FUNCTIONS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 279 



Thus the soul of modern man builds many houses for itself, yet 

 lacks a home. At such a time the function of religious education, 

 as far as the merely individual life is concerned, is the firmer organ- 

 ization of personality through the revelation within it of a divine 

 principle of unity and finality. We must be brought to realize that, 

 just as the apparent restlessness of nature really expresses unvary- 

 ing law, so within the active struggle of life the peace and calm of 

 eternity may brood. We must learn that values have their only 

 value through ministering to personality, and that personality, in 

 order to realize itself, must take hold upon the Infinite. 



Another pertinent characteristic of our time is the growth of social 

 self-consciousness. Nothing in modern life is more striking or more 

 heartening than the deepening of the sense of social obligation, and 

 the increasing realization, among reflective souls everywhere, that 

 the meaning of life is found, not in anything that an individual can 

 possess or achieve for himself or have bestowed upon him, but in the 

 maintenance of truly human relations among men. 



The social movement, to an extent of which it is hardly aware, 

 takes its rise and derives its power from religion. Though it has 

 been made possible by the coming of modern means of acquaintance 

 among men, yet the notion of brotherhood that is emerging within 

 this new human intercourse has been learned most of all from the 

 teacher of the two great commandments. " Deep-seated in our 

 mystic frame," as the social ideal is, it has been made " current 

 coin " by Jesus and his followers. 



It is significant that Jesus recognized no possible separation of the 

 social from the religious impulse. To him the fatherhood of God and 

 the brotherhood of men were reverse sides of the same coin. His 

 religion, as far as it is realized in the world, is a social fact, a kingdom 

 that comprehends in its scope all the so-called secular interests of 

 life, and yet relates them all to the Father who is in all and over all. 



But the present social consciousness has not yet perceived that, 

 in the nature of things, ideal society must be a divine as well as a 

 human fellowship. As in our individual occupations, so in our social 

 strivings, we are largely missing the sense of eternity and finality. 

 The enthusiasm for humanity that ennobles many of our choicest 

 souls has in it a note of pathos because it includes an unsatisfied 

 religious aspiration. Seeking for something large enough to fill a 

 human heart and command a human will, but falling upon the doubts 

 of the age, these noble souls have fixed upon humanity as the worthi- 

 est object of their devotion. 



Thus it is with many of the enlightened and the gifted. Among 

 the masses of the people the same movement of the mind is taking 

 place, though in less ethereal form. Here a rough-and-tumble 

 struggle for the betterment of human relations largely takes the place 



