RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE: PERSONAL 



BY HUGH BLACK 



[Hugh Black, Professor of Practical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, 

 New York, 1906. b. Rothesay, Scotland, March 26, 1868. M.A. Glasgow 

 University; Post-graduate, Free Church College, Glasgow. First Minister of 

 Sherwood Church, Paisley, 1891-96; Minister of St. George's United Free 

 Church, Edinburgh, 1896-1906. Author of Friendship; Culture and Restraint; 

 Work; The Practice of Self-Culture; Edinburgh Sermons.] 



THE title of this section of the great department of religion is 

 somewhat ambiguous, as it might mean a discussion of the influence 

 of the individual on religion, on religious development and organi- 

 zation, and might also mean the influence of religion on the indi- 

 vidual, its effects on personal character and its special impact on 

 the single soul. Fortunately these two subjects are cognate and 

 are only different sides of the one preeminent subject of personal 

 religion. From whichever side we enter, we come close to the 

 heart of religion. The real subject of this section is the place of 

 the individual in this great matter of religion, the relation of the 

 human soul to God. 



Our subject is the climax of all the sections in this department 

 of the Congress. All that has gone before of religious education 

 and agencies and work leads up to this transcendent culmination, 

 in which the soul is at home with God; and the section that follows, 

 dealing with the social influence of religion, can have meaning only 

 in so far as religion is a living power in the hearts and lives of 

 individuals. Indeed, this whole wonderful Congress, attempting 

 to cover or at least to touch upon every branch of universal know- 

 ledge, is a mighty illustration of one aspect of our subject, reminding 

 us of all the inspiration that has come to the hearts of men and all 

 the glory of truth that has broken upon their sight, part of the 

 light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And 

 still more, I make bold to say that the magnificent triumphs of 

 human knowledge of which this Congress is a record, all the arts 

 and sciences represented in such profusion here, would lose all their 

 joy, and lose all essential meaning, if we were compelled to abandon 

 the sphere of this humble section of personal religion. The only 

 unity of knowledge and life and nature and the universe is God, 

 and if we can never enter into a relation of personal communion 

 we are only fumbling at the fringe of things and can never get 

 further than the fringe. All our attainments and achievements 

 turn to dust and ashes, with no true meaning and no clear future 

 for them, if we are shut out from any hope of spiritual fellowship. 

 My purpose, therefore, in this lecture, is not to treat of details of 



