righteous conduct,
to moral originahty, and to enthusiasm. To teach men
that it was impossible to do right except as a superhuman
power came into them and communicated its energy was
equivalent to discouraging them from exercising the power
they possessed and turning to their neighbours for support.
We now see that the grace which was attributed to some
being outside of organized society really issued from the
stored-up virtue of the social life about them, and the
creative energy latent within them. But not to see this.
255 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
not to have realized that men do good as naturally as they
open their eyes, was to discourage them and to coerce them
into intellectual conformity and economic submission.
When the churches become democratic, they will bring
about such a revival of rehgion as the world has not known
since the founding of Christianity. And this rehgion will
in turn enhghten and strengthen democracy in economic
and poKtical Hfe. The cause of social justice has only
needed the backing of organized religion in order to sweep
away the entrenched iniquity of ages. For that iniquity,
although the support it received was disguised, has hitherto
been upheld and sustained by the churches. When social
democracy enters the domain of reUgious hfe, it will seize
the churches, and will convert them from defences of
private monopoly in land and capital into strongholds of
economic equahty.
PART III
CHRISTIANITY TO BE EXPRESSED IN
SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE AND DEMO-
CRATIC SYMBOL
PART III
CHAPTER XVI
THE NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP
I. For the Storage and Transmission of National Idealism
My proposition is that all the various rehgious denomi-
nations should so transform their respective services as
to make them instruments of modern hope and modern
thought and modern faith. What we need is a manual
of rehgious worship that will serve for the social storage
and transmission of modem ethical humanism.
It may seem to some preposterous that a mere manual
of new church services could have any such effects as I
anticipate. But it can appear so only to those who have
overlooked the importance of other similar devices in
religion and of machinery in other spheres of human
enterprise. We are apt to forget that preaching is a
mechanical device ; yet the invention of it secured the
spread of Christianity throughout the Western world.
We are Uable to forget that the keeping of one day in
seven sacred to the moral interests of a nation is a
mechanical device of a very evident order ; yet it was
the means of preserving Judaism for many centuries
even after the Jewish nation had lost its independence.
It must be remembered that social meetings at stated
intervals for the worship of a nation's God are nothing
but a tool shaped and used for certain ends. Yet that
tool has been the means of accomphshing those ends.
It should further be remembered that these purely
291
292 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
mechanical, natural devices of human ingenuity are the
means by which supernatural religions have been per-
petuated. Their efficiency is beyond all question. Who,
therefore, can doubt that these same means, if used con-
sciously to the end of national ethical ideahsm, would prove
equally efficacious ?
Now, one of the many mechanical instruments for the
promulgation of reUgious ideas is this which I have been
advocating — a manual of services fitted to a nation's pres-
ent needs — but it is an instrument which has been almost
forgotten. Nobody could fail to see that any new reli-
gious movement must naturally resort to preaching as a
method of propaganda ; and, in fact, such a method is
adopted. Nor do many persons question the rightness and
appropriateness of using one day of rest in seven as the
most opportime time for the oral spread of new ideas. But
a manual of rehgious rites and ceremonies has been wholly
discarded by those who have rejected supernaturahsm.
They seem to have imagined that such a thing is in its very
nature fit only to be an instrument for the propagation
of spiritism. They refuse to use it because it is associated
too unpleasantly in their minds with the beliefs which they
have outgrown. The result is a predicament of the gravest
nature.
How can the new moral idealism be spread and become
a mighty national asset ; how can it change from an exclu-
sive philosophy of the few into an energizing rehgion of
the whole nation, if it allows the enemies of science and
democracy to hold a monopoly of the chief mechanical
means of communicating from one man to another reli-
gious principles, sentiments, and inward meanings ? For-
mulae, rites, and ceremonies used by a social group consti-
tute that chief mechanical means.
If any one wishes to know why humanitarian freethought
has scarcely made any progress in two thousand years as
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 293
an organizing, nation-building force, let him not imagine
that it is because it is inherently negative, disruptive, or
destructive. Let him be well assured that it is because
freethinkers have in the past never realized the supreme
importance of concreting their humanistic idealism into a
cult ; while on the other hand the champions of super-
naturalistic religion have fully appreciated the necessity
for such devices. In the past, rationalistic ideahsm has
always been individualistic and non-aesthetic. It has
always undervalued the debt which original minds owe
to the common mind about them. It has always de-
preciated the artistic, poetic, and symboUc way of com-
municating ideas. It has always overestimated the
independent resources of the individual — especially of
his reasoning powers. We have no evidence of the
failure of a rationalistic ideahsm which was at the same
time social in spirit and symbolical in its methods of
presentation. Accordingly, we are justified in thinking
that psychological socialism and rituaHstic methods of
propaganda would prove as powerful in the spread of
ethical reaHsm as they have been in the perpetuation of
supernaturahsm. We have, therefore, reason to believe
that whoever prepares a book of common humanistic
devotion, adequate for a scientific and democratic age,
will do for the spread of humanistic rehgion such a
service as Marconi or Edison or Lister or Pasteur has
done for trade, commerce, and medical and sanitary art.
Until the new ideahsm possesses its own manual of
rehgious ritual, it cannot communicate effectively its
deeper thought and purpose. The moment, however,
it has invented such a means of communication, it would
seem inevitable that a rapid moral and intellectual
advancement of man must at last take place, equal in
speed and in beneficence to the material advancement
which followed during the last century in the wake of
294 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
scientific inventions. Only the instrument for the
storage and transmission of the new ideahsm has been
lacking.
2. Services as compared with Sermons
If my contention for the lonique value of a humanistic
book of rehgious services be opposed on the ground that
simple informal preaching of naturaHstic moral ideahsm
would be far more effective and more congenial to en-
Hghtened men, a complete answer is ready at hand.
Preaching presupposes preachers. But the great lack
is an instrument to educate the majority of preachers. A
small minority could prepare a manual, which the less
gifted could adopt. Preaching presupposes also a wealthy
and powerful organization to support and direct these
preachers. But with a miUionth part of the wealth re-
quired to do this, a suitable manual of ethical services could
be printed and placed on sale in every town throughout
the English-speaking world. Then, without any elaborate
organization or great expense, any group of sympathizers
anywhere could organize themselves and hold regular meet-
ings where the services could be practised. A meeting
using the hymns, canticles, selections from literature, and
statements of principle contained in such a manual could
create within itself an atmosphere of moral faith and en-
thusiasm which would quicken into new Ufe every one who
participated in it. If such a manual also contained mar-
riage and funeral services, it would make it possible im-
mediately to conduct wedding and burial rites.
Nothing has more astonished me than the actual ex-
perience of this one great difference between the preach-
ing of a sermon and the celebration of a ceremony.
I have often regretted as a preacher my inabiHty to
be in a hundred places at once. This inabiHty hmited
each sermon to its one utterance or to a weari-
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 295
somely slow repetition week after week. But having
twenty years ago elaborated and conducted an ethical
marriage ceremony, I was immediately invited to
lend copies of it to various persons throughout England,
and they reported to me that all who were present where
it was used by them were gratified that at last a marriage
rite consonant with their own convictions and not too
defective in form had come into existence.
In the same way, by means of a manual of services, it
might be possible for one organization inspired by human-
istic moral idealism to spread its ideas a thousandfold
more rapidly than it could otherwise do.
3. Christian Science an Instance
Many persons have been astonished and possibly even
terrified by the rapid development of Christian Science
during the last decade. This teaching is already in evi-
dence in England, as well as America, even in brick and
stone — which, whatever else it means, proves that many
persons of wealth beheve that Christian Science has come
to stay. The rich, however lavish in expenditure upon
pleasures, seldom give to good causes which they beheve
are only transient crazes. So astonishing has been the or-
ganized growth of Christian Science that many have sought
to explain its spread as one more evidence of man's innate
love of mystery. Many have even been tempted to find
in it a proof that unregenerate himian nature craves for
the supernatural. I myself knew no other cause to which
the phenomenon could be traced until, drawn by curiosity
rather than by any intention of discovering its causes, I
attended a Sunday evening meeting of a Christian Science
Church. I entered the auditorium of this Temple, with its
chaste and simple style of architecture. I had known
nothing whatever of the order of a Christian Science meeting.
296 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Imagine, then, the revelation it was to me, who for years
had been drifting, by some inevitable train of logic and ex-
perience, into a realization of the necessity for rites and
ceremonies to supplement preaching, to find that here there
was no preaching at all. Rehance was placed exclusively
upon a set and prescribed ritual.
Some great organizing genius had been preparing prac-
tical means for the transmission in the most effective way
of the Christian Science gospel. Into my hand was placed
a leaflet containing references to a hymn-book, to Mrs.
Eddy's " Science and Health," and to the Bible, arranged
for use for every Sunday in the then current quarter of
the year. Thus it had been made possible for any little
group of Christian Scientists immediately to conduct a
religious service of an hour in length. No great organiza-
tion was required. I have since been told by members
of the Christian Science Church that generally the reHgious
services of any new group are at first conducted in the
drawing-room of a private house. Such has been the
ingenuity and foresight of the organizers of this movement.
Its statesmen have proved themselves worthy to be leaders
of the Order of Jesuits, so subtle and instinct with common
sense has been their judgment in constructing out of ma-
terials almost hopeless, as I should have thought, a ritual
full of variety and interest and yet centring in one dominant
idea. As I went away from the meeting, blessed by its ele-
vated influence despite my rejection of every tenet of its
metaphysics, I found myself mightily reenforced also in
the conviction that the ritual is the thing. National
idealism needs what its disciples have all along till now been
too dull to think of giving it. I said to myself: "This
sectarian doctrine of the Christian Scientists, which takes
a truth of limited range (the power of ideas to beget health,
happiness, and character) and extends it into a universal
law, has been embodied in a liturgy which is rapidly winning
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 297
converts. How much more rapidly would a religion of
national idealism spread if it had but found its poet-
statesman, its prophet-priest, shrewd and wise enough to
have constructed its ritual, not omitting from it either
man or woman or rhythm or song or social silence or the
voices of the congregation speaking in unison or the power-
ful reenforcements from the literatures of the world ! How
rapid from state to state and city to city would be the
growth of the social-democratic church of America the
moment an adequate manual of national idealism was at
the disposal of every little group of men and women to
which social service was the essence of true religion."
4. Preaching alone Inadequate
The inadequacy of preaching alone as an instrument of
propaganda, at least at the beginning of a new religious
movement, arises from the fact that inevitably there are
never more than a few preachers who grasp the real
character of any new message. The result is, if it spreads
rapidly and forms groups of disciples, the new movement
is sure to break loose from its original moorings and
to drift. Almost imperceptibly it suffers an unintended
mental change. Nothing could prevent this alteration
unless the spoken word of the preacher was somehow
kept close to the central thought of the movement by
written and more or less authoritative statements, which
were recognized by the whole group as containing its
essential meaning. As such statements are often to be
consulted, they should embody the message in condensed
and vivid form, in a style suitable for reading again and
again, and should prove inexhaustible of meaning after
many ponderings. So, while it may be granted that a
manual of reUgious services alone could scarcely draw
disciples in the first instance, but would require also the ini-
298 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
tial impulse either of some spoken word or of some book
not prepared as a manual of services, it is equally true
that such spoken word or such a book alone would be in-
adequate. Indeed, even the preachers themselves of a
new movement, however intimate their relation to its
founder and their study of its authoritative scriptures,
would need the manual of services to keep them to their
moorings. At least, only the greatest moral and intellec-
tual geniuses will not drift unconsciously to other than their
original foundations. The minds of ordinary men are by
nature no more fixed than floating islands.
A manual of humanistic devotion could also be used on
occasions where no original discourse was to be deHvered,
as at family devotions and at morning and evening chapel
in schools and colleges. But it would be equally adapted
to meetings where the central feature was a sermon.
It must furthermore not be forgotten that, whatever the
differences between services and sermons, the sermon
itself, in proportion as it is reaUy great, powerful, and of
lasting value, partakes of the nature of a service. The
two great differences between it and the other parts of the
service are that it is the one item not fixed and determined
beforehand, and also the one which does not lay any claim
to being cast into a form of enduring value.
However important preaching may be, the set forms
may at least be held to be more independent of it than it
of them. For they will always present the fundamental
ideas and the deeper trend of the faith embodied in them,
and will do so in hterary form; while one never could
be secure of the same effects from the preaching itself.
The preacher's theme is left to his own selection; it may
be wide of the main issue, and wiU inevitably be dependent
on the mental gifts of the particular man and on his
momentary fitness. It is at any rate clear that from the
start a manual of services must supplement preaching.
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 299
It would be the primary instrument for insuring per-
manence and consistency of propaganda. It alone could
sustain and educate the nucleus of a new group of disciples
and could steadily knit fresh recruits into an abiding and
vital unity.
A further reason why the use of a manual of services
has not been appreciated by men of ethical and scientific
faith as compared with preaching is that the set services
f amiHar to us — those of the Anglican and Roman
Churches — happen in our day to be far less ethical and
rational, far more occult and doctrinal, than a good deal of
present-day preaching. The preaching even in orthodox
churches, being in great part dependent upon the judg-
ment of the preacher, has been more expressive of the needs
of the hour than have the church services. It is behind the
times, but not, like the Episcopal Prayer Book, three hun-
dred years behind. It has somewhat reflected the trend
of the age, which is increasingly ethical and naturalistic.
We are therefore Hable to fall into the error of imagining
that somehow preaching is necessarily more ethical and
progressive than a set service. But this conclusion pre-
supposes on the one hand that the set Anglican and Roman
forms are the only type possible. On the other hand, it
impUes that preaching is necessarily ethical. This is the
point of view held by a recent writer, who has cited the low
moral stage of the Church in Spain to-day, and attributes
it to the fact that there the Church has neglected preaching
and had recourse almost exclusively to ceremonial. But
had the ritual to which it had recourse embodied the ideas
of social democracy and naturalistic humanism, it would
have lifted not only the rehgion, but the whole hfe of Spain
out of the mire. On the other hand, what proof is there
that Spanish priests, had they opened their mouths to
preach in place of conducting formal services, would have
inculcated the virtues of self-respect, intellectual honesty.
300 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
democratic equality, and reverence for the moral personality
of women? What reason is there to suppose that they
would have presented the moral character instead of the
supernatural functions of Jesus Christ ? It will be readily
granted that in the historic Christian churches the
preaching is to-day for the most part more ethical and
scientific than the services. It is the service that now
retards sincerity and freedom of intellectual and moral
faith. These old forms are concretions of the super-
naturaUsm and the metaphysical doctrines of remote ages,
together with ancient ethical sentiments and human as-
pirations. But it is inconceivable that any preaching could
be more ethical and more in accord with the spirit of science
and of democracy than formal services would be if expressly
written or selected to embody the spirit of science and de-
mocracy.
The fact that the Anglican and Roman services are not
up to the ethical and intellectual standard of our day and
fall morally and scientifically far below the preaching of
the most powerful living representatives of those churches,
is one of the reasons which make it especially worth
while to prepare a new manual of services. Bewildering
is the contrast between the springs of conduct which
preachers touch and the weaknesses and emotions upon
which the sacrifice of the Mass plays. The spiritistic oc-
cultism, the supernaturaKsm, of this mysterious ceremony
of the Real Presence often has no more relation to the fun-
damental presuppositions of the sermon than the thoughts
of a Caliban to the character of a Miranda. It is not the
sensuous splendour of the form of the Mass that strikes one
as barbaric, but its idea of a supernatural blood-atonement.
In the AngUcan Church there is often a similar prepos-
terous incongruity between sermon and service. Fifty
minutes to an hour are devoted to a prostrate crying out to
a supernatural agency — at least, so the worshippers them-
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 3OI
selves interpret the ritual — to save us; then one may
hear for twenty-five minutes a most searching sermon
teaching us to save one another, and thereby incidentally
save ourselves.
Let it be conceded, then, that the preaching of our day
is comparatively not imethical or unscientific; it is the
forms that are chiefly at fault. This stricture applies
as fully to the Evangelical churches as to the Roman and
Episcopal commimions, and as much to Quaker and
Unitarian as to Presbyterian and Methodist practices.
My impression as to the attitude of mind of Unitarian
preachers towards the services which they are required or
expected to conduct is that half of the preachers, except
for their saving sense of humour and expectation of
speedy revision, would be agonized in conscience by the
compromise with supernaturalism to which the traditional
forms compel them to submit.
If we consider the special case of the Anglican Church,
we notice that only the Romanizing party have had the
insight to see that living ideas must penetrate not only the
sermon, but also the ritual. Accordingly they have done
their utmost — even (in England) beyond the limits of
legality — to embody their convictions in ceremonial form.
In this they have proved themselves to be statesmen, psycho-
logists, and historians, as well as religious enthusiasts. They
know the practical power of symbolism in conveying an
idea into the heart and will of the people. Superficial
and blind by contrast is the attitude of the Broad Church
and the Evangelical parties, who know no better means
of checking the Romanizing tendency than by proving
it illegal and preaching legality as the highest clerical duty.
If they but knew it, the only efficient way by which the
Romanizing movement could be counteracted would be to
legalize forms of service which should embody principles
of democracy, science, and national ideahsm. Along these
302 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
lines preaching is already permissible and is to be heard
from many pulpits. But when once formal services con-
gruous with such preaching are equally allowed, old-fash-
ioned theologians will have something bigger and stronger
to fear than Rome. They will have the modem nation
herself to cope with — a nation awake as a living church.
Towards this end a manual of modernist services is more
urgently needed than a new outburst of pulpit eloquence.
Those who have not long reflected upon the problem
here imder discussion may think that somehow formal
services are in the nature of the case further behind the
times than preaching. But this again is a mistake.
Indeed, it is the survival of the old forms which accounts
for the fact that the preaching is not far more advanced
than it is. Only the most daring and original preachers
think beyond the forms. But at first, and for generations
afterwards, these forms did not cramp. It is not of the
essence of a formal service that it should have been perpetu-
ated unchanged for centuries. It is, as I point out elsewhere,
perfectly possible that there should be an organized body
of the best intellects and most spiritually minded souls
in the churches continuously at work upon the revision
of services. And it would be possible that at stated inter-
vals, a decade apart or less, the results of their labours should
be submitted to the lawful authorities, and that those new
forms which commended themselves should be sanctioned,
and permission granted for their use side by side with old
forms. There is nothing inherent in the nature of church
services to occasion the retention of any obsolete ideas or
rites. Just as the criminal laws and civil statutes of the
nation not only require but may receive constant revision,
so with church laws and statutes. Nowadays, under a
democratic regime, it is inexcusable for any but embittered
Anarchists to interpret all legislation as the tyrannical
empire of past ages over the Hving present. Sane persons
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 303
see that it is our own fault if we have not cast off the
dictation of the dead and have not formulated the social
conscience of our own day. In similar manner, before long,
all except blind haters of social discipline of every kind
will enthusiastically help to revivify the churches by
revising and reinterpreting their rites and forms.
5. Ethics and Ceremonial
Until quite recent years nearly all persons who had dis-
carded the old forms, on account of the error in them, were
prone to be chary of all common devotion. They cried out,
"The world needs no kind of an ecclesiastical rehgion
with priests and prayers and holy books. It needs a reli-
gion of justice. In the new rehgion nothing will count
but clear thoughts and honest deeds." They did not realize
that if this attitude were adopted, religion in the old sense
would cease to be. PoUtics, economics, art, science, and
spontaneous morality would take its place. But here,
again, we detect the vitiating blunder of the old indi-
viduaKsm to which I have already referred. As if a man
by himself alone — nay, rather in defiance of organized
attempts at spiritual discipline — could attain to clear
thoughts and honest deeds !
Now, the older prophets, despite their trust in personal
agencies outside of human society, were well aware that
only by the systematic concentration of a nation's attention
upon righteousness could a people ever reach honesty and
the clear vision. The whole apparatus of Judaism and
Christianity was instituted and perpetuated for the attain-
ment of justice, by creating in the minds of the people
a love of justice. The old worship, with its priests and
prayers and holy books, was in ultimate aim a rehgion of
justice. Its end was right. Its means unhappily were
pre-scientific, but they were, however falsely interpreted,
304 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
natural and human. If by "ecclesiastical religion" is
meant a looking to supernatural persons for help, let us
away with it. If prayer be but a petition to superhuman
agencies, we have had enough of it. If books cannot be
holy imless they teach submission to invisible and incor-
poreal beings, then without doubt the world needs no
such things. But imassuming teachers and preachers of
himian ideals, confessedly falhble but well disciplined in
the method and spirit of scientific test and search, are
needed by the world more than ever. And a systematic
turning for help to human and natural sources of redemp-
tion is indispensable. So, too, holy books are required, if
holiness means, as it always has meant, not pandering to
selfishness, vanity, or lust, but on the contrary ministering
to the spirit of self-sacrifice for great human ends.
Among nineteenth-century prophets no one was more
aUve than Emerson to the fact that rehgion is turning
away from the subtleties of scholasticism to morals, and
that this change is altogether an advance. He was su-
premely the apostle of clear thoughts and honest deeds.
But his mother-wit prevented him from falhng into the
error of thinking that these could be attained without
the natural means of regular reHgious practices in cormnon.
The passage in his essay on "Worship" in which he pro-
phesies that "there wiU. be a new church, founded on moral
science," is often quoted in witness of his prophetic instinct.
But the special evidence of genius in this passage is not
his saying that an ethical church will come, but his recognition
that it will of necessity begin, as he characteristically puts
it, "at first cold and naked, a babe in a manger again, the
algebra and mathematics of ethical law"; at first "with-
out shawms or psaltery or sackbut." Emerson, although
he recognized the necessity of it, saw no virtue or perma-
nence in this initial state of nakedness. The new church, he
went on to add, "wiU have heaven and earth for its beams
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 305
and rafters, science for symbol and illustration." He
accordingly foretold that it would "fast enough gather
beauty, music, picture, poetry." Still more directly in
his essay on "The Sovereignty of Ethics" does he give his
sanction to a church that will educate and discipline men
into clear thoughts and honest deeds; but with greater
emphasis also does he insist upon the necessity of rites and
ceremonies.
"It accuses us," he says, "that pure ethics is not now
formulated and concreted into a cultus, a fraternity, with
assemblings and holydays, with song and book, with
brick and stone. Why have not those," he asks, "wljo
beheve in it and love it, left all for it, and dedicated them-
selves to write out its scientific scriptures, to become its
vulgate for millions?"
But even Emerson, as can be seen in these passages, suf-
fered perhaps under the Hmitations of his age. He speaks of
a new church, as if a new organization was to be founded
and as if the old churches would not transform themselves.
Now, it must be granted that the old did not base themselves
upon moral science, because science had not yet come.
But science having now arrived, the notion is inconceivable
that the old churches should continue resting on a founda-
tion of trust in supernatural sources of redemption. Surely
the old churches will refound themselves, and this time on a
scientific basis — on science humane and therefore moral.
