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■  ^'^e. 


APR  28  1R37  -^ 

V  ^  A 


RR    50    .D66    1896 

Donlld;  E.  Winchester  1848 

The  expansion  of  religion 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 


SIX  LECTURES  DELIVERED  BEFORE 
THE  LOWELL  INSTITUTE 


BY 


E.  WINCHESTER  DONALD 

RECTOR   OF   TRINITY  CHURCH 

IN    THE    CITY    OF 

BOSTON 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

1896 


Copyright,  i8g6, 
By  E.  WINCHESTER  DONALD. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Catnbridg^e,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Company. 


TO   ONE 

WHOSE  UNCONSCIOUS   BUT  POWERFUL  INFLUENCE 

WROUGHT   WITH    ME 

IN   THE  MAKING   OF  THIS  BOOK 


PREFACE 


These  Lectures  do  not  claim  to  be  original, 
eloquent,  erudite,  or  academic.  They  are  the 
record  of  a  working  clergyman's  sober  thinking 
upon  a  subject,  profound  interest  in  which  is 
coterminous  with  the  life  of  man.  As  such  a 
record  only,  they  are  offered  to  the  public. 

E.  WINCHESTER  DONALD. 

Trinity  Rectory, 
Boston,  Massachusetts, 
yanuary,  i8g6. 


CONTENTS 


I.  Religion  and  Salvation     .        .        .        .  i 

II.   The  New  Anthropology         ...  49 

III.  Religion  and  Righteousness     ...  98 

IV.  Religion  and  Industrialism  ...  151 
V.   Religion  and  Socialism      ....  208 

VI.   Organized  Religion         ....  258 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 


I. 

RELIGION    AND    SALVATION. 

The  earliest  universal  interest  of  man- 
kind is  its  latest.  Religion  still  stands  in 
the  foremost  files  of  the  world's  passionate 
wishes,  and  equally  of  its  most  strenuous 
endeavors ;  and  it  touches  and  colors,  in 
frank  or  subtle  ways,  all  the  outcomes  of 
man's  many-sided  life.  No  longer  re- 
garded as  the  sole  possession  of  organiza- 
tion and  formal  statement,  it  is  rather  an 
atmosphere  in  which  the  healthy  life  of  man 
is  most  successfully  lived.  No  longer 
identified  with  particular  expressions  of 
the  great  world's  career,  no  longer  thought 
of  as  something  technical  and  arbitrary, 
wdiich  experts  must  make  intelligible  to 
the  people,  it  is  now,  to  our  spiritual  con- 
ception,   like    the    sunlight    which    enters 


2  THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

unbidden  into  every  least  bit  of  space  that 
is  open  to  its  gracious  presence.  The  sole 
condition  of  its  possibility  for  every  man 
is  openness  to  the  incoming  of  the  Di- 
vine. The  sole  condition  of  its  personal 
possession  is  sensitiveness  and  responsive- 
ness to  the  Divine.  It  employs  organiza- 
tion, it  does  not  require  it.  It  admits  of 
statement,  but  lives  without  it.  It  wel- 
comes the  symbol,  but  refuses  to  be  bound 
by  symbol.  It  tolerates  the  most  splendid 
and  gorgeous  ritual,  it  thrives  and  blos- 
soms in  loneliest  hut  on  the  shore  of  the 
most  lonely  and  distant  sea.  It  stirs  the 
heart  of  the  pygmy  in  the  dark  forest,  and 
animates  the  soul  of  the  tenant  of  the  Vat- 
ican. The  breath  of  God,  the  life  of  man, 
the  heat  of  the  heart,  the  vigor  of  the  will, 
the  liveness  of  the  conscience,  the  one 
great  hope  of  human  nature  set  in  this 
brilliant,  beautiful,  sad,  and  restless  world, 
is  still  that  mighty  force  which  we  call 
Religion. 

The  conviction  that  this  is  true  will  un- 
derlie all  that  I  shall  say  in  these  lectures. 
I  cannot  claim  that  I  come  coldly  to  study 
a  vigorous  force  of  the  past,  the  spent  force 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  3 

of  the  present ;  for  I  am  here  rather  as  one 
who  believes  that  Religion  is  seeing  its  best 
days,  that  it  is  asserting  itself  in  quarters 
wherein  it  has  frequently  been  regarded  as 
an  intrusion,  and  that  it  is  assuming  forms 
which,  as  yet,  only  spiritual  eyes  can  recog- 
nize. The  moment  Religion  was  eman- 
cipated from  the  tyranny  of  sacred  con- 
ventions, the  moment  it  was  trusted  to 
take  care  of  itself  out  in  the  great  world  of 
living  men,  it  began,  by  virtue  of  its  own 
divine  force,  to  occupy  all  territory  whereon 
were  ideas,  emotions,  purposes,  struggling 
to  realize  themselves  in  achievements.  So 
long  as  Religion  was  described  in  state- 
ment, and  uttered  itself  only  in  arbitrary 
and  conventional  conduct,  it  stood  a  poor 
chance  to  become  the  impulse  and  nourish- 
ment of  the  total  life  of  man.  Judge  Sewall 
knew  where  Religion  began  and  where  it 
ended  in  the  social  and  personal  life  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  began  with  a  cor- 
rect notion  and  ended  in  correct  conduct. 
How  narrow,  provincial,  ascetic,  that  notion 
was,  how  hard  and  hardening  that  conduct 
came  to  be,  his  "  Diary  "  bountifully  shows. 
The  expansion  of  Religion  was  unthinkable 


4  THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

two  hundred  years  ago.  To  have  given  it 
the  ample  freedom  it  possesses  now  would, 
to  English  and  New  England  thinking, 
have  caused  it  to  disappear  as  completely 
as  Christianity  has  vanished  from  many  of 
those  cities  of  Asia  Minor  to  which  St. 
John  wrote  his  striking  and  now  pathetic 
letters.  Religion  was  not  trusted  as  we 
trust  sunlight  and  storm ;  it  was  guarded 
like  crown  jewels,  which,  if  passed  from 
hand  to  hand,  may  be  lost,  and,  once  lost, 
lost  forever.  It  was  looked  at  through 
glass.  It  is  inability  to  perceive  what  a 
free  force  Religion  is  which  explains  the 
widely  entertained  opinion  that  Religion 
to-day  is  decaying.  The  disappearance  of 
Fast  Day  counts  for  more  than  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  conviction  in  the  public 
thinking  that  to  house  human  beings  in  a 
tenement  the  plumbing  arrangements  of 
which  are  a  constant  and  cordial  welcome 
to  disease,  is  a  moral  crime.  The  disuse 
of  the  old  Catechism  is  held  to  be  indica- 
tive of  waning  Religion,  but  the  erection 
and  maintenance  of  a  child's  dispensary, 
of  baby  shelters,  and  the  annual  summer 
exodus  of  enough  of  the  city's  little  ones 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  5 

to  lower  the  rate  of  infant  mortality,  fails 
widely  to  be  interpreted  as  a  direct  result 
of  Religion  regnant.  Again,  what  has  been 
aptly  termed  the  "  theological  thaw  "  of  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  is  too  frequently 
set  down  as  decisive  of  the  melting  out 
from  the  spiritual  life  of  the  community 
of  the  imperative  sanctions  of  duty,  and 
no  less  of  the  universal  sense  of  awe  and 
reverence  in  the  presence  of  the  eternal 
mysteries  of  life  and  death.  And  the  ease 
with  which  so  august  an  organization  as 
a  Church  is  created  by  a  handful  of  dis- 
affected and  fanatical,  or  earnest  and  con- 
scientious, men  and  women,  has  been  ac- 
cepted as  indubitable  proof  that  all  religion 
is  no  better  than  the  outcome  of  human 
hopes  or  fears,  employed  by  society  to 
furnish  direction  and  refinement  to  enthu- 
siasms tolerated  by  the  state  as  helpful  in 
keeping  its  citizens  in  order. 

It  is  not  misrepresentative  of  our  time, 
therefore,  to  describe  it  as  unreasonably 
despondent  about  the  present  prospects  of 
Religion.  One  set  of  men  deplores  the 
decay  of  authority,  meaning  thereby  really 
nothing  more  than  the  blessed  powerless- 


6  THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

ness  of  organization  to  compel  assent  to  its 
dogmas  by  the  exercise  of  force.  Another 
set  of  men  bewails  the  gradual  disappear- 
ance of  the  multitude's  willingness  to  ac- 
cept as  true  what  is  uttered  in  sacred 
places  in  solemn  tones.  And  still  another 
set  is  disheartened  at  the  withdrawal  of 
enthusiasm  from  stated  worship,  and  its 
bountiful  and  beautiful  gift  of  itself  to  what 
still  are  called  secular  and  philanthropic 
activities. 

I  have  said  enough  to  explain  why  a 
clergyman,  who  makes  no  pretension  to 
erudition,  ventures  to  speak  to  his  fellows 
of  the  expansion  of  Religion,  dares  to  give 
his  reasons  for  believino:  that  Relisfion  was 
never  more  active,  more  diffused,  more 
hopefully  energetic,  than  it  is  to-day.  For 
I  hope  to  be  able  to  show  by  a  calm  and 
dispassionate  summary  of  facts  that  are 
open  to  the  inspection  and  verification  of 
us  all,  and  by  a  rational  interpretation  of 
their  meaning,  that  Religion  is  to-day  far 
more  widely  diffused,  far  more  fruitfully 
and  faithfully  used,  than  when  Samuel 
Sewall  tried  to  comfort  his  little  son, 
Samuel,  sobbing  with  mingled  fright  and 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION.  7 

sorrow  at  the  solemn  services  of  his  kins- 
man's funeral,  by  quoting  to  him  the  text, 
"  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave, 
where  is  thy  victory  ? "  One  wishes  he 
have  might  taken  the  little  boy  into  his 
arms  and  kissed  away  his  fears. 

But  it  is  time  to  say  frankly  what  we 
mean  by  Religion  as  we  shall  use  the  word 
in  our  lectures.  I  am  glad  to  believe,  and 
I  do  believe,  that  the  idolater,  kneeling  in 
blind  hope  or  stupid  terror  at  the  feet  of 
his  hideous  or  fantastic  idol,  is  as  truly 
religious  as  the  Romanist  hushed  and  awed 
at  the  Elevation  of  the  Host,  or  as  the  Lib- 
eral passionately  moved  by  the  splendid 
utterance  of  the  great  divine  truth  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  I  can  imagine  my- 
self kneeling,  in  a  great  temple  of  Buddha 
in  Japan,  or  in  the  magnificent  mosque  of 
St.  Sofia,  by  the  side  of  the  Buddhist  or 
the  Moslem,  sure  that  my  prayer  and  theirs 
reach  the  listening  ear  of  the  one  Father 
which  is  in  Heaven,  and  that  God  an- 
swers us  both.  It  has  ever  seemed  to  me 
a  bit  of  logical  folly  to  point  to  the  uni- 
versality of  man's  belief  in  Deity  as  proof 
that  there  is  a  God,  and  in  the  same  breath 


8  THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

declare  that  the  god  of  the  pagan  and 
heathen  is  no  god  at  all.  Abruptly  to  con- 
vince the  heathen  that  his  idol  god  is  no- 
thing is  to  do  one's  best  to  plunge  him  into 
atheism,  not  to  lift  him  up  into  the  Chris- 
tian theism.  I  think  if  I  were  a  mission- 
ary in  Japan,  I  should  begin  my  work  of 
unfolding  Christianity  by  worshiping  Al- 
mighty God,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth, 
in  a  temple  of  Buddha,  and  I  should  ex- 
plain and  defend  my  act  by  quoting  the 
words  of  Jesus,  "  I  am  come  not  to  de- 
stroy, but  to  fulfill."  Religion,  real  Reli- 
gion, is  in  very  truth  the  common  posses- 
sion of  all  mankind,  and  "  varieties  of 
religions  "  means  simply  different  reports 
or  conceptions  of  one  universal  force  or 
fact.  Religion  in  the  heart  of  man  is 
everywhere  the  same  in  kind.  The  crude 
article  is  in  Boston  what  it  is  in  Ahmed- 
nuggur.  But  Religion  in  history,  in  organ- 
ization, statement,  ritual,  is  as  various  as 
are  the  climates,  civilizations,  customs,  and 
inventions  of  innumerable  nations  and 
tribes.  Its  unity  is  divine,  its  variations 
are  for  the  most  part  historical  and  human. 
That  is  to  say,  the  unreasoned  feeling  or 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION,  g 

the  reflected  conviction  that  each  human 
being  is  related  to  Deity,  and  that  this 
relation  can  be  realized  by  some  sort  of 
means,  are  at  the  heart  of  all  Religion. 
The  terror  of  the  savage  is  the  germ  of  the 
Christian  awe.  The  Christian's  contrite 
prayer  is  the  blossoming  of  the  pagan's 
attempt  to  purchase  the  Deity's  favor  by 
something  done  or  something  sacrificed. 
The  sacred  dance  of  the  islander  is  of  a 
piece  with  the  jubilant  psalm  of  the  Chris- 
tian, exulting  in  his  deliverance  from  his 
material  danger  or  his  spiritual  foe.  All 
forms  of  Religion,  even  the  Religion  of 
Jesus,  if  only  we  track  them  back  far 
enough,  will  be  found  rooted  in  a  single 
fact,  —  the  soul's  instinctive,  fundamental, 
ineradicable  feeling,  or  conviction,  that  it 
stands  in  a  real  relation  to  Deity,  and 
that  this  relation  is  capable  of  conscious 
and  continuous  realization  by  action,  — 
the  adoration  of  an  idol,  the  burning  of 
a  beast,  the  offering  of  a  prayer.  And 
that  is  what  I  shall  mean  by  Religion 
generically  in  my  lectures.  Ten  years  ago, 
I  might  have  regarded  this  statement  as 
accepted  and  irritating  commonplace ;  but 


