RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE 413 



fact of such communication and transmission there is not the slightest 

 doubt. All the great religious faiths have had a personal origin. 

 None of them was born of an abstraction. Every one was an incar- 

 nation. It is when we see a soul manifestly sustained of God that we 

 are sure that God lives. 



I note next that the idealism thus caught from inspiring person- 

 alities is to be developed through the ordinary relations of man to 

 man. Its guides must be the landmarks of an every-day morality. 

 The foundations of the Holy City are in the normal labors and loves 

 of humanity, in the discipline which shows its results in the strength- 

 ening of the qualities of manhood which all people recognize and 

 honor. I know that this again is a conception that stands apart 

 from the more familiar conceptions of the promotion of the spiritual 

 life. It is generally held that admission to the domain of faith is 

 through conformity to the dictates of dogmatic authority, or through 

 meditation and prayer, or through certain rites and ceremonies. 

 These all have their legitimate place in spiritual nurture, but in no 

 one of these methods inheres the secret of power. The theory that 

 religious influence is primarily the gaining of an intellectual assent, 

 and that religion has been taught and learned when certain truths 

 have been imparted, is surely so partial that it cannot long endure. 

 The stoutest assertion of a borrowed opinion cannot be faith. The 

 theory that religious influence enters only in quietude and through 

 the gate of abstract thought is jostled by the confusion of rival 

 philosophies, premature and incoherent. The theory that religious 

 influence is transmitted only in sacred usages and by ecclesiastical 

 drill distorts the fair completeness of religion and cramps and im- 

 prisons the spirit. There is certainly place, I repeat, for all these 

 theories and methods. Without definite convictions religion may 

 be a mere invertebrate mush of sentimentality. Without medita- 

 tion it may be purely superficial. Without worship it is stifled and 

 inexpressive, without the charm of beauty, without a door of utter- 

 ance. Sound doctrine and quiet contemplation and beloved rituals 

 are all aids to the maintenance of religion, but they are not religion. 



The supply of religious influence through the channels of the 

 natural duties and relationships of human life alone satisfies, I ask 

 you to note, all the primary requirements of which I have spoken. 

 It alone convinces men of reality. There is nothing speculative or 

 visionary about it. It assures men of freedom. Their spiritual 

 nurture proceeds under no law of outward constraint, but in control 

 of the law of liberty. It is diverse and varied in its operations. The 

 pietist's devotions, the dogmatist's rules, and the ceremonialist's 

 rites are apt to be the same from day to day and in all men. They 

 lose the value of the rich personal distinctions of mankind. Free- 

 dom, reality, variety, and continuity are the conditions of education, 