But in so doing, the churches will discard only so much of
their accumulated beauty, music, picture, and poetry as is
positively an affront to the truth which we modern men
behold. It is a fact that pure ethics has not yet concreted
itself ; but impure ethics — ethics transfused with a certain
amount of trust in supernatural agencies — has long since
done so. The organizations which have achieved this work,
there is every reason to hope, will themselves, thanks to
the prevalence of the scientific spirit, now drive out super-
306 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
naturalism — which after all was never the real treasure
of the Church. They will remove the dross for the sake
of their own pure gold. At least in America the churches
are still alive ; their members have, moreover, been per-
meated with the new hopes and ideals. The churches
surely then will know how to continue to keep ahve and
to grow into the Church of Men to Come.
Sir John Seeley saw as perfectly as Emerson that reli-
gion is moving steadily away from scholastic subtleties
to the science of ethics ; and that a church with assemblings
and holydays, with song and book, with brick and stone,
is an indispensable accessory to national character. But,
unlike that of Emerson, Seeley's historic sense was dis-
cipHned and strengthened by systematic scholarship. He
therefore would hear nothing of a new church organization,
but only of the old churches renewed. All that Emerson
deplored in the teaching and practices of the dominant
rehgious institutions Seeley equally lamented. But the
defects of the churches are not their essence. The organi-
zation has Kved in spite of defects, at least in spite of their
perpetuation. Those who love the old institutions most,
and who are most ready to sacrifice all for them, shall be
brought to distinguish what is vital in them from what is
extraneous and may prove fatal.
6. The Revision of Church Services
During the last half century religious controversy has
raged around the Bible. During the next half century
the storm-centre will be a new manual of church services.
In the sixteenth century there began in Christendom the
evolution of two new ideas, the idea of science and the idea
of democracy. These ideas have now developed into full
self-consciousness and definite outUne. A point of view
has come into existence from which the Bible itself is being
NEED OP A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 307
interpreted differently. We now understand the Bible
not to mean what those imagined it to mean who recon-
structed its substance in the formularies of the Protestant
churches. It is therefore possible for us to-day to embody
in new or in revised national manuals of reHgious rites and
ceremonies the teaching and spirit of the Bible as we now
interpret it. Such manuals would preserve to us the re-
ligious treasure of the past ; but they would also communi-
cate to the people the new method and spirit of science,
and the new outlook, strength, and self-reliance of social
democracy.
7. Science unifies Men
At the outset, one cannot but lament the conflict that
has prevailed between behevers in science and the upholders
of religion. Hitherto the whole tendency of the scientific
method and spirit, so far as it has touched the religious con-
sciousness at all, has been centrifugal and disintegrating.
It has divided and isolated men. It has driven them from
churches, but has not drawn them to any new centre of
spiritual Hfe. Science has become wedded to commer-
cialism on one side, and on another is rurming into theo-
sophic freak. For four centuries the right of private judg-
ment has tended to this splitting up of churches, until
now among the foremost of the scientific world every in-
dividual man has become a church unto himself. What is
needed is a scientific instrument of religious cohesion.
That such an instrument can be found is the more likely
because, despite all appearances to the contrary, science
both by its method and spirit ultimately tends to unity.
What is science, but the dropping out as unverified of what
cannot be demonstrated to every rational being to be
true ? And what has taken place in the domain of each
special science, except a unification of thought and an agree-
ment and consolidation of men? The whole evolution of
3o8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
science is from a variety of opinions to a common judg-
ment. Every year, every month, disputed points are
settled and intellectual harmony is established. It is only
in reference to religion, the one domain of human interest
which has not yet come under the scientific spirit and
method, that scientific men still differ one with another,
although they all agree in rejecting the intellectual tradi-
tion of past ages as it is manifested in the churches. If
once the rites and ceremonies of public worship could be
so transformed as no longer to violate the fundamental
methods and spirit of science, is it quixotic to hope, as I
do, that the whole nation would soon be drawn into one
religious fellowship ? Would not the most powerful engine
for bringing about such a revolution in public worship be a
manual — democratic and scientific — of church services ?
Science, I have said, has thus far been centrifugal in
tendency ; but in the fulness of time it will be centripetal.
It has destroyed religious traditions; but all the appli-
cations of its methods to chemistry, to physics, to botany
and biology show its truest work to be constructive and
synthetic. The old-fashioned notion still widely prevails
that if people are allowed to think for themselves in reli-
gion, each will go his own and therefore a different way.
But if people really think for themselves, they will learn to
think according to the method and spirit of science ; and
the result will be that in each going his own way they will
all go the same way.
The cleavage which now exists between science and reli-
gion, moreover, is not identical with that between church
members and those who on intellectual grounds have been
compelled to withdraw from church membership. Inti-
mate acquaintance with present-day religious thought and
scientific education exposes to view the fact that thousands
of preachers and members of churches have been as much
touched by the spirit of science as those persons have who
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 309
have broken away from religious organization or who were
born and have been reared in circles wholly out of sympathy
with religious traditions. Scientific minds within the
churches, however, have until now remained qmet and
passive. In church conferences and services they do not
demand any expression of the new ideas which they have
adopted. They carry on no active propaganda of science
in the domain of religion. The result is that at present
within the churches old-fashioned notions seem to bear
completer sway than is actually the case. They still
dominate the set forms and phrases ; but, notwithstanding,
the new notions are alive and strong in pulpit and pew. A
crisis at any moment may precipitate them into definite
expression. Any day these modern men within the
churches may speak out the new faith that is in them.
They have remained within and kept quiet, because in the
interest of religion and the nation they were waiting for
the right opportimity. They have seen that there is a
time to keep silent and they have respected its claim ; but
only because they have been sure that their time to speak
would come. These men of science have remained within
because they shrank back in bewilderment and alarm from
the moral isolation which severance would entail. They
have had a deep sense of the ethical benefits of spiritual
fellowship. They have believed, and not wrongly, that
spiritual isolation tends to engender, even when it does not
always produce, laxity of life. In terror at the isolation
which seemed to await them if they were to follow truth
whithersoever it might lead, they have apparently drawn
back the deeper into the twilight of the old faith. They
have clung to what had so long stood fast rather than yield
themselves up to a stream which seemed but to flow into a
sea of negation. It appeared to them that if they should
be forced to decide on the instant, they must make a choice
between truth and righteousness ; and they have not been
3IO
THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ashamed temporarily to prefer concrete righteousness to
abstract truth, abidiiig the time when these would cease to
be in practical antagonism.
8. Outside the Churches
Of the two classes of persons — those who break with
all rehgious association on account of new ideas and those
who, although adopting them, remain quietly within the
churches — it is quite possible that the latter class have
chosen the wiser course and have manifested the deeper
ethical insight. They have seen that science, while it has
meant knowledge, accurate, systematic, and verified, has
not yet meant wisdom; and they have preferred wisdom
unscientific to science unwise. But were science now to
become wise and stoop to the service of those very ends to
which religion has always ministered, these seemingly more
timid natures within the churches would forthwith declare
themselves disciples of science. But only a scientific trans-
formation of the rites and language of the churches will
demonstrate to the devout and to the masses that science
has at last been allowed or compelled to enter into the
service of moral idealism. For the sake of the churches
the leaders of scientific thought and of critical philosophy
must become the reorganizers of religious forms. The
psychologists and sociologists of rehgion must not only
furnish a restatement of the creeds, but embody the new
view of the universe and of man in rites and ceremonies.
The first result would be a return of the intellectuals and of
the masses of the nation into the churches.
9. The Warring Sects
Comparatively happy would the religious state of America
be to-day if the only breaches in her life were those between
the scientific and the vmscientific. But equally great and
NEED or A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 311
deplorable are the chasms which separate and divide
among themselves sects and groups within sects which
have been wholly untouched by the doctrine of evolution
and the philosophical criticism of our day. We need
some instrument of cohesive power to bring together
Evangelicals and High Churchmen, Unitarians, Baptists,
Calvinists, and Methodists, who are separated not by
science against dogma, but by dogma against dogma.
The same reasons, however, which make me believe that
modernist forms of public worship would heal the breach
between science and Christianity compel me to hope that
they would exercise a similar influence amidst the war-
ring sects.
There have been many attempts to effect a union among
the Christian bodies by means of a compromise. It has
been thought that all the sects will unite if only they can
be induced to drop points of difference and cling to points
of conscious agreement. But every such attempt has
proved futile. It has led to a colourless and impotent
imdenominationaHsm, which perhaps produces an armed
truce, but settles no differences and assuages no antago-
nisms. Undenominationalism is an abstraction which will
only pass muster as a religion in the interregnum be-
tween two great national ideals. So long as all the theo-
logical sects believe in supernaturaHsm, for each sect not
to dare to point to the special supernatural agencies it
beheves in nor to its own particular means of conciliating
its invisible deities, for fear of awakening sectarian bitter-
ness, is to cry halt just when the nation needs to march
on. No ! Nothing but a new instrument which will
render vivid, concrete, and beautiful the new synthesis
of social democracy, science, and Christianity can unify
Christians among themselves. The new bond will,
therefore, be an idea which is as yet wholly outside the
consciousness of the majority of orthodox Christians and
312 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
is directly in antagonism to the supernaturaKsm of the
churches. It is true that the new idea has not yet begun to
win the extremely orthodox believers in Christianity, nor
has it begiyi to transform and vivify even the centres of
religious radicalism. But it must be remembered that
the new synthesis has never yet been concreted into a
cultus. Such a concretion is exactly what I am pleading
for when I urge a revision of religious rites and ceremonies.
Lest the force of my argument be lost by not appreciating
how such a revision is to be achieved, it must be borne in
mind how other reforms have been brought to ultimate tri-
umph. Judging from analogous cases, I have given it as my
opinion that various individual persons must first, as I am do-
ing in this volume, offer tentative suggestions as to revision.
These should be appKed and made the basis of new forms.
At the same time, since rites and ceremonies can only be
tested by being actually practised, religious meetings of
those sympathizing with such attempts should be held,
in which the new forms were used as the order of service.
By trials of this kind, in proportion as the services fulfilled
their object, other assembhes would adopt them.
Such experiments have now been made for more than
twenty years at the Ethical Church in London, England.
The results were pubhshed and thus made accessible to
the public in the summer of 191 3 in two large quarto
volumes entitled " Social Worship," issued by George
Allen in London and the Macmillan Company in New
York. Volume I contains the Introductory and Dismis-
sory sentences, the Meditations, the Lessons from universal
literature, the Invitations to Church Membership and the
Special Services for the religious Dedication of Children,
the Receiving of New Members, for Marriage, and for
Burial. Volume II contains the words and music of the
Canticles, Hymns, and Responsive Services and the words
(with bibliography) of the Anthems. All these items have
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 313
been selected as expressive of the living conscience of the
modem world. Some of them refer exclusively to England,
but others are derived from American literature ; the great
majority, however, are expressive of the universal spirit
and vision of our day in every nation of the world. These
two volumes of " Social Worship," being in the main but a
collected anthology from the greatest writers of modern
times and the masters of thought and expression in all
ages in so far as they represent the point of view of human-
istic idealism, science, and democracy, must be an approxi-
mately adequate embodiment in literature of the Soul of
America. They are offered to the public, however, only as
a tentative and first contribution. They have sprung
from the same effort and the same sense of need which have
produced Professor Rauschenbusch's volume of prayers
entitled "God and the People," and Professor Patten's
"Social H}rmns" and the collection, under the same name,
which appeared in The Survey of January 3, 1914.
10. The East
I have said that the outcome of our task might prove a
benefit even beyond the borders of Christendom. We
are to-day face to face with new religious problems arising
from the contact, now for the first time, of China and Japan
on equal terms with the civilization of the West. China
and Japan are already losing their belief in invisible and
incorporeal agencies as the source of human weal and woe.
Their intellectual classes are discarding the naive spiritism
involved, if not expressly declared, in the old cults, and
are reinterpreting their ancestor-worship in terms of social
ideahsm and of the historic unity and solidarity of their
coim tries.
Some merriment was awakened a few years ago through-
out the Western nations by a report that Japan, not many
314 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
years before, had sent representatives to the West in search
of a rehgion which would be to the benefit of Japan and
suitable to adopt as the State rehgion. If the Japanese
did take such a step, it furnishes only one more proof of
their consummate statesmanship and originality. There
is not a nation of the Western world but as a nation is
alarmed at the decay of the old Western faiths and puzzled
and bewildered how to keep up the moral idealism of the
people, now that the old dogmas and forms have lost their
hold of the popular imagination. Further, when the rela-
tion of religion to national idealism is fully comprehended,
it will be seen that there is nothing grotesque in an attempt
to find a religion for a nation. Such an attempt means an
effort to bring into definite outline and shape, and to or-
ganize systematically, what had hitherto been the inarti-
culate and undirected idealism of the nation. When it is
thus realized that, after all, a religion at its best and fullest
is nothing else than the nation's idealism organized into
a system of moral education, it will be seen that not once
but always should a nation be on the lookout for improve-
ments in its religious methods and principles.
That Japan found no religious system of the West suit-
able for her needs is again a proof of her penetration and
discrimination. Is it, however, foohsh to believe that if in
America since her War of Independence all reUgious bodies
had been revising, readapting, and perfecting their rehgious
institutions and teachings, so as to bring them every
decade abreast of America's own need, Japan would have
found in the United States such a manual of religious wor-
ship, ceremonial and dogma as with very shght readaptation
would have ministered to her newly awakened conscious-
ness? Japan found for herself in the West a science of
chemistry and chemical laboratories ; she found methods
of manufacture and agriculture ; she adopted systems of
sanitation and medicine. Had our rehgion of the West
NEED OF A NEW MANUAL OF NATIONAL WORSHIP 315
been as up to date as our science, those Japanese repre-
sentatives who went in search of a religion would not have
returned to the East empty-handed.
Few have realized that Christianity entered upon a new
era the moment Japan conquered her Russian assailants.
That moment, for the first time in fifteen hundred years,
Christianity stood again face to face in intimate relation-
ship of equality with pagan ideas and principles, and in
full consciousness of the fact of that equality. Japan not
only gained a material victory, but won the moral admira-
tion of the world. And now China has done hkewise by an
internal revolution towards science and social democracy.
Historians have noted that so long as Christianity in the
early ages was in intimate and reciprocal contact with
heathen culture, she was constantly deriving from it as
many benefits as she gave. They have pointed out that
after she had once conquered the whole range of civilization
and was no longer confronted with conflicting principles
and ideals of reHgion, she lost those benefits which always
come of comparison and contrast. Without fear of chal-
lenge, she could assert and impress upon the minds of her
ignorant subjects the notion that she possessed a monopoly
of divine wisdom. Now again after fifteen hundred years
the people of Christendom will be forced to compete, as
it were, in the open market of the world for the acceptance
of her religious wares.
CHAPTER XVII
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES
I. By Effort
It must be borne in mind that modernist modes of devo-
tional service will never come of themselves. They will
not be hit upon by happy accident. And without a mighty
struggle on their behalf they will never be introduced
either into the historic or into new religious organizations.
Even in the latter there will for a long time be a strong
party opposing outward forms of any kind. It may be, as
Emerson says, that
The litanies of nations came.
Like the volcano's tongue of flame,
Up from the burning core below —
The canticles of love and woe.
It certainly is true, as he says, that
Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old.
But false would be the inference that because the Htanies
come naturally out of human love and woe they therefore
come without effort, purpose, and plan. If the volcano's
tongue of flame does not issue by design, it is in so far not
Hke the Utanies of nations in its energizing force.
The behef prevails that litanies spring out unintended
from unconscious impulses. And when persons under-
take to-day, by effort and with beneficence prepense, to
make or remake Htanies suited to the new needs, they
316
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 317
are met with the scornful rebuke that religions cannot be
manufactvired — that they are not made, but grow.
There is no doubt in my own mind that the progress
of religion into a democratic and scientific scheme of moral
regeneration has been retarded for ages by the notion,
never allowed by priests to die, that religious forms and
ceremonies cannot be invented and manufactured. This
notion, kept ahve by conservative interests, and sincerely
beUeved because accepted without question by the multi-
tude, is doomed soon to be exploded. For the fact is
writ large on every page of Church history, and in the
narrative of all great religions, and needs only to be known :
that so long as reHgions have been ahve and growing, the
vital force which produced their teachings and practices
has been the conscious effort of bold, patriotic statesmen.
These saw that ethics, whether pure or impure, — ethics
somehow, the best they could have, — must forthwith be
concreted into the most attractive, vivid, and inspiring
cultus they were able to devise. Churches have always
and everywhere manufactured their ritual.
Nevertheless, it is true that the ritual is a natural growth.
Human manufactures always grow. Unless one is ad-
mitted into the secret of the psychic forces that create
them, they bear all the marks of spontaneous, unpremedi-
tated development. Religious statesmen construct them
as inevitably (although designedly) as the wood-bird weaves
her nest
Of leaves and feathers from her breast ;
or as
or as
the fish outbuilds her shell.
Painting with morn each annual cell ;
the sacred pine-tree adds
To her old leaves new myriads.
3l8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
It is hazardous to afi&rm that bird and fish and tree quite
spontaneously and unconsciously construct their temples
for body and home. The finest and closest observers of
animal and plant life are more and more hesitating to
believe so. There is no proof of imconsciousness or effort-
lessness. Both in the case of plant and animal it is an
xmfounded assumption to deny even effort. And as
regards aU beautiful forms of reHgion, what we do know
of them from intimate and universal experience and direct
observation is this : that they have come first by the effort
of patriots ; then they may have continued spontaneously,
and probably only at last survived unconsciously. We
know further that the unconscious production of beautiful
things is no more worthy nor admirable than activity which
is all tingling with conscious design. It is also a perversion
of judgment, due to conservative self-interest, to cast dis-
credit upon laborious effort as compared with spontaneity,
whether conscious or unconscious. Only let the results
of agonizing enterprise be compared in their beauty and
utility with products of effortless impulse, and not pre-
judged adversely because they have cost self-control, sacri-
fice, and the concentration of intelligent wiU.
2. Emerson on Adaptation
It has not been to the interest of the official priests of
churches to acknowledge that forms and ceremonies, Htur-
gies and the Bible grew by a process of revision. Accord-
ingly, they did not see this process, and they honestly
fancied that the products of ceremonial art sprang quite
otherwise into existence. But any one not biassed knows
that the same process is exemplified in the religious forms
of every nation. Nowhere is it more fully exemplified than
in the origin and development of the Enghsh Bible and the
Book of Common Prayer. Admirably has Emerson pre-
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 3 19
sented the facts and appreciated them in this passage from
his essay on Shakespeare : —
It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius
in the world was no one man's work, but came by wide social
labour, when a thousand wrought like one, sharing the same im-
pulse. Our EngHsh Bible is a wonderful specimen of the
strength and music of the English language. But it was not
made by one man, or at one time ; but centuries and churches
brought it to perfection. There never was a time when there
was not some translation existing. The Hturgy, admirable for
its energy and pathos, is an anthology of the piety of ages and
nations, a translation of the prayers and forms of the Catholic
Church — these collected, too, in long periods, from the prayers
and meditations of every saint and sacred writer all over the
world. Grotius makes the like remark in respect to the Lord's
Prayer, that the single clauses of which it is composed were
already in use in the time of Christ, in the Rabbinical forms.
He picked out the grains of gold.
But there is a still more pertinent hint in this same
essay of Emerson's, to encourage and embolden to revision
those who feel that during the last two centuries and a half
the people of Christendom have been denied the right to
breathe the breath of their new life into their church services
and to let that new Hfe reshape, as it must, forms which
are inadequate. "Shakespeare," says Emerson, "in com-
mon with his comrades, esteemed the mass of old plays
waste stock, in which any experiment could be freely tried.
Had the prestige which hedges about a modern tragedy
existed, nothing could have been done." I know the retort
will be made that this was all very well for Shakespeare
and his immortal comrades, but that until a man has
demonstrated that he is the peer of Shakespeare he has
no right to lay his unconsecrated hand upon the sacred
literary heritage of the past. But note that Emerson
insists that even Shakespeare, for all his greatness, could
320 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
have done nothing had the prestige which hedges about a
modern tragedy prevented his esteeming the mass of old
plays waste stock. If Emerson be right, Shakespeare's
greatness itself, or at least the world's possession of his
greatness, was due to the Hberty taken by him of experi-
menting freely with the literature he found at hand.
Once let the devout world be converted to the dignity
and necessity of human effort in the writing of Bibles and
in the formulation of rehgious cults, and in a century reh-
gion will make more progress in beauty, reasonableness,
and humanity than it has done in two thousand years.
The notion that sacred scriptures emanate from super-
natural agencies and that rites are enjoined by invisible
inteUigences has generally paralyzed by suggestion the
efforts of reUgious reformers. These have waited for that
to be done by superhuman persons which they ought
to have imdertaken forthwith. But luckily this erroneous
notion is losing hold of intelKgent minds.
With the shifting of trust from supernatural to human
agencies, we abandon the idea that independently of us
the imiverse has a purpose which we are to serve. But
the notion that we therefore abandon aU behef in rational
cosmic purpose and faU back upon blind evolution is as
crude as it is dangerous to the higher interests of humanity.
In abandoning superhuman personal agencies we do not
fall back upon subhuman and impersonal or even merely
human forces. No human wiU is merely human will;
it is also natural, just as aU nature is subject to the forms
and laws of the human mind. Instead, we replace the
idea of extra-human cosmic purpose by that of human
cosmic purpose — humanity being the crown of the cosmos.
Combined hiunan foresight — the general wiU of organized
society — assumes the role of creative providence.
Consistent with this new conception of the Church
and of human design as a factor in religious evolution is
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 32 1
it that we should appropriate and adapt the materials
furnished us by the rites and ceremonies of the historic
churches. We who love the old organizations and are true
to their spirit are rightful masters' of their letter. As the
wood-bird, bent on building her nest, in Keu of better
materials, makes it of leaves and of feathers from her breast,
so may we use what is famiUar, old, and close at hand. It
is all ours, and the homelike beauty of the Church of the
future will be enhanced by the ancient materials wrought
into its new forms.
3. The Right to adapt Creeds and Hymns
The right to appropriate and modify materials at hand
to serve new needs has only been exercised in the few
and short periods of creative work in Church organization
— those who effected the changes believing themselves to
be guided by some supernatural agency. By such men
at such times no forms or symbols were counted too holy
to be touched. There is httle doubt that out of the Creed
of Irenaeus (a.d. 170) was built up the Apostles' Creed,
through the deliberate attempts of many. This in turn
was worked over into the Nicene Creed, to meet the new
attacks of heretics by rendering expHcit various points
of Church doctrine. The Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds
must have been held in execration as an unpardonable
parody by those who on principle opposed all tampering
with authorized documents. The Nicene Creed itself
soon becoming inadequate as an instrument of Church
defence, the Athanasian Creed was constructed out of two
existing formulae as to the nature of God and of Christ.
In the case of these creeds, there was no deviation in
the new statements from the old meanings — only a bring-
ing out of what was implicit and understood, or the addi-
tion of new materials to buttress the old. Yet the right
322 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
to appropriate and modify has not been confined to cases
where the old idea was preserved. The early Christians
put qmte different meanings into the words "Messiah"
and "the Kingdom of Heaven," as into the use of one day
of rest in seven and into the Passover Supper. They did
not stop short of appropriating anything that would serve
their cause.