10        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

as  one  listens  to  many  of  our  missionary 
addresses  and  reads  a  good  deal  of  our 
missionary  literature,  he  perceives  the  ne- 
cessity of  stating,  with  a  flagrant  plainness, 
that  to  think  of  Religion,  in  its  elemental 
idea,  as  anything  other  than  one  the  wide 
world  over  and  all  the  centuries  through, 
is  to  slip  into  the  pit  of  hopeless  bewilder- 
ment or  to  take  fatal  refuge  in  the  paddock 
of  provincialism.  That  there  is  one  God 
is  a  truism  until  the  heathen  holds  up  his 
hideous  or  fantastic  idol,  and  cries  to  the 
Christian,  "  Is  this  God  ?  "  until  a  rigid, 
pitiless,  marvelously  well  reasoned  cate- 
chism implicitly  asks.  Is  this  God  the 
God  ?  It  is  only  as  one  sees  clearly,  and 
holds  intelligently,  a  conception  of  Religion 
which  is  capable  of  roofing  in  every  form 
of  it,  that  there  is  so  much  as  a  chance  of 
profound  and  unconquerable  belief  in  it  as 
the  outcome  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  working 
in  the  human  soul.  If  one's  philosophy  of 
Religion  can  sweep  away  as  human  rubbish 
the  idea  which  underlies  even  so  horrible 
a  thing  as  cannibalism  in  its  primitive  pur- 
pose, it  may  turn  out  that  it  can  sweep 
away   the   idea   expressed   in    the    purest 


RELIGION  AND  SAL  VA  TION.  1 1 

worship  ever  offered  up  to  Almighty  God. 
Through  and  by  the  root,  set  deep  in  the 
rich  soil  of  our  humanity  by  the  hand  of 
God,  can  Religion  live,  however  it  may  be 
nourished,  strengthened,  and  disciplined  by 
revelation  and  enlightened  human  thought. 
And  I  like  to  believe  that  this  idea  of  it, 
upon  which  I  have  dwelt  so  long,  is  con- 
sonant to  that  conception  of  it  which  was 
held  by  the  large  minded,  deep  hearted 
founder  of  this  Lecture  Course.  For  it 
was  at  Luxor,  on  the  site  of  Thebes,  hard 
by  the  colossal  ruins  of  El  Karnak,  mas- 
sive testimony  to  the  puissant  influence  of 
a  form  of  Religion  that  has  ceased  to  be, 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  which  flows  past 
more,  and  more  magnificent,  marks  of  or- 
ganized Religion  than  any  stream  in  all  the 
world,  that  Mr.  Lowell  executed  the  codicil 
that  created  the  foundation  upon  which 
to-night's  lecturer  is  privileged  to  stand. 
Those  huge  monoliths  spake  to  him  of  an 
ancient  faith  in  God  of  which  the  family 
church  in  far  off  Boston  was  a  true  de- 
velopment. He  must  have  felt  that  belief 
in  God,  however  strangely  named,  however 
imperfectly   described    and    w^eirdly   wor- 


12        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

shiped,  was  indissolubly  bound  up  with  an 
ancient  people's  moral  life,  just  as  belief 
in  Jesus  Christ  and  His  revelation  of  the 
Father's  nature  was  firmly  linked  in  with 
the  moral  behavior  of  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Because  there  was  Relio^ion  in 
every  one  of  the  strange  lands  to  which 
his  travels  bore  him,  because  the  evidences 
of  Religion,  among  peoples  whose  civiliza- 
tion had  long  ago  disappeared,  were  pre- 
eminently characteristic  of  the  remains  of 
those  civilizations,  he  profoundly  and  pas- 
sionately felt  that  only  by  Religion,  per- 
petually translating  itself  into  morals,  can 
men  be  secure  of  happiness  in  this  world 
and  in  that  which  is  to  come.  The  Lec- 
tures were  to  show  the  "  conformity  of 
natural  Relisfion  "  —  that  natural  Reliofion 
which  I  have  already  defined  —  "  to  that 
of.  our  Saviour." 

Here,  then,  is  the  distinct  assertion  that 
Natural  Religion  is  in  conformity  with 
the  religion  of  Jesus.  It  is  the  assertion 
that  just  as  the  tree,  standing  in  stalwart 
strength,  conforms  to  the  slender  sapling 
out  of  wiiich  it  grew;  just  as  the  broad 
river,  bearing  upon  its  bosom  the  navies 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  13 

of  the  world,  conforms  to  the  stream  which 
has  sung  its  way  down  from  its  native 
hills ;  or  just  as  to-day's  civilization  con- 
forms to  the  ancient  civilizations  whose 
developed  child  it  is,  —  so  the  Religion  of 
Jesus  conforms  to  the  Religion  of  Abraham, 
of  India,  of  the  "summer  isles  of  Eden 
lying  in  dark  purple  spheres  of  sea."  This 
may  seem  on  its  face  like  surrendering  the 
claim  of  Christianity  to  be  the  universal 
religion  that  is  to  be,  like  reducing  it  to 
the  level  of  all  Religions,  differing,  as  the 
phrase  is,  "  not  in  kind  but  in  degree," 
from,  say,  Buddhism  or  Shintoism.  But 
let  us  understand  exactly  what  we  mean 
by  this  phrase.  It  may  be  said  that  all 
oak  trees  differ  from  each  other  only  in 
degree,  since  they  are  all  oaks.  And  this 
is  true.  And  yet  it  must  be  that  white 
oaks  and  red  oaks  differ  in  kind,  aiid  that 
some  intrinsically  different  sort  of  sap  or 
leaf  function  must  be  working  in  them 
adequately  to  account  for  diversities  which 
inexpert  eyes  easily  discern.  This  also 
is  true.  Certain  fundamental  likenesses 
make  them  oaks ;  certain  equally  funda- 
mental qualities  make  them  white  or  red. 


14        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

Degree  and  kind  are  not  contradictory 
or  mutually  exclusive  of  each  other,  when 
deofree  and  kind  are  workino:  in  the  same 
organism.  It  does  not  affront  us  when  we 
are  assured  that  Buddhism  and  Confucian- 
ism differ  only  in  degree,  nor  does  it  con- 
tradict our  knowledge  to  affirm,  also,  that 
they  differ  in  kind  as  well.  Just  why  it 
is  either  perilous  or  untrue  to  assert  that 
Christianity  "  differs  in  degree  "  from  any 
Religion  which  has  been  a  living  force  upon 
this  earth,  it  is  hard  to  say,  nor  has  it 
ever  been  explained.  Christianity  is  a  far 
richer  and  nobler  form  of  Religion  than 
Taoism,  for  example  ;  yet  each  has  a  com- 
mon root.  Christianity  is  immeasurably 
truer  to  human  instinct  than  Zoroastrian- 
ism,  because  Jesus  has  perfectly  revealed 
the  nature  of  God  and  perfectly  stated  in 
word  and  life  the  wish  and  will  of  God  for 
man;  but  none  the  less  Zoroastrianism 
and  Christianity  are  the  same  in  their  ele- 
mental truth.  The  disciples  of  each  wor- 
ship the  same  God,  however  different  be 
their  report  of  what  they  mean  by  God 
and  of  what  He  wishes  men  to  become. 
Every  Religion  which  is  "  natural,"  which 


RELIGION  A  ND   SA  L  VA  TION.  1 5 

issues  from  the  universal  human  instinct 
that  man  has  a  real  relation  to  God  and 
that  that  relation  can  be  realized  by  action, 
conforms  to  the  Religion  of  Jesus.  Chris- 
tianity is  possessed  of  truths  of  which  the 
heart  of  the  Dark  Continent  has  never 
dreamed.  Christianity  is  moved  by  a  pur- 
pose to  which  much  of  India  is  yet  a 
stranger,  but  its  most  characteristic  truths 
and  purposes  are  the  developments  of 
truths  and  purposes  which  have  haunted 
the  nature  of  mankind  "since  the  first 
man  stood,  God  conquered,  with  his  face 
to  heaven  upturned."  To  foreshadow  the 
meaning  of  the  title  I  have  given  these 
lectures,  Christianity  is  the  great  expan- 
sion of  Religion,  not  simply  of  Judaism, 
but  of  every  form  of  Religion  which  has 
sensitized  the  conscience,  invigorated  the 
will,  and  directed  the  hopes  of  mankind. 
So  far  from  lowering  the  Religion  of  Jesus 
to  the  level  of  the  so-called  man-made  reli- 
gions, this  conception  of  it  lifts  it  clean 
out  of  every  petty,  partial,  provincial  no- 
tion of  it,  and  sets  it  in  the  heaven  of 
humanity's  variant  yet  ever  related  beliefs, 
there  to  shine  as  the  star  whose  magnitude 


1 6        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

and  beauty  dims  all  its  sister  stars,  yet 
reflecting,  like  them,  the  beams  of  the  one 
Eternal  Sun,  sole  source  of  heat  and  light. 
It  is  this  conception  of  Christianity 
which  is  every  year  becoming  more  and 
more  that  of  all  wide-minded  and  deep- 
hearted  Christian  thinkers.  And  it  is  no 
insignificant  indication  of  the  marvelous 
progress  made  towards  the  simplification 
of  Christendom's  apprehension  of  the  es- 
sential unity  of  all  Religion  that  one  may 
make  this  frank  and  I  hope  lucid  statement 
of  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  any  Reli- 
gion whatever,  without  instantly  meeting 
a  prompt  challenge,  perhaps  something 
more  serious.  Indeed,  it  is  not  extrava- 
gant to  claim  that  to-day  men  find  it  easier 
and  more  rational  to  believe  that  Chris- 
tianity is  destined  to  gather  into  itself  the 
Religions  of  the  world,  when  it  is  recog- 
nized as  of  kin  with  every  Religion,  than 
when  it  was  regarded  as  bound  by  no 
vital,  necessary,  indestructible  ties  to  every 
least  belief  of  man  in  his  God.  For  if  we 
could  find  a  nation  to  which  the  idea  of 
Deity  is  as  inconceivable  as  that  of  light 
to  eyeless  fishes  in    the  lakes  of   subter- 


RELIGION  AND   SALVATION.  17 

ranean  caverns,  to  which  worship  is  as 
unthinkable  as  the  distance  from  March 
eight  to  the  State  House  gate,  the  pro- 
posal to  send  to  that  nation  the  story  told 
in  our  Gospels,  with  the  hope  that  it 
would  be  so  much  as  possible  that  they 
could  receive  it,  would  not  find  a  sup- 
porter whose  intelligence  was  not  in  seri- 
ous dispute.  The  sure  warrant  for  believ- 
ing in  the  final  supremacy  of  Christianity 
is  its  essential  kinship  to  and  its  manifest 
completion  of  the  capacity  to  know  and 
love  God,  which  lives  in  every  man  be- 
cause every  man  is  made  in  the  image  of 
God.  The  more  eagerly  the  missionary 
insists  that  the  Religion  of  Jesus  is  a  mes- 
sage of  brotherly  welcome  to  the  Religion 
which  builds  temples  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges,  the  sooner  will  Jesus  be  hailed  as 
the  long-expected  Saviour  by  the  multi- 
tudes who  fill  those  heathen  temples  with 
their  prayers  and  the  smoke  of  their  sac- 
rifices. 

I  claim,  therefore,  that  that  is  a  true  ex- 
pansion of  Religion  which  has  lifted  Chris- 
tianity, as  we  know  it  here  in  America,  up 
out  of  the  narrow  notion  of  it  as  standing 


1 8        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

in  solitary  grandeur  among  the  faiths  of 
the  world  to  which  it  has  no  ties  of  spirit- 
ual kinship,  and  is  setting  it  forth  as  the 
evolutionary,  divine  fulfillment  of  what  has 
been  living  and  growing  in  the  heart  of 
man  since  the  day  he  was  placed  upon 
this  earth  with  a  nature  that  had  in  it  the 
potency  of  government,  civilization,  art, 
worship,  invention,  skill,  and  love.  What 
may  still  be  regarded  in  some  quarters 
as  an  evidence  of  decay  is  thus  seen  to 
be  the  mark  of  vitality.  The  larger,  the 
older,  the  more  comprehensive  Religion  is 
conceived  to  be,  the  more  absolute  is  its 
necessity,  the  more  solidly  firm  is  its  pos- 
session of  mankind. 

I  have  perhaps  sufficiently  —  more  than 
sufficiently  —  indicated  why,  to  my  think- 
ing, Religion  needs  no  defense.  It  rests 
not  upon  arguments  and  institutions,  but 
upon  humanity  itself.  It  will  abide,  not 
because  of  the  clever  ingenuity  of  logi- 
cians, nor  of  the  well  fortified  erudition  of 
scholars ;  it  will  abide  because  man  is  man. 
He  did  not  make  himself ;  God  made  him 
—  made  him  capable  of  love  and  hate, 
of  sleeping  and  waking,  of  dreaming  and 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  19 

doing ;  capable,  also,  of  knowing  and  loving 
his  Maker.  What  he  is,  he  is.  And  he 
is  no  more  compelled  to  hunger  for  meat 
than  to  hunger  for  God.  The  history  of 
humanity's  search  for  God  is  as  true,  as 
characteristic,  as  that  of  its  search  for  food. 
Man  plants  his  fields  and  rears  his  temples 
because  from  the  one  he  gathers  the  grain 
that  nourishes  his  body,  and  in  the  other 
finds  the  sense  of  mystery  and  awe  and 
reverence  which  feed  his  soul.  What  he 
is,  he  is,  and  he  is  religious.  The  one 
plain,  persistent,  venerable  fact  about  him 
is  that  he  has.  always  been  on  the  lookout 
for  God,  and  the  story  of  his  search  and 
his  discoveries  is  the  history  of  Religion. 

