i 4 WILL CHRISTIANITY SURVIVE THE WAR? 



Then follows a later stage in which with the same 

 ultimate purpose worship and propitiation of the demons 

 or gods replace the hostile attempts to gain control. Prayer, 

 adulation, and self-abasement are made use of, and reverend 

 priests and costly temples are supported by the fees paid for 

 the services of the intermediaries between man and the gods. 

 To the various systems of this kind the term " religion " is 

 most usually applied. The Jewish and the Christian religions, 

 the Buddhist and the various " religions " of the Greeks, 

 Egyptians, Norsemen, and other early civilizations, are 

 examples. It would, perhaps, be better to speak of them as 

 " cults," "mythologies," and " creeds." As man yet further 

 proceeds with the same ultimate purpose that of controlling 

 nature we find a new development attaining to great 

 importance. This is the determination to investigate and 

 understand natural forces so as to control them and accom- 

 modate our lives to them. " Natural science " or the 

 knowledge of nature takes the place in this new develop- 

 ment, once occupied by witchcraft, and later by prayer, 

 sacrifice, and priestly mediation. This is Rationalism. It 

 is as much "a religion " as its predecessors, since, like them, 

 it is concerned to understand and to control the forces of 

 nature. It has a creed based, not on terror nor on poetical 

 myths, but on experiment and reason. The essential element 

 of all religion belongs to it. The Rationalist, like the most 

 abject African tribesman and the most saintly high-minded 

 Christian, is actuated by the desire to discover his relation to 

 the universe, and to secure happiness for mankind by know- 

 ledge of that relation. All three equally desire to bring 

 about the adjustment of human motive and action to the 

 inexorable laws of nature. 



The desire to attain to knowledge of the Eternal and to 

 understand man's destiny in order to fulfil it in joy and 

 gladness is, and always has been, the essence of religion. 

 The man whose action and course of life are guided by that 

 desire is few will venture to deny "a religious man," 

 though he may not believe the creed, mythology, and 

 cosmogony of any one of the popular religions or the 

 doctrine of any church. Rationalism is a religion, and is 

 as truly so described as is Christianity. Its creed is that 

 by science, and not by faith, shall man attain nearer and 

 nearer to the understanding of the Eternal. 



It is, I think, of very little consequence that the horrors 

 of the great war must render the traditional belief in the bene- 