It is not only creeds that have been reshaped and bent
to serve new needs ; the same has been done with prayers
and hymns. It is sometimes supposed that these latter,
being lyric and emotional, have spontaneously sprung
into existence, and, being Uving organisms rather than
mechanical structures, cannot be modified without lacera-
tion. But such a distinction of creeds, as compared with
prayers and hymns, is wholly without foundation in fact.
The most subtle and metaphysical of all the creeds, the
Athanasian, is itself a superb psalm, and as such is used
by the Church. It is a living organism, but we must
remember that in matters spiritual the life-force is often
conscious effort and intelligent design. As to hymns,
whoever is intimately acquainted with the evolution of
anthologies is perfectly aware that the lyrics imdergo
modification the moment the intellectual soil and environ-
ing atmosphere have changed. What is more to the point,
the most sweetly lyrical of all Christian hymns, those of
John and Charles Wesley, found their origin in a systematic
intellectual scheme. The Wesleys wished to embody their
pecuhar theological doctrines in a form which should
become famihar to the masses. The hymn was the one
possible popular vehicle. Accordingly, the whole of the
Methodist scheme of salvation was poured into melodious
rhyme. As regards the spontaneous perfection, and there-
fore invioIabiUty, of prayers, it must not be forgotten that
a number of those in the Book of Common Prayer are
compilations.
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 323
Church Kterature cannot and must not be the product
of individual and isolated minds. It still must be, as it
always has been, the work of a continuous group of or-
ganizers and worshippers thinking and feeling together
Uke one mind and embodying their common sentiment
in fitting formulas. One person preeminent in logical
clearness throws out the new idea ; another soul gifted
with song breathes into it the breath of hfe. By use the
substance becomes strengthened and compacted. Church
literature has thus the characteristics of folk-lore.
A redeeming circumstance in such appropriation, as
compared with the seizing of material wealth, is that the
old still survives intact under the former ownership, after
it has been taken and adapted by innovators. The Jewish
use and meaning of the words "Messiah" and "the Eling-
dom of Heaven," as of the institutions of the Sabbath
and the Passover, were not extinguished, but were com-
pelled to compete henceforth with what the Jews would
have called parodies.
There was a similar seizure by the early Christians
of pagan materials — festivals and phrases, as well as
temples.
At the Reformation, likewise, when the Church of
England was organizing herself as an independent body,
she took every form and phrase she wanted, modifying
language and rite by omissions and additions and by the
introduction of fresh ideas and meanings, according to the
Hving sentiments of the hour. "In the Mass," says an
historian of the Book of Common Prayer, "the order and
contents of the Sarum service were adhered to, but stress
was laid upon the communion of the people, by the in-
corporation of the 'Order of Communion,' and the Canon
was practically rewritten, expressions being omitted which
would be thought to coimtenance the doctrine of a repe-
tition of the sacrifice of the Cross, and the then preva-
324 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
lent form of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. . . .
The direct invocation of saints and expressions connected
with the mediaeval doctrine of the state of the departed
also disappeared."
Only in these great creative periods of national religious
life have existing materials been intentionally transfused
with new meanings and reshaped. In periods of timid
conformity thinkers have seen what needed doing, but
have not dared, or have not cared, to do it. At most,
some one has prophesied that another would come, who,
being bolder, would do, instead of announcing, what ought
to be done.
4. An Anglican's Plea for Revision
All persons likely to be interested in the revision of
church services might for our purpose be conveniently
divided into two classes, as the obstacles to revision be-
setting each of these are qidte different : preachers and
literary lajTnen.
Such is the pecuhar position of the body of ministers in
any denomination that it cannot well conceive any one's
beginning the work of readapting services to the future
needs of the nation until the authorities of any denomination
have moved in the matter and authorized and appointed
a committee of men to undertake the task.
There can be no doubt that thousands of ministers
deplore their bondage to tradition. But those who thus
regret their bondage can do nothing more specific than ex-
press their regret ; and this they are continually, but in-
effectually, doing. Typical of these expressions by the
AngHcan clergy are the letters which appeared some time
since in the London Spectator. One contains the following
passage : —
How different would have been the history of the Christian
Church in England if the compilers of the nation's Book of
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 325
Common Prayer had definitely fixed some date, such as the
first year of every century, for its revision ! They made no
secret of the fact that their work would periodically need to be
brought up to date. Were they not themselves revising vene-
rated liturgies, handed down to them, in order that they might
be better adapted to the knowledge and the needs of the people
of England in their own day ? Would not the arguments which
they used in their Preface to convince gainsayers be equally
applicable to future generations ? They both knew and fore-
knew the hold of customary forms and phrases over men's
minds. They had seen and must have foreseen the danger
"lest one good custom should corrupt the world." . . . Who
can doubt that as godly a body of men of piety and learning
will be found for the task to-day as at any period of the Church's
history ? Even Church doctrine, which is spoken of sometimes
as if it were a petrified tradition, means neither more nor less
than the teaching of the living Church of the day, as expressed
in authorized formularies by the help of the living Spirit. Such
formularies must be kept in constant refreshing touch with the
heart and mind of the nation if the national Church is to be
worthy of its name, and not decline and fall into a mere denomina-
tion among denominations. The sense in which the compilers
of our Prayer Book meant Church doctrine to be "distinctive"
— a much abused word, surely — was chiefly, if I mistake not,
in its simple, broad, and therefore comprehensive character. It
was their ambition that all Christian people should be able to
use the services supplied with comfort and profit, whether their
family tradition and personal leaning inclined them to Rome or
to Geneva.
How pathetically handicapped must be the man who
would attribute the inactivity of the Church of England
since 1662 in this work of revision to the mere negative
fact that the compilers omitted to fix a definite date, such
as the first year of every century, for revision ! That
omission surely can be no cause for the apathy and stolid
conservatism of the Church. And what good would a
fixed date, once in a century, for revision be if during the
326 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ten decades preceding there had not been the Hberty given
to each of the bishops, if not to the rector of every church,
to compose and use, besides the authorized forms, others,
according to his own genius and the seeming requirements
of those to whom he ministered? A revision that could
not be tested by actual experience in common worship,
although it were the work of a great poetic prophet, might
fail absolutely. Forms for actual use in church, like plays
for actual performance upon the stage, presuppose on the
part of those who devise them intimate acquaintance with
the stage management and the actual performance, so to
speak, of the ritual. I will not say but that it woiild be
better than the present inactivity if after every himdred
years there should be five of hurried effort to improve
the rites of the Church. But the very spirit which would
promote such periodical revisions would be sure to sanction
continuous tentative work by recognized authorities in the
Church.
If such privileges were conferred upon the bishops of the
Church of England, what a stimulus would be brought
to bear upon all the hterary geniuses born to England !
As the Catholic Church called into requisition the creative
powers of architects, painters, and musicians, so all de-
nominations should at last summon to their service the
greatest lyric and dramatic poets. Suppose Shakespeare
had been called as were Raphael and Michel Angelo.
And if only Milton, or George EHot, or Browning had been
summoned to this task ! But to return to the painful facts.
Nobody in the Church of England for more than two cen-
turies has tried to construct any kind of a religious ritual.
5. Lord Morley's Plea
Even the belief in an inevitable upward evolution of
human institutions cannot justify the notion that religious
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 327
forms would adapt themselves without effort to the new
demands of science. Without a struggle for existence be-
tween the old and the new, in the persons of the champions
of each, how could the new gain a permanent foothold ?
But before there can be a struggle for existence, that which
is to struggle must exist. And how could a new creed or
litany or hymn or order of religious service enter into com-
petition with the old, unless first some one had thought it
out and written it down and published it and defied public
opinion to the extent of using it at religious meetings of
those who beheved it better and truer than the old ?
Fully illustrative of this attitude of waiting for some
other to do what needs now to be done in liturgy is the follow-
ing passage from Lord Morley's volume entitled " On Com-
promise" (which, let me say, has not been without its
influence as one of the causes of this book) : —
The tendency of modern free-thought [said John Morley,
writing in 1877] is more and more visibly towards the extrac-
tion of the first and more permanent elements of the old faith,
to make the purified material of the new. When Dr. Congreve
met the famous epigram about Comte's system being Catholi-
cism minus Christianity, by the reply that it is Catholicism plus
Science, he gave an ingenious expression to the direction which
is almost certainly taken by all who attempt, in however in-
formal a manner, to construct for themselves some working
system of faith, in place of the faith which science and criticism
have sapped. In what ultimate form, acceptable to great mul-
titudes of men, these attempts will at last issue, no one can now
tell. For we, like the Hebrews of old, shall all have to live and
die in faith, " not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar ofi, and being persuaded of them, and embracing
them, and confessing that we are strangers and pilgrims on the
earth." Meanwhile, after the first great glow and passion of the
Just and necessary revolt of reason against superstition have
slowly lost the exciting splendour of the dawn, and become
diffused in the colourless space of a rather bleak noonday, the
328 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
mind gradually collects again some of the ideas of the old
religion of the West, and willingly, or even joyiully, suffers itself
to be once more breathed upon by something of its spirit.
Christianity was the last great reUgious synthesis. It is the
one nearest to us. Nothing is more natural than that those
who cannot rest content with intellectual analysis, while await-
ing the advent of the St. Paul of the humanitarian faith of the
future, should gather up provisionally such fragmentary illus-
trations of this new faith as are to be found in the records of the
old. Whatever form may be ultimately imposed on our vague
religious aspirations by some prophet to come, who shall unite
sublime depth of feeling and lofty purity of Ufe with strong
intellectual grasp and the gift of a noble eloquence, we may at
least be sm-e of this, that it will stand as closely related to Chris-
tianity as Christianity stood closely related to the old Judaic
dispensation.
By following the hint contained in Dr. Congreve's
formula for Positivism, the reKgion advocated in this
book might be described as Christianity plus Science plus
Social Democracy. The task of one who would compile
church services in harmony with such a formula would,
if he had but the destructive and constructive imagination,
be simple enough : to strike out of existing forms every-
thing that offends against social democracy and against
science, and to add aU that is necessary in order to instruct
and inspire the public mind with the spirit and method,
the ideal and goal, of knowledge devoted to social service.
But we dare not wait for the genius who is equal to the
imaginative destruction and construction that are needed.
We must prepare for his coming. The discoveries and
inventions of the greatest minds always have foundation
in the thousands of minor contributions, half-successes
and experiments that failed, but taught avoidance of the
same mistake. It is not only "natural," it is necessary,
that we should gather up the illustrations of the new faith
to be found in the old. In so doing, we are not simply
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 329
beating time while awaiting the advent of the St. Paul
of the humanitarian faith of the future ; we are actually
securing his coming and preventing its indefinite post-
ponement.
One would have thought that since Lord Morley pub-
Ushed " On Compromise " countless experiments along the
line of concreting Dr. Congreve's formula would have
been made ; and that now we should have the results to
profit by. But nothing has been done, except what Dr.
Congreve himself did; and the general tone seems more
timid than ever.
It is probable also that Dr. Congreve's attempt at adapt-
ing old forms to the new idea of faith in Humanity has
injured rather than advanced his cause. He started from
the wrong motive. He confesses his object in adaptation
to be to make his own expression in its form continuous
with the religious worship of the Christian churches.
But this is a vitiating aim. The one object should have
been to make his own expression adequate to its own idea,
and not to borrow simply because it is desirable to preserve
an outward semblance of similarity. If there is to be
borrowing, it must be wholly because the thing appro-
priated is in itself the best possible material. If outward
similarity, without being sought for, happens to be pre-
served, well and good. But the slightest suspicion that
the similarity is only outward and not due to inward
identity is fatal.
6. Ancient Forms were New Once!
The general attitude towards the making of hturgies,
even on the part of persons most in sympathy with hu-
manistic religion, is well exemplified by one distinguished
writer of our immediate present, who has pubHshed this
curious betrayal of halting between two opinions : "A
330 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ritual," he says, "cannot be invented; antiquity appears
to be of the essence of its power — though, to be sure,
rituals must have had a beginning ! — and, as experiment
shows, it is difficult to take seriously any new attempt in
this direction." If rituals had a beginning, to the starters
of them they must have been most powerful. There was
no antiquity hallowing the custom of those who in memory
of Christ first broke bread and drank wine. And yet how
thrilling, how overpowering, must have been this new
experiment in ideal communion ! Antiquity is not of the
essence of ritual. On the contrary, old rituals keep them-
selves aHve and quicken us in spite of their antiquity.
And it is only because we lack courage and creative origi-
nahty of faith that we halt. Rehgion is monopolized
to-day by vested interests, which spread it abroad against
us if we attempt to bring up the form to the living faith.
We are tasteless innovators, it is reported — vulgar non-
conformists.
"Though, to be sure, rituals must have had a begin-
ning," yet undoubtedly experiment shows that it is difficult
to take seriously any new attempt in this direction. No-
body that was anybody took seriously — at least, not
for several centuries — that breaking of bread in memory
of Jesus. Evidently it began in a circle so removed from
the refinement and power of the worshippers of antiquity
as never to have heard that the experiment was ludicrous.
Beneficent crudity ! Yet let us again forget the periods
of timid conformity; let us again drink of the spirit of
prophecy ; let us save what is worth saving in Christianity
and the churches, by keeping everything that is consistent
with science and true to the vision of social democracy
and discarding the rest.
As I am devoted to the purpose and spirit of the Hebrew
prophets and Christian Apostles, and convinced that a
transference of religious faith from superhuman to human
TUJfi UKOWTH OF LITURGIES 33 1
agencies does not touch the essential message of the Bible
and the Church, I have dared to think of myself in pub-
lishing this plea for revision as in a line of Church-reforming
successors to Cranmer, the arch-appropriator and adapter
of ancient forms to new meanings. I would fain hasten
that Reformation of the Reformation which Milton
prophesied.
I have said that if I do not believe in waiting for the
St. Paul of the humanitarian faith, it is because I believe
that we must prepare the work or he will never come.
And I am not without hope that this volume may lead to
experiments in revision and to original forms. The chief
glory of each output of such successive efforts will be that
it helps to bring forth that which will deserve to supersede
it. I anticipate that men of the highest ability — poets
lyric and dramatic, patriot-musicians like Wagner, states-
men who are also orators and prophets, men of more than
Renaissance versatility — will some day create a form of
pubHc worship which for music, eloquence, and action, for
closeness to experience, depth of meaning, scope of vision,
elevation of sentiment, and reach of purpose will transcend
any art that the world as yet has known.
The preparation must consist in creating a demand for
church services which only great literary and rehgious
geniuses can produce. We are apt to overlook the fact
that men of original and constructive mind in any age
bring forth works of art after whatever kind the pubhc
opinion of that age effectively demands. The EKzabethan
era required simply the patching up of the Roman Catholic
Hturgies in the spirit of cautious compromise. No wonder,
then, that the poets, like Spenser and Shakespeare, and the
thinkers and masters of prose, like Richard Hooker and
Francis Bacon, did not bestow their gifts upon the Church's
forms. The hasty and shrewd adaptations and revisions
of Cranmer were enough for the English nation in her new
332 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
self-consciousness as a Chiirch. But is it inconceivable
that Shakespeare and the rest of his kind would have re-
sponded to her call, had she but called ?
7. The Poets Called
Let the present-day situation in all its realism be kept
clearly in mind. By an effective demand is meant not
merely one that honours the poet with wreaths of bay,
but one that secures him a better livelihood than he can
win by turning his genius to any other application of his
art. Men of genius rightly are drawn to that domain
where they can find most honour, most recognition, the
greatest leisure, the fullest trust, the completes! command
of all the materials needed and the ■vridest scope for the
realization of ideas and the manifestation of their creative
power. Constructive artists do not defy and stem the
main currents of their age. On the contrary, they are
most sensitive to the drift. What they think and feel and
do is an index of the newest life and impulse of the times.
And the test of the times is the effective demand which
they make upon the artist.
Those, therefore, who have not the poet's nor musician's
nor dramatist's gift may at least help to create an active
public opinion. It is a lamentable characteristic of our
age that the new faith seems to lack understanding of the
means towards the realization of its great end. In striking
contrast to its impracticality is the efficient grip of con-
servative reHgionists upon means for bolstering up obsolete
doctrines and symbols. Illustrative of the whole question
here under consideration was the remark of a famous
designer of stained-glass windows : he was a man scien-
tifically trained and imaginative, in sympathy with all the
newer ideals of the people ; yet the best years of his life
were spent in designing and painting for church windows
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES 333
illustrations of the cosmogony of the first chapters of
Genesis, of the conceptions of angels found in Ezekiel,
and of the New Testament miracles — in no one of which
he believed. When asked how he could lavish beauty
upon and thus perpetuate ideas which he coimted false
and pernicious, he replied, "The patrons of my art give me
orders for these things, whereas the believers in the new
ideals send me no orders."
To put it bluntly, we must go straight to the poets of all
sorts and tell them what we want. We should begin with
the great writers of our day. Many of them are eminently
capable of bodying forth in sublime forms the national
ideaHsm of our day. We who demand need not even give
a hint of what it is we want as regards actual structure;
that is the poet's function to discover.
The best writers of our time are all gone astray on lines
infinitely less congenial to their genius than a new liturgy
would be. They could express the aspiration and buoyant
confidence of the rising social democracy, of woman, and
of childhood. I will speak only of British writers, who well
might serve even America. Take the case of that pro-
foundly passionate prophet of the new life, Mr. Israel Zang-
will. His Httle book of poems, entitled " Blind Children,"
exhibits such strength and closeness of phrase as would
smt a Htany. The passion of his poetry is of the ethical
order. Tell him that Christendom, which is still using in
its hturgy the poetic utterances of his spiritual and natural
ancestors, wants the religious genius of Judaism brought up
to date. We need a Temple service which shall be as
native to us as was theirs to the ancient Jews.
Consider for a moment the pathetic waste of Mr. Rudyard
Kiphng's bold imagination and virile tongue. To what end
has he written? To delight us and our children, and to
back British territory-grabbers. Or import Mr. WilHam
Watson, prophet and poet of the higher patriotism. Not
334 THE SOUIT^OF AMERICA
one in a thousand of his contemporaries is familiar with
the majestic rhythm of his Hnes. Besides Mr. William
Watson, democratic America should call to herself Mr.
Edward Carpenter, in order that labour might cease to be
only a groan and not a voice — that the churches might
again articulate the people's need and guide their hope.
And what might we not do with Mr. Shaw ? Why not
retain him, the humanist, as sensitive as St. Francis him-
self to the sufferings of the poor and of dumb brutes, as chiv-
alrous as any knight of the Round Table, as candid as truth
itself, and yet possessing the supreme grace of hiunour and
that practical skill of stage-craft which is indispensable to
the deviser of rituals ? Why should his great gift of drama-
tic presentation not be utilized by the churches, as the princi-
ples of moral pedagogy require, for the storming of the senses
of the people in the interests of the Soul of the nation ?
And as England fails to do so, why should not America
simunon the musical genius of Sir Edward Elgar ? To think
that England's one really great and internationally renowned
inventor of harmonies should have been setting to music that
ghastly offspring of scholasticism, bom five himdred years
after due time. Cardinal Newman's " Dream of Gerontius " !
Sir Edward Elgar should have been retained by England to
transform into convincing melody the dream of England's
women, her children, and her poor.
8. The Humanists in Religion
What is needed within the churches is an ethical-demo-
cratic party, which shall look to the interests of the new
idealism. Indeed, such a party has already sprung up in
every denomination and is making steady advance. It is
taking up the point of view of the Humanists of the sixteenth
century. It is continiung the work of Sir Thomas More
and Erasmus, who sided neither with Luther nor with the
THE GROWTH OF LITURGIES
335
conservative party of Rome, but on the principle of Catho-
licism plus what was the Science of their day would have
transformed the Roman organization and rites. The
modernists are humanists of the twentieth century. The
specific work of this party must consist in constructing
reUgious services adequate to the science and the spiritual
needs of the present day, in experimenting in the actual
conducting of such services in reUgious assembUngs, and
thus educating the public and winning converts to their
party. Thus would be ushered in an era when all the dif-
ferent tendencies of faith would be equally recognized.
Side by side, rival forms could be practised and each group
of worshippers could choose those commended of its own
judgment. There would be no need to suppress any inno-
cent forms which satisfied pecuharities and even eccentri-
cities of temperament and intellect. Such would be the
ideal method of rehgious evolution; and such, there is
reason to hope, wiU be the actual process, now that America
for half a century has been disciplined to the idea of ex-
periment and of deference to the spiritual individuality of
others.
It is wholly inconsistent with the policy of the humanist
party to wish to introduce uniformity by compromise or
by terrorizing either a minority or a majority. Humanism
as a religious policy can adopt no other method than tenta-
tive adaptation ; there will be no need to clamour or wrangle
or resort to the subterfuges of a cimning opportunism.
CHAPTER XVm
PREJUDICES AGAINST RELIGIOUS FORMS
I. Familiar Acquaintance Needed
As this volume is, in one aspect, an invitation to the
public to give impartial consideration to the claims of
church services which would be new in their object and
inward meaning and partly new in outward shape, it may
not be superfluous to indicate what the conditions are
which enable a person to judge competently of any rehgious
form.
If a person has been accustomed to the elaborate cere-
monies of the- High Church and has derived his spiritual
strength through them, he will be astonished, upon his
attending a Quaker meeting for the first time, that human
beings, apparently of like susceptibihties with his own, could
sit speechless and motionless with others for ten, fifteen, or
thirty minutes together. But upon reflection it becomes
perfectly evident that no one attending a Quaker meet-
ing for the first time can be a competent judge. Its effects
upon him are exceptional, and are the opposite of those
produced upon the minds of Quakers themselves or of per-
sons who have in some period of their Hfe grown famihar
with the meaning of its massive silences and its impremedi-
tated outbursts of speech. Here are two opposite effects
produced by the same form. That upon those habituated
to it is peace, love, clearer insight, new power of self-control
and of self-sacrifice : that upon the stranger is a feeling
almost of repulsion. The silence to the stranger is empty,
the motionlessness stupefying. The speeches and prayers
336
PREJUDICES AGAINST RELIGIOUS FORMS 337
bear none of that majestic poetry and manifest none of
that mental vision which he has been wont to consider as
the distinctive mark of utterances inspired by the Most
High. Of these opposite effects, it is clear that the one
which should be accounted the standard is that made upon
the mind of the person who is familiar with the form.
The first rule, then, to which the judge of a new liturgy
must submit is that he make himself intimately familiar
with it and suspend judgment until he has done so. I set
forth this rule of criticism not only in order that my readers
shall discount the prejudices which they might feel towards
forms of the kind which I propose; my chief motive for
calHng attention to this first canon of criticism is that per-
sons who are wholly in sympathy with the fundamental
ideas of what I call ethical refigion should prepare them-
selves to become appreciative and constructive critics of
Roman Catholic rites, of the High Church liturgy, of the
forms of service prevalent in all the Protestant churches, and
even of the ritual of the Greek Church. The St. Paul-that-
is-to-be of the humanitarian faith must know all things
that work effectively upon all men and be willing to in-
troduce every invention that shall foster spiritual energy.
To prepare oneself for scientific and democratic revision,
one must study even priestly and occult rituals s3Tnpa-
thetically, psychologically, and sociologically. Whatever
power for good or evil such forms have had, it was due to
elements within them which were purely natural in their
operation. But these elements cannot be judged justly if
they stni awaken a feeling of revulsion due to strangeness-.