Not,  then,  as  an  apologist  of  a  decaying, 
but  as  the  interpreter  of  an  expanding 
force,  I  come  to  speak,  believing  that  a  true 
interpretation  of  movements  and  achieve- 
ments, at  the  close  of  the  century,  which 
apparently  mark  the  recession  of  Chris- 
tianity from  the  life  of  the  people,  will  re- 
veal, rather,  that  religion  is  more  and  more 
taking  firm  possession  of  every  human 
interest  and  endeavor,  perpetually  trans- 
lating   itself    into   organizations,    enthusi- 


20        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

asms,  and  struggles,  which,  as  yet,  are 
largely  unaware  of  the  true  nature  of  the 
force  which  gave  them  birth  and  is  sup- 
plying them  with  the  life  without  which 
they  must  die. 

If  we  have  correctly  and  sufficiently 
indicated  wherein  religions  are  alike,  it  is 
time  to  develop  w^herein  they  differ.  Their 
most  obvious  difference  is  in  their  report 
of  the  nature  of  God.  The  self-torture, 
the  self-effacement,  of  the  devotee  of  India 
is  the  outcome  of  an  untrue  conception 
of  the  nature  of  God.  If  God  be  what 
he  thinks  Him,  his  self-torture  is  natural. 
Man  seeks  to  become  what  he  believes 
God  would  have  him  be.^  If  you  believe 
God  is  only  force,  then  Religion  will  be  a 
struggle  to  get  on  the  right  side  of  God, 
or  to  get  out  of  His  way  altogether. 
Every  Religion  that  has  been,  bountifully 
illustrates  that  very  simple  truth.  Reli- 
gions do  not  make  gods,  but  gods  make 
Religion.  A  god  who  is  conceived  as  bru- 
tal, lustful,  capricious,  and  cruel,  makes 
a  brutal,  licentious,  shifty,  and  unmerci- 
ful Religion.    The  heathen  who  lashes  his 

^  Fairbairn,  Religion  in  History  and  Moderji  Life. 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION.  21 

idol  in  maddened  fury,  because  a  boon  is 
withheld,  believes  in  a  god  of  weakness. 
When  Jacob  made  his  bargain  with  the 
Almighty,  saying,  "  If  God  will  be  with 
me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I 
go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat  and  rai- 
ment to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  to  my  father's 
house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my 
God,"  he  had  in  mind  a  deity  whose  nature 
was  open  to  ordinary  considerations  of 
barter  and  exchange.  What  a  man  thinks 
God  is,  inexorably  determines  what  his 
Religion  comes  at  last  to  be.  And  the  rea- 
son no  Religion  remains  fixed  and  final,  the 
reason  it  is  dif^cult,  and  sometimes  impos- 
sible, to  determine  with  exactitude  what 
the  tenets  of  a  particular  Religion  are,  is  its 
perpetual  tendency  to  develop,  in  the  direc- 
tion either  of  spirituality  or  materialism,  of 
refinement  or  degradation,  its  conception 
of  the  nature  of  the  god  it  worships  and 
adores.  It  is  both  unhistorical  and  irra- 
tional to  hold  that  Religions  have  created 
gods.  No  one  would  say  that  a  hundred 
years  of  successful  government  in  Amer- 
ica, and  of  an  ever  ripening  civilization, 
orio[inated  the  idea  of  o^overnment  which 


22        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

is  embodied  in  our  Constitution.  On 
the  contrary,  out  of  it,  interpreted  and  ex- 
pounded by  the  authoritative  utterances  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  and  reahzed  in  con- 
crete laws  enacted  by  the  legislature  and 
enforced  by  the  executive,  has  flowed  the 
great  stream  of  our  national  life.  So  long 
as  our  Constitution  remains  unchanged, 
government,  and  all  that  government 
means  to  institutions  and  peoples,  will 
remain  substantially  what  it  is.  So  the 
idea  of  God  which  man  holds  will  inex- 
orably determine  the  character  of  his  Re- 
ligion. Religion  wull  expand,  will  grow 
truer,  better,  more  beneficent,  as  the  na- 
ture of  God,  disclosed  by  revelation,  appre- 
hended by  more  accurate,  patient,  and 
humble  study  of  His  purposes  in  nature 
and  history  and  man,  is  slowly  developed 
in  human  thought.  To  originate  a  new 
Religion,  we  must  first  procure  a  fresh  God. 
To  displace  an  old  Religion,  we  must  first 
show  that  the  old  god  is  no  longer  ade- 
quate. To  attempt  to  reverse  the  process 
is  both  impossible  and  unphilosophical,  as 
all  history  abundantly  declares. 

In  its  conception  of  the  nature  of  God, 


RELIGION  AND   SALVATION  23 

Religion  has  witnessed  a  marvelous  expan- 
sion in  the  last  half-century.  Retaining 
its  firm  hold  upon  the  ideas  of  justice  and 
righteousness,  adding  richly  to  the  idea  of 
power  manifested  in  law  as  against  caprice 
and  arbitrariness  (even  when  consecrated 
by  so  dear  a  name  as  "special  providence"), 
it  has  developed  marvelously  the  idea  of 
love,  not  only  as  an  amiable  quality,  but 
as  a  magnificent  force.  The  prolonged 
emphasis  that  accents  the  doctrine  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  which  has  become 
the  commonplace  of  modern  preaching, 
and  which  the  present  generation  accepts 
as  a  matter  of  course,  has,  perhaps,  ob- 
scured its  real  importance  as  a  distinct 
addition  to  the  idea  of  God  to  which  mod- 
ern times  have  attained.  So  recent  a 
writer  as  Mr.  Fiske  has  given  a  child's 
picture  of  God,  which  many  here  to-night 
will  recognize  as  representative  of  the 
conception  of  their  own  childhood.  "  I 
imagined,"  he  says,  "  a  narrow  office,  just 
over  the  zenith,  with  a  tall  standing  desk 
running  lengthwise,  upon  which  lay  several 
open  ledgers  bound  in  coarse  leather. 
There  was  no  roof  over  this   office,  and 


24        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

the  walls  were  scarcely  five  feet  from  the 
floor,  so  that  a  person  standing  at  the  desk 
could  look  out  upon  the  whole  world. 
There  were  two  persons  at  the  desk,  one 
of  them  —  a  tall  slender  man  of  aquiline 
features,  wearing  spectacles,  with  a  pen  in 
his  hand,  and  another  behind  his  ear  — 
was  God.  The  other,  whose  appearance 
I  do  not  distinctly  recall,  was  an  attendant 
angel.  Both  were  diligently  watching  the 
deeds  of  men  and  recording  them  in  the 
ledgers.  To  my  infant  mind  this  picture 
was  not  grotesque,  but  ineffably  solemn ; 
and  the  fact  that  all  my  deeds  and  words 
were  thus  written  down  to  confront  me  at 
the  day  of  judgment  seemed  naturally  a 
matter  of  grave  concern."  I  doubt  if  any 
child  of  to-day,  reared  in  a  household 
whose  religious  life  is  correctly  represen- 
tative of  contemporary  Christianity,  would 
give  us  such  a  picture  now.  He  might, 
to  be  sure,  paint  in  a  picture  quite  as 
anthropomorphic,  but  instead  of  a  tireless 
watcher  and  bookkeeper,  resolute  to  set 
down  what  is,  careless  whether  what  is 
be  right  or  wrong,  lovely  or  unlovely,  we 
should    see    a    colossal    father    with    the 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  25 

world's  children  gathered  about  his  knee, 
affectionately  praising  their  little  victories 
over  tiny  temptations,  tenderly  chiding 
their  naughtiness,  and  gently  urging  them 
to  live  sweet,  pure  lives.  Mr.  Fiske,  to  be 
sure,  was  contending  that  "  unless  one's 
thought  is  capable  of  ranging  far  and  wide 
over  the  universe,  it  is  impossible  to  frame 
a  conception  of  God  which  is  not  grossly 
anthropomorphic."  But  the  special  sort 
of  anthropomorphism  his  childish  fancy 
employed  is  unerringly  indicative  of  the 
common  ideas  taught  him  in  his  early 
years  respecting  the  occupation,  interest, 
and  activity  of  God.  The  anthropomor- 
phism of  to-day's  child,  as  it  pictures  God 
in  heaven,  with  equal  certainty  indicates 
what  ideas  of  God  it  has  been  tausrht  or 
has  unconsciously  absorbed,  and,  there- 
fore, what  ideas  of  God  are  now  the  com- 
mon possession  of  all  religious  people  in 
our  land  and  time.  Nothing  so  definitely 
demonstrates  the  expansion  of  Religion, 
in  its  purely  theological  aspects,  as  the 
growth  and  profound  influence  of  the  idea 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  It  means  a 
new  and  better  conception  of  His  relation 


26        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

to  His  children,  a  new  and  truer  appre- 
hension of  the  nature  of  His  treatment  of 
the  world  of  men,  a  new  and  far  more 
powerful  force  in  drawing  us  towards  the 
ideal  of  life  which  has  forever  haunted 
human  spirits.  It  has  slowly,  and  for  the 
most  part  silently,  insinuated  itself  into 
the  colder  hymnology  of  the  elder  Church, 
and  given  us  hymns  which  voice  the  real 
hopes  and  longings,  the  statural  devotion, 
of  our  hearts,  warm,  tender,  and  trustful. 
From  a  literary  point  of  view,  our  modern 
Christian  lyrics  may  be  inferior  to  the  vig- 
orous, stately  hymns  our  fathers  sung,  — 
though  that  is  a  question  we  cannot  argue 
to-night,  —  but  there  can  be  no  difference 
of  opinion  about  the  intended  and  wide 
difference  between  them  as  regards  their 
variant  conceptions  of  the  nature  of  the 
God  to  Whom  they  are  sung.  And  how- 
ever slender  the  warrant  for  making  hym- 
nology do  duty  for  theology,  the  religious 
songs  of  a  people  have  ever  been  sure 
guides  to  the  real  heart  of  their  beliefs. 
Nature's  lover  names  the  birds  that  sing 
in  her  fields  and  forests,  by  listening  in 
delighted  wonder  to  the  notes  which  thrill 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION.  27 

and  flood,  with  inimitable  music,  copse 
and  tree  and  sky ;  the  ornithologist  traps, 
kills,  dissects,  stuffs  them,  and  the  label  is 
ready  to  be  written.  Verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  each  has  his  reward. 

It  is  significant,  also,  that  with  the  ex- 
pansion of  Religion  into  a  confident  con- 
ception of  God  as  our  Father,  the  appeal 
to  fear  has  ceased  in  many  quarters,  and 
has  been  almost  hushed  in  all.  A  super- 
ficial explanation  of  the  disappearance  of 
this  once  mighty  weapon  in  the  hands  of 
organized  Religion  assures  us  that,  since 
sin  is  now  regarded  as  disease,  and  there- 
fore cannot  justly  be  punished,  the  neces- 
sity of  the  machinery  of  torture,  whether 
penal,  punitive,  or  discipHnary,  falls  to  the 
ground.  But  it  is  not  true.  For  if  any- 
thing may  safely  be  afHrmed  by  the  stu- 
dent of  concrete  human  life,  it  is  that  con- 
science testifies  to  the  reality  of  sin  as  the 
result  of  self-determination,  with  all  the 
vigor  and  unpitying  sternness  which  have 
characterized  its  operations  from  the  day 
on  which  the  first  liar  uttered  his  lie  and 
knew  his  soul  was  stained.  That  descrip- 
tion which  we  read  this  winter  of  the  mas- 


28        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

sive  frame  of  the  New  York  police  officer 
drenched  in  sweat  as  the  story  of  his  un- 
speakable wickedness  was  drawn  from  his 
unwilling  lips  in  open  court,  is  all  of  a 
piece  with  the  story  of  Ananias  falling 
dead  at  Peter's  feet.  Conscience  works 
to-day  in  precisely  the  same  way  it  w^orked 
in  Judea  two  thousand  years  ago.  Its  tes- 
timony has  remained  unchanged  through 
all  the  changes  of  the  changing  years.  It 
asserts  that  there  is  as  much  difference 
between  disease  and  sin  as  between  color 
and  sound,  distance  and  time.  The  man 
or  the  community  that  counts  upon  the 
final  extinguishment  of  the  sense  of  ill 
desert  when  bad  deeds  are  done,  is  count- 
ing upon  the  extinguishment  of  humanity 
itself.  For  besides  the  indignation  at  the 
costly  consequences  of  wrongdoing,  besides 
the  hot,  angry  vengeance  which  man  and 
society  frequently  wTcak  upon  the  destroy- 
ers of  their  goods  and  peace,  there  is 
always  a  clear,  strong,  mordant  perception 
of  the  intrinsic  wickedness  of  the  wrong 
itself.  The  permanent  is  the  moral ;  the 
passing  is  the  special  forms  in  which  the 
moral   appears.     The    use   of   tobacco   in 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION.  29 

Wahhabee/  and  untruthfulness  in  Boston, 
are  regarded  as  the  great  sins ;  but  though 
Boston  smile  at  Wahhabee  and  Wahhabee 
wonder  at  Boston,  there  lives  in  each  the 
unshaken  conviction  that  sin  is  not  a  dis- 
ease, but  is  forever,  while  man  is  man,  the 
outcome  of  an  exercise  of  the  power  of  self- 
determination.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  the 
disappearance  of  appeals  to  man's  fear  of 
torment  in  a  world  to  come  cannot  be  due 
to  the  disappearance  of  man's  conviction 
that  he  can  be  wicked  or  that  he  is  wicked. 
But  when  one  reflects  upon  the  fullness 
and  force  with  which  the  idea  of  the  Fa- 
therhood of  God  has  been  presented  in  the 
last  quarter  of  our  century,  and  how  com- 
pletely it  has  possessed  our  religious  think- 
ing and  worship,  it  ought  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  strange  that  the  old  insistence 
upon  the  certainty  of  vengeance,  uttering 
itself  in  endless  torture  of  the  wicked, 
should  die  away.  Torture  and  a  father 
cannot  go  together.  If  torture  is  to  re- 
main, fatherhood  must  first  disappear.  If 
fatherhood  is  to  be  the  root  idea  in  our 
conception  of  God,  then  torture  disappears 

