316 PROFESSIONAL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 



in England, by organizing bands of men who should go through all 

 England, reading the Scriptures, commenting thereon, and teaching 

 the simple truths of morality and religion. While under his im- 

 mediate influence these pupils, who were, in the main, men of humble 

 rank and meager education, accomplished a modest but salutary 

 result. Relieved of supervision, stirred by the novel joy of leader- 

 ship and unrestrained by education or experience, they developed 

 truly dangerous tendencies which forced the religious authorities to a 

 cruel and rigorous suppression. 



Romanism has always been willing to employ the layman in the 

 promotion of religious development, but under careful supervision. 

 Her method, and a very successful one, has been that of the religious 

 brotherhood, with or without monastic vows. Through such organi- 

 zations a vast amount of valuable religious work may be achieved 

 without danger. 



Our last century, however, particularly its latter half, and our 

 country, have given the layman his real opportunity. At no other 

 time and in no other country, except the self-governing colonies of 

 Great Britain, has the growth of truly democratic ideas and institu- 

 tions been sufficiently advanced to give the layman a free initiative 

 and an ungrudging distinction in matters religious. If we would 

 take honor to ourselves in this respect above the mother country, 

 it is only because the looser religious traditions of America and the 

 continuously pressing demands for wise initiative have caused us 

 to make smooth and open the pathway of any aggressive would-be 

 teacher. Opportunities we offer with freedom, although our ap- 

 proval is none the less based upon wise achievement. It is a curious 

 but indisputable fact that two of the notable religious movements 

 of the last century, the Sunday-school and the Young Men's Chris- 

 tian Association, each originated in England, was borrowed by this 

 country, but has found its broadest and best-balanced develop- 

 ment on this side of the water. The Sunday-school is coming to be 

 with us the church's department of religious education; the Young 

 Men's Christian Association long ago became a representatively 

 educational organization. The dignity thus won for each, because 

 of its indispensable place in organized society, has no parallel else- 

 where. 



How the layman came to have his matchless opportunity as a 

 free religious agent is an interesting question which cannot be 

 decisively answered. The hospitality of our fathers and of ourselves 

 toward all that makes for moral culture and religious conviction, 

 and their confidence and ours in the unfettered expression of one's 

 deepest and noblest ideals, has combined, no doubt, to create an 

 environment singularly adapted to the encouragement and upbuild- 

 ing of any institution which gives promise of educating the public for 



