Emancipation of Belief 241 



Hgion from among the things to be legally controlled is due 

 to any lessened appreciation of these subjects. Many of the 

 institutions devoted to them persist, in unofficial status, with 

 an activity, and with a popular support, as sincere and as 

 effective as before, and even in some cases with reviving in- 

 fluence, as they come closer in touch with the aspirations of 

 their congregations. 



The exclusion of religious morality is due to a lack of 

 popular agreement, and to a want of uniformity of public 

 opinion, wherein public service becomes impossible, since 

 public control must needs offend some, in any effort to serve 

 others. 



Respect for individual right and opinion makes it now 

 impossible to induce general compliance with any ancient 

 sectarian customs in which a large number of the people have 

 lost confidence. The old forms and expressed standards 

 of morality, as they exist in those codes, have their living 

 principles so inseparably mingled with obsolete law and 

 dogma; that agreement is no longer expected. Thus the 

 situation of doctrinal organization, becomes analogous with 

 that reached by a physical structure, which needs regenera- 

 tion rather than repair. 



Such a process is natural and not necessarily a misfor- 

 tune. There is indication of a young morality legitimately 

 succeeding the old, and there is every evidence that it will 

 crystallize into concrete form. The general desire for de- 

 clared standards of conduct which arises in their usefulness 

 as vehicles of educational precept, exists in altruistic phil- 

 osophy just as in coercive, but mutability is demanded. The 

 specialized aptitudes of the teacher, whether he be a maker 

 16 