1  Herbert  Spencer,  The  Study  of  Sociology. 


30        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

as  naturally  as  does  the  darkness  when  the 
sunshine  comes  over  the  mountain  top. 
There  was  no  noisy  battle  between  the  idea 
of  God  as  a  bookkeeper  recording  the  ac- 
tions which  one  day  should  become  fuel 
for  everlasting  fires,  and  the  idea  of  God 
as  full  of  paternal  yearning  for  His  chil- 
dren's love  and  unloosing  His  punish- 
ments only  to  discipline  and  deter;  just  as 
there  can  be  no  fierce  conflict  when  the 
innocence  of  childhood  passes  into  the 
knowledge  of  the  grown  man.  The  de- 
cline, therefore,  of  the  effort  to  create  fear 
—  though  terror  is  the  more  descriptive 
word  —  as  a  means  of  securing  man's 
obedience  to  God,  and  equally  the  refusal 
of  men  any  longer  to  be  coerced  by  it  into 
acceptance  of  doctrines  or  conformity  to 
observances,  so  far  from  indicating  a  weak- 
ening of  Religion,  rather  attest  its  in- 
creased vitality ;  for  the  obedience  of  love 
is  ever  more  valuable,  more  lasting,  more 
significant,  than  the  compliance  of  fear, 
just  as  the  willing  obedience  of  the  volun- 
teer is  better  than  the  enforced  obedience 
of  the  drafted  man,  as  the  free,  intelligent 
loyalty  of  the  citizen,  who  never  thinks  of 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION.  31 

jails  and  fines,  is  more  significant  of  the 
city's  order  than  the  multitudes  cowed  by 
the  police. 

Before  my  eye  are  two  stout  volumes  of 
theology,  the  pathetic  monument  of  the 
industry,  learning,  culture,  and  logical  acu- 
men of  one  of  the  gentlest  souls  and  ripest 
scholars  this  or  any  country  has  produced, 
and  whose  author  has  within  a  year  ^  gone 
home  to  God.  In  it  two  pages  are  devoted 
to  Heaven,  and  eighty-nine  treat  of  Hell. 
It  is  the  record  of  the  age  that  has  died, 
not  of  the  age  that  is  alive.  The  theolo- 
gian of  to-day  would  reverse  the  propor- 
tions, would  sing  of  the  "  sweet  and  blessed 
country,"  and  would  leave  to  the  fuller 
revelations  of  the  future  the  disclosure 
of  the  meaning  of  a  God  who  loves  as  a 
father,  yet  chastises  every  son  whom  He 
receiveth. 

Equally  characteristic  is  the  complete 
freedom  of  the  intellect  in  its  search  for 
truth.  The  sole  authority  in  Religion  is 
truth  demonstrated,  fact  verified.  And 
there  can  be  no  other.     For  if  men  accept 

1  The  Reverend  William  Greenough  Thayer  Shedd, 
D.  D. 


32        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

any  "  outward  authority  "  in  Religion,  or  in 
science,  or  art,  or  government,  it  is  only 
because  that  authority  has  proved  itself 
competent  by  the  character  of  the  truth 
and  fact  for  which  it  vouches.  In  a  sense, 
every  trained  electrician  is  an  authority 
to  the  timid  layman  threading  his  cautious 
way  among  wires  and  dynamos.  His  warn- 
ings of  danger  and  his  assurances  of  safety 
are  unquestioningly  accepted.  I  dare  not 
touch  what  he  forbids  me  to  go  near,  I 
boldly  tread  where  he  asserts  there  is  no 
possibility  of  harm.  I  will  not  so  much  as 
enter  the  laboratory  or  generating  room 
unless  he  guide  me.  He  is  my  authority, 
absolute,  unquestioned.  Apparently  I  have 
given  up  my  private  judgment.  But  only 
apparently.  For  every  step  I  take,  every 
act  of  avoidance  of  the  deadly  wire,  and 
every  confident  touch  I  lay  upon  an  instru- 
ment, mean  the  continuity  of  the  working 
of  my  private  judgment,  which  assures 
me  that  I  am  following  a  safe  guide.  Let 
the  electrician  tell  me  that  the  live  wire 
is  dead,  and  I  follow  him  no  longer.  The 
fact  that  private  judgment  accepts  an 
"  authority  "  inevitably  means  that  private 


RELIGION  A  ND   SA  L  VA  TION.  3  3 

judgment  may  at  any  time  reject  it.  It  is 
a  clear  perception  of  this  truth  which  has 
emancipated  the  human  intellect,  leaving 
it  free  to  accept  or  reject  religious  or  any 
truth  without  incurring  outward  penalties. 
But  that  perception  is  not  due  to  a  suc- 
cessful assault  upon  ecclesiastical  power, 
it  is  the  result  of  that  expansion  of  Reli- 
gion which  ensued  the  moment  God  was 
regarded  as  our  Father.  The  sequence 
is,  perhaps,  not  immediately  apparent.  Let 
me  try  to  illustrate.  The  domestic  gov- 
ernment of  an  orphan  asylum  is  necessarily 
different  from  that  of  a  family.  It  pro- 
ceeds upon  the  recognition  that  the  chil- 
dren under  its  care  cannot  be  supplied 
with  the  sort  of  discipline  and  education 
which  as  children  they  need  and  of  which 
they  have  been  providentially  deprived.  It 
must  needs  make  a  set  of  rules  and  set  up 
a  machinery  for  their  enforcement.  Even 
when,  as  in  our  later,  wiser  days,  the  at- 
tempt is  made  to  rob  the  asylum  of  its  in- 
stitutional character  and  clothe  it  with  the 
semblance  of  a  home,  it  is  only  too  pain- 
fully evident  that  the  asylum  child  feels 
the  sanctions  of  its  artificial  home  rather 


34        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION, 

than  the  love  which  is  undoubtedly  behind 
those  sanctions.  Fear  of  the  consequences 
of  bad  behavior  acts  more  powerfully  than 
hope  of  the  rewards  of  good  behavior ;  and 
the  reason  is  that  inevitably  the  punish- 
ments of  wrong-doing  are  more  definite, 
more  concrete,  more  certain  than  the  re- 
wards of  well-doing.  The  importance  of 
obedience  is  emphasized,  even  if  obedience 
is  not  almost  wholly  secured,  by  dread 
of  the  sure  consequences  of  disobedience. 
This  is  not  because  the  matron's  heart  is 
not  overrunning  with  a  pitiful  love  for  the 
fatherless  children  under  her  care,  not  be- 
cause the  government  of  the  institution 
has  been  deliberately  planned  to  exclude 
the  idea  or  the  methods  of  parenthood,  but 
simply  because  no  one  and  nothing  can 
take  the  place  of  a  parent.  Upon  a  totally 
different  basis  is  built  up  the  government 
of  a  home.  The  one  thought  which  fills 
a  true  child's  mind  in  a  true  home  is  that 
of  the  gladness  and  depth  and  tenderness 
of  the  personal  love  which  runs  out  to  it 
from  the  fountains  of  a  parental  heart. 
And  love  means  mental  freedom,  just  as 
fear  means  mental  restriction.     The  father 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION,  35 

bids  the  child  try  to  discover  the  essential 
reasonableness  of  the  family  command- 
ments by  seeing  how  they  all  grow  out  of 
a  passionate  love  of  it,  how  they  could  not 
be  uttered  unless  there  were  an  absolute 
conviction  with  the  father,  and  a  growing 
conviction  with  the  child,  that  every  one  of 
them  is  rooted  in  a  wisdom  and  love  which 
it  will  be  the  glory  of  sonship  to  discover. 
The  wise  father  unfolds  his  truth  to  his 
boy  just  as  fast  as  the  boy  is  able  to  re- 
ceive it,  and  the  father's  delight  is  keenest 
when  he  knows  that  his  son,  freely  ponder- 
ing upon  any  of  the  family  laws,  has  dis- 
covered that  it  is  resting,  not  upon  an  arbi- 
trary enactment,  but  upon  the  truth  of  the 
father's  and  family's  essential  nature.  Fa- 
therhood, then,  means  freedom  to  the  chil- 
dren in  the  realm  of  truth,  and  the  family 
life  is  at  its  best,  not  when  every  child 
assents  to  a  single  statement  of  what  the 
family  belief  may  be,  but  when  every  child 
is  most  conscientiously  endeavoring  to  find 
out  what  that  belief  should  be  and  what 
are  the  grounds  upon  which  it  rests.  If 
every  member  of  the  household  is  true  and 
pure  and  honest,  it  is  a  united  and  happy 


36        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

household,  even  if  no  two  of  them  hold 
identical  opinions  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
bond  that  binds  them  and  makes  them 
one. 

The  Fatherhood  of  God,  held  as  a  firm 
personal  belief,  exerts  the  same  influence 
upon  the  intellectual  activities  of  His  chil- 
dren as  they  freely  study  the  nature  of  His 
truth  and  world.  The  idea  of  God  as  a 
father  repudiates  the  necessity  of  homo- 
geneous beliefs ;  it  rather  insists  upon  the 
absoluteness  of  loyalty  to  Him.  Just  as 
the  child  who  conscientiously  believes  that 
the  purpose  of  his  father  is  the  family's 
education,  will  not  dispute  his  brother  who 
has,  with  equal  conscientiousness,  been  led 
to  believe  that  the  father's  purpose  is  the 
family's  refinement,  because  both  are  loyal 
to  that  father,  and  eager  to  do  his  will,  so 
any  man  who  has  come  to  believe  that 
God  has  spoken  to  niankind  only  in  Jesus 
Christ,  will  not  disown,  much  less  perse- 
cute, his  brother  who  equally  hears  God's 
voice  in  the  utterances  of  every  saint  that 
has  ever  lived  or  is  living  now,  if  both  are 
first  bent  on  loyalty  to  God.  It  does  not 
disturb  me  if   I  hear  men  claim  to  have 


RELIGION  AND   SALVATION.  37 

found  in  other  books  what  I  find  in  the 
Bible ;  it  no  longer  appals  me  if  I  hear 
other  men  claim  that  God  is  more  real  to 
them,  as  they  watch  the  process  by  which 
nature  heals  the  wound  upon  the  twig  or 
of  the  bird's  body,  than  He  is  when  they 
stand  beneath  the  roof  of  the  Christian 
Church,  if  only  I  can  see  the  truthfulness, 
purity,  and  compassion  which  live  in  man 
only  as  man  lives  in  God.  The  great 
question  is  not  how  or  where  do  you  find 
God,  but  have  you  found  Him  ?  The  mo- 
ment that  question  is  the  question  of  Reli- 
gion everywhere,  anything  like  an  attempt 
to  secure  identity  of  beliefs  by  processes 
of  mere  coercion  becomes  a  solecism.  But 
it  is  becoming  the  question  of  mankind 
more  and  more,  not  because  the  state  has 
forbidden  the  use  of  force  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  religious  enterprise  or  in  the  per- 
secution of  heresy,  nor  yet  because  of  the 
mysterious  rise  of  the  "  gospel  of  free 
thought,"  but  because  men  have  had  the 
vision  of  God  as  a  father  and  in  that  vision 
have  clearly,  and  let  us  hope,  forever,  per- 
ceived that  His  truth  is  to  be  learned  like 
any  truth,  through  the  rational   and  free 


38        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

and  honest  processes  of  the  intellect.  I 
do  not  think  this  fact  has  been  adequately, 
or  enough  lucidly,  set  forth.  There  is  still 
an  impression,  widely  and  vigorously  held, 
that  the  emancipation  of  the  intellect  in 
the  field  of  religion  has  been  secured  in  the 
teeth  of  a  bitter  opposition  on  the  part  of 
Religion  ;  that  Religion  reluctantly  yielded 
to,  rather  than  created,  the  freedom  in 
which  we  now  rejoice,  and  that  she  still 
looks  with  sad,  defeated  eyes  upon  the 
spoliation  of  her  fairest  territory.  But  the 
student  of  Religion,  looking  at  spiritual 
forces  apart  from  their  embodiment  in  or- 
ganization, perceives  the  evolution  out  of 
Religion  itself  of  the  very  freedom  which 
some  of  her  mistaken,  however  loyal,  friends 
regard  as  her  worst  enemy.  Out  of  a  full, 
almost  joyous,  appropriation  of  the  idea  of 
God  as  a  father  which  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  which 
our  time  preeminently  has  made  familiar 
and  winsome  and  universal,  has  come 
silently,  and  for  the  most  part  unobserved, 
that  complete,  magnificent,  fruitful  freedom 
to  think  straight  and  speak  straight  which, 
when  the  history  of  the  end  of  the  century 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  39 

shall  be  adequately  written,  will  shine  as 
its  noblest  and  most  beneficent  achieve- 
ment. The  decline  of  the  principle  of 
arbitrary  authority  is  not  simply  coinci- 
dent with  the  expansion  of  Religion,  it  is 
distinctly  its  creation,  and  when  we  shall 
have  fully  admitted  it  to  legitimacy,  we 
shall  love  it  and  honor  it  and  glory  in  it, 
as  a  proud  father  rejoices  in  the  splendid 
achievements  of  his  illustrious  son. 

