FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS AND METHODS 463 



historian of religion will trespass on forbidden grounds and search 

 through all mysteries. He cannot be the slave of a school, the advo- 

 cate of a sect, or the apologist for a religion. He must be free to 

 treat objectively, yet sympathetically and reverently, the growth 

 of the religious consciousness. 



The historian is too painfully aware of the fragmentariness of his 

 knowledge of the past, though it is vocal with innumerable voices 

 bearing witness to its life, to venture readily upon prediction of the 

 silent future of which no man can testify. The history of prophecy 

 shows him how hazardous it is to try to rend the veil of the future 

 in order to reveal events that will occur or personalities that will 

 appear in ages to come. Even the wisest of prophets have failed 

 when they endeavored to clothe in flesh and blood their waking 

 dreams. Yet ignorance has its limitations as well as knowledge. 

 If a man should affirm that his ignorance is such that he cannot 

 deny the possibility of every Roman Catholic becoming a Protestant, 

 or every Buddhist a Christian, before another day shall dawn, his 

 claim to ignorance would not be respected. The Church of Rome 

 was not built in one day, and it is perfectly safe to predict that it will 

 not perish in one day by the conversion of all its members to another 

 faith; and the same is true of Buddhism. 



Certain things may be predicted, with a reasonable degree of assur- 

 ance, in regard to the future of man's religion, and the historian, 

 watching the evolution of the religious consciousness and seeking to 

 discern its laws, is more likely than any other man to take a deep 

 and intelligent interest in what may be divined concerning that future. 

 The remnants of primitive conceptions are disappearing so fast by the 

 spread of civilization that the time cannot be far off when they shall 

 have ceased to play a part in religion. Polydemonism and poly- 

 theism are giving place to monotheism, and the trend is away from 

 transcendental monotheism to pantheism or ethical monism. New 

 mythologies are not developing, and the old myths vanish as science 

 advances. Human sacrifices are extremely rare, and animal sacrifices 

 are gradually disappearing. The magical conceptions surviving in 

 the cult are giving way to a symbolism that seeks satisfaction for the 

 artistic and ethical instincts. Even where sacred washings, sacred 

 meals, sacred days, and sacred places are still recognized, their sig- 

 nificance is differently understood, and the tendency to abandon 

 them altogether is marked. The emphasis is being placed, not on 

 dogma or cult, but on the ethical contents of religion. 



The growing importance of commerce and industry, art, science, 

 and philosophy, the general secularization of life, may seem to 

 indicate that religion in the future will exercise an ever-diminishing 

 influence on man. But the interest which looms up as without 

 comparison the strongest in the life of modern man is big with relig- 



