822 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



gather private sentiments and public opinions, giving them 

 some independent authority. More especially when a society 

 becomes less occupied in warlike activities, and more occupied 

 in quietly carrying on production and distribution, do there 

 grow clear in the general consciousness those rules of conduct 

 which must be observed to make industrial co-operation 

 harmonious. 



For these there is eventually obtained a supernatural 

 authority through some alleged communication of them to a:i 

 inspired man ; and for long periods, conformity to them 

 is insisted on for the reason that they are God s commands. 

 The emphasizing of moral precepts which are said to be thus 

 derived, comes, however, to occupy a larger space in religious 

 services. With offerings, praises, and prayers, forming the 

 directly propitiatory part, come to be joined homilies and 

 sermons, forming the indirectly propitiatory part: largely 

 composed of ethical injunctions and exhortations. And the* 

 modified human nature produced by prolonged social discip 

 line, evolves at length the conception of an independent 

 ethics an ethics so far independent that it comes to have 

 a foundation of its own, apart from the previously-alleged 

 theological foundation. Nay, more than this happens. The 

 authority of the ethical consciousness becomes so high that 

 theological dogmas are submitted to its judgments, and in 

 many cases rejected because of its disapproval. Among the 

 Greeks, Socrates exemplified the way in which a developed 

 moral sentiment led to a denial of the accepted beliefs con 

 cerning the gods and their deeds ; and in our own days 

 we often see current religious doctrines brought to the bar of 

 conscience, and condemned as untrue because they ascribe to 

 a deity who claims worship, certain characters which are tho 

 reverse of worshipful. Moreover, while we see this while 

 we see, too, that in daily life, criticisms passed on conduct 

 approve or condemn it as intrinsically good or bad, irrespec 

 tive of alleged commands ; we also see that modern preach 

 ing tends more and more to assume an ethical character. 