One who has studied them long enough to be rid of the
sense of novelty wiU also find that he will have outgrown
that well-nigh universal prejudice which shrinks from re-
introducing in new connections any music or ceremonial
act or object that has been associated with supernaturalistic
ideas. A man may test his unfitness to judge of religious
338 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
services by the degree to which he shrinks from forms the
ideas of which he has discarded. It is an error to transfer
the dislike for a principle to the outward form through
which that principle has been able to propagate itself.
For that same form may be the best means also for the
transmission of the opposite idea. The shrinking from the
unfamiliar prevents our widening our acquaintanceship
with rehgious expressions and recognizing the possibiHties
of utiKzing those expressions for the communication of our
own living faith. I am not sure but that it is more im-
portant for a man to gain an expert knowledge of the cere-
monies of other religions than to become an authority in
regard to his own. If ever a ceremony arises so beautiful
and full of meaning as to commend itself to the judgment
of the nation as a whole, it will spring out of the labours and
insight of men who count all the forms of all the religions
of the world as new material to be used and transformed
to the needs of the nation.
2. The Effect on the Believer
The second rule for judging any religious service is that
no one should attempt to do so by its effects upon himself,
unless he beUeves in the truth of the idea which it embodies.
A form incorporating a thought which we beHeve to be
false seems Hke mummery unless for the time being we
force ourselves to forget our own convictions. It must be
remembered, however, that what is objectionable is not
the form, as such, but the idea, false to us, which we see
exercising over others what we beheve to be a deplorable
influence. The attack, therefore, in such a case, should
never be upon the form. By sweeping that away one would
not dry up the evil at its source. Those Protestants err
who assail the forms instead of the substance of the Roman
Cathphc Church and deplore any approximation to them
PREJUDICES AGAINST RELIGIOUS FORMS 330
on the part of the Episcopal communion. If the ideas
which animate Episcopal forms are the same as those which
have found concrete embodiment in the Roman ritual,
the attack should be directed against the ideas, not against
the ceremonies.
In short, nothing in a ritual which to us is absurd, be-
cause the idea which it embodies is absurd, should be
counted as an objection to the ritual itself. A ritual is
a means towards an end. The end is that a certain idea,
which is in the mind of some persons, should be communi-
cated powerfully to the minds of other persons. But no
evil inherent in the idea should be blamed against the
medium which has been able to convey it. We must not
complain of the ceremony of the Mass in the Roman Catho-
lic Church if it succeeds in creating in the minds of the wor-
shippers an overpowering sense of the immediate presence
of the living spirit of Jesus Christ in the consecrated ele-
ments ; for that is the very idea which the Mass was meant
to convey. If we suppress the Mass, we must remember
that we are overthrowing only the means by which the
idea was communicated, and not the idea itself, which may
still live in the minds of the Catholic priesthood.
Instead of attacking a symbol of an idea we hate, we
ought, on the contrary, to feel towards it as the Govern-
ment of one nation might towards some new device for
mihtary or naval defence which another nation had dis-
covered and failed to keep secret. In spiritual warfare it
is justifiable to rejoice when one is able to steal an enemy's
giuipowder. Every symbol of every doctrine I abhor shall
teach me how to convey the doctrine I love. In judging
of my spiritual enemy's symbol, therefore, I must not be
biassed by the fact that for me it is mere mummery, or
worse.
340 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
3. The Value of the Thing Symbolized
A third canon which should be borne in mind is that no
symbol should be judged by its e£fect upon us, even though
we be famihar with it and though we count its teaching
to be true, provided the truth it conveys is in our opinion
of very Kttle worth in the relative scale of hiiman values.
No form which conveys a truth to us insignificant can
impress us. It leaves a sense of insipidity; and yet the
form, both bodily act and words, may be quite perfect as
symbols. A philosophic agnostic or rationaUst, if he finds
himseK more intensely bored by the forms of the Episcopal
Church than by the services of other Protestant bodies,
ought to remember that this effect upon him is due to the
greater efficiency of the more finely finished forms. They
more powerfully convey to his mind the doctrines which he
hates than do the less Kterary and classic rites. We must put
ourselves by force of sympathetic imagination in the position
of the devout and enthusiastic worshipper. When we have
done this, we are able to detect just how much of the effect
of the reUgion we are studying is to be traced to the idea
itself and how much to the ceremonies in which it is em-
bodied. We then are also able to detect what elements
in these are capable of complete detachment from the
special ideas which they serve and can be appropriated by
a rehgion which wholly discards trust in superhuman
agencies as the source of moral inspiration.
4. Minor Cautions
Another rule which will aid towards an impartial judg-
ment of any rehgious rite is to bear in mind that it is not
essential to any ritual that it should be repeated every day or
twice every Sunday, or even once a week or once a month.
Unhappily, the churches of our day which depend most
PREJUDICES AGAINST RELIGIOUS FORMS 341
upon liturgy iterate and reiterate the same forms ad nau-
seam. Many, even, who devoutly believe the ideas con-
veyed, find the reiteration intolerable. This satiety from
too frequent hearing and seeing of the same forms accounts
for a very large part of the prevalent dishke of ritual ; and
yet that dislike is purely accidental. If the Episcopal
Church should adopt quite different forms for morning
and evening service for every day in the year, varying the
order and presenting different aspects of its great teach-
ings, it might be able to draw all Protestantism into one
fold, and help persons who have outgrown supernaturalism
to see the possibiUties of using ritual in the interests of
national idealism.
In lieu of any such introduction of infinite and dehght-
ful variety into the services of the Episcopal Church, it
would be well if those intelligently interested in the reli-
gious Uf e of the nation would remember that the monotony
attributed to ritual to-day is wholly extraneous to its es-
sential nature, and that the ritual of the future may reflect
the exhaustless fulness of life itself, and thus meet that
intellectual need which psychologists call the law of variety.
Another caution may here be in place. A religious
ritual may leave us apathetic, not because of any defect
in itself as art or because of any falsehood or insignifi-
cance in its idea, but because it goes counter to some
self-interest which we are unwilling to sacrifice to the in-
terests of humanity at large. Our judgment may tell us
that the idea conveyed is true and good and that the means
by which it is conveyed are beautiful; and yet we may
on this account be alarmed. Were the idea, by means of
the symbol, to penetrate into our inmost self, we should be
compelled to let go some treasure which we clutch. Let
us imagine a person quite prepared in all other ways to
appreciate the fines from George Eliot's "Spanish Gypsy,"
which I would suggest as an appropriate utterance for the
342 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
opening of a confirmation rite when the churches have be-
come humanistic :
Ours is a faith
Taught by no priest, but by our beating hearts :
Faith to each other ; the fideHty
Of men whose pulses leap with kindred fire,
Who in the flash of eyes, the clasp of hands,
Nay, in the silent bodily presence, feel
The mystic stirrings of a common life
Which makes the many one.
The truth and beauty of these words may be felt to be un-
impeachable ; but on that account they may be hateful to
a person who, despite his better nature, loathes "the great
unwashed." Liberty, equahty, and fraternity are aU very
well in the abstract and as a watchword of a pohtical party ;
but fraternity in a church's rite of admission to member-
ship, committing every one to social recognition of the
crowd who make up the congregation, might be exacting
too great a sacrifice of many a refined, exclusive soul.
Another prejudice inevitably confronts one who asks
the pubhc to sanction democratic and modernist innova-
tions in church services. A critic hearing a new ritual
imperfectly rendered should discount the imperfections of
the rendering and not attribute to the special form offences
attributable to defects of execution. An exquisite poem
or magnificent prose utterance may be so stammeringly
spoken as to make it impossible for the Ustener to realize
the beauty or the moral dignity of the composition or the
possibility of its being impressively rendered. A certain
degree of skill must be evinced before even a fair jury would
be able to pronounce a just judgment. What is true of
mere elocution is to a greater degree the case in regard to
instrumental and vocal music. The general pubHc never
discriminates between bad music and a bad rendering of
good music ; but a critic of unfamiliar forms of public
PREJUDICES AGAINST RELIGIOUS FORMS 343
worship can train himself to detect when the rendering
is the cause of ofEence.
The old-established forms possess an enormous advan-
tage over new and democratic symbols. They command
the best music, the finest architecture, and all other acces-
sories. The further one goes from the churches where the
aristocratic and wealthy worship, the more one finds not
only ideas which would offend their preconceptions, but
also forms and renderings of forms which would outrage
their standards. The classes most cultivated aesthetically
have nevertheless not had enough intellectual training to
be self-critical ; they attribute to the new forms and ideas
offence due merely to crudities of execution, which maybe
owing to the poverty of believers in the new ideas.
Still another caution must be given for the guidance of
the critic of new reHgious forms and proposed revisions of
old. Ritual, Hke the drama, can only be judged when it
is witnessed in actual execution. The items of the rite
and the directions for production when merely read in a
book will not disclose their possibiHties even to an expert.
It is a commonplace of experience that imtil a drama is
actually performed nobody can tell how it will "take."
The dramatist himself does not know. Actors and stage-
managers are proverbially Uable to erroneous judgment.
They reject pieces which prove afterwards the greatest
successes, and expend vast sums of money on the perform-
ance of plays which fail utterly.
There is no occasion for us to enter into the essential
differences of a Hterary composition when read in a book
and when recited in a church. But the difference is as-
tonishingly great. A religious rite in the pages of a book is
to its actual celebration very much as a corpse to a Hving
body. A sentence or a ritualistic sign takes on new and
unexpected vitaHty the moment it is uttered or enacted
before a pubHc assembly convened for that purpose.
CHAPTER XIX
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP
It would not be diflBtcult to prove, both historically and
analytically, that where there is no ceremonial there is
no religion.
I. Historical
The historical proof lies in the fact, disclosed by thorough
research, that every nation or race known to us as holding
reHgious ideas possesses some form, however rudimentary,
of ceremonial. In the main, with the complexity of the
ideas, the rites develop ; although there may be coimteract-
ing tendencies which prevent the same pace in each. It is
generally thought that as a religion grows more spiritual
it loses in ceremonial complexity, and that the inwardness
of one's ideas of God naturally militates against outward
forms ; but even this is found not to be the case if we take
a psychological and, so to speak, physiological, and not
merely a spectacular, view of ceremony. The case of the
Society of Friends is one in point. Superficially and out-
wardly it woidd seem that persons who sit motionless in a
meeting for an hour together, and dress with severe sim-
pHcity, are anti-rituaHsts, and disprove once for all the
dictum that where there is no ceremonial there is no re-
ligion. But first let us remember that sjmibolical dress is
the most striking element in the furniture of even spec-
tacular ritual. Further, in proportion as Quakers have
discarded their peculiar garb, they have generally discarded
their pecuHar tenets. But, quite apart from the question
of dress, for a number of persons to sit silently together is
344
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 345
the most dramatic and eloquent ceremonial ever invented.
Physiologically, also, there is no action involving more self-
control, more domination of every nerve and muscle, than
motionlessness. Think of the tongue, with its proneness to
move when the mind is bursting with ideas to be commu-
nicated. Think of the eye that so easily wanders ; of the
ear soHcited by every stray sound. Consider, again, the
tremendous physiological self-consciousness developed by
the silent presence of others, unless one is dominated by an
overpowering idealism. We need only to peep beneath the
surface of things to see that here is action — and action that
requires not only an almost hypnotic control of a whole
assembly by a single thought, but also action which pro-
duces upon every onlooker a most powerful impression of
the reality of the thing signified.
Again, to some persons the fact that rehgion is a function
of ceremonial, and vice versa, is obscured by the aesthetic
meagreness of many ceremonials of which the underlying
reHgious conviction is highly intellectual and inward.
There is a tendency to imagine that rites which are not
aesthetic are not ceremonial, and that an absence of the
fine arts proves an absence of ritual. This, however, is
utterly a mistake. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper
has not in and of itself any aesthetic element ; or, if it has,
it is only what is borrowed from the general social grace
and manners of the persons who communicate. It is quite
possible that many among the humble folk who entered
the Christian movement at the start, because it was a
burial and sick-benefit society, partook of the Lord's Supper
in a manner not more graceful and charming outwardly
than they ate any other meal. Likewise it is difficult to
see very striking aesthetic elements or any elaboration of
the various fine arts in the rite of immersion. If there
were anything beautiful in the ceremony, it could only
be something quite accidental — as that the Church ofii-
346 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
cial performing it happened to be graceful in the movements
of his body and well developed in physique. Even then,
however, it is hard to imagine that men with their clothes
dripping with water would conform to our notions of beauty
in drapery. Likewise the dripping face and streaming
hair must be such as at least no ordinary person would
count aesthetically attractive compared with the face when
dry.
What is true of the Lord's Supper and baptism from an
aesthetic point of view holds equally of the details of aU
the essential features of the Catholic ceremonial. The
making of the sign of the Cross has nothing in itself of
the beautiful ; nor has the elevation of the host ; nor have
the forms of the marriage rite and of burial. It is alto-
gether a mistake, then, to identify ritual even in its most
elaborate forms with the fine arts, and then to argue from
an absence of the latter that the former is not present.
Even if we confine ourselves to the elaborate services of
the Roman CathoHc Church on Sundays and the great
festival days, of the splendour of which one hears much,
we must admit that the ritual proper, except in colour, is not
splendid. There is nothing especially beautiful in a man's
kneehng many times, in the bowings of others before him,
in his muttering of the words of a book, in his turnings
about, and in the changes made in dress.
Probably the right relation between the fine arts and
ritual is that suggested by a passage in Mr. Dearmer's
"Parson's Handbook," where he says that many persons are
kept away from the Anglican Church on account of its bad
music, and for this reason he pleads that the music shall
be good. This suggestion is sound, both religiously and
psychologically. In a community accustomed to music of a
high class you must either have none at all in your public
worship or a kind which will not give offence. If robes
are to be worn, they must harmonize in colour, shape, and
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 347
quaKty of fabric with the community's feelings of the ap-
propriateness of all these to the occasion. We thus dis-
cover the whole principle of the relation of the fine arts
to ritual. If the ceremony is to be in a building, that build-
ing must meet the requirements of the people architec-
turally. But whether the costumes and the building are
really aesthetic or not is wholly beside the mark. The one
question is, Do they keep any one away on accoimt of
their ugUness ?
Perhaps the proposition that where there is no cere-
monial there is no religion should be taken as true not of
an individual human being, but of a nation ; and not of a
nation at any one instant, but throughout its history. It
is possible that after generations of ritual, religion without
the visible signs might continue to Hve. It is certainly
possible that in a community where various religious rites
are regularly practised by various groups of worshippers,
many individual persons who never participate in these
rites may be most devoutly reHgious. In such a case,
however, it may be questioned whether such persons do
not constantly have the fundamental problems and senti-
ments of religion thrust upon their attention by the very
ceremonials which they themselves abstain from witnessing
and perhaps regard with loathing. The credit, therefore,
for the religion even of those who have no ritual must in
such cases be assigned to ritual.
After these explanations, it is probable that no one will
contend against the general proposition that in a nation
where there is no ceremonial there can be no religion.
2. Analytical
Philosophically, the case stands thus : Religious ceremony
is in its very nature sacramental, if we take the Prayer
Book's definition of a sacrament as an outward and visible
348 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
sign of an inward and spiritual grace. A ceremony which
did not signify an inward and spiritual grace, and which
was not thought, at least by the devotees themselves of
the cult, to be necessary to the conveyance of the grace,
would never have been adopted. A man might possibly,
on philosophical and ethical grounds, reject every sacra-
ment as unnecessary and even pernicious. Still he could
not deny that those who did practise a religious rite be-
lieved in the necessity for it, and therefore, under the domi-
nation of this belief, positively needed it.
But why is a sign necessary? Or rather, what is the
nature of the inward and spiritual grace which reqmres a
vehicle ? If, again, we take the point of view not of the
individual alone, but of the community or the nation, we
shall easily be convinced that every spiritual grace is de-
pendent upon an outward sign. If such a grace is some-
thing that is communicated from the heart and will of one
person to the heart and will of another, through their con-
scious intelHgence,it becomes almost self-evident to anybody
who knows human Hfe, that there could be no communi-
cation of it without a sign as a symbol of the thought of the
one understood by both. The whole of language is nothing
but a system of signs, and at bottom every communication
of an idea from one person to another, if that idea be true
or be felt by both to be true, partakes of the nature of a
sacrament. AVhat is the conveying of an inspiring thought
from one to another by an outward and visible sign but an
instance of the very thing which the Church of England
declares to be a sacrament? One may readily concede
that the word sacrament does not apply unless the grace
communicated is some religious principle or virtue. But
then one cannot deny that reUgious ceremonial is only a
specific variety of a whole genus of rituals, which, in pro-
portion as the matters with which they deal are sacred, are
sacraments. Any word which is the exclusive sign of a
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 349
special meaning is essential to the conveyance of that
meaning to another. Words, however, constitute only one
system of signs. Gestures make up another, dress another,
styles of architecture another.
We cannot xmderstand the philosophy of ceremonial in
reUgion unless we understand its use, and the necessity for
it, in other domains of human interest. There is very
much in himian life which is ritualistic, yet which we fail
to recognize as such. Every act, in so far as it is an arbi-
trary sign of something in the mind of him who performs
it, by which he is able to communicate that mental some-
thing to the mind of another, is an act of ritual. Persons,
therefore, who disapprove of religious ceremony on the
ground that ritual altogether is an absurdity and without
foimdation in practical necessity, must be ready to sweep
it away from its other domains as well. Let a man strip
from human manners all that is not an immediate ne-
cessity of direct satisfaction, and he will begin to reaHze
that, whether the similar statement be true of religion or
not, it is Uterally a fact that where there is no ceremonial,
there are no maimers. If there were no acts agreed upon
arbitrarily by the community and performed as signs of
deference, of respect, of cordiality, of trust, of affection,
of acquaintanceship, of being strangers, to what a state of
barren crudity and isolation should we be reduced !
In another volume I remind my readers that some sort
of a sign of entrance into a church, a physical act under-
stood to indicate the mental act, must be submitted to,
else it is inconceivable that a church could ever acquire
new voluntary members. Of course a church might
count itself synonymous with the nation, and say that
every person bom on the soil of the nation was a member.
But then it becomes quite clear that the necessity of a
sign has not been done away with. The sign ceases to be
a volimtary act, but the fact of being bom within the
350 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
geographical area of the nation becomes itself the symbol ;
and, as it is an event not within the arbitrary will of the
individual, such a church thereby ceases to receive volimtary
members. Here, accordingly, the necessity for arbitrary
signs is confirmed instead of being disproved.
In business Kfe ritual is as important and prominent as
it is in religion. Constantly the commercial community
must by common consent seize upon some one act or cir-
cumstance which is to serve no longer in its ordinary and
natural capacity alone, but as an arbitrary sign which, once
chosen, possesses almost a magical power. What a differ-
ence between the spoken word of an agreement and the
signature to a written document ! The difference is not
in the natural inferiority of the word or in a lack of honour
on the part of the man who feels at liberty to break his
word. The difference between the spoken word and the
signature is that the community has never stamped the
spoken word as the legal sign committing the speaker. If
once the word spoken in the presence of others were to be
made the sign, one would find that the sense of inviolabihty
now attaching to the signature would be transferred to the
verbal symbol. In escaping from religion, one has not
escaped from ritual. One has only escaped from the word ;
and quite possibly it is that in religion, and not the thing,
which gives offence to many.
Ritual as a social phenomenon is extremely complex.
For instance, I have been speaking of acts chosen arbi-
trarily as signs of some inward and spiritual grace. Now
if a totally new set of acts that had no meaning otherwise
were chosen, the case of ritual would be comparatively
simple. But nearly always an act serves in a double ca-
pacity, both as an arbitrary sign and as an actual direct
benefit to oneself or another. For instance, to drink a
glass of wine may be a direct service or disservice to one-
self. This would be quite enough to insure the practice
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 351
or condemnation of it. Yet it is just such an act as drink-
ing a glass of wine which is seized upon and made to do
duty in another capacity. If you drink in the company
of others, it may be taken as a symbol of friendship, of
fellowship. To refuse to perform the act in this way may
be the grossest insult. To perform it with certain persons
may be the occasion of losing caste with others, and may
act as a signal for a social boycott.
It requires considerable alertness and acuteness in watch-
ing one's conduct throughout a single day to discover how
many acts, which one does as if they were of direct ex-
pediency, serve also in the capacity of symbols. Unlike
the Hfting of the hat, the shaking of hands, the formal
greetings with friends, which are purely sjonbohcal acts,
nearly everything we do is just as much serviceable as it is
ritualistic. The ritual nature of these acts which have
another import is one which we are prone to forget entirely
in the ordinary course of life.
3. The Symbolism of Dress
Take, for instance, the kind of clothes we wear. How
few of us fully realize that the distinction between the con-
ventional dress of men and women is a matter of ritual.
It would be almost impossible to detect at a distance
whether most human beings of the age of forty were men
or women if they were dressed alike, if the men were shaved,
and the manner of wearing the hair were the same. Be-
cause of this possible confusion it is that the law makes it
a criminal offence for men to wear women's clothes or women
men's. It is here, however, wholly a question of ritual.
The woman's dress, besides serving as a convenience and a
decency, serves as a sign to announce that she is a woman. So
of a man's dress. This difference, however, is no more strik-
ing than that in the costume of different classes of society.
352 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
We are so accustomed to wear clothes which imme-
diately declare the class we belong to, that we do not
realize the effects that would come were we suddenly to
don the style of dress of people of another station. Only
when we imaginatively picture the consequences do we
realize the deep psychological hold which the signs have
upon the mind of the community and upon our own habits.
No people who are not working-men dress hke them ; which
means, not that the dress of the day-labourer is inconvenient
or not beautiful or is necessarily untidy, but simply that
any man above the working-class would almost as lief die
as be identified by the commimity with those who are dis-
inherited from aU the greatest privileges of humanity. He
might also shrink from the suspicion of insanity which would
be hurled at him if people, knowing him to be rich, saw him
in the garb of a day-labourer. It is equally true that the
moment people of the working-class, by any accident of
fortune, become rich, they instantly assimie the dress of the
classes of society above the working-class ; not primarily
because that dress is aesthetically or hygienically preferable,
but because it stands as a symbol for social position and the
command of power and opportunity.
When certain classes of persons wear distinctive imi-
form, it becomes more immediately evident that their
clothes are not only for convenience and decency, but that
the pecuHar colour or shape or ornamentation is a sign of
their social position or function. Yet it seems so natural
that the postman, the soldier, the sailor, and the profes-
sional nurse should wear uniforms that we easily forget
that it is only by making the dress arbitrarily a sign of
something with which it has no inherent connection that
we are able instantly to recognize in the distance the post-
man, the soldier, sailor, and nurse as such. What a mar-
vellously efficient system of communicating a knowledge
of such invisible yet powerful realities as social fimction
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 353
and position through the eye ! How terribly cruel was
the use made of the ritual of dress in the case of the Jews
in the Ghetto ! How horrible it is in the present custom
of a prison garb and a poorhouse uniform ! But all these
cases prove at least the universal secular recognition of
outward and visible signs for organic social functions and
relations. .It is then a Httle strange that persons who
accept, for ins-tance, as altogether suitable the costume for
the nurse or the uniform for the postman should speak
with contempt of a distinctive garb for priests. Logically
and practically the transference of one's contempt from
the priest to the dress he wears is altogether im justifiable.