The  Religion  of  Jesus,  therefore,  in  the 
marvelous  expansion  of  its  generic  idea, 
has  for  its  manifest  outcomes  the  mitisra- 
tion,  almost  the  removal,  of  the  idea  of 
torture  in  connection  with  the  infliction  of 
punishment,  and  the  full-rounded  doctrine 
of  the  freedom  of  the  intellect  in  its  search 
for  religious  truth.  Christianity  is  identi- 
cal with  all  Religions  in  its  purpose  to  bring 
man  and  God  together;  it  differs  from  all 
other  Religions  in  its  conception  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  God  to  Whom  man  is  forever 
trying  to  bring  himself  with  all  his  power 
of  love,  obedience,  and  adoration. 

But  it  is  time  to  ask,  why  should  man 
be  brought  to  God  ?  nay,  why  should  it  be 
true  that  all  man's  history  is  the  story  of 


40        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

his  unresting,  never  finished  struggle  to 
draw  nigh  to  God  ?  I  wish  to  try  to  an- 
swer that  question  as  I  close,  because  the 
answer  will  at  once  open  the  heart  of  all 
that  is  to  follow.  Let  us  try  to  answer  it, 
not  theologically,  but  in  the  familiar  terms 
of  life. 

Every  Religion,  the  lowest  and  the  high- 
est, alike  proposes  as  its  end  man's  sal- 
vation, and  insists  that  man  can  be  saved 
only  as  he  knows  God  and  does  His  will. 
Every  Religion  has  succeeded  in  either 
winning  or  coercing  man's  allegiance  only 
as  it  has  first  succeeded  in  persuading  him 
that  he  is  in  some  sort  of  peril  from  which 
he  can  be  rescued  by  God  alone.  If  the 
harvest  threatens  to  fail,  for  instance,  sacri- 
fice must  be  offered,  incantations  uttered, 
pilgrimages  made,  prayers  lifted,  —  some- 
thing must  be  done  to  induce  God  to  avert 
the  peril.  That  is  the  crudest  form  which 
the  religious  activity  assumes.  The  sacri- 
fice of  Iphigenia,  lamented  through  all  the 
centuries  and  still  powerful  to  touch  our 
imaginations  and  move  our  hearts,  is  thor- 
oughly representative  of  the  controlling 
purpose  of  the  religious  acts  of  men,  how- 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  41 

ever  abhorrent  to  us  be  the  special  form  in 
which,  in  the  Grecian  legend,  that  pur- 
pose uttered  itself.  Agamemnon  must  be 
saved  ;  only  the  gods  could  save  him  ;  only 
a  favorable  wind,  blowing  fair  and  free  from 
Aulis,  could  speed  his  ships  to  the  Trojan 
shore.  Even  a  beautiful,  innocent  maiden, 
his  own  daughter,  was  not  too  great  a  sac- 
rifice for  the  offending  general  to  make, 
nor  for  the  offended  goddess  to  receive, 
that  Agamemnon  might  be  saved  from  the 
consequences  of  his  sacrilegious  act.  How 
clear  it  all  stands  out.  "  What  shall  I  do 
to  be  saved  .^"  is  the  Hebraic  phrase  to 
express  the  Grecian  thought.  What  shall 
I  do  to  be  saved  ?  is  really  the  cry  of  hu- 
manity everywhere,  if  we  listen  with  atten- 
tive ear.  And  it  is  the  conception  of  what 
salvation  really  means  in  the  mind  of  the 
man  who  cries  out  for  it  which  explains 
what  otherwise  is  inexplicable  in  the  reli- 
gious worship  of  men.  There  have  been 
rituals  which  prescribed,  or  at  least  per- 
mitted, acts  which  cannot  so  much  as  be 
hinted  at  in  the  ears  of  modern  people, 
much  less  described;  but  if  one  looks  clean 
through    their   dreadful    impurities,   clean 


42        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

through  their  cruelty  and  inhumanness,  to 
descry,  if  possible,  the  purpose  which  made 
them  so  much  as  thinkable  in  a  human 
mind,  he  always  finds  a  wish  for  something 
which  is  best  described  as  salvation,  escape 
from  a  peril,  or  the  possession  of  a  good. 
To-day  we  are  absolutely  united  in  our 
conviction  that  a  religious  man  must  be 
a  good  man ;  if  he  is  not  good,  he  is  not 
religious.  The  moral  element  in  Religion 
just  now  overtops  in  imperativeness  all 
else.  The  solidest  conviction  of  the  truth 
of  immortality  is  not  permitted  to  do 
duty  for  the  virtues  of  honesty,  truthful- 
ness, and  compassion  in  the  character  of 
the  religious  man.  That  is  to  say,  hon- 
esty, truthfulness,  and  compassion  are 
counted  the  evidence  of  a  personal  salva- 
tion. The  court  of  public  opinion  de- 
mands this  special  evidence,  and  will  not 
order  an  acquittal  without  it.  But  to  my 
best  thinking,  there  has  always  been  a 
moral  element  in  every  conception  of  sal- 
vation. The  difference  between  the  best 
Religion  and  the  worst  is  a  difference  in 
conceptions  of  wherein  morality  consists, 
and,  as  I  have  been  saying  all  along,  it  is 


RELIGION  AND  SALVATION  43 

the  nature  of  the  god  worshiped,  as  that 
nature  is  represented,  or  as  the  revelation 
of  it  is  apprehended  or  misapprehended, 
which  inexorably  determines  what  the 
moral  conception  of  salvation  shall  be. 
The  God  who  is  revealed  as  proclaiming 
to  His  children,  "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am 
holy,"  inevitably  compels  men  to  believe 
that  to  their  salvation  the  element  of  holi- 
ness absolutely  belongs.  The  God  who 
was  conceived  as  saying,  "  Be  ye  brave,  for 
I  am  brave,"  was  a  challenge  to  all  his  wor- 
shipers to  put  prowess  and  courage  and 
recklessness  of  life  above  love,  truthful- 
ness, and  justice. 

Again,  when  it  was  conceived  to  be  the 
greatest  and  most  lasting  of  all  perils  to 
mankind  that  men  should  suffer  in  a  world 
to  come  the  penalties  of  law  broken  in 
this;  when  men  took  the  punishments  that 
belong  to  this  world  with  patience,  and 
accepted  the  harsh  conditions  of  living 
to  which  they  were  compelled  to  submit 
here  with  something  like  serenity,  be- 
cause assured  of  freedom  from  punish- 
ment and  of  possession  of  bliss  after  life  in 
this  world  is  over,  it  is   not  strangle,  it  is 


44        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

historically  and  logically  natural,  that  sal- 
vation should  be  regarded  as  mainly  the 
assurance  of  God's  pardon  and  of  com- 
plete immunity  from  the  certain  doom  of 
those  who  die  unpardoned.  The  history 
of  Evangelicalism  in  England  and  America 
—  that  Evangelicalism  to  which  modern 
England  and  America  owe  an  incalcula- 
ble debt,  to  which,  let  us  gladly  assert,  we 
shall  forever  be  indebted  —  is  strikingly 
full  of  this  conception  of  human  salvation. 
To  be  moral  was  not  enough ;  indeed,  by 
a  curious,  and  to  this  generation,  an  in- 
conceivable process  of  reasoning,  it  was 
not  infrequently  maintained  that  the  pos- 
session of  even  the  most  beautiful  moral 
character  was  consistent  with  the  lack  of 
personal  salvation,  perhaps  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  sinner's  confession  of  his  lost 
condition.  A  converted  man  was  one 
who  had  the  assurance  of  the  divine  par- 
don and  the  sure  hope  of  heaven.  The 
great  effort  of  Religion,  therefore,  was  to 
produce  a  conviction  of  sin,  and  thereafter 
an  equally  strong  conviction  that  sin  was 
forgiven  and  the  sinner  entitled  to  the 
hope  of  heaven.     Salvation  became,  or  at 


RELIGION  AND   SALVATION.  45 

least  tended  to  become,  a  limited,  partial, 
almost  technical  matter,  wholly  so  in  the 
eye  of  certain  well  defined  schools  in  all 
the  churches;  and  to  those  who  are  io^no- 
rant  of  the  history  which  the  Church  and 
Religion  have  courageously  made  in  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  that  is  still  the 
conception  of  what  is  implied  in  the  zeal 
Religion  bravely  manifests  to-day  for  what 
it  persists  in  calling  the  "  salvation  of  all 
men."  But  I  am  here  to  show,  as  I  think 
I  can,  that  to  Religion  to-day  salvation 
means  the  saving  of  all  in  a  human  being 
which  is  capable  of  being  saved,  that  sal- 
vation is  having  all  that  is  best  in  a  man  at 
its  best,  that  salvation  is  the  development 
of  every  human  faculty,  the  refinement  of 
every  quality,  and  the  satisfaction  of  every 
need,  which  belong  to  him  as  a  man.  If 
any  creature's  powers  are  lying  unused 
because  circumstances,  that  can  be  and 
ought  to  be  changed,  are  paralyzing  or 
narcotizing  them.  Religion  declares  that 
that  creature  is  not  saved.  If  civilization 
is  unnecessarily  forcing  any  human  being 
to  live  under  outward  conditions  which 
keep  him  from  bringing  to  ripeness  the 


46        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

seeds  of  any  sort  of  power  which  God  im- 
planted in  the  rich  soil  of  his  nature,  Reli- 
gion now  asserts  that  that  human  being 
is  not  saved  ;  if  any  child  is  met  on  the 
threshold  of  life  with  the  dreadful  necessity 
of  coming  in  daily  contact  with  what  poi- 
sons the  healthy  fountains  of  its  spiritual 
energy,  with  what  stunts  its  body  and 
dwarfs  its  mind,  Religion  cries  that  that 
child  is  not  saved,  however  strong  be  its 
faith  in  the  certainty  of  God,  heaven,  and 
pardon.  Salvation  is  all  that  is  best  in  a 
man  at  its  best.  And  Religion,  as  yet 
inarticulate,  as  yet  only  half  conscious  of 
the  meaning  of  her  mighty  movement,  is 
setting  herself,  tentatively,  sometimes  clum- 
sily, mistakenly,  even  wildly,  to  bring  in 
the  free  salvation  of  which  we  have  but 
begun  to  appreciate  the  beauty  and  grace 
and  strength.  The  expansion  of  Religion 
is  best  observed  in  all  those  enterprises 
which  seek  to  furnish  a  ministry  to  every 
faculty  of  man,  however  true  it  be  that 
a  competent  spiritual  vision  sees  in  the 
larger,  prof o under,  more  adequate  concep- 
tions of  the  nature  of  God,  the  eternal 
source   from  which   they  all  derive  their 


RELIGION  AND   SALVATION  47 

vitality,  force,  and  purpose.  We  shall  see 
that  Toynbee  Hall  and  the  People's  Palace, 
the  University  Settlement  and  the  Wells 
Memorial,  the  Trades  Unions,  the  Public 
Baths  and  the  Day  Nursery,  the  discon- 
tent with  alms,  and  the  treatment  accorded 
those  in  whom  is  slowly  being  born  the 
love  of  struggle  as  distinguished  from  that 
meted  out  to  those  in  whom  cowardly  de- 
pendence is  an  ineradicable  habit  —  all  are 
symptoms  of  a  religious  purpose,  as  yet 
dim,  unformed,  directionless,  which  is  really 
endeavoring  to  secure  to  man  the  condi- 
tions under  which  all  that  is  best  in  him 
shall  have  the  best  chance  to  be  at  its  best. 
Perhaps  the  churches  may  be  the  last  offi- 
cially to  recognize  and  claim  this  purpose 
as  their  own.  No  matter.  Out  of  the 
churches  mainly  are  to  come  the  heat  and 
light  which  shall  keep  this  purpose  from 
dying  down,  or  from  forever  stumbling 
blindly  and  wildly  on  its  way  towards  the 
realization  of  itself  in  the  sweet,  happy, 
fruitful,  peaceful  life  of  humanity.  What 
the  special  social  forms  of  that  new  life 
shall  be,  what  the  required  industrial,  com- 
mercial,  and   political   changes   shall    be, 


48        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

what  the  fixed  influence  upon  it  the  unre- 
claimed and  irreclaimable  character  of  the 
individual  shall  be,  how  long  and  how 
costly  the  processes  by  which  it  is  achieved 
may  be,  no  man  knoweth.  But  what  I 
think  is  already  clear  is  this :  that  the  rest- 
less movement  of  our  time,  witnessed  by 
the  uneasy  throbbing  of  the  great  heart  of 
society,  and  by  the  universal  struggle  to 
free  itself  from  the  conditions  which  seem 
at  least  to  stunt  it,  proceeds  out  of  the 
conviction,  articulate  or  inarticulate,  that 
salvation  must  be  expanded  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  a  larger  man  to  be  saved. 
St.  Paul,  nigh  two  thousand  years  ago, 
wrote  down  the  passionate  wish  of  his 
great  heart,  "  Brethren,  my  heart's  desire 
and  prayer  to  God  for  Israel  is  that  she 
might  be  saved."  That  is  the  cry  of  Reli- 
gion to-day.  But  "  Israel"  is  now  mankind, 
and  its  salvation  is  the  setting  of  every 
faculty  and  power  of  man  in  the  frame 
that  gives  them  the  best  chance ;  and  the 
power  of  salvation  is  still  the  power  of 
God,  to  Whom,  from  Whom,  and  by 
Whom  are  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth. 


II. 

THE    NEW    ANTHROPOLOGY. 

