THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF RELIGION 245 



religion. Every attempt to preserve something as especially sacred 

 by setting it apart from all the rest of life results inevitably in leaving 

 it apart out of vital contact with the rest of life, in failing to per- 

 meate life with its power. This has happened, for example, again 

 and again in false attempts to exalt the Bible. Religion must, 

 rather, believe in itself so profoundly as to be certain that no part of 

 the life and work of the world can come to its best except as it is 

 permeated with the religious spirit. Religion, therefore, equally 

 with education, must be catholic in its spirit. 



Not less earnest must be the insistence that, equally with educa- 

 tion, the spirit of religion must be predominantly objective. It is 

 indeed true that men have very commonly believed that the sphere 

 of religion was preeminently a sphere for introspection; but, unless 

 the whole modern study of man is mistaken in its clear conviction 

 that in body and mind we are made for action, the sphere of 

 introspection, even in religion, must be decidedly limited, and much 

 more limited than has often been conceived to be the case. There 

 is no doubt a place for a certain amount of self-examination, and it 

 can be clearly indicated just what that place is. There should be, 

 namely, just so much introspection as may make a man .certain that 

 he is really putting himself in the presence of the great objective 

 forces that make for character and godliness. Having determined 

 that, the less a man's gaze is turned in upon himself, the better both 

 for his character and for his religion. It is not less true, then, in 

 religion than in education, that the prevailing mood must be every- 

 where the. objective mood. 



As to both means and spirit, then, we may unhesitatingly conclude 

 that the ideals, both of religion and of education, are in agreement. 

 An education, thoroughgoing in the use of these means and com- 

 pletely informed by such a spirit, cannot be really " godless." It is 

 only shallow insight that can so see it. We need to insist only that 

 the education shall be real education education of the entire man. 

 And religion, too, is so seen not to be some simply external thing 

 that can be merely spliced on to life, but an essential factor, implying 

 the greatest means and moved by the highest spirit. 



(3) If, in the third place, we compare religion and education as 

 to method, it must be said that the ruling method in both is the same, 

 - staying persistently in the presence of the best in each sphere of 

 value. 



For education, conceived as culture, should give especially ability 

 to enter into all values with appreciation and conviction, conviction 

 strong enough to be ready to pass into act. We can hardly ask less 

 than this in any well-rounded education. No man can be called fully 

 cultured to whom are closed the doors of any of the great kingdoms 

 of worth. 