For his office would be just as contemptible, if it were con-
temptible, whether he dressed in uniform or not. But the
tremendous efficiency of ritual is proved by this almost
instinctive transference of horror for the inward reaUty to
the outward and visible sign. The only justification for
wishing to remove the priestly garb without abolishing the
priesthood is that you would be removing one powerful
means by which the priesthood announces its existence to
the commimity. Nothing is more striking upon the first
visit of a stranger to Rome than the enormous number of
priests who throng the streets. The impression is created
of the ever-present power of the Church. Strip from the
clothes of the priest the signs of his office and this reminder
of the existence of the Church would vanish instantly. In
Berlin the officers of the army, thanks to the miHtary use
of ritual, are in similar domination over the mind of a
stranger. One never can escape the sense of the haunt-
ing, alert presence of the miHtary power.
So true is it that the unseen fimctions and relationships
of human society are dependent upon systems of arbitrary
signs that one may well say that with the aboHtion of all
the signs would ensue an aimihilation of the functions. If
not only the distinctiveness of his garb, but every other
354 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
arbitrary signal of office of the priest were removed, he
woiild no longer be a priest, in that he could not possibly
be recognized ; and, not being recognized, he would not
be allowed to perform the very rudiments of the priestly
function.
As a part, then, of a general poHcy for aboUshing the
social function of any class it would be justifiable to at-
tempt to forbid their rituahstic dress. But if one's hatred
of the thing signified is to extend to some of the signs by
which it is signified, it ought to extend to them all. If the
object be not to aboKsh the function of a certain class,
but only to repress it, to deprive it of part of its power
and restrict it within narrower limits, then to strip it of
some of its symbols while allowing it the use of others is
justifiable both logically and practically. Undoubtedly
one sees in the relative amount of S3anbolism in the dress of
Roman Catholic priests, AngHcan clergymen, and non-
episcopal preachers an expression of the different degrees
of ascendency of the officials in these three rehgious
communities.
An individualistic philosophy of rehgion, politics, and
economics is the only point of view from which the ritual
of dress can be opposed. And historically it has been op-
posed by anarchistic and anti-sociahstic theorists. It will
be foimd that in proportion as a man's social fimction
and position are counted to be of less significance than his
all-round individuality as a human being and than his
own private Hberty, in that proportion symboUc dress has
been aboHshed. IndividuaHstic rehgious hberty has been the
source of the hatred of the social function of the priest and
preacher and of the churches, and is thus the origin of the
hatred of the official's dress. It is equally the origin of the
aboHtion of imiform generally. The officer of the Enghsh
army is not in uniform except when on duty. He is a
civiHan among civiHans in his everyday hfe in England.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 355
Uniform prevails there to-day only to mark the disgrace of
poverty or crime, or to serve commercially and as a defence
for property or to announce sex. The postman has a vmi-
form because the function of transmitting written com-
munications is considered so important in business that the
postman's individuality is as nothing compared with his
ofl&cial responsibility in delivering letters. Likewise the
policeman is dressed symbolically. The individuality of
the policeman is as nothing compared to his defence of
property. A policeman is ten times a man, and therefore
we dress him as a superman. But what a commentary
upon our modem society that the social function of the
policeman is counted thus infinitely more valuable than
that of the school-teacher ! The authority of the school-
teacher would be enhanced and the work made easy were
he or she, at least in school hours, to wear a teacher's dress.
And this will surely come as we again recognize the intel-
lectual and moral functions of the State.
Carlyle's humorous philosophy of clothes was but a chap-
ter in the philosophy of outward and visible signs of inward
and spiritual graces. Carlyle perhaps exaggerated the sig-
nificance of clothes. We should not be reduced even out-
wardly to a level if all s3mibolic dress were discarded.
Other arbitrary signs would be chosen which would indi-
cate differences of sentiment, prejudice, spiritual power,
origin, ancestry, and what not. Indeed, Carlyle himself
takes clothes but as a tj^e of all forms of symboHsm.
We have seen that there is nothing peculiar to reUgion
as distinct from manners or commerce which makes it
dependent upon ritual, and have found that as an actual
fact maimers and commerce are just as ritualistic as re-
ligion. One may say of commerce, as of the other two :
where there is no ritual, there is no trade. Where there is
no outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual
grace of exchange of ownership of commodities, there is no
3S6 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
exchange. Accordingly, when the Founder of Christianity
insisted upon immersion as a sign for admission to the
Church and upon a common meal as an evidence of loyalty
among members, when he declared that baptism was essen-
tial to salvation, he was doing nothing different from that
which the business man does ; nor were his reasons different.
4. Not Supernaturalistic
When we bear in mind that it is no peculiarity of religion
which makes ceremonial a necessity for it, we see how
false is the generally prevalent notion that the super-
naturalism of religion is what makes the resort to signs
and rites indispensable. It may well be granted that if
the spiritual grace to be communicated is the favour of some
personal agent beyond man and nature who requires formal
homage, then the making of the signs that please him would
become the sine qua non of gaining his favour. But here
again we note that the sign is necessary not because the
agent communicated with is supernatural, but simply be-
cause he is another personal agent, and that a system of
signs must always be set up if one of two persons is to
communicate a knowledge of his inward disposition to the
other.
This statement opens up to us a second phase of the
nature of ritual, suggested in the Prayer-Book definition
by the words "inward and spiritual."
5. The Ethical Meaning of Ritual
The spiritual grace is never merely a general idea im-
related to the persons who communicate or receive it.
There is never simply a sign of a general or a particular
fact, such as a scientific formula might be, or an accoimt of
some event which took place in ancient Athens unrelated
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 357
to the persons by whom and to whom to-day the sign is
made. Always his own will and his own heart are com-
mitted by the person making a rituahstic sign and are
received and accepted by those to whom it is made. Par-
ticipation in an act of ritual is a personal commitment or
pledge, and therefore is an event in the moral and social
history of the participants. The woman who assumes the
r61e of bride in the marriage ceremony is actually thereby
becoming the wife of the man who stands by her side.
She is not simply sjonboUcally illustrating in fantastic man-
ner some general principle of monogamy. She is staking
almost all her chances for happiness in Ufe upon the act
she is performing. The marriage ceremony is infinitely
removed in its nature from a show or a symbolical repre-
sentation of some real event which took place elsewhere.
A great event is always taking place in the Hfe of the per-
sons who are participating in any religious ritual. In a fu-
neral rite, that which is conspicuous for the mourners is
the immediate reality of their bereavement. They have
lost a relative, a friend. The mourning garments are
symbols of an actual state of heart and will. The defer-
ence shown to the dead might be shown in some other
manner, but that other manner must needs be symbohcal.
A man going through the ceremony of taking holy orders
is actually committing himself to a profession. To take
part in the ceremony of becoming an EpiscopaUan clergy-
man while being at heart a Roman CathoUc or an Atheist,
is to commit a deed of unutterable perfidy. The girl who
goes through the ceremony of taking the veil as a nun
is setting her Hfe's destiny on the act. If she does it in-
sincerely, she is wrecking both her character and her hap-
piness. If she is forced into doing it, those instigating
the coercion are committing a heinous crime. The Kttle
child baptized may never afterwards wholly escape from
the moral and social effects of the fact that his parents and
3S8 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
the priest committed him to the Roman Catholic or some
other communion.
In the Hght of this terrible reaUsm, one wonders how the
expressions "mere ceremony," "mere ritual," have come
so generally into use. Who has ever seen such a thing as a
mere ceremony or a mere ritual? For if there were such
a thing as the word "mere" impHes, how could the act be
fraught with far-reaching and unescapable consequences?
There are persons who speak lightly of the marriage cere-
mony, as if it were a mere form and as if it could make no
difference in the duties and responsibiHties and the affection
of the woman towards the man, whether she went through
the marriage ceremony or not. Yet no woman ever defied
this "mere ceremony," who forgot her defiance to the end
of her days. There is no such thing as a mere ceremony
of ritual ; for the moment it ceases to be an indispensable
sign in the eyes of the community, it is not the sign at all.
6. The Difference between Ritual and Acting
Thus we see how absolutely mistaken is the judgment
of those who associate elaborate church services with stage
performances and theatrical displays. There are three
fundamental distinctions which place a world-wide differ-
ence between ritual and drama. In drama the actor only
pretends to be the person he represents. In ritual he
actually is the person. A man who was not a priest, were
he to personate a priest in the performance of the Mass,
would expose himself to being stoned to death by the out-
raged members of the CathoHc communion. And he would
deserve severe punishment. On the other hand, what
could more outrage our sense of human dignity than that
an actual cardinal of the Church of Rome should perso-
nate a cardinal on the stage in a play of Shakespeare's ?
How is it that we have this terrific sense of the incom-
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 359
patibility of ritual and drama, if there be anything essen-
tially akin in the two? It violates every principle of
dramatic art to attempt to attract the public by any kind
of reahsm whereby the original persons should, so to speak,
play their own parts. Even when contemporary events
are depicted, in proportion as the drama respects itself, it
preserves its method by which one person pretends to be
another. In Miss EHzabeth Robins' recent play, entitled
" Votes for Women," it might have been easy to draw larger
crowds, and secure a longer run of the play, if the original
women conspicuous as "suffragettes" had themselves
taken the chief parts in the performance. But they knew,
and the writer of the play and its stage producer knew, that
the play would have lost its entire force as a political
pamphlet, if notoriety and success had been bought at
this price. It is true that on the vaudeville stage persons
conspicuous in real life sometimes exhibit themselves for
money to the gaping crowds, but scarcely ever is there such
lack of taste shown as that they should assume a part
analogous to their own in real Ufe. So there is no question
here either of art or of ritual.
The second of the three chief distinctions between
ritual and drama is closely akin to the first. All the
events on the stage must be a mere pretence. One can
imagine that the "suffragettes" might have acted in " Votes
for Women," and drawn the crowd, and yet the actual in-
cidents in the play might have been purely fictitious. So a
totally distinct characteristic of stage plays is that what hap-
pens is understood not actually to be occurring. As a fact,
nobody is dying, no one is stealing, no one's heart is breaking.
In church ritual no deed done is at all a stage per-
formance ; it is the original. Not only are those who
officiate actually, legally the persons holding the office
which they seem to hold, but they are positively doing
the things they seem to do.
360 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
The third point of difference between ritual and the
drama is that in the former all the materials used are exactly
what they pretend to be. If it is not so, an offence is
committed against the fimdamental principle of ritual.
It is permissible that an actor on the stage personating a
monk and imitating the celebration of the Mass should
wear a wig to produce the appearance of a tonsure. But
we would resent it if in a church service a real priest,
celebrating Mass, were to appear in such a headgear. We
require that his head shall not only seem to be but
shall be shaven.
This principle of realism applies to all the objects seen,
beginning with the church itself. On a stage, for the
purposes of a play, a cathedral may consist of a wooden
frame and painted canvas to imitate stone and arches. But
the cathedral itself, where a ritual is performed, is actually
built of stone shaped into arches. Any sort of made-up
structure may serve for a pretended pulpit in a play ; but
the pulpit in a church must be what it appears. Even the
details of the dress must be made of the genuine stuffs and
substances which they look to be. The embroideries, the
gems, the gold are real embroideries, gems, and gold. Any
mere tinsel is out of place ; whereas on the stage, for the
actors to wear crowns really made of gold would be to
distract instead of concentrating the attention upon the
true art and nature of the performance. In a play on
the stage, if a meal is represented, it is preferable,
as art, that the bread and wine should not be real, and the
people only seem to eat and drink. But it were a scandal
in church to introduce substitutes in this manner. In
Wagner's " Parsifal " there is a scene of the Communion of
the Lord's Supper where the Holy Grail glows with a wine-
like light of what seems the actual blood of Christ. It is
far more impressive as dramatic art, although we Icnow the
effect is due to a mechanical trick, than anything in any
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 36 1
actual celebration of communion. But such a device in
a real communion service would be blasphemy.
Not only devout worshippers, but every other honest man
would be horrified to hear that any celebrant of any religious
service had in the least particular introduced any merely
dramatic effect. It is important to bring home vividly this
aspect of the realism of ritual. To do so, let me ask the
reader to contrast a burial service upon the stage with a real
burial service in a church. It is not only that in the latter
the mourners are the real persons and the ceremony an
actual deed of homage to the departed ; but his dead body is
verily in the coffin. If one hears or knows that in the coffin
on the stage there is nothing of the sort — it is empty or
filled with stones — no offence is given. To introduce a
real corpse on the stage would be — such a thing could not
be. But suppose the whisper went through the congre-
gation at a burial service that the coffin was empty, how
could one explain the moral resentment which would be
felt, except on the principle that ritual is never a mere
formality? On the stage, without offence, we often see
a woman carrying in her arms what purports to be an infant
child, while we know that there is nothing of the sort there.
But it is hard to conceive the consternation that would
ensue, were the priest in church to discover that he was
baptizing not a five baby, but a rag doll. Yet why, if
ritual is even remotely akin to theatrical performance ?
Perhaps, if we turn from religious to political ritual,
we shall more keenly reaHze the imjust prejudice against
ritual which inchnes to dub it theatrical. Suppose Parlia-
ment is to be opened by the King and Queen of England.
It is unthinkable that any substitutes should be found to
perform their parts. It is inconceivable that the ceremony
should take place when there was not actually to be an
opening of Parliament. It would be shocking to our
sense of the dignity of the kingdom that the crowns worn
362 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
should be gilt paper and the jewels paste. A pantomime
at Drury Lane is as far removed from the spectacle of an
actual royal ceremony as is fiction from reality and fancy
from fact. An American who may have seen hundreds
of pretence kings and queens in theatres longs to see the
real King and Queen of England, for there is a whole
world of difference between the theatrical and the cere-
monial. Yet the King and Queen are by ritual king and
queen. They are outward and visible signs of an inward
and spiritual social function and relation.
7. Ritual and Real Life
I have said enough to prove that acts of ritual are deeds
in real life. But how, then, do they differ from other
deeds which are not ritual? In the first place simply in
this, that they are symbolical, and by means of arbitrary
agreement effect mighty moral and social changes in the
relations of individuals to the surroimding community.
In ritual outside of religion, the difference between ordinary
acts of hfe and ceremony is not so strikingly conspicuous,
and the two blend in such a manner that we scarcely are
aware when we pass from the one to the other. But
religious ritual differs from the rest of life, rituaUstic or not,
by so much as religion differs from other spheres of human
interest and activity. Now it is to be remembered that
religion, as we have seen, deals with what are beUeved to
be the supreme concerns of life. It is a turning of the
attention to the ultimate source of Hfe's highest blessings,
in order to gain them. The dignity of religious ritual
differs, then, from the dignity of poHtical, commercial,
or merely drawing-room ceremony by the superiority of
the relations of which rehgion treats. Here, of course,
I assume that the persons participating believe in the worth
of religion. But in cases where they do not, the same
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 363
principle is illustrated. Their bitter hatred of religious
forms and ceremonies cannot be because form and ceremony
in itself is pernicious or is an empty nothing, but because
they count the religion to be hostile to human interests.
They dread the ends the religion has in view, and therefore
they hate these potent means by which the ends are achieved.
In the same way, those persons who do not hate but have a
patronizing contempt for religious ritual simply transfer
their contempt for religion to its forms. Such adverse
critics, however, if they were logical and practical, would
be compelled to concede that the vanity or the positive
evil of rehgious ceremonial casts no discredit whatever
upon ritual in general.
8. Social Democratic Ritual
I have given this elaborate analysis because, as it seems
to me, ninety-nine persons out of a hundred who hold my
fundamental views in regard to the principles of ethics,
rehgion, and politics inchne to disbeheve in ritual alto-
gether. Having turned from the forms and ceremonies
of supernatural religion, they are filled with horror at the
very suggestion that the new ideas of naturalism, social
democracy, and national idealism must concrete themselves
"into a cultus, a fraternity, with assemblings and holydays,
with song and book, with brick and stone." They fail
to see that in order to coimteract the influence of Rome
it is necessary to set up a ritual of Reason. They are not
ashamed to declare a distaste for any and every sort of
religious ceremonial. But in assuming such an attitude,
if my analysis be correct, they are doing nothing less than
refusing to naturalism, democracy, and national idealism
a system of signs by which the deepest personal responsi-
bilities of social life might be announced and established
among the many. They are unwittingly robbing hu-
364 THE SOTIL or AMERICA
manism of indispensable organs, and reducing it to the
most beggarly and inarticulate means of actualizing its
ideal throughout the community.
Fortunately, these opponents of outward and visible
signs of an inward and spiritual grace are not so ruthlessly
logical as to abandon all use of human speech. They
would permit persons who have discarded supematuralism
to reason and argue, and, if possible, be eloquent in pubHc
speeches, pamphlets, and books. But nobody must wear
a garment which shall stand to the community as a sign
that he who wears it is one who repudiates supematuralism,
miracles, presumptions of an aristocratic priesthood, and
the like. Yet let us suppose that in New York or San
Francisco alone there were five hundred men and women
devoting their lives to the spread of democratic and
naturalistic religion. Think what an easy means of propa-
ganda it would be that these persons, wherever they went,
shoxild wear a dress as distinctive as that of the Salvation
Army workers, with the words printed on their caps and
bonnets, "Democracy in ReUgion," "The Rehgion of Social
Justice " ! Such signs woiild challenge more attention than
could be gained by a hundred times as much labour and cost
in any other one direction. Suppose, too, that a person —
the chosen speaker and preacher, let us say, of a democratic
ethical church — should wear, when preaching, a robe
selected and sanctioned by the society as the distinctive
garb for its official preacher. Is it wrong to think that
instantly at a meeting where the speaker wore such a
symbolic dress, the impression made upon every attendant
as to the earnestness and strength of conviction of the
members of ethical societies would be a thousand times
stronger than if the man merely appeared in his everyday
clothes ? It must not be forgotten that even those every-
day clothes are a symbol. If he is a working-man, his
dress wUl betray it. If he is well-to-do, immediately,
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 365
without his saying a word and without his wishing it, his
diress shows his social position and suggests the size of his
tailor's bill. These matters, taken at their least, are dis-
tractions. A social-democratic preacher should appear not
as a man of this or that birth or ancestry or family con-
nection or means of liveUhood, but simply as a teacher —
as one enough respected to have been selected as a preacher
of social duties and an inspirer of moral enthusiasms.
The prejudice against so subordinate a sign in religious
ritual as dress naturally extends its censure to the adoption
of any conspicuous signs to indicate the great events of
Hfe from the point of view of social idealism. It would
seem to me that the greatest service which any httle group
of ethical ideaHsts could render in our times would be to
concentrate themselves upon the elaboration of a ritual
which would adequately express their new thought.
In the past, religious ceremonies, being anti-democratic,
imscientific, and occult, have strangled liberty and intel-
lectual honesty. They have overpowered the imagination
of the people, and allured them into willing subjection to
himian and superhuman masters. But the worst of all
their effects has been this imthinking and bitter hatred
and distrust aroused in naturalists and democrats for any
and every form of rehgious ritual. Until this distrust is
removed, science and social democracy can never throw
off princely and priestly domination and the superstitious
authority of invisible agencies. Until a ritualistic religion
be constructed on the basis of science and democracy,
science and democracy will be ahnost exclusively confined
to the domain of material wealth and politics. They will
be occupied with the machinery instead of the dynamics
of social justice. They will fail in the supreme art of
generating the enthusiasm and guiding the loyalty of the
masses of the people.
366 THE SOXJL OF AMERICA
9. Ritual and the Fine Arts
I have attempted, as far as possible, to dissociate ritual
from the fine arts, and have implied that the fine arts shall
be introduced into it only in order that no aesthetic de-
ficiency may offend the commimity and thus aHenate
minds highly cultivated in taste. But this problem of
the relation of the fine arts to ritual is extremely complex,
and therefore one aspect after another must be dealt with.
In the first place, it is essential that a church service
shall be conducted, as far as possible, by persons whose
speech and bearing conform to the educational standards
of the nation.
As for singing and instrumental music in church services,
they must never be primarily for aesthetic delight. The
compositions must be restricted to that class which produce
emotions akin to those produced by the ideals of social
righteousness and by the responsibilities of social duty.
Certain tone-compositions do undoubtedly arouse an
enthusiasm or a dignified calm alHed to ethical moods.
The Roman Catholic Church has rightly recognized of late
the necessity of banishing from the Church services forms
of music which are not strictly subordinate to the ends
which religion serves. It is conceivable that churches
might give such beautiful secular music that many would
attend for the aesthetic treat; but they would thereby
defeat their own end. Church music, however perfect, must
be so subordinate to and so permeated with the church's
dominating idea that it will inevitably direct attention to her
principles and create an emotional state receptive and
favourable to them. It should be so winning in its plea for
that which is higher than itself that the ungodly will keep
away in fear of being converted.
Literary art in pubhc worship must always be the highest
which the nation can procure, because true Uterary per-
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 367
fection, meaning simplicity, directness, and dignity of
speech, is always the most powerful means of reaching
the ear and soul of the less educated. But it must never
be forgotten that in a community where taste for it is not
highly developed, mere literary style is by no means
essential to the communication of ideas and principles of
character. In childhood most persons learn the rules by
which they live for the rest of their Ufe from mothers and
fathers who speak ungrammatically and whose utterances
never pretend to assume the form of connected discourse.
It is the veriest pedantry that would identify the power of
preaching with eloquence or oratory as we know these in
the art of Edmimd Burke or of the famous speakers of
classic antiquity. Almost incoherently a man may blunder
out the message of Christianity, and yet its essence will
not be lost nor fail of its work.
Architecture as an element in ritual may be of the most
primitive kind and yet powerfully effective. As the service
is inside the building, the effect is almost entirely due to
the interior. As the right proportions and colours of a room
axe independent of its exterior, isolated church edifices
are altogether a costly extravagance, so far as concerns
the spiritual atmosphere of the church service. With
architecture, even more essential than its actual art-
merit is the association of the building in the mind of the
worshippers with the special objects and work of religion.
Paintings and sculptures may assist mightily, but as symbols
rather than as art, provided they give no aesthetic offence.
I By universal consent, ritual is more intimately identified,
as we have seen, in the mind of the general public, with
drama than with any other art. The reason is quite plain.
I Acting is a pretence of action ; ritual is action. And
generally it is action comparatively dignified, graceful,
and effective. Acting also is symbolic action; unlike
ritual, however, it symbolizes not some real change in
368 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
social relation and function in the life of the actor himself,
but simply some universal and general truth or principle.