It  would  be  difficult,  perhaps  impossible, 
to  exao^oferate  the  difference  in  the  esti- 
mates  put  upon  the  value  of  a  human  life  in 
our  own  day  and  in  the  times  that  are  now 
in  the  custody  of  written  history.  If  it  be 
true  that  the  "  individual  withers  and  the 
race  is  more  and  more,"  it  may  turn  out 
that  the  value  set  upon  the  race  is  solely 
to  emphasize  the  value  of  the  individual. 
The  purpose  of  all  social  organization  is 
the  protection  and  welfare  of  the  individ- 
ual, whatever  may  have  been  the  outcome 
of  that  organization.  The  associated  man 
secures  what  the  isolated  man  cannot 
The  creation  of  a  new  unit  is  the  begin- 
ning of  richer  blessings  to  the  individuals 
that  unite  to  form  the  new  unit.  The  dis- 
tinct endeavor  of  association  is  to  produce 
through  association  what  without  associa- 
tion cannot  be.  It  is  plain  enough  that 
many  associations  seek  the  good  of  those 


50        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

alone  who  compose  it,  and  not  seldom  by 
wresting  from  outsiders  what  the  outsid- 
ers, being  unorganized,  are  powerless  to  re- 
tain. But  this  is  indicative,  not  of  a  faulty 
purpose,  but  of  a  limited  one.  It  is  good 
as  far  as  it  goes ;  it  fails  because  it  is  not 
comprehensive  enough.  It  seeks  the  wel- 
fare of  a  selected  or  elected  company,  un- 
mindful of  the  welfare  of  the  mass.  But 
the  point  which  is  always  discernible  is 
this :  that  association  exists  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  securing  an  advantage  to  indi- 
viduals. Even  the  costly  sacrifices  which 
individuals  make  for  the  maintenance  of 
their  association  become  intelligible  only 
as  the  hope  is  cherished  that  these  sacri- 
fices are  eventually  to  be  paid  back,  in  the 
form  of  rich  and  substantial  benefits,  to  the 
individuals.  The  moment  associated  men 
feel  that  the  association  is  neither  bring- 
ing, nor  likely  to  bring,  an  advantage 
which  is  distinctly  personal,  the  associa- 
tion is  discredited  and  finally  dissolved. 
In  other  words,  a  high  value  is  set  upon 
the  worth  of  a  human  being.  Instead  of 
sacrificing  him  for  the  sake  of  organiza- 
tion, —  State,  Church,   Society,  Guild,  or 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  51 

Order,  all  these  exist  to  create  and  secure 
to  him  the  conditions  under  which  he  may 
have  the  chance  to  live  what  he  conceives 
to  be  his  fullest  life. 

One  who  is  not  a  historian  cannot  draw 
from  history  the  concrete  illustrations  of 
the  gradual  growth  of  the  increasingly 
high  estimate  put  upon  the  preciousness 
of  a  human  soul  in  which  history  abounds. 
But  one  need  not  be  a  historian  intelli- 
gently to  read  the  human  significance  of  so 
high-handed  and  heartless  an  expenditure 
of  human  life  as  the  building  of  the  Egyp- 
tian Pyramids  unquestionably  involved. 
Here  are  the  tombs  of  kings,  stupendous 
monuments,  not  of  monarchical  glory,  but 
of  the  reckless  waste  of  innumerable  hu- 
man lives.  Deep  in  the  sands  dug  the 
myriad  slaves,  ignorant  of  everything  save 
the  stern  necessity  of  yielding  every  least 
bit  of  strength  in  their  bodies,  and  every 
least  gleam  of  intelligence  in  their  minds, 
to  the  demand  of  the  king.  Up  from  the 
sands  it  rises,  that  huge  bulk  of  stone, 
testimony  to  the  greatness  of  a  Pharaoh, 
indestructible  evidence  of  the  cheapness 
and  abundance  of  life.     The  whole  is  the 


52        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

tomb  of  a  monarch,  but  every  stone  of  it 
the  tombstone  of  thousands  who  perished 
that  this  pile  might  rise.  In  the  quarries 
and  on  the  roads,  on  the  machinery  and  on 
the  walls,  for  a  score  of  years,  toiled  every 
day  a  hundred  thousand  men,  wageless, 
half  fed,  scourged,  overworked,  sick,  dizzy, 
and  exhausted.  The  only  hospital  was 
the  taskmaster's  whip,  which  stimulated 
into  one  last  agonized  effort  the  exhausted 
muscles  of  the  used-up  body,  the  frenzied 
movement  of  the  reeling  brain.  Death 
was  a  welcome  discharge,  not  seldom 
hastened  by  despair.  Be  it  that  the  glory 
of  the  king  required  the  speedy  comple- 
tion of  its  symbol,  be  it  that  a  too  fecund 
people  must  needs  be  decimated  without 
recourse  to  massacre,  the  history  of  the 
building  of  the  Pyramids  attests  the  care- 
lessly slight  value  set  upon  a  thinking, 
feeling,  human  being  made  in  the  image 
of  God.  Better  than  statistics,  more  strik- 
ingly than  could  the  graphic  pages  of  the 
historian,  more  lucidly  than  any  anthro- 
pology, those  huge  mountains  of  stone 
tell  us  of  an  age  when,  to  reverse  our  Sa- 
viour's words,  "a  sheep  was  much  better 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  53 

than  a  man."  It  is  impossible  for  us  to 
exaggerate  the  low  notions  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  life  which  almost  everywhere  con- 
front us  when  we  open  the  book  of  history 
and  read.  Abraham  felt  no  weight  upon 
his  conscience  when  he  made  up  his  mind 
to  slay  his  only  son.  The  heart  of  the 
father  blenched,  but  the  ethical  aspects  of 
the  killing  did  not  concern  him.  Indeed, 
such  a  test  of  faith  as  he  was  subjected  to 
could  not  have  been  applied  had  it  been 
probable  that  he  would  ethically  revolt 
a2:ainst  human  sacrifice  as  an  idea.  God 
had  promised  that  in  his  seed  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.  The 
sole  conceivable  possibility  of  that  pro- 
mise being  kept  lay  in  the  preservation 
of  Isaac's  life.  Isaac  once  dead,  the  pro- 
mise must  fail.  Could  Abraham  kill  his 
son,  and  still  go  on  believing  that  God 
was  able  to  keep  His  word?  —  that,  and 
not  some  scruple  about  the  morality  of 
human  sacrifice,  was  the  patriarch's  test. 
And  that  test  could  be  applied  only  in 
an  age  in  which  life  was  held  cheap.  Very 
likely  we  shall  sometime  see  clearly  that 
that  misinterpretation  of  God's  will  which 


54        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

resulted  in  the  butchery  of  Canaanitish  wo- 
men and  children  was  possible  only  among 
a  people  to  whom  had  not  yet  come  the 
perception  of  the  preciousness  of  life. 
The  sin  of  Saul  in  saving  his  prisoners 
from  massacre  would  not  have  been  sin  at 
all  had  he  saved  them  from  motives  of 
clemency  and  not  of  lust  and  gain.  The 
plain  fact  of  history  is  that  the  lower  the 
estimate  put  upon  man,  the  lower  we  shall 
find  the  conception  of  the  nature  of  God  to 
be ;  and  as  we  trace  in  this  lecture  the  pro- 
gress of  the  idea  of  the  exceeding  great 
value  of  a  human  being,  we  shall  see  at 
every  step  that  that  idea  is  rooted  in  finer, 
more  moral,  more  holy  conceptions  of  what 
God  is.  Religion  is  the  source  of  all  those 
endeavors  which,  ignoring  Religion,  not  in- 
frequently repudiating  it,  are  seeking  the 
reformation  of  human  society,  not  merely 
in  the  mass,  but  in  the  concrete  condi- 
tions of  the  individual,  because  Religion  is 
the  source  of  that  new  value  given  to  man 
which  makes  saving  him  seem  worth  while. 
The  first  evidence  of  a  higher  value  set 
upon  man  which  I  shall  bring,  is  the  estab- 
lishment of   the  hospital.     Doubtless  the 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  55 

Romans,  with  quick  insight  into  the  neces- 
sity of  guarding  against  the  weakening  of 
their  armies  by  disease,  made  special  pro- 
vision for  the  care  of  disabled  or  diseased 
soldiers ;  but  only  those  were  cared  for 
who  gave  promise  of  recovery  and  return 
to  active  duty.  The  Greeks  reckoned  the 
wounded  and  the  sick  a  total  military  loss, 
and  left  their  disabled  men  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  nature.  There  was  a  plenty 
more  men  where  the  fallen  came  from. 
It  was  not  until  the  fourth  century,  when 
Christianity  had  become  a  power,  mainly, 
to  be  sure,  in  the  state,  yet  widely  also 
in  human  hearts,  that  the  first  hospital 
was  founded.  It  was  a  signal  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  a  broken  body  might  be, 
ought  to  be,  repaired  ;  a  new  testimony  to 
an  awakened  sense  of  the  value  of  life, 
however  prominently  was  associated  with 
it  the  idea  of  the  economic  wisdom  of  sav- 
ing life.  On  from  the  fourth  century,  the 
establishment  of  hospitals,  especially  in 
connection  with  ecclesiastical  institutions, 
grew  apace,  until  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century  they  became  a  fixed  fea- 
ture of  municipal  and  military  life.     But  it 


56        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

was  reserved  for  the  last  two  generations  to 
develop  the  hospital  idea  out  of  a  natural 
pity  for  physical  suffering,  and  of  alarm 
at  the  loss  of  so  much  economically  valu- 
able life,  into  the  magnificent  conception 
of  hospitals  as  ministers  to  man's  chance 
to  live  his  life  at  its  best  on  the  physical 
side  of  it.  Public  interest  has  been  so  con- 
tinuously drawn  to  a  consideration  of  the 
clever  contrivances  of  the  hospital  system, 
to  the  amazing  advance  in  surgery  made 
possible  by  antiseptic  treatment  and  by 
sterilization,  by  the  ingenious  devices  of  a 
newborn  architecture,  that  we  have  seldom 
asked  whence  came  the  motive  which 
called  into  being  these  matchless  provi- 
sions for  the  treatment  and  cure  of  human 
beings.  We  have  taken  for  granted  that 
knowledge  of  methods  by  which  sickness 
can  be  turned  into  health,  twisted  limbs 
made  straight,  and  poison  ejected  from  the 
blood,  has  as  a  matter  of  course  resulted 
in  the  application  of  that  knowledge  to 
the  broken  bodies  of  men.  But  the  mo- 
ment we  reflect  upon  it  ever  so  little,  we 
see  that  explanation  breaking  down.  For 
at  the  start,  a  pure  human  pity,  vitalized 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  57 

by  Christian  love,  cast  about  for  means 
wherewith  to  mitigate  pain.  Rough  and 
faulty  those  means  were,  but  for  the  most 
part  love  of  man  called  them  into  being. 
And  running  down  from  Fabiola's  ven- 
ture of  faith,  inspired  by  Jerome,  to  the 
Vanderbilts'  munificent  provision  for  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in 
New  York,  medical  science  has  confidently 
counted  upon  the  expansion  of  man's  piti- 
ful concern  for  his  brother's  body  to  sup- 
ply it  with  the  means  to  establish  its  hos- 
pitals and  bring  to  perfection  its  surgical 
and  medical  appliances  of  cure.  The  Mas- 
sachusetts General  Hospital  two  hundred 
years  ago  is  unthinkable,  not  because  of 
the  cost  it  implies,  but  because  there  was 
in  the  colony  but  a  faint  glimmer  of  the 
beautiful  compassion  for  physical  suffer- 
ing which  beats  in  the  heart  of  the  Com- 
monwealth to-day.  The  gifts  and  grants 
which  have  made  it  a  benediction  are  not 
a  people's  homage  to  the  marvelous  de- 
velopment of  medical  science  and  to  its 
economic  outcome,  but  a  testimony  to  a 
people's  deep-hearted,  warm-hearted  belief 
that  no  man  among  us  should  languish  in 


58        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

unsanitary,  Ignorant,  and  poverty-limited 
conditions,  or  drag  a  maimed  body  through 
his  painful  years,  if  science  can  give  him 
health  and  straightness.  You  cannot  touch 
the  motive  which  builds  our  hospitals  with- 
out instantly  feeling  that  you  have  your 
finger  upon  the  heart  of  a  religious  con- 
viction that  man's  body  must  be  saved 
because  the  man  who  lives  in  it  is  worth 
more  than  all  else.  The  expansion  of 
Religion,  on  that  side  of  it  which  regards 
the  human  body,  precedes  and  inexorably 
conditions  the  expansion  of  the  hospital 
to  meet  the  needs  of  suffering.  It  is  this 
expansion  of  Religion  also,  perpetually  as- 
serting the  truth  which  long  ago  was  ut- 
tered in  the  Bible  — "  Know  ye  not  that 
your  bodies  are  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  "  —  which  has  led  to  the  separation 
of  the  generic  hospital  into  hospitals  for 
the  sexes  and  for  children,  and  finally  into 
those  reserved  for  specific  diseases.  At 
the  end  of  the  last  centur}^  when  a  stupid 
law  in  France,  and  an  equally  stupid  one 
in  England,  compelled  the  hospital  author- 
ities to  receive  every  patient  that  applied 
for  admission,  irrespective  of  the  crowded 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  59 

condition  of  the  wards  and  the  nature  of 
the  apphcant's  disease,  the  mortahty  was 
so  appalHng  that  it  became  a  serious  ques- 
tion whether  hospitals  were  a  benefit  or  a 
curse.  As  schools  for  instructing  medical 
students  in  the  art  of  healing,  they  were 
an  undoubted  success,  but  the  growing 
philanthropy  recoiled  from  the  thought  of 
securing  competent  medical  and  surgical 
knowledge  at  so  frightful  a  cost  in  human 
life.  It  revolted  at  the  sight  of  four,  and 
even  six,  suffering  bodies  crowded  into 
a  single  bed  in  a  ward  which  rivaled  in 
populousness  a  tenement  house  in  Mul- 
berry Bend.  "  These  are  our  brothers  and 
sisters,"  it  cried,  "  each  with  a  love  of  life, 
each  capable  of  exquisite  suffering  and  ex- 
quisite joy,  each  entitled  to  a  chance  with 
us  of  finding  in  this  w^orld  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  nature  into  which  they  w^ere 
born.  The  modesty  of  woman  has  rights 
which  are  being  ignorantly  but  none  the 
less  shamefully  sacrificed.  The  timidity  of 
little  children  is  daily  made  the  occasion 
of  an  agony.  The  chances  of  life  for 
the  mother  and  her  newborn  babe  are 
destroyed  by  the  proximity  of  fever  and 


