266 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



the origin of our Church, the derivation of its sacra- 

 ments, the history of its growth, the majesty of the 

 living structure is no whit diminished. Once more 

 we have learned something about methods. Though 

 the Church may have evolved by natural means, that 

 should teach us to see God in Nature, not to deny the 

 Church to the God of Nature. Though religion arose 

 naturally and inevitably by the psychology of man, 

 that should show us that man's whole nature is 

 essentially religious. 



Attempts to support religion on an intellectual assent 

 to dogma alone are doomed to failure. They ignore the 

 essential psychological basis of the religious instinct. 

 Churches and ritual are a real need to most men, as the 

 Oxford Movement rediscovered. To one the gorgeous 

 but direct and simple imagery of Rome is necessary ; 

 another is best stirred by the more refined symbolism 

 of a plain white surplice and the majestic diction of 

 the Book of Common Prayer ; while to a third the pro- 

 found psychological device of the crowd-silence of a 

 Quakers' meeting is the most effective and impressive 

 as it is the most subtle, and psychologically the least 

 simple, form of ritual. An effective Church must be 

 able to enshrine the glamour of the past in continuity 

 of rite and tradition, to meet, by continual routine 

 of prayer and praise, man's psychological need of 

 association in the development of the religious sense ; 

 and to satisfy the artistic and emotional sides of man's 

 nature in dignified ritual, while maintaining its hold 

 on the best spirits of the age by an open-minded 

 receptivity to intellectual progress. A nation that 

 forsakes its Church, or suffers its Church to forget 

 traditions on the one side or to fall into unreasoning 