Yet the fact that it is symbolic action brings it into close
hne with the action of ritual. Now, the priest, in order
to reach the altar or the pulpit, must walk, and in this he
does the same kind of thing that the actor must do to pass
from one part of the stage to another ; yet the priest's
act is no more acting in this case than is the movement
of any human being from one point to another whither
his social duty calls him. The priest must turn and speak
to the audience, and in a manner removed from ordinary
conversation. Again, although he is not acting, what he
does is parallel to the actor's art. The priest, addressing
a whole assembly, naturally and rightly uses gesture more
than would prevail in private conversation; and again
he resembles the actor. He may Hft his hands in bene-
diction, he may make the sign of the Cross, he may kneel ;
again, action. And to the persons in the congregation
who have never been in his position his actions assume
a distinction not felt in those commonly done by every one.
Inevitably, also, persons going through actions in the
presence of a pubHc assembly are compelled more or less
to conventionaHze their motions. They may not study
for effect upon the congregation, and yet instinctively they
wiU learn the art which the actor on the stage in the same
way learns.
Thus it comes about that, while ritual is actual Ufe and
the stage drama is not, nevertheless the actual life of
ritual does become penetrated with the quahties of all
the fine arts. Ritual, indeed, as found in the most elabo-
rated Church ceremonials, may contain a combination
of all the arts which any stage could exhibit, and accord-
ingly may produce the effects of drama without itself
being drama. The real secret of its dignity and majesty
will be its inward truth, its subjective realism, the fact
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 369
that the actor is what he personates, that the deed is an
actual event in the Ufe of those who participate in it, and
that all the circumstances of the occasion are in fact pre-
cisely as they are set forth to be. This subjective kind
of truth is so potent in enhancing beauty that in ritual
a thousand accessories of the various arts may be lacking,
coarse may be the materials that affront the eye, defective
the proportions of the building, harsh the voices of the
ministrant and the singers, awkward the postures and
gestures of the celebrants — all these details falling far
below the trappings of the stage — and yet
how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give !
In ritual we become aware that art and Hfe together are
more than art alone.
In the light of the foregoing analysis it wiU be seen
that any person errs egregiously who says that those who
are naturalistic in rehgion can never hope to elaborate a
ritual splendid enough to compete with the stained-glass
windows, the organs and orchestras, the variegated marbles,
the embroidered and bedizened vestments, and the "long-
drawn aisle and fretted vault," such as allure the senses
in the scenes of Cathohc ceremony; and that therefore
they ought not to attempt to construct and practise a
ritual which shall embody their own ideas. It is a mis-
take for a humanistic democrat to think: "When we want
the strength and comfort of ritual, let us go to Roman
cathedrals or Anglican abbeys; but when we are true to
our own religious principles, let it suffice us to argue and
debate and make speeches."
To do the latter is quite wise, and to abstain from a
ritual of our own may perhaps be temporarily thrust upon
us by circumstances. But that those who have discarded
supernaturaHsm should enter sympathetically into a ritual
370 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
which must be interpreted supernaturalistically or have no
significance at all, is a moral and psychological impos-
sibility. If the spectator of a CathoUc ritual has no faith
in supernatural agencies, all its mere art sinks infinitely
below the level of a good play on the stage. For in a
good play what is represented is always human nature,
the besieging reahties of everyday suffering and hope,
human principles and human ideals. The art of the
theatre is good when it is true to Ufe in general. But
of what universal reahty is the CathoHc ritual, as it is
interpreted by the supernaturalist in religion, a sign and
token to the naturalist ? Of nothing. The practice of the
Mass, to have any meaning, must be interpreted as the
outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace which is
being communicated from a supernatural source. Now
if a man has with a whole soul's protest abandoned com-
mimion with any supernatural agents whatsoever, how
can he yield himself for spiritual strength and solace to a
sign to him signifying nothing? In proportion, therefore,
as through the Roman ritual his senses are stormed by
the idea which tmderlies it, his whole spirit must rise up
in armed defence, as to beat off a ghostly enemy. Suppose
a man's whole life is animated by the principle embodied
in Emerson's injunction, "Trust thyself!" how can he
yield his mind to a ritual which insinuates into the very
arteries and tissues of the devotee an absolute moral self-
distrust ? All that the beUever in democracy and the law
of cause and effect counts a spiritual menace is transformed
by Rome into loveUness and majestic mien. If he submits
to it, it stands smiUng before his eyes, it sings bUnding sweet
into his ear, exhales fragrance into the air he breathes,
until, soothed into oblivion of his moral selfhood, he falls
entranced and is henceforth Rome's, to do with as she wills.
Behold what power an idea, although an enemy to know-
ledge and spiritual self-control, may have over us when it
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 37 1
is concreted into a cultus, if only we are unwary enough to
submit to it !
Unless fully convinced that that which it symbolizes is
the very life of life, no one except a degenerate would
yield his senses to any ritual. To participate in a ritual
for enjoyment's sake or for beauty's sake disintegrates the
mental fibre. To amuse oneself with ritual is to play with
fire. Only when that which the ritual bodies forth is
believed to be the source of life, and therefore is accepted
by a man as his redemption and his God, does it make him
manly. Then it renders him invincible. It renders more
real, powerful, vivid, and intimate than appetite the sacrifice
of self for the good of all.
Such being the psychology of ritual, it follows inevi-
tably that to a democratic and scientifically trained mind
the meagrest beginnings of a ritual consonant with his
principles would have more meaning and communicate
more strength and peace than the most beautiful ritual
conceivable, the principles of which he counted false and
pernicious. If the thing it signifies is worse than nothing,
no incidental accompaniments lent by the fine arts can
give it vigour. The persons who do not believe in super-
naturaUsm and yet are allured are only those who do not
believe in anything, and have no idealistic convictions.
Such are the lovers of art for art's sake instead of for Hfe's
sake.
CHAPTER XX
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP
I. Symbolism
In another sense than that which I have dwelt upon,
there is a kinship between the fine arts and ritual. The
fine arts themselves are not simply embodiments of pure
and \miversal beauty. Indeed, there are whole schools of
artists and philosophers of art who maintain that the
essence of art is not the beautiful in the sense of a form
perfect in itself, a manifold variety of parts unified by
some inherent principle within them all — a flower is
beautiful in itself, a sunset, a landscape is beautiful within
itself, a human face and the human form may be beautiful
in this way ; but there is also such a thing as the expression
of a meaning which transcends the form itself. A form
may point to a unity and variety beyond itself. A human
face not beautiful in form may be expressive of a type of
character transcendently beautiful and harmonious in
itself. There is an irradiation of the soul from within,
which transfigures faces by no means comely in themselves.
Such a face is, as it were, an outward and visible sign of
an inward and spiritual grace, and not the revelation of
a charm of its own, as is the case with absolute and perfect
beauty. The purely artistic sense of beauty rests in the
self-revelation of the concrete object presented in colour
before the eye, or in tone-structure through the ear. But
an artist may be more than an artist ; without degrading
his art he may add to this pure beauty an extra charm,
in that the outward form becomes a sign of a moral meaning.
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DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 373
A public far from appreciating pure beauty may be
swayed and moved to admiration by every hint of higher
meaning. Thus it comes about that symbolism is rife in
certain schools of art ; and in so far their art is allied to
ritual. Signs are chosen of which they know the public
will understand the inner meaning. They know that the
mind of the beholder will instantly pass from the sign to
the meaning, and that the meaning once astir in his mind
will arouse all the emotions with which it has hitherto been
associated. Artists thus appeal to the patriotic emotions,
to reverence for children, to respect for motherhood, to
admiration for martyrs. What is called the Uterary value
of a picture is often the only element commendable in it.
And yet, to the indignation of the pure artist, it may be
so powerful that the community mistake it for beautiful.
Take an object with no beauty of form, like the American
Stars and Stripes ; yet even men of the most disciplined
judgment in the moment of patriotic emotion will find it
a blessing to the eye.
Rehgious symbolism is in so far art as the mere use of
an outward act, or colour or shape of any object arbitrarily
selected to stand for some invisible reality, may be called
art. And many do so call it, but possibly to the detri-
ment of art and to the concealment of the real nature
and power of ritual. Not to call symboHsm art is not
to deny its astonishing hold upon the imagination, and
through it upon the intellect, the emotions, and the will.
This effect of ritual is incalculably great. And if the
thing symboHzed is a thing to which we count it well that
a man should turn his admiring attention, because the
effect upon him is beneficent, we are grateful for the
instrumentahty which achieves it. But if the effect is
one we deplore, we hate the means. The power of ritual,
however, is undeniable. "The effect," says Mr. Lowes
Dickinson in his essay entitled " Religion : A Criticism and
374 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
a Forecast," "even of a ritual which we do not understand,
or one with the intellectual basis of which we are out of
touch, may be immense upon a sensitive spirit. How much
more that of one which should really and adequately express
our conviction and feeling about Ufe and the world ! For
those who can accept the Christian view, the Christian
ritual must be their most precious possession; but for
those who cannot — and they are, as I think, an increasing
number of not the least rehgious souls — their lack of
intellectual assent to the faith weakens or even nulUfies
the effect of the symbol. And if, as I think will be the case,
the men in whom the rehgious instinct is strongest move
farther and farther from the Christian postulates, a ritual
which shall express their new attitude will become, perhaps
is already, one of their chief spiritual needs."
Unluckily for the new humanism, very few of those
who accept its postulates, however much they need a
ritual which shall express their new attitude, consciously
want it. It would seem that with most of them the
exclusive association of ritual with ideas they count
pernicious wiU never be removed until they actually have
an object-lesson in the new ritual. Hence the necessity
that the pioneers of that rehgion which Mr. Lowes
Dickinson forecasts should group themselves together
and establish assemblings with song and book, with brick
and stone. The world must receive ocular and oral
demonstration, before it will believe that the new attitude
can be made concrete to the senses.
2. Through the Senses
It is a Uttle strange that persons who boast themselves
free to think upon religious subjects should entertain a
horror of ritual on the ground that it charms the senses.
In the first place, why should the senses not be charmed ?
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 375
Can we afford to leave them to be corrupted by un-
scrupulous, unpatriotic, money-making syndicates who
pander to the senses instead of purifying them? Or
shall we become rank puritans, who not only want no
beauty in outward form, but would banish even symboUc
expressions of inward meanings? When we remember
what symbolism is, furthermore, we shall reahze that the
appeal is never to the senses, but only through them.
Further be it remembered, that all the wiser, more
efficient, and humane methods of education embody the
principle of communicating abstract ideas through signs,
symbols, and associations which through the senses suggest
the imseen.
Probably underlying the strong opposition of rational-
istic rehgionists to ritual is the notion that any appeal to
the senses is not quite fair and honest. An appeal should
be made only to the reason and judgment of a man whom
one is attempting to convert and to interest in any system
of religion. "If you allure through the senses," it is asked,
"have you not abandoned the fundamental principle of
rationalism, and resorted to the very means which have
caused the revolt of men of intellectual integrity against
the old cults? Yet now you come in with a new
appeal to the senses. You hope to win men by indirect
methods. You mean to attach them by extraneous and
adventitious associations of ideas, instead of by convincing
them of the truth of your position. You mean to draw
men by the cords not of reason, but of emotion, senti-
ment, and possibly even of self-interest or family attach-
ment or patriotic prejudice. You mean to commit a
man first, and then convince him ; whereas the rationaHst
would convince- him first, and then there would be no
occasion for any systematic effort to commit him."
In meeting this position one notices, in the first place,
that it is inspired by a radical suspicion and distrust of a
376 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
man's whole psychological make-up, except in so far as
he is a logical thinker. It emanates from the presupposi-
tion that every man must beware not only of the crafts
and assaults of priests and fascinating demagogues, but
of his own eyes and ears, of the very laws of association
of ideas by which the child-mind constructs the chaos of
primal sensations into the beauty, order, and meaning of
a rational cosmos within the forms of space and time.
For the first three years of a child's life the power to
think logically is not only not self-conscious, it is not
even regulative. The confused materials of the sensations
of touch , and sight and sound build themselves up into
windows, chairs, and human faces solely by means of
frequency of repetition of appearance in the same associa-
tions. No psychologist denies that it is by seeing a
certain shape and colour often together and then by
seeing the colour sometimes with another shape and size,
that the child learns to discriminate colour from shape
and size. This process is not logical. It is not rational.
There is no question of self-contradiction, although, of
course, there is on the other hand no violation of the
laws of identity and of difference. There is no question
as to whether the shapes, colours, and sizes tally with
an outside universe or violate some system of abstract
thought. We further note that in the child's mind the
objects which it grows to discern as distinct and con-
nected become to it also, at the same time, symbols.
Scarcely does the mother's face pass from the stage of an
undiscerned sensation into a distinct perception, but,
thanks to the law of association, the child takes a
reappearance of that face in perception as an outward
and visible sign of the veritable presence of that other
reality from which emanate tender care, relief from pain,
and the agreeable sensations which the child welcomes.
Now, can any rationahst who accepts this psychological
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 377
process as legitimate in a child find any possible ground
for his intense distrust of it in the grown-up man? At
what age of adolescence must this process be checked?
And if it be not pernicious in youth, but, on the contrary,
the very prerequisite of all rationality, how and why
does it suddenly lose its beneficence and begin to destroy
the very framework and constitution of the rational uni-
verse which itself has made, and which reason, after it
has appeared, sanctions as altogether good ?
What does the rituahst do but imitate that psycho-
logical process to which all naturally gifted teachers and
all trained experts in education and all philosophic
pedagogists turn as the very model and ideal for the
teacher's conscious art? For instance, the rationalistic
rituahst would say to himself, "In order that a man by
the age of twenty-one shall see the full rationality of
ethical ideaUsm, I must begin with him when he is only
five years of age to tell him stories which will interest
him quite irrespectively of their ultimate significance in a
scheme of rehgious thought and yet will at the same time
illustrate the principles of that thought. But I must tell
him such stories not only once a year or once in six
months, but every week, and repeat them and have him
repeat them. I must draw incidents from history, I
must search out analogies in physical nature. Thus years
before he can think for himself on abstract questions, he
will have been receiving the material, and that material
more or less prearranged, which will make it easy for
him to judge for himself years afterwards." But the
rationalistic ritualist will also say, "I want the child's
mind to associate a particular building and a particular
room with the religion which I mean to teach him, so
that whenever he thinks of this religion a mental image
of the room, its size and colour and arrangements of
furniture, shall appear in his mind. All the sensations
378 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
and emotions associated with that room must be agree-
able; unpleasant associations would make the man in
later years turn from the idea, for memories would recall
sensations and emotions from which he shrinks instinctively.
He miist never be forced by threats of punishment to go to
the room which is to be identified in his mind with rational
religion. \^Tien he comes, he must not be compelled to
stay longer for a lesson or any s}'stematic work than a child's
nature can well endiire. The room must not be so cold
as to chill the child; else this physical shrinking will ex-
tend even to the thought of what is taught in the room.
The people present must be kindly, loving, considerate,
and deferential to the child's indi^'iduaMty." And as
children love to sing, the rituaUst will teach him songs
embodying humanistic sentiments, perfectly sure that the
melodies will flow into his mind years afterwards, bearing
the words and the words bearing the meaning of the mes-
sage which the child could not fully comprehend. And the
lights of the room must be bright — and jet not too
bright. In short, the place must be Kke a home ; and
every one knows how a mother and father instinctively,
if they are able, provide the comforts which shall make
the home physically attractive to ever\- inmate. Indeed,
what is a home but a place of comfort and welcome for
body and mind? So the rituahst would go on, putting
books into the hands of the child which would lead his
thought to those great factors in life which the teacher
believes ultimately the child will acknowledge as deserving
supreme reverence and devotion. The humanistic ritualist
will not discard any agreeable if innocent association of
the senses or affections, which might attach the child
ultimately to the principles of reason.
Now this method, merely as method, is exactly the same
as that of Roman Cathohc and other rituahsts, who
have no faith in reason whatever, but fall back upon con-
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 379
ventional tradition. Yet there is a world-wide difference
in the thing taught and the effect on the child 's will. There
is an absolute antagonism between the rationalistic and the
non-rationahstic ritualist, for the latter means never to
appeal to reason. He trusts wholly to associations and
indirect attachments. He knows how well-nigh impossible
it is for most persons at the age of thirty to throw off the
mere outward associations of a Ufetime. He knows fur-
ther that, there being no principle of reason at the heart of
all the associations which he has been systematically ar-
ranging in children's experience, their power to think for
themselves will never enable them to discover any law of
rationality in the religion given to them. But, still
further, he knows that the craving for rationahty, not
having been stimulated through the growing lifetime of
the mind, will have almost died at the root.
What, however, is the position of the humanistic ritu-
aKst ? Every year of his pupil's life progressively, from the
age of five on, he will have been making more frequent and
profound appeals to the moral and scientific judgment
of the child. He will be passing continually from the
concrete to the abstract. But always at each step he
will be guiding and challenging the child to judge for
himself of what is right and what is wrong, of what
is verifiable truth and what is unfounded prejudice;
until finally, at the age of eighteen or twenty, the child
will have been brought to a height of judgment from
which he can survey the widest fields of speculative
thought and of moral responsibility. But when the
pupil attains this point, all the pleasant associations, all
the lovable and tender memories of his lifetime will re-
enforce his judgment and his reason. He will not suffer
the painful discovery that the treasure of his heart lies in
one direction and the responsibility of duty and integrity
in another. He will rejoice in finding out that the principles
380 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
which his own Judgment now accepts as right and true have
from the first been the providential laws which regulated
the full and varied interests of his life from the first.
Is it fair to say that humanistic ritual betrays reason
by alluring the senses? Does not the word "allure"
itself beg the question by implying that the senses are
so appealed to as to oppose reason ?
It must be remembered that many things which are
not reason are nevertheless not against reason. For
instance, the processes of association, the affections, the
craving for agreeable sensations in the child and the
man, the love of the approbation of others — these are not
the love of a system of thought without contradiction,
these are not the craving to reduce all phenomena to
unity; but nevertheless they are not against reason.
It is quite possible that a man is only one per cent,
reason, and that the other ninety-nine parts of him
consist of processes and cravings of a totally different
kind. If so, what narrowness and inhuman bigotry it
is to appeal solely to a child's power to think ! Many
rationalists make the preposterous blunder, in speaking
of appeahng to reason, of forgetting that one must
always appeal also to sensations, experiences, percep-
tions, emotions, and voHtions as the material which reason
is to explain. To think that a child can spin a true reh-
gion out of his reason, unrelated to the experience of man
throughout history and to the extra-rational parts of man's
nature, is a more preposterous superstition than to fall
back wholly upon tradition and an external revelation.
For reason with no material of experience to work up and
to classify is absolutely empty and void.
Not simply in reference to a child is it foolish to trust to
reason alone without a mass of friendly associated ideas;
it is downright madness of policy to expect to overthrow
by an appeal merely to reason the entrenched prejudices
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 381
which for twenty-five years have been systematically
built up in the mind of an adult. What is the use of try-
ing to convince a man that his religion is irrational when
he does not care whether it be rational or not, when he has
never been trained from his youth to respect the rational
and his capacity both to judge and to respect it has become
atrophied ? Suppose, however, one does wish to bring more
rational views of religion to the mind of a man trained to
beHeve in the authority of priest and book as final. What
is the only possible and the only legitimate method? It
may be late in the day to begin, but even at the age of
forty, if a man is to be drawn away from a false system of
reHgion, he must be drawn — in proportion as he has Uttle
capacity and in order to develop his capacity for rationahty
— by bringing about in his mind new agreeable associa-
tions with those principles of which he has scarcely heard.
He may meet by chance a man of the type of manners and
character that he has always loved and respected ; then,
if he incidentally hears that the man is a humanist, in-
stantly the whole of his attachment to that person will
move out in friendly anticipation to the new ideas. He
will want to know more of them. He is already, if not pre-
judiced in their favour, sympathetically curious to be in-
formed. His mind is open. Nothing under heaven could
have made him receptive but a preliminary indirect attach-
ment of this sort. He is astonished, for he had supposed
that only persons socially "impossible" ever entertained
unorthodox views of religion. He already has discovered
one error, and he says to himself, "Perhaps the ideas
themselves are no less admirable than the man who enter-
tains them."
Or suppose it is a question as to what sort of meeting-
place himianists will choose for the presentation of their
ideas and how the meeting shall be conducted. From
the point of view of the rigorous anti-ritualist and jealous
382 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
deifier of reason, it will make no difference in what sort of
room the meeting is to be held, or whether the speaker use
good EngHsh or violate all the conventional canons of
speech, or whether in debate he show deference to others
or not.
But the ritualist will say that because of the power of the
association of ideas no one of these adventitious circum-
stances should be allowed to give offence, and that every
particular object or event or circumstance that can be used
as an outward sign to signify the real character of the
new ideaHsm shall be appropriated and used. Indeed, a
humanistic rationaHst himself, if he be a ritualist, will dedi-
cate not only his reasoning, but all his other powers to the
service of reason. He will be not only ready to give his
time and risk his reputation and suffer ostracism, but he
will resort to less heroic forms of sacrifice. He wiU dedi-
cate all the minor incidents of Hfe so that they shall not
occasion unnecessary offence or prejudice.
I have dwelt thus long upon the prejudice against
ritual entertained by persons who hold fundamental
principles like my own, because nearly all the men and
women of taste who abandon the old interpretations of reli-
gion, upon ceasing to attend church, never dream of the
possibihty of entering into fellowship with others of their
own newer belief. Yet the reason for this shrinking from
new rehgious cooperation is ahnost wholly due to a dread
of the crudities in methods of propaganda, and of the over-
emphasis of mere logical appeals to reason, which have pre-
vailed among those who, coming out of the old churches,
have set up new centres of propaganda.
There is another and profounder reason for the public
celebration of a humanistic ritual. The real enemy of
the ideahstic humanist, as I have pointed out in an earlier
chapter, is not, after all, the supematuraKstic religionist.
It is the same enemy which, from the first, Christianity and
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 383
Judaism themselves have been fighting : the world, which
accepts selfishness as the regulative principle of con-
duct. I recur to this fact again, in order to bring it into
connection with the psychological principle of the associa-
tion of ideas. The child from the age of five, besides any
association built up by his reHgious teachers, is constantly,
by his meeting with all sorts and conditions of people and
by all sorts and conditions of accidental experience and
observation, forming associations which allure him towards
the practices of lying, physical self-indulgence, and love of
power and display. If great care be not taken, by the
time he is twenty-one years of age he will have been com-
mitted, by a thousand habits and desires and by the ex-
pectations of others, to a fife of shrewd, systematic
service of himself at the expense of others. One need
not even cite the case of the still lower order of intelHgences
where the self-seeking and self-gratification are neither
shrewd nor far-sighted, but the character is marked by an
effeminate and weak yielding to momentary impulse. In
either case the moral calamity has come about by a
gradual association of ideas which committed the whole
mind to one or the other form of pleasing oneself without
consideration of others. How, I ask, can an appeal to
reason unsupplemented by an elaborated scheme of
counteracting associations ever rescue such individuals
and the society into which they are born from the calamity
of moral downfall? Ethical ritual, then, really means
moral propaganda by methods which a knowledge of
psychological processes suggests to every teacher.
3. Ethical Ceremony
But deep and radical is the ordinary rationalist's opposi-
tion to outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual
grace, even if that grace be the ideaHsm of reason itself.