6o       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

contagion.  The  sacredness  of  human  life 
is  overlaid  by  considerations  of  economy." 
That  was  the  cry  of  an  enh'ghtened  philan- 
thropy, of  an  educated  political  economy, 
if  you  like;  but  only  as  it  reached  the  ear 
of  those  who  profoundly  felt  the  essential 
preciousness  of  a  human  being  was  there 
so  much  as  a  chance  that  reform  would 
enter  the  hospital,  insisting  that,  at  any 
pecuniary  cost,  men  and  women  must  be 
treated,  not  as  cases,  but  as  souls,  not  as 
organisms  out  of  repair,  but  as  persons, 
with  all  the  rights  of  personality  to  a  care 
and  treatment  which  regarded  a  cure  as 
the  beautiful  gate  through  which  they 
were  to  go  to  a  new  life  of  privilege  and 
endeavor.  However  s^reat  be  the  contri- 
butions  of  medical  science  to  that  devel- 
opment of  the  hospital  which  has  revolu- 
tionized its  bills  of  mortality,  and  secured 
a  seemly  decency  to  its  provisions  for  sex 
and  infancy,  we  shall  but  half  account  for 
these  splendid  achievements  if  we  fail  to 
recognize  the  part  played  by  Religion  in 
creating  the  motive  which  compelled  the 
revolution.  Without  that  expansion  of 
Religion  which  witnesses  to  a  profound 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY,  6l 

and  passionate  belief  in  such  a  salvation  for 
man  as  provides  him  with  the  best  chances, 
and  which  includes  in  its  conception  of 
salvation  the  highest  possible  safety  of  his 
body,  the  evolution  of  the  hospital  out  of 
something  little  better  than  a  pest  house 
into  a  system  which  has  made  the  repre- 
sentative hospital  the  guarantee  of  the 
best  treatment  and  the  surest  cure,  could 
never  have  been.  Out  of  a  quickened  and 
enlightened  sense  of  the  value  of  a  man, 
which  is  thoroughly  religious,  has  blos- 
somed this  splendid  provision  for  the  care 
and  cure  of  his  broken  body.  The  city 
hospital  is  the  utterance  of  the  city's  reli- 
gious belief  in  man's  physical  salvation, 
just  as  a  St.  Vincent's  or  a  St.  Margaret's 
Hospital  is  the  expression  of  the  Church's 
religious  belief  in  that  salvation,  —  the  one 
as  much  as  the  other.  Destroy  that  reli- 
gious belief,  let  the  care  of  the  sick  be 
handed  over  to  the  mercy  of  economical 
considerations,  and  while  medical  know- 
ledge and  surgical  skill  may  remain,  even 
increase,  the  sources  of  power  to  utilize 
them,  to  furnish  them  with  opportunity, 
run  thin  and  perhaps  dry  up. 


62       THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

I  do  not  think  we  can  exaggerate  the 
part  played  by  Religion  here.  You  and  I 
may  have  been  tempted  by  early  and  in- 
veterate ideas  to  look  upon  modern  provi- 
sion for  physical  need  as  an  indication  of 
the  decline  of  religious  interest  and  the 
mildly  hostile  rise  of  materialism ;  but 
when  one  calmly  reflects  upon  the  origin, 
not  of  knowledge  and  skill,  but  of  the 
powerful  motive  which  has  seized  skill  and 
knowledQ:e  as  instruments  for  the  cure  of 
human  disease,  he  traces  back  to  Religion, 
expanded  and  enlightened,  the  streams 
which  are  flowing  through  humanity  to 
form  a  purer  river  of  life. 

I  find  also  that  sanitary  science  is  under 
larger  obligations  to  religion  than  appears 
upon  the  surface.  The  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  may  safely  be  trusted  to  avail 
itself  of  every  appliance  known  to  sci- 
ence, provided  that  instinct  is  enough  en- 
lightened. And  in  the  dwellings  of  the 
well-to-do,  in  all  first-class  structures, 
hotels,  office  buildings,  schools  and  dormi- 
tories, for  the  use  of  the  well-to-do,  sani- 
tary arrangements  of  approved  and  up-to- 
date  perfection   are  expected  as  a  matter 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  63 

of  course.  They  are  vitally  necessary  in 
the  mansion,  and  economically  profitable 
in  all  income-producing  buildings  whose 
tenants  are  alive  to  the  dangers  of  bad 
sanitary  conditions.  And  so  we  find  them 
wherever  legitimately  selfish  intelligence 
and  competitive  urgency  demand  them. 
But  in  another  direction  sets  the  religious 
spirit.  Insisting  upon  the  intrinsic  value 
of  man,  independent  of  anything  he  pos- 
sesses and  of  the  conditions  under  which 
he  lives,  Religion  has  been  demanding 
that  the  ignorant  poor  shall  share  with  the 
intelligent  rich  the  benefits  of  sanitary 
science.  The  tenement- house  question 
may  turn  out  to  be  an  economical  one  — 
for  one,  I  think  it  will  —  but  the  agitation 
for  the  decent  housing  of  the  poor  in  both 
England  and  America  has  thus  far  been, 
not  economical,  but  religious.  It  has 
never  been  the  exclusive  concern  of  the 
Church  as  an  organized  body,  but  when 
we  scrutinize  the  nature  of  the  motives 
of  those  who  have  been  foremost  in  aQ-ita- 
tions  for  model  tenement  houses,  we  find 
them  to  be  firmly  rooted  in  the  idea, 
which  is  distinctly  religious,  that  man,  just 


64       THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

because  he  is  man,  with  capacit}^  to  grow 
and  to  shrink,  to  rise  and  to  sink,  to  be- 
come more  spiritual  and  more  bestial,  is 
entitled  to  a  material  condition  which 
secures  him  a  chance  to  develop  as  the 
nature  of  the  body  he  inhabits  declares  he 
ought.  Mr.  Henry  George,  in  answering 
the  question  "  Is  our  civilization  just  to 
w^orkingmen  ? "  draws  a  picture  of  the 
homes  of  the  rich  and  the  abodes  of  the 
poor  which  will  illustrate,  in  a  way  he  did 
not  intend,  the  point  we  have  in  mind. 
"  Imagine,"  he  says,  "  that  the  first  man 
Adam  in  the  slumber  of  the  night  stood 
by  your  bedside  in  one  of  those  great 
cities  which  are  the  flower,  crown,  and  type 
of  our  civilization,  and  asked  you  to  take 
him  through  it.  Here  you  w^ould  take  him 
through  W'ide  and  well-kept  streets  lined 
with  spacious  mansions,  replete  with  every- 
thinor  which  can  enhance  comfort  and 
gratify  taste,  adorned  with  magnificent 
churches.  Again,  you  would  pass  through 
another  quarter  where  everything  is  nig- 
gard and  pinched,  w^here  families  are  packed 
together  tier  and  tier,  sometimes  a  whole 
family  in  a  single  room ;  where  even  such 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  65 

churches  as  you  see  are  poor  and  mean, 
and  only  the  grogshops  are  gorgeous. 
Which  quarter  do  you  think  Adam  would 
understand  you  to  mean,  if  you  spoke  of 
the  workingman's  quarter?"  Mr.  George 
is  appealing  to  the  public  sense  of  justice, 
and  his  appeal  is  founded  upon  the  argu- 
ment that  such  a  deplorable  contrast  is 
proof  of  an  inequitable  distribution  of  the 
proceeds  of  labor.  But  the  appeal  chal- 
lenges instantly  a  reply  in  terms  of  polit- 
ical economy.  It  inaugurates  a  debate 
which  is  still  in  active  progress,  and  mean- 
while the  contrast  between  the  Back  Bay 
and  the  Cove,  Fifty-seventh  Street  and 
Avenue  B,  remains  as  flagrant  as  ever, 
so  far  as  any  efforts  of  the  debaters  have 
mitigated  it.  But  Religion,  pushing  its 
way  through  the  discussion,  has  insisted 
that  there  is  another  argument  which  must 
be  heard  and  heeded.  "  The  human 
beings  housed  in  the  worst  conceivable 
sanitary  conditions  are  our  brethren,  part 
of  the  great  whole,  bone  of  our  bone,  flesh 
of  our  flesh.  While  you  are  debating, 
they  are  dying;  while  you  are  in  search  of 
an  impregnable  solution  of  an  economical 


66        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

question,  little  children  are  day  by  day 
drinking  in  the  poison  of  a  foulness  of  air 
and  a  degree  of  almost  necessitated  filth 
which,  working  in  the  blood,  will  put  them 
on  the  threshold  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood handicapped  for  life.  God  never 
meant  that  man  should  live  as  these  are 
living.  The  hollow-eyed,  bent,  gaunt, 
white-faced  w^oman  who  emerges  from  the 
tenement  house  of  an  August  morning  is 
not  the  type  of  the  woman  God  meant 
should  live  upon  this  earth.  Let  her  be 
bad,  fond  of  beer  and  tea  and  snuff  —  that 
alone  is  incapable  of  producing  this  dis- 
tortion of  womanhood.  God  protests  in 
the  person  of  every  comely  woman  against 
conditions  which  sap  the  strength  and  mar 
the  beauty  of  a  woman.  God  is  every  day 
declaring  in  the  wholesomeness  of  health, 
and  in  the  pathetic  repulsiveness  of  the 
disease  that  grows  naturally  out  of  poi- 
soned air  and  reeking  walls,  that  man  was 
meant  to  be  as  beautiful  as  the  leopard 
and  the  bird."  You  see  that,  after  all,  it 
is  Religion  speaking,  Religion,  which  has 
conceived  of  man  as  so  precious  that  it 
cannot  tolerate  the   thouHit  of  his  livino^ 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  67 

111  circumstances  which,  while  they  cannot 
of  themselves  degrade  him,  make  his  phy- 
sical deterioration  inevitable.     The  move- 
ment in  the  direction  of  a  better  sanitary 
provision  for  the  poor,  however  non-reli- 
gious here  and  there  it  may  appear,  is  at 
heart  religious.  Christian  as  well.    If  legis- 
lation is  at  length  slowly  and  tentatively 
incorporating  into  the  body  of  statute  law 
provisions   for  a  rigid    inspection  of   our 
tenement  houses,  prescribing  the  character 
of  the  plumbing  which   the    owner  must 
provide,  testing    it   when  it   is    in    place, 
compelling  its  repair  when  defective,  that 
argues  something  more  than  governmental 
solicitude  for  the  health  of  those  who  must 
do  the  hard  work  of  the  nation  and  the 
town.       It   declares,  rather,  that  the  reli- 
gious conception  of  the  value  of  a  man  has 
insinuated  itself  into  public  sentiment,  and 
that  the  sense  of  public  duty  has  uttered 
itself  in  law.     When  I  hear  that  sanitary 
reform  is  the  direct  outcome  of  an  enlight- 
ened science  of  the  laws  of  health,  and  that 
it  shows  how  unnecessary,  after  all,  is  the 
Religion  which  once  was  the  creator  of  all 
humane  reforms,  I  must  still  ask  whence 


6S        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

came  the  iincalculating  force  which  seized 
upon    sanitary  science    as  an    instrument, 
and  made  into  fact  what  before  was  only 
ascertained    knowledge  ?      Whence   came 
the  courage,  the  heroic,  persistent,  large- 
hearted   devotion  which,   after    uncounted 
efforts,  succeeded  in  permeating  a  public 
sentiment,  half  ignorant  and  half  indiffer- 
ent, with  the  acute  consciousness  that  city 
tenements  are  an  outrage  upon  humanity  ? 
Not  from  a  body  of  sanitary  experts,  as 
such,  not  out  of  a  commercial  forecast  of  a 
great  new  industry,  not  out  of  a  threatened 
revolt  of  helpless  tenants,  but  straight  out 
of  hearts  in  which  lived  the  great  convic- 
tion that  man   as  man  was  too  precious, 
too  richly  endowed  with  sensitive  powers 
of  feeling  joy  and  pain,  of  rising  into  self- 
respect  and  sinking  into  animalism,  to  be 
allowed  to  live  in  conditions  which  daily 
threatened  to  break  down  the  fair  struc- 
ture of  a  body  that  tenanted  a  fairer  soul. 
Men   and  women,  who  perhaps  repudiate 
orthodoxy  of    every    sort,  have   found    in 
their  devotion  to  their  brother's  need  the 
surest  warrant  for  believing  that  deep  in 
their  hearts  was  a  truer  Religion  than  that 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  69 

illustrated  in  a  scrupulous  ritual,  and  in  a 
devotion  which  may  issue  in  hardness  of 
heart.  I  cannot,  and  I  will  not,  believe 
that  Religion  is  decaying  so  long  as  vigor- 
ous warfare  is  waged  against  everything 
which  lowers  respect  for  the  bodies  which 
are  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
preachership  which  declares  the  gospel  of 
the  body  is  as  truly  religious  as  the  preach- 
ership which  proclaims  the  gospel  of  the 
spirit. 

