THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF RELIGION 255 



from his deepest self. No wonder that Sabatier should say: " Man 

 is incurably religious." Or that Royce should give " the highest 

 worth to religion among the interests of humanity." Or that Coe 

 should affirm: " Worship is so wrought into the fiber of our minds 

 that we need only come to ourselves to find God." x Or that Granger 

 should say, even in arguing for the right of free thought in matters 

 of religion: " The religious sentiment needs no adventitious aids, 

 for it is safe here to trust the unbiased instincts of mankind. So far 

 as prophecy can reach, it seems certain that man will always worship 

 and that the symbols of the Christian tradition will afford the 

 ultimate vehicle of his devotion. " 2 We can hardly do less, there- 

 fore, than to confess with George Macdonald: " Life and religion are 

 one, or neither is anything. Religion is no way of life, no show of 

 life, no observance of any sort. It is neither the food nor the medicine 

 of being. It is life essential." 



Is religion of really fundamental importance, or can we easily 

 dispense with it? 



No age ever believed more than our own in education, in the 

 ethical, in life. No age ever demanded more imperiously the best 

 that education, ethical living, and the richest experiences of life 

 can give. And the truest thinking of our time indicates that into 

 this best no age and no man may come without religion. We can- 

 not dispense with religion; it is absolutely fundamental in its nature. 



1 The Religion of a Mature Mind, p. 250. 



2 International Journal of Ethics, October, 1903. 