384 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
It is maintained among all who oppose ritual, but chiefly
by its extremest opponents, the rationalists, that through-
out the history of rehgious organizations ceremonial
has been at enmity with the ethical tendency, and has
often extinguished it. This opposition is to be met by
challenging both psychologically and historically the truth
of the statement that ceremonial in itself tends to check
the ethical element in religion. Of course, it goes with-
out saying that an immoral ceremonial will not have
moral effects, but the very opposite. It also goes without
saying that a non-moral ceremonial will have not moral
effects, but again a very opposite. For the ethical has
two opposites, the unethical and the non-ethical; and
of the two, in the actual history of society and of each
individual mind, the non-ethical is, as a fact, a greater
enemy to the positively ethical than is actual self-conscious
wickedness. The diabolically bad is a comparatively
small factor in human hfe compared to apathy, indifference,
preoccupation, interest in the things of the senses and
of worldly prosperity. Yet, surely, in considering whether
ceremonial religion be antagonistic to ethical rehgion, we
must bar out ceremonials non-ethical and anti-ethical,
and ask only whether an ethical rehgion which resorts
to ritual as a means of communicating its principles and
enthusiasm is in danger of a suicidal absorption in the
details of the ceremonial. Is an ethical religion which
resorts to outward signs apt to forget the things signified,
in its attention to the efficiency of the signs? If it did
absorb its attention in the signs so as to make them ex-
quisitely perfect in efficiency, could such a development
of sjonbohsm obscure the very grace it was meant to
symbolize? Or would the effort to make the signs
supremely efficient somehow degenerate without knowing
it into making them inefficient? My contention is that
there are no psychological processes known to us which
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 385
would justify our fearing that an ethical ceremonial would
so absorb the interest of teachers and preachers and
organizers of the ethical life as to induce them to forget
the ethical life or to sacrifice it to the ceremonial.
Even if we admitted that all the ceremonials of the
past and present did and do militate against the interests
of ethical hfe, we should have also to concede that the
grace signified by these ceremonials was not social,
not humanistic, not naturaKstic. A supernaturalistic
ceremonial diverts men from social responsibility and
thus injures the ethical Hfe; yet not because it is
ceremonial, but because it is supernaturalistic. In such
a ritual the personal agents propitiated are not one's
fellow hirnian beings, but agents without human bodies,
agents not recognized by the law, agents who are not
subjects of rights and privileges, and who caimot be
pimished by pubHc opinion and the criminal law, agents
who cannot be made legislators, administrators, or judges.
The opponents of ceremonial must point to a purely
ethical ritual and show that the ritual has had an un-
ethical or non-ethical effect. But that would be very
difficult to prove. When such an effect is shown, the
ceremonial is proved not to have been what at the outset
it was assumed to be.
With the spiritistic rituals of the churches of the past
one must contrast a humanistic, social, naturalistic ritual.
And one must not attribute to ritual in itself any evil
effect which can be traced directly to the spiritistic presup-
positions out of which it has grown.
But to be just to the rituals of Judaism and Christianity,
we must admit that they are essentially ethical rituals.
The real problem before us is not Jewish and Christian
versus ethical ; the problem is to decide between two ethical
rituals, the one spiritistic and the other sociahstic.
Judaism and Christianity have hitherto been spiritistic
386 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
ethical religions. They are, as I believe, vitiated to a great
extent by their spiritism. But despite these vitiating
elements they are superbly ethical. The result is that
their rituals are relatively very great and good; and, as
compared with no ritual and no ethical religion, they
are infinitely precious. What is more, when we turn
to the facts of Jewish and Christian church discipline,
a comparison of the more and the less ritualistic com-
munions by no means confirms the statement that
ritual militates against the ethical life. On the con-
trary, where there is most ritual there is often the
most intense ethical enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. It is
true that the spiritistic element increases in efl&ciency with
the ritual; but the ethical element increases proportion-
ately and holds its own against the non-ethical and anti-
ethical effects of the spiritistic error. We find, for
instance, in England that the High Churchmen who seem
to spend a great proportion of time and thought upon
details of ritual are as a direct effect of that ceremonial
so heightened in enthusiasm of self-sacrifice for the poor
that they stand an object of moral admiration to persons
of all rehgions and of no religion. It must be further
remembered that the Roman Catholic Church by its very
ritual has created such domination and ascendency of the
idea of sacrifice for the poor that it stands to this hour
preeminent for its charities, its consolations to the lonely
and the siiffering, and its attention to the education of
its children. What we do find is the aloofness both of
Protestant churches and of the Roman Catholic commimion
from national and municipal politics, from the modem
interests of science and art, and from the whole move-
ment of women and the working people for economic
emancipation. But the spiritism at the heart of Christian
dogma as it has hitherto been interpreted is quite enough
to account for this aloofness. The trust of Christianity
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 387
has thus far been in supernatural agencies, outside the
political organism. Its supreme interest for a thousand
years has been in a world beyond death. The fact that
despite this moral aberration it still has been so intensely
ethical in its discipline upon the human soul is one of
the strongest proofs that notwithstanding its dogma its
supreme passion was himian righteousness. Even within
the sphere of individual ethics we see the adverse in-
fluence of its spiritism. This spiritism, not being veri-
fiable in experience, has caused the churches, if not posi-
tively to discourage, at least to overlook the claims of
intellectual honesty and of bold, free investigation of
truth. But the ritualism is in no wise to blame for
these deficiencies.
When we investigate the ceremonial and ethical aspects
of Judaism, we find that the ceremonial has been a tre-
mendous aid to the moral character of the Jews and a
strengthening of the Jewish people such as has made it
a two thousand years' wonder to all the other races of the
world. We must remember that the Temple service as
illustrated in the Psalms was that of the second Temple.
The people had lost their pohtical independence. The
ruling classes had been banished for seventy years in the
Babylonian Exile. There the greatest of the ethical
prophets, Ezekiel, not excelled by Isaiah in moral
insight and passion, was statesman enough to see that
with the pohtical independence gone, a psychological
substitute must be found which would focus the people's
hope and confidence upon those lines of conduct which
in the end lead to national independence and prosperity.
He hit upon the notion of a splendid Temple ritual as
the means of focussing steadfastly and reverently the
whole people's heart upon the supreme means of the ulti-
mate blessings of Ufe. It was ritual, it was ceremonial,
it was a system of signs for inward and ethical tribal grace.
388 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
that kept the Jews from 432 b.c. until 70 a.d. from losing
their national ideahsm, and has preserved them to this
day not without hope, and now at last has brought the es-
tabKshment of a Jewish kingdom nearer to the domain of
practical poHtics than it has been for two thousand years.
4. Good Deeds and Public Worship
Take the elements of ceremonial as contrasted with the
ethical hfe of social justice. A ceremonial that aims at
social justice camiot but prove the most powerful ally con-
ceivable of the teaching and preaching of morahty, of dis-
cipline, of the sanction of public opinion, and of the moral
atmosphere of a community where social justice is practised
and illustrated.
Ceremonial religion involves the keeping of holydays,
because the community must agree upon times of
ceremonial worship. Now in modem life one of the
greatest questions dividing the ordinary rationalist from
the traditionalist in religion is this one of keeping the
Sabbath Day holy. Says the rationalist, "AU days are
holy." Says the traditional ritualist, "Sunday must be
kept sacred to religion irrespective of reasons of social
expediency." But now comes into the argument the
humanistic ritualist. He maintains that one day in
seven is needed for ethical meditation, concentration, and
commitment ; that a day must be set apart and kept holy,
guarded against the inroads and encroachments of sport
and athletics, art, and mere intellectual science. Is it
conceivable that a whole nation devoting one day in
seven to the problems and principles and policy of social
justice should not thereby advance ethically in ten years
to a moral stage which otherwise they could scarcely
attain in a himdred years? An ethical Sabbath would
be the most powerful moral asset conceivable for a nation
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 389
if its ethics were based upon science and social democracy
instead of upon unveri&able dogmas devised to secure
trust in invisible agencies beyond society.
And when you have secured the ethical holyday there
must be the assemblings. In these assembhes every
available sign must be utilized to make real in presence
and power the claims of the national ideal. There must
be song and book. And the necessity of housing the
multitudes means a temple building.
A disproof of the utihty of an ethical ritual would
require a demonstration that a nation's attention can be
fixed upon the ends and means of social justice without
influencing poUtics. Or, if not this, it wiU require a
demonstration that men and women will be as ethical
if they do not pay attention to the means and ends of
social justice as if they do. But neither of these atti-
tudes can be defended. Grown men will not spontaneously
attend even so much as children to the claims of social
justice, unless their minds be systematically turned thereto.
Nor is there any evidence to justify the belief that people
would do right if the right were never taught them.
The senses of every human being are constantly soli-
cited by objects which in close proximity would gratify
instincts and impulses. These objects, presenting them-
selves to the senses, carry with them an overpowering
feeling of their reality.
The problem of the ethical teacher is, how to give a cor-
responding impression of reality to the claims of Duty,
the invisible Laws of the universe, and the Ideals and Visions
of a perfect order of society. How can these be made as
present and immediate as the visible and audible world
of the senses? There is only one way. If their reality
is to be brought home to people, and their force is to
become dominant and to master appetites, ambitions, and
vanities, we must find outward, visible, and audible signs
390 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
which, by the law of association, suggest powerftilly to the
imagination their presence and reahty.
The universal, the ideal, the moral order, the state of
things which ought to be but is not yet, the great ends of
society — all these, prefigured in the constitution of man,
but not actuahzed in his daily hfe and institutions, can be
by means of outward signs so vividly suggested as to create
a mystic sense of their real presence.
It is the function of symbolism, through the eye, the ear,
and the other senses, thus to bring home the reality of the
supersensible world, i.e. the world of ideals, of principles,
of types and tendencies, of universal conceptions of human-
ity, of visions of the perfect city, the true State and the
honest man.
If these did not possess by divine right vaHdity and neces-
sity and binding power, it would be an unpardonable play-
ing with the mind of another to create such an impression
by ritual. It would be scarcely less than black art to at-
tempt by some outward and palpable sign to secure for them
the sense of reaUty. But according to reason and in the
moral judgment these supersensible things are the supreme
reaKties.
Were we not deceived and ensnared by the false claims
of objects which obtrude themselves upon the senses by
appealing to purely physical instincts and impulses, we
should never for a moment doubt the reality of the funda-
mental order of nature and the universal principles and
standards of right reason. But because of the obtrusive-
ness of objects of the senses and because of the devices and
intrigues of cunning and unscrupulous human beings,
every man is in danger of forgetting the claims of duty
and the remote consequences of present deeds.
To bring the future as powerfully before the mind as is
the present, to obtrude the claims of persons unknown as
intensely as those obtrude their own who clamour upon their
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 391
knees before us — to do tliis is impossible except as the fu-
ture, the absent, the invisible, the supersensible, the moral
order are represented by signs or counters or marks which
will not let us forget that they stand before our very eyes
and ears as the proxies of those reaUties which are invisible.
The power and claim of what we aspire to be in our mo-
ments of selfless meditation are apt to be overlooked by the
busy, the inexperienced, the thoughtless, the perplexed.
Only ethical symbolism can find for the supersensible order
a foothold in the world of sense upon which it may plead
for the higher ends of life.
But there is still another form which the objection to
ritual assumes in the minds of those who have turned
away from supernaturahstic ceremonials. These persons
are apt to retort, not without great plausibility: "What
need has an ethical ideaUsm for outward signs? Let
every deed of our daily conduct speak for our reUgion. Let
our deeds testify to our principles. For those whose
religion is a cult of the supernatural, there may be
occasion for symbohc acts, Uke the making of the sign
of the Cross in the air, hke the partaking of a meal that
is not a real meal, and the hke ; but for us whose religion
is ethical, not a minute of the day passes that does not
give us a chance of illustrating the ideas by which we
live." This is all very beautiful in motive, but, if I am
not in error, it is wholly a mistake. It is not as a fact
true that specific deeds of duty reveal the principles,
dispositions, motives, presuppositions, and ideals which
animate them. The spectator will interpret any deed of
human kindness or mercy or justice done by another
in the Hght of the principles which would animate him
if he were to do the deed. Our deeds are not self-
reveahng as to their inmost secret. You cannot discover
from a man's giving a cup of cold water to a dying
neighbour whether he acted from a Mohammedan,
392 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
Buddhist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Agnostic, or Mystic
view of duty and the world. Our deeds do not point
unequivocally to our principles — except to our own
introspective observation. Our deeds point, on the
contrary, to each spectator's own principles which
might have produced them. If a man works among
the poor as a philanthropist in a neighbourhood where
hitherto only devout Christians have done so, every act
of his will be interpreted by the neighbourhood as being
done in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ — or
for whatever motive is customarily assigned to Christian
philanthropists. If a Jew whose features do not betray
his race does philanthropic work among the Gentile poor,
all the neighbours will draw the inference that he is working
as a disciple of Christ. If an Agnostic do the same,
not a living mortal could infer his "heresy" from his
deeds. Or suppose a modern humanitarian was assisted
by a Japanese in deHvering some suffering dumb animal
from acute pain — how could any bystander detect that
the humanitarian's deed emanated from a direct love for
all sentient beings, while the Japanese was but illustrating
his belief that some ancestor might be incarnate in the cat
or dog and that on that account it should be relieved from
pain? What possible difference in the deed of mercy
could be detected which would cause the Occidental's
act to point to humanism and that of the Oriental to
spiritistic ancestor-worship ? It becomes quite clear that
if you wish to disclose your motives, ideas, doctrines, or
creed, you must resort to the practice of symboHc acts
arbitrarily chosen and understood to signify adherence to
exactly those ideas and doctrines. The only alternative
to symbolic acts is simply talking. With one's lips one
must declare oneself Agnostic, Buddhist, Mohammedan;
or else one must undergo some ceremonial act. And,
indeed, even the declaration with one's lips, if hunted
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 393
down, is found to be an arbitrary sign, outward and
audible, for an inward and spiritual truth. The com-
munity agrees that a man who declares himself a Roman
Catholic is a Roman Catholic. By making that sign he
actually throws in the weight of his influence on the side
of CathoKcism. Therefore to the community at large
the pubUc profession of faith with the Ups is a symboHc
deed which pledges a man. To know that a man is a
Roman Catholic, we must have evidence that he has
participated in some rite distinctive of that communion.
I may have succeeded in convincing some readers that
such a thing as a h\mianistic ritual is not only right, but
necessary as a means of propaganda and to the building
up of a national love of righteousness.
5. A Spiritual Atmosphere
Many adhere to the prevalent opinion that nothing but
a beHef in supernatural powers can create in a rehgious
assembly what is called a spiritual atmosphere. Yet it
is just the creation of an atmosphere in which one is filled
with a sense of the infinite and of the supersensible and
of the reality of an unseen universe, that a ritual purely
human and scientific in its implications is preeminently
fitted to achieve.
What is, after all, the most subUme Reality, the supreme
spiritual Power, in response to which the individual human
will and heart vibrate ? I say, without a moment's hesi-
tation, it is the indwelling principle of righteousness
animating a social group, the idealizing will of a community
of human beings. Whoever surrenders himself to the
good of the community and to the cause of the good in the
world as it is organizing, guiding, and inspiring the lives of
a group of brave men and women, knows that he is
experiencing that which is the Absolute ReaHty for the
394 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
rational will of every finite sold. As he reads the account
of devout and rehgious men of every creed, however
supernaturaHstic, he sees that what they are describing
as God is the reality which he himseK has found and by
which he hves. In terms of psychology and sociology he
may describe it simply as the spirit of humanity or the
general wiU of the community ; but however cautiously
and restrainedly he thus designates it, he knows it and
loves it as the Consoler, the Inspirer, the Saviour.
In a meeting where there is no thought of personal agen-
cies outside of the spiritual organism of human society,
every individual person may be flooded, thriUed, and trans-
figured in the sense of the glory and power, the dignity
and presence of the spiritual organism in which he lives
and moves and has his being, and to which he gladly sur-
renders himself. In such a meeting of ideaUstic human-
ists one may find one's own private wish and desire merging
and growing into the mighty creative will that blends
miUions of men in one organic nation.
If it is a man's first experience of this moral trans-
fi^guration, he forthwith undergoes what is called religious
conversion. If, despite previous experience and a full
knowledge of its meaning and blessing, he has been living a
Ufe of base and abject subservience to petty interests, he will
be filled with remorse and suffer the pain of cleansing fire.
In a meeting where aR present are filled with one idea,
and that a great and humane one, where all are moved by
one purpose and each is conscious of his own responsible
contribution towards its fulfilment, no scoffer, no hardened
sirmer can escape the sense of the reaUty of a Power not
himself and yet himself that makes for righteousness.
The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls,
And lifts us unawares
Out of aU meaner cares.
DEMOCRATIC FORMS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP 395
There may be those who have not even so much as heard
that the higher will, the combined effort of many in the
cause of humanity, is a Holy Spirit. Much less may they
have heard the claim here made for it that it is the Holy
Spirit, the same reaHty revealed to the world and rightly
named by the earliest Christians. It was they who dis-
covered it in that first losing and finding of themselves
in their combined effort to spread the Gospel.
There may possibly be reasons why the formative spirit
of a group of human beings bound in devotion to the moral
ideal should not be called God or the Holy Ghost; but
it is hard to see why any human being, professedly Chris-
tian or not, should deny himself the blessing of being filled,
cleansed, and strengthened by its power. If we analyze the
spiritual atmosphere of religious meetings, we always find
humanistic factors which adequately account for it.
In the first place, not every religious meeting where
those present believe in supernatural agencies can boast
of a spiritual atmosphere. On the contrary, the organizers
and leaders of all denominations openly confess, and with
infinite grief, that days, months, and years pass where
there is no such outpouring of the Holy Ghost as is to be
desired. The mere belief in supernatural agents as the
source of spiritual blessings by no means secures those
blessings. Where there is pride and vainglory, where the
preacher is believed to be a hypocrite, where the music is
theatrical, where the Kving pillars of the church are known
to be the supporters of iniquitous commercial enterprises,
the congregation does not experience a season of the out-
pouring of the Spirit. On the other hand, where the
preacher is brave, humane, spiritually minded, indefatigable
and self-sacrificing in his ministry, and the people hunger
and thirst after righteousness, there at any moment it
requires only concentration of attention to the end of deep-
ening the inner experience, and a moral revival begins.
396 THE SOUL OF AMERICA
But over and above such general conditions, one notes
that this atmosphere dominates religious meetings in
proportion as all present have met more than halfway
the purpose of the preacher and of the church. When
each person comes with his mind already predisposed,
discipHned by private and secret meditation and prayer,
when each comes with his mi nd fixed upon the vision
of perfect manhood and a perfect fellowship, the very
bearing and faces of men and women as they enter the
church reveal their mind. When every member of a con-
gregation is thus held by the Ideal, an unwonted serenity,
a sweet peace, pervades the meeting. Every person pres-
ent is reenforced by the consciousness that all are devoted
to one end and are moving in spirit to the same goal.
In speaking of the purpose and devotion of each indi-
vidual present at a meeting, I have touched upon the funda-
mental source of a spiritual atmosphere. In a church ser-
vice where reHgion is interpreted whoUy in a humanistic
sense, every cause of spiritual redemption operates not
less but more powerfully than where redemption is regarded
as a miracle. For the himian understanding now cooper-
ates with the other psychic energies, social and personal,
which induce redemption.
It is in rehgion as it is in physics. A man may deny the
vibratory theory, but the light takes no umbrage, and the
sun blesses the man who misunderstands it, as well as
the plant and animal which are wholly innocent of any
theory whatsoever. Yet, on the other hand, a knowledge
of the laws of Hght might lead to a new mastery of it in
the service of man. For the same reason, we must
attack supematuraHstic theories of the spiritual life, for
the hastening of the Kingdom of Righteousness, without
denying the untold benefit which the world has derived
from the spiritistic reUgions of the past.
INDEX
Acting, rdations existing between ritual
and, 358-362, 367-368.
Almighty, use of the word, 218.
America, the spiritual resources of, 5 ;
recognition of significance of practical
statesmanship in rehgion in, 8; lack
of sense of the State throughout,
12—13 ; the nation considered a law-
ful prey to individuals in, 14; effect
on, of absence of a past, as contrasted
with England and her centuries of
national tradition, 22-23 ; present
state of divorce between patriotism
and religion in, 24; the cultural
unity of, 25 fE. ; A. E. Zimmern
quoted on, 23-28; pioneering work
still under way in, 28-29; hope for,
in her teachings concerning democracy,
30—31; actual evolution of, in ac-
cordance with the law of her own
being, 32—34 ; attitude of the poor
toward the rich in, 36-40; intuition
versus instinct and intellect in, 40-44 ;
the educated, leisured, and revered
class composed of women in, 45-49 ;
the Jews in, 50 ff. ; enthusiasm of
Jews for, 30-54 ; spread and intensity
of anti-Cathohc feeling in, 79; hope
for the spiritual unification of, in
national idealism, 80-82 ; dangers
to, of anti-patriotic Socialism, 82—84;
how to conserve spiritual resources
of, 85 £E. ; emphasis to be laid on fact
that the nation is essentially an
organic spiritual being, 85-88;
America herself the living church of
all Americans, 88-94; the reUgious
denominations to be parties in the
Nation-Chiurch, 94 ff. ; need of a
national committee in, for permeating
churches with patriotism, 102 ; pro-
posed establishment of one new centre
of public worship in each State, 106-
108; estabUshment of institutes for
reUgious research, 108-110; rela-
tion between Church and State in,
120-121; a State church foreign to
principles of, 123-125; present anti-
democratic attitude of reUgious sects
in, 130-134; the miUennial faith in,
250.
Analytical proof of relation between
ceremonial and reUgion, 347-351.
Anarchy, permeating of Sodzdism by,
275-276.
AngUcan Church, certain incongruities
in services of, 300-301.
Apostles' Creed, origin of the, 321.
Architecture as an element in ritual, 367.
Arnold, Matthew, teaching of, that
Goodness is God, 193 ; truth about
the Bible set forth by, 195 ; insight
of, into Christian meanings, 206-207 ',
"Literature and Dogma" by, quoted,
207—208.
Art, symboUsm in, 372-373.
Atheist, discussion of the word, 182-184.
Atmosphere, a spiritual, created by use
of ritual, 393-396.
B
Bagehot, Walter, criticism of American
Constitution and government by, 29 ;
quoted on the essentially slow nature
of progress, 261.
Ball, John, economic teaching of, 268-
269.
Baptism, a religious rite lacking in
aesthetic element, 345-346.
Bergson, distinction made by, between
intuition, and instinct and inteUect,
40.
Bernstein, Edward, perception by, of
danger of German SociaUsts' reliance
upon intellect alone, 42.
397
398
INDEX
Bible, use of the word God in the, 195-
197 ; Matthew Arnold's interpretation
of the message of the, 206-209 ; origin
and development of the, 318-319.
Blake, WilHam, quoted on prayer, 231.
Book of Common Prayer, origin and
development of the, 318-319; pleas
for revision of, 324-329.
Booth, General, "In Darkest England"
by, 3-
Boston, thoughts inspired by visit to
state Capitol in, 96-97,
Browning, E. B., "Casa Guidi Win-
dows," quoted, 78-79.
Business hfe, ritual in, 350.
