THE STABILITY OF TRUTH. 



345 



paper, from the word "religion." The essence of "be- 

 lief " is the categorical statement of propositions. These 

 may be built into a creed, which word is the Latin syno- 

 nym of " belief." 



" Religion " implies rather a condition of the mind 

 and heart, an attitude, not a formula. Faith, hope, 



charit}' do not rest on logic or obser- 

 Religion and ^- ^ ,. . . . 



, ,.^ vation. Religion implies a reverent at- 



belief. . , 1 • 



titude toward the universe and its 



forces — a tender feeling toward one's fellow-mortals. 

 " Pure religion and undefiled " has never formulated a 

 " creed," has never claimed for itself orthodoxy. It has 

 no stated ritual and no recognised cult of priests. Much 

 that passes conventionally as religious belief among 

 men has no such quality or value. It is simply the 

 dSn's of our grandfathers' science. While religion and 

 belief become entangled in the human mind, so as not to 

 be easily separable, the one is not necessarily a product 

 of the other. 



Most that is considered vital in religious belief does 

 not involve objective propositions. It is rather associ- 

 ated with personal character or temperament, and its 

 generalizations must be expressed in terms more or less 

 metaphorical or poetical, for their origin is largely sub- 

 jective, and no terms of purely human experience are 

 adequate for their definition. Such, for example, is the 

 statement of belief that " the heart of the universe is 

 sound," that " God is Love," that " Love is the greatest 

 thing in the world," or that "there is a force outside 

 ourselves that makes for righteousness." Such expres- 

 sions imply the perfect harmony of natural laws. Such 

 laws — as Agassiz has expressed it — are " the thoughts 

 or operations of the highest powers in the universe — 

 the highest Something, however we may choose to re- 

 gard it." With belief of this sort science has no quarrel, 