Carpenter, Edward, the "Towards
Democracy" of, 270; qualifications
of, as a reviser of Uturgies, 334.
Carroll, W. D., "ReUgious Forces in the
United States," dted, 98-99, loi.
Centre of public worship, proposed
estabhshment of one new, in each
State, 106-108.
Ceremonial in church services, ethics
and, 303—306 ; necessary to existence of
religion, 344 S. ; historical proof, 344-
347 ; analytical proof, 347-351 ; the
ethical life and, 383—388. See Ritual.
Chamberlain, Houston, refutation of
argument of, concerning Jews, 56-
59, 60.
Children, lack of traditional prejudices
in, an argument for a new millennial
hope, 257-259 ; lessons for the ritualist
taken from the training of, 377-381.
China, the delayed spiritual and political
awakening of, 68; reHgious problems
presented by contact with, 313.
Christ, use of word, by followers of
naturahstic school, 203—206. See
Jesus.
Christianity, identity of historic, and
the higher patriotism, 17-18; grounds
for the millermial hope in the union
of science and, 247-248.
Christianity minus miracle, 157 S,
Christian Science, advantage of a suit-
able manual of worship illustrated
by, 295-297.
Christian Spiritism, the term, 160.
Church, definition of the word, 202-203.
Church and State, coimection between,
in America, 1 20-1 21.
Church Comprehension League in Eng-
land, 102.
Churches, sociological function of, 13s ff. ;
quickening influence of, 139-141 ;
fatal effect of isolation upon, 276-277 ;
introduction of national idealism into,
in America, 95-99 ; suggested changes
in, 113-114, 115-119; passages that
could be used in, 115-119; need of,
to express the democratic faith, 267—
269 ; as compared with sermons, 294—
295; ethics and ceremonial in, 304-
306 ; the revision of, 306-307 ; music
in, 366 ; literary art in, 366-367. See
Liturgies and Ritual.
Committee, need of a national, in
America for permeating churches
with patriotism, 102.
Communion of saints, author's position
in regard to, i6o-i6i.
Comte, Auguste, a nationalist, 71.
Congreve, Dr., mistaken view of, re-
garding prayer, 231-232; petition
really admitted into prayer by, 233.
Conversion, the sodal genesis of, 146-
147-
Cooperation rather than toleration
needed in religion, 277—280.
CosmopoUtanism, different forms of,
69; evils of, 71—73.
Creator, view of, from humanistic
standpoint, 161— 163.
Creeds, revision of, 113; the right to
adapt, 321-324.
Dead, views held' of the, under human-
istic teachings, 157—158.
Dearmer, "Parson's Handbook," right
relation between fine arts and ritual
set forth in, 346-347.
Debate as an item in public worship,
280-283.
Democracy, worth to Americans of
their teachings of, 29-31 ; antagonism
of idea of religious sects to, 130-134 ;
in religion, 267 ff. ; need of church
services for, 267-269; error in rea-
soning such as Sir Henry Maine's
INDEX
399
concerning, 269^271 ; the dynamics
of, must be borne in mind, 271—273.
Demonism, rejection of, l6i.
Denominations, should become parties
and not remain sects, 125—130;
anti-democratic position of, under
present regime, 130-134 ; fatal results
of isolation of, 276-277.
Devil, prevalent disbelief in a, 210;
argument in favour of existence of,
210-212; disbelief in, almost as de-
plorable as disbelief in God, 212-213.
Dickinson, G. Lowes, quoted on the
power of ritual, 373-374.
Dostoievsky, works of, an example of
law of dependence of literature upon
nationality, 86-87.
Drama and ritual, 367-368.
Dress, considered as a matter of ritual,
351-356.
Dynamics of democracy, the, 271-273.
East, religious problems arising from
contact with the, 3x3-315.
Elgar, Sir Edward, utilization of genius
of, in revision of church services, 334.
Eliot, George, " Spanish Gypsy" of,
as a confirmation rite, 341-342.
Emerson, R. W., poem of, used as
hymn, iig; relation between early
church training and reUgious experi-
ence of, 140; state transcending
prayer shown in writings of, 241 ;
position of, regarding ethics and
ceremonial in church services, 304-
306 ; quoted on the development of the
EngUsh Bible and the Uturgy, 3i8-3ig.
England, spiritually a different sphere
from America, 22; difference be-
tween America and, caused by
America's lack of a past, 22-23 ; re-
spect of working-men for the " gentle-
man class" in, 39 ; reliance of people
of, upon instinct, 40-41 ; position of
women in, 49; Church Comprehen-
sion League in, 102 ; Estabhshed
Church in, not national, 124-125;
beUevers in the millennial hope in,
249-250.
Established Church in England, posi-
tion of, 124-125.
Eternal, use of word, in naturalistic
religion, 216-217.
Ethics and ceremonial, 303-306, 356-
358, 383-388.
Eugenics, the religion of, 265-266.
Evil, present-day awakening to a real-
ization of the unity in the various
forms of, 210-212; a living reality,
212-213.
Expatriation, the torture of, and arous-
ing of patriotism by, 15-16.
Fine arts, absence of, in religious rites,
does not prove an absence of ritual,
345 ; statement of right relation be-
tween ritual and, 346-347, 366-371-
Finland, recent assertion of nationaHty
in, 74.
" Five per cent, bonds of peace," 75-79-
Forms of worship, prejudices against,
and rules for passing judgment on,
336-343-
Froude, quoted on connection between
the genius of a nation and great art,
87-
Germany, omnipresence of idea of the
State in, 12-13; the Reformation the
awakening of spiritual self-conscious-
ness in, 18; continued reverence of
the poor for the rich in, 39; rehance
of people of, upon intellect rather than
intuition or instinct, 41-42; attitude
of men of, toward women, 49.
Gladstone, W. E., quoted on the British
and the American Constitutions, 41.
God, view of, from humanistic stand-
point, 161-163; discussion of the
word, 173-174; definition of, 190;
question of existence of a, 191—192 ;
the teaching that Goodness is God,
193-194 ; meaning of the word in the
Bible and as used by poets and writers,
195-197 ; the personaUty of, 197-
201 ; dedine of belief in, and in the
devil, compared, 212-213.
" God and the People," Rauschenbusch's,
313-
Goodness, view of, as God, 193-194.
400
INDEX
Gordon, General, and the retardation
of dmia, 68.
Hell and hell-fire, teaching of, a desir-
ability, 213—216-
Historic personages, prayers to, 225-228.
Hoffding, " The Philosophy of Religion,"
dted, i6g.
Holiness, use of term, in naturalistic
scheme of religion, 203.
Holydays, observance of ethical, 388—
389-
Holy Ghost, the working of, effected by
a social organization, 151-152.
Hooker, Richard, statesmanship in
rehgion illustrated by, 7.
Hooper, use of word God by, 196—197.
Human beings, addressing of prayers
to, 2ig ff.
Hiomanistic book of reUgious services,
need of a, 291-294.
Humanistic church service, illustrative
passages for use in, 115-119.
Humanistic meaning of theological
language, 171 ff.
Humanists in rehgion, 334-335-
Humanitarianism, individualistic, 70-
75 ; proofs of unity of purpose of
nationahty and, 74.
Hymns, adaptation of, 322.
Immigration, dangers in, to America's
welfare, 67.
Incarnation of God in Christ, nature of,
and use of word incarnation, 205-206.
IndividuaKsm, reUgious, consideration
of, 135-154; of professed Socialists,
275-276.
Individualistic interpretation of reh-
gious experience, the error imderlying,
135-139-
Infinite, correct use of the word, 217-
218.
Institutes for religious research proposed,
108-110.
Intellectual interpretation, liberty of,
114-115-
Intemational Peace Movement, selfish
interests which iaspire supporters of,
75-78.
Intuition an element of Americans' char-
acter, as opposed to instinct and in-
tellect, 40-44.
Ireland, victory of nationahty in, 74.
Isolation of churches, and disastrous
effects, 276—277.
James, WilHam, error of, in giving an
individualistic interpretation of the
inner life, 137-144.
Japan, vain search for a State religion
by, 313-315-
Jesus, bearing of the Jewish Church
upon religious experience of, 138, 139;
has no active personal voice in pres-
ent-day human affairs, 159; the force
he does still exercise, 159—160; mis-
take of attributing present active
power over man to, 165-166; ad-
dressing of prayers to, 228-230; the
undeniable inspiration of his life, 229.
Jews, statesmanship in rehgion illus-
trated by andent, 7 ; identity of
religion and patriotism shown by, 17;
enthusiasm of, for America, 50-53 ;
true feeling of right-minded, in
America, 54-56 ; the two voices of,
as expressed in the Old Testament,
56—59; necessity devoKong upon,
of dedaring their real attitude, sq-
61 ; Zangwill's language as to, not
suffidently expKdt, 62—63 ; checking
of spiritual originahty of, on account
of false voice in Old Testament, 65-
66 ; presen'ation of the millennial
hope by, 252—253 ; ceremonial as an
aid to the moral character of, 387-388.
Jingoism voiced in the Hebrew scrip-
tures, 56-57-
Kingdom of God on earth, history of
hope for the, 248—253.
Kiphng, Rudyard, quoted, 21—22; sug-
gested as a helper in revision of
hturgies, 333.
Lee, Gerald Stanley, " Inspired Milhon-
aires" of, 39.
INDEX
401
Literary art in public worship, 366-367.
Literature, dependence of, upon na-
tionality, 86-87.
Liturgies, tlie growth of, 316 ff. ; the
result of effort, 316-318; adaptation
of rites of historic churches, 320-321 ;
the right to adapt creeds, hymns, and
prayers, 321-324; pleas for revision
of, 324—328; old forms were new
once, 329-332 ; poets who might be
called upon for aid, 332-334; famiUar
acquaintance a "requisite for judging,
336-338; judgment of, based on
their effect on the believer, 338-339;
avoidance of monotony of reitera-
tion, 340—341. See Ritual.
Lord's Prayer, efficacy of, when ad-
dressed to human beings, 221-222.
Lord's Supper, as a ceremonial lacking
in iEsthetic element, 343-346.
Luther, Martin, bearing of Catholic
Church upon religious experience of,
138, 139; the prophet for a time
of the Kingdom of God on earth, 249.
M
Maine, Sir Henry, error in argument
of, concerning democracy, 269-271.
Manual of national worship, need of a
new, 291 ff.
Marriage ceremony, ethical form of, 295.
Marx, Karl, the menace of doctrines of,
82-84.
Mazzini, Guiseppe, a nationahst, 71.
Methodists, the sin of, in isolating them-
selves, 278.
Mexico, consideration of present situa-
tion in, 76.
Millenniimi, new gromids of hope for
the, in the union of Christianity and
science, 247-248 ; history of the hope
and expectation of coming of the,
248-233 ; false basis of old hope of,
foimded upon supematuralism, 253 ;
the new hope, which anticipates
a heaven material as well as spiritual,
254; sanity and purity of the new
hope, 254-237; argiiment for, in the
beneficial results of an improvement
in the condition of the poor, 256-257 ;
argument for, foimd in unbiassed
condition of young children, 257-
259 ; possible rapidity of achievement
of, 261—265.
Milton, Wordsworth's sonnet viewed
as a prayer to, 226-228.
Miracle, Christianity minus, 157 ff.
Monistic spiritism, rejection of, 161-163.
Monotheism, use of word, 182.
Morley, Lord, plea of, for revision of
rehgious forms, 327-329.
Music in church services, 366.
N
National church, a voluntary, 120-122;
an un-American idea, 123-125; dif-
ference between a State church and,
124-125.
National idealism, the religion of Ju-
daism, 17; historic Christianity and,
17-19; disappearance of rehgious
sects with establishment of, 129.
Nationalism, should enter into a true
Peace Movement, 78; antagonism
of Church of Rome to, 79-82.
Nationality, sympathy of leading hu-
manitarians for principles of, 71—72 ;
danger to, of anti-patriotic Sociahsm,
82-84 1 l^w of dependence of Utera-
ture upon, 86-87.
Naturalism, discussion of term, 166-
168.
Newton, Sir Isaac, a beUever in the
Millennium, 250
Norway, recent solidification of nation-
aUty of, 74.
O
Old Testament, two voices in, expres-
sive of Jews' view of themselves and
other races, 56-59; injury wrought
to Jews by false voice in the, 65-66.
Paine, Thomas, quoted, 70.
Parties and sects, rehgious, 125-130.
Patriotism, arousing of spirit of, by
temporary expatriation, 15-16; iden-
tity of religion with the higher, 16—17 ,'
identity of historic Christianity and,
17-18; rehgion and, two different
things in America, 24 ; effect of identi-
fication of rehgion and, by the Jews
402
INDEX
on their attitude toward America,
52 ; enrichment of, by subsidiary
patriotism, 54-56 ; religious denomina-
tions in America should be centres
for the propaganda of the higher,
94 £f.
Patten, "Social Hymns" of, 313.
Paul, St., statesmanship in religion
illustrated by, 6.
Peace Movement, motives actuating
promoters of the, 75-78; methods to
be pursued by a true, 78.
Personality of God, the, 197-201.
Pereonification, question of exaggera-
tion in, 197-198; of God, 198-199;
further consideration of use of, 199-
201.
Pilgrim Hymnal, the, 95—96.
Poets, help from, in revision of Htorgies,
332-334-
Poor, relations of the rich and the, in
America as compared with other
countries, 36-40; beneficial results
of an improvement in condition of,
an argument for a naturahstic mil-
lennial hope, 256-257.
Portugal, the awakening of spiritual
autonomy in, 74.
Positivistic prayer, exclusion of petition
from, 231—232.
Poverty, fallacy of glorification of, by
the well-to-do, 255—257.
Prayer, as a reUgious and a theological
term, 173, 174; definition of, 202;
wherein hes the efficacy of, 219-220;
arguments in justification of, 220;
answered by human beings, 220-222;
outward practices to be followed in
making, 222—223 ; addressed to the
absent, 223—224; misdirected, but
answered through being overheard,
224—225; offered to historic per-
sonages, 225-228; to Jesus, 228-230;
addressed to the great tendencies and
institutions of human society, 230-
231 ; is not merely conununion, 231—
234; in the first place mental, but
needs to be formulated in words and
uttered in speech, 234 ; to be adequate
should be uttered in pubhc, 234—236;
the emotional elevation of, 236-238;
statements of fact in, 238-240; a
state which transcends the form of.
240-242 ; the value of ethical to moral
declarations, 242-246.
Preaching, inadequacy of, as sole in-
stnmient of propaganda, 297—302.
Psychology of pubUc worship, 344 ff.
Pubhc prayer, 234—236.
Public worship, establishment of new
centre of, in each state, 106-108 ;
debate to be an item in, 280-283 ;
psychology of, 344-371 ; democratic
forms of, 372 ff. ; relation between
good deeds and, 388-393. See Litur-
gies and Ritual.
Quakers, decay of the denomination, as
a quickening force, 278; certain
conditions necessary for outsiders to
pa^ judgment on meetings of, 336-
337 ; service of, considered as the
height of dramatic and eloquent
ceremonial, 344—345.
Quin, Malcolm, attempted exclusion
by, of petition from prayer, 232—233.
R
Rauschenbusch, "God and the People"
by, 313-
Redemption, significance of word, in
humanistic rehgion, 216.
Reformation, significance of the, con-
cerning national ideaHsm in Germany,
18.
Rehgion, statesmanship in, 6—8 ; identity
of the higher patriotism and, 16-19;
separation of patriotism and, in
America, 24 ; rehgious and theological
use of word, 173, 174; investigation
of what is meant by, 184-185; Her-
bert Spencer's error concerning, 186;
definition of, resulting from discoveries
by psychologists, 1S7; varying degrees
of development of, according to de-
velopment of power of focussing atten-
tion on some Being, 187—188; difference
in rational and in practical value of
religions, 188; apparently contradic-
tory practices in the least-developed
forms of, 188-189; not always "benefi-
cent in its effects, 189; a regrettable
use of current speech to identify the
INDEX
403
word with the only true and right
reUgion, i8q; definition of, proves ab-
surdity of dedaring that it has to do
with the supernatural, 190; coopera-
tion needed in, and not mere tolera-
tion, 277—280; the social psychology
of, 283-284.
Religious parties versus sects, 125-130.
Religious research, institutes for, 108-
IIO.
Religious rites, prejudices against, and
rules for judging, 336-343-
Repentance, definition of, 203.
Revelation, Book of, a document in
behalf of the Millennium, 251-252.
Revision of Book of Common Prayer,
324-329.
Revivals, spontaneity not necessarily
desirable in, 148, 150-151.
Ritual, the growth of, 316-318; famil-
iar acquaintance with, necessary for
passing judgment on, 336-338, judg-
ment of, based on effect of service on
the behever, 338-339; proofs of
connection between religion and, 344—
351 ; indispensabihty of, not due to
supematuralism, 356; the ethi-
cal meaning of, 356-358; dif-
ference between acting and, 358—362 ;
relation of acts of, to other deeds 'in
real Kfe, 362—363^ reasons for exist-
ence of a social-democratic, 3:63—365 ;
relation between the fine arts and, 366-
371; the symboUsm in, 372—374;
effects of, working through the senses,
374—383 ; creation of a spiritual
atmosphere by, 393-396. See Litur-
gies.
Robins, EUzabeth, "Votes for Women,"
reference to, 359.
Roman Catholic Church, statesmanship
in religion illustrated by, 7 ; protest
of nationaUties against dominance of,
74; anti-nationaHsm of the, 79-82;
psychology of ritual of, 346, 370;
music in services, 366.
Sabbath, observance of an ethical, 388-
389-
Saint, definition of, in naturahstic
scheme of rehgion, 203.
Saints, power of, hmited to their earthly
existence, 160-161.
Salvation, meaning of, in a naturalistic
religion, 216.
Savonarola, relation between Catholic
Church and religious experience of,
138, 139 ; as the prophet of an earthly
Kingdom of God, 249.
Science, grounds for a new millennial
hope in union of Christianity and,
247-248, 253 ; a religion based on,
an irmovation, 259-260; power of,
to unify men, 307-310.
Scientific management in America, 44.
Sects, discussion of religious parties and,
125—130; anti-democratic spirit of,
130-134; the splitting off of, a sin,
278 ; urgent need of a new instrument
to settle the strife between, 310-311.
Seeley, Sir John, expression by, of
identity of true religion and the higher
patriotism, 19; quotations from, 19-
21; use of term "naturalism" by,
166; position of, concerning ethics
and ceremonial in cihurch services,
306,
Seelye, Julius, author's indebtedness to,
100.
Self-made man in religion, 141-144.
Self-respect, teaching of, a chief char-
acteristic of social-democratic reli-
gion, 284-288.
Senses, effects of ritual working through
the, 374-383.
Shakespeare, Emerson quoted on one
phase of work of, 319—320.
Shaw, Bernard, as a reviser of Utuigies,
334-
Signs, outward, need of an ethical ideal-
ism for, 39t:-393-
Sin, meaning of word, 210.
Social character of prayer, 234-236.
Social democracy, in rehgion, 267 ff. ;
self-respect inreUgion taught by, 284-
a88.
Social Democratic Party in Germany,
fatal rehance of, upon intellect, 4a.
Social-democratic ritual, reasons for
existence of a, 363-365.
"Social Hymns," Patten's, 313.
SodaUsm, danger of an anti-patriotic, to
spiritual autonomy of nations, 82-84 ;
mingling of Anarchy with, 275-276.
404
INDEX
Sodalists, the religious individualism of,
275-276.
Sodal psychology of religion, 283-
284.
*' Social Worship," rites and ceremonies
of Ethical Church, London, published
in, 312.
Sociological function of the churches,
I3S ff-
Spencer, Herbert, error of, regarding
rehgion, 186.
Spiritism, discussion of term, 167.
Spiritual, significance of word, 4—6.
Spiritual atmosphere created by a
ritual, 393-395.
Spiritual resources, meaning of term, 4 ;
the conservation of, 5—6; methods of
conserving America's, 85 ff.
State, presence of the, in Germany, as
compared with absence of in America,
12-13.
State church, difference between a
national church and, 124—125.
Statesmanship in religion, the need of, 6 ;
illustrated by St. Paul, ancient
Judaism, the Roman Cathohcs, and
others, 6-8.
Subsidiary patriotism, 54-56.
Supematurahsm, increase in rejection
of, in religion, 135-136; to be pre-
ferred to individuahstic occultism,
153-154; elimination of, under hu-
manistic interpretation of religion,
157; effects of discarding of, on our
views of the dead, including Christ,
Virgin Mary, the saints, and other
supernatural agents, rs7— 168; dis-
carding of, does not imply discarding
of theology, 1 80-181; discarding of,
does not involve discarding of prayer
and its benefits, 246 ; as a false basis
of the millennial hope, 248, 253 ;
religions based on, do not teach self-
respect to man, 284—285 ; indis-
pensability of religious rites and signs
not due to, 356; belief in, not neces-
sary to create a spiritual atmosphere
in a religious assembly, 393-396.
Swinburne, Algernon, conception of God
set forth by, 196; prayers in poems
of, 237-238.
Symbolism, of dress, 351-356; use of,
in art and in religion, 372-374.
Tennyson, "The Higher Pantheism,"
quoted, 241.
Theism, use of word, 181, 182.
Theological language, humanistic mean-
ing of, 171 ff.
Theology, retention of, necessary in
rehgious systems, 174—176; discus-
sion of the word, 176-181.
Turner, Professor, quoted, 98.
U
Unification of men by science, 307-
310-
Uniforms, connection between, and
ritual, 352-353.
Unitarianism, devitalization of, 279.
Unitarians, incongruous adherence to
traditional rites in services of, 301.
Universities of America, promulgation of
the new patriotism in, 98-100 ; efforts
of, should be supplemented by the
churches, loo-ioi.
"Varieties of Religious Experience,"
James's, discussion of, 137-144.
Virgin Mary, attitude to be taken
toward, 160.
W
Ward, James, " Naturalism and Agnos-
ticism" by, 166.
Wars, points of view for condemning,
75-
Watson, William, quoted, 199; as a
reviser of liturgies, ^ss-
Wells, H. G., quoted on income tax in
America, 29 ; on Jews in America,
50; on the new conscience awakened
in America, 100.
Wesley, Charles, a believer in the mil-
lennial hope, 250.
Wesley, John, practical statesmanship
in religion shown by, 7-8; relation
between Anglican Church training
and the religious experience of, 138,
139-
Wesleys, hymns of the, 322.
INDEX
405
White, Andrew D., quoted on hope of
America reposing in her colleges and
universities, 99-100.
White Slave traffic, 77.
Widif, John, a prophet of the Millen-
nium, 249.
Women, position of, in America pecul-
iar to that country, 45-49.
Worship, definition of, 202; need of a
new manual of national, 291 £f. See
Public worship.
Zangwill, Israel, criticism of lack of
positiveness in statements of, con-
cerning Jews, 62-63 ; genius of, suit-
able for aiding in revision of liturgies,
333-
Zimmem, A. E., impressions of America,
quoted and criticised, 25-28.
ZuebUn, quoted concerning women in
America, 46-47.
'T~"HE following pages contain advertisements of
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SOCIAL WORSHIP
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Compiled and edited by Stanton Coit, Chairman of the
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