And  to  that  preachership  we  largely 
owe  it  that  the  distortion,  "  How  much  is 
a  sheep  better  than  a  man,"  has  been  re- 
stored to  its  original  divine  form,  "  How 
much  is  a  man  better  than  a  sheep."  It 
is  difficult,  nay,  it  is  impossible,  not  to 
break  out  into  a  fervent  thanksgiving  that, 
in  our  dear  city,  one  noble-hearted,  cour- 
ageous, undaunted  woman  ^  has  made  phy- 
sical living  far  less  hopeless  and  far  more 
hopeful  for  thousands  who,  but  for  her 
clear  voice,  would  still  be  steeped  in  un- 
mitigated miseries  and  unspeakable  sur- 
roundings. It  is  not  yet  clear  to  us  all 
that  every  effort  to   make  life  materially 

1  Mrs.  Alice  N.  Lincoln. 


70        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

fairer  for  the  unfavored  many  is  an  effort 
which  only  Religion  explains  and  makes 
possible;  but  it  is  growing  clearer,  and 
when  the  salvation  of  man  Is  seen  to  be 
having  all  that  is  best  in  him  at  its  best, 
organized  Religion  will  proudly  claim  as 
its  own  the  least  of  the  acts  which  furnish 
man  his  chance  to  become  what  God  in- 
tended him  to  be. 

And  this  leads  naturally  to  a  considera- 
tion of  that  feature  of  modern  life  here  in 
America  which  is  still  the  object  of  praise 
and  blame.  The  astonishing  increase  of 
physical  exercise  —  whether  in  the  form  of 
athletics  in  our  colleges,  or  sports  in  clubs, 
or  drill  in  the  gymnasium  —  has  to  many 
minds  frequently  worn  the  look  of  a  logical 
consequence  of  the  so-called  materialism 
of  the  day.  "  Of  course,"  they  say,  "  all 
this  was  bound  to  come ;  what  else  should 
follow  the  decline  of  spiritual  Religion,  the 
decay  of  a  reverent  belief  in  the  powers 
of  the  world  to  come  1  This  exaltation  of 
the  body,  this  rich  provision  for  its  devel- 
opment and  perfection,  is  rooted  in  that 
passionate  devotion  to  things  which  char- 
acterizes all  modern  life.     Beauty  in  art, 


THE   NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  71 

luxury  in  living,  sumptuousness  in  ap- 
pointments, and  money  as  a  measure  of 
worth,  require  a  perfect  body  for  their  per- 
fect enjoyment.  The  more  this  life  crowds 
out  the  consideration  of  the  next,  the  surer 
will  be  man's  effort  to  secure  the  only 
vehicle  which  can  carry  him  safely  from 
start  to  finish  of  the  journey  which  begins 
at  birth  and  probably  ends  at  death.  To 
'  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we 
die,'  has  been  added,  '  Let  us  exercise  and 
develop  our  bodies,  for  without  their  health 
and  vigor  we  perish  before  we  die.'  "  But 
such  a  judgment  overlooks  several  consid- 
erations which  have  to  do  with  Religion. 
Religion,  as  we  have  been  saying,  is  intent 
on  saving  all  that  is  best  in  man.  But  it 
has  been  taught  by  physiology,  and  more 
recently  by  psychology,  that  while  wicked- 
ness is  not  the  outcome  of  a  depraved 
body,  a  depraved  body  is  the  removal  of 
many  of  the  most  valuable  restraints  to 
evil  impulse,  and  perhaps  the  occasion  of 
evil  impulse  itself.  It  certainly  is  provo- 
cative of  restlessness  on  the  one  side,  of 
lethargy  upon  the  other ;  and  the  moment 
a  man  is  thoroughly  restless  or  thoroughly 


'^l        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

lethargic,  he  is  open  to  a  set  of  temp- 
tations to  which  the  normal  man  is  a 
stranger.  It  is  not  true,  historically  or  ra- 
tionally, that  wickedness  is  the  necessary 
consequent  of  ill  health,  but  it  is  true,  his- 
torically and  rationally,  that  national  phy- 
sical deterioration  is  followed  by  national 
moral  deterioration,  or,  if  not  followed,  is 
accompanied  by  it.  The  mere  perception 
of  this  fact,  however,  and  its  abundant  ver- 
ification by  both  past  and  present,  is  pow- 
erless to  secure  a  right  treatment  of  the 
body  for  the  sake  of  ethical  or  intellectual 
results  in  man  and  nation.  What  was 
needed,  and  what  is  needed  still,  is  the 
profound  conviction  that  man  is  so  rich 
in  capacity  of  development,  so  intrinsically 
worthy,  and  so  manifestly  planned  for  a 
career  that  demands  the  perfection  of  every 
power,  that  to  ignore  his  body  is  to  thwart 
God's  purpose.  The  moment  a  man  cries 
out  in  deep  belief,  "  I  have  no  right  to  deny 
my  body  what,  as  an  instrument  of  mind 
and  spirit,  it  demands;  I  have  no  right,  in 
the  supposed  interest  of  that  mind  and 
spirit,  to  interpret  '  keeping  it  under '  as 
permission    to   let    its    channels    become 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY,  73 

clogged  or  foul,  its  blood  to  run  hot  and 
thin  ;  I  have  no  right  to  allow  it  to  become 
the  hotbed  of  disordered  nerves  or  the  pit 
of  narcotized  force,"  we  have  a  new  an- 
thropology, in  which  the  religious  signi- 
ficance of  physical  vitality  has  its  rightful 
recognition.  So  far,  then,  from  physical 
culture  being  a  sign  of  decaying  spiritual- 
ity, it  is  rather  the  as  yet  unconscious,  but 
none  the  less  true,  insistence  upon  the  in- 
dubitable fact  that  ministry  to  the  body  is 
as  truly  an  act  of  Religion  as  ministry  to 
the  soul.  The  only  reason  our  boys  and 
young  men  are  unable  to  recognize  that 
the  drill  of  the  gymnasium  is  integrally 
one  with  worship  in  the  chapel,  is  that 
they  have  heard  the  two  acts  spoken  of  as 
having  no  relation  to  one  another,  or,  if 
not  that,  have  never  listened  to  a  frank 
declaration  of  the  fundamental  equality  of 
them  as  exercises  —  "  gymnastics,"  to  use 
St.  Paul's  striking  phrase  —  which  have  in 
view  the  symmetrical  development  of  the 
perfect  man.  But  there  are  not  wanting 
signs  of  an  increasing,  and  increasingly 
intelligent  recognition^  by  both  educators 
and  preachers  of  Religion,  that  in  the  near 


74        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

future  the  training  of  the  child's  body  must 
keep  equal  pace  with  instruction  in  morals 
and  Religion  too ;  not  as  a  graceful  accom- 
plishment merely,  not  as  a  physical  prepa- 
ration for  the  hard  work  of  manhood  only, 
but  as  the  necessary  accompaniment  of 
anything  like  a  true  development  of  the  na- 
ture which  looks  up  to  God  for  inspiration 
that  it  may  look  out  on  the  world  with 
sanity  and  hope.  In  other  words,  the  pre- 
sent wide  interest  in  physical  exercise  is 
essentially  a  religious  one,  because  it  rests 
squarely  upon  our  profound  conviction 
that  to  do  adequately  what  we  can  do,  to 
meet  faithfully  what  membership  in  society 
involves  in  the  way  of  task  and  duty,  there 
must  be  a  body  which,  by  its  vigor  and 
strength,  can  keep  our  noblest  purposes 
from  degenerating  into  feeble  good  wishes. 
That  is  the  religious  basis  of  physical  ex- 
ercises. And  it  is  characteristic  of  our 
time  that  it  has  lifted,  or  that  it  is  trying 
to  lift,  the  passion  for  the  body's  develop- 
ment clean  out  of  the  idea  of  it  as  valua- 
ble mainly  for  making  a  nation  of  vigorous 
soldiers  and  muscular  toilers,  and  is  setting 
it  forth   as  an   integral  part  of  the  ideal 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  75 

of  the  perfect  man.  It  is  corroborative  of 
this  view  of  it  that  when  physical  exercise 
secured  recognition  as  a  necessary  part  of 
education,  when  provision  was  made  for  it 
in  our  schools  and  colleges  in  the  same 
way  that  provision  had  been  made  for  in- 
struction in  chemistry  and  for  worship  in 
the  chapel,  there  was  at  once  discrimina- 
tion between  physical  culture  and  competi- 
tive sports.  Competitive  contests  are  to 
the  development  of  the  body  what  a  ritual 
is  to  Religion.  A  ritual  is  forever  in  danger 
of  sinking  into  superstition.  It  can  perpet- 
uate itself  in  safety  only  as  it  scrupulously 
regards  itself  as  the  vehicle  of  a  devotion 
which  is  perpetually  strengthened  and  illu- 
minated by  personal  loyalty  to  God.  The 
moment  ritual  ceases  to  regard  itself  as 
vehicle,  and  decorates  and  prolongs  itself 
regardless  of  its  sole  function,  it  becomes 
a  superstition.  So  competitive  sport  is, 
ideally,  the  exhibition  of  the  progress  and 
achievement  of  physical  training ;  it  is  the 
disclosure  to  the  public  of  the  results,  in 
power  of  sustained  exertion,  endurance, 
grace  and  nerve,  of  a  systematic  and  in- 
telligent corporal  development     The  mo- 


'J 6        THE  EXPA.XSIJN  OF  RELIGION. 

ment  it  loses  sight  of  its  true  relation  to 
the  education  of  the  whole  man,  it  sinks 
to  the  level  of  the  uncontrollable  frenzy  of 
the  bull-dog,  the  blind  tenacity  of  the  Tas- 
manian  devil.  It  ought  to  be  clear  that 
there  is  no  permanent  cure  for  the  brutal- 
ity and  ferocity  which  have  too  frequently 
attended  athletic  contests,  nor  for  the  in- 
consequential, but  none  the  less  deplora- 
ble features  of  some  of  them,  in  marshal- 
ing arguments  to  prove  that  brutality  is  no 
true  element  of  a  trial  of  physical  strength, 
endurance,  and  skill ;  it  will  be  found  in 
the  powerful  and  continuous  insistence 
that  physical  exercise  is  not  for  the  sake 
of  athletic  competition,  but  for  the  produc- 
tion of  a  body  meet  for  all  the  demands 
which  the  serious  business  of  life  shall 
make  upon  it,  and  for  the  creation  of  the 
healthy  nerve  and  normal  brain,  fed  by 
pure  cool  blood,  which  furnish  noblest  pur- 
poses for  the  conduct  of  life  with  their 
finest  chance.  The  new  anthropology,  by 
insisting  upon  the  sacredness  of  the  body 
as  the  instrument  of  the  mind,  and  upon 
the  mind  as  the  servant  of  the  spirit,  and, 
further,  by  declaring  that  the  salvation  of 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  yj 

each  is  essential  to  that  salvation  of  the 
total  man  for  which  Religion  exists,  will 
soonest  and  surest  elevate  physical  culture 
to  its  rightful  place  in  the  economy  of  edu- 
cation, soonest  and  surest  preserve  it  from 
the  danger  of  degenerating  into  sheer  ani- 
malism, —  the  possession  of  a  magnificent 
physique  pledged  to  nothing  better  than 
service  to  physical  sensations.  Over  all 
this  apparently  non-religious  outbreak  of 
a  passionate  devotion  to  the  gospel  of  the 
body  broods  the  spirit  of  man's  religious 
faith  in  himself  as  intrinsically  precious 
because  allied  by  indestructible  bonds  to 
the  God  from  whom  he  came,  with  Whom 
he  lives,  to  Whom  he  shall  one  day  return. 
That  devotion  can  never  sink  utterly  down 
into  materialism,  however  refined  and 
beautiful,  so  long  as  Religion,  uttering  her- 
self anew  in  this  more  spiritual  anthro- 
pology, more  and  more  illuminates  the 
blind  play  of  human  physical  force,  and 
shows  to  it  the  real  meaning  and  purpose 
of  its  energy.  To  regard  it  as  the  indubi- 
table symptom  of  an  increasingly  robust 
materialism,  or  the  mark  of  a  decay  of  Reli- 
gion, is  flagrantly  to  misinterpret  it ;  it  is. 


7^        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

rather,  Religion  asserting  herself  in  fields 
on  which  it  has  been  supposed  she  had  no 
business,  no  duties,  and  no  rights.  It  is 
the  working  of  an  instinct  fundamental 
and  unerring.  We  can  misinterpret  it, 
have  misinterpreted  it;  but  it  is  w^ell  to  re- 
member that  acute  saying  of  Mr.  Arnold, 
"  A  man's  instinct  is  always  truer  than  his 
interpretation  of  it."  But  the  coming  years 
will,  I  think,  witness  two  significant  events: 
first,  the  permanent  and  ample  provision 
for  physical  culture  as  part  of  the  educa- 
tion which  the  state  provides  for  all  her 
children ;  and,  second,  the  frank,  glad  rec- 
ognition that  this  provision  is  the  outcome 
of  an  intelligent  religious  purpose  to  have 
all  that  is  best  in  a  man  at  its  best,  w^iich 
is  the  salvation  for  which  Religion  exists. 

Again,  the  relation  of  the  new  anthro- 
pology to  the  use  of  Sunday  must  not 
be  ignored.  It  has  been  said  that  New 
England  Puritanism  is  modern  Levitical 
Judaism,  and  that  the  conception  of  the 
meaning  of  Sunday  w^iich  Puritanism  illus- 
trated was  taken  unaltered  from  discredited 
pre-Christian  Jewish  sources.  The  pre- 
sent use  of  Sunday  is  widely  regarded  as  a 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  79 

revolt  against  ancient  Sabbatarianism,  and 
equally  a  revolt  against  Religion  as  a  force 
regulating  both  belief  and  conduct.  It 
would  be  far  truer  to  interpret  the  modern 
Sunday  as  a  return  to  what  was  most  char- 
acteristic in  the  Levitical  doctrine  of  the 
Sabbath,  and  a  fulfillment  of  what  is  im- 
plied in  the  Christian  doctrine  of  Sunday. 
Levitical  legislation  was  bent  on  securing 
a  cessation  of  toil  on  the  Sabbath.  It  pro- 
tested against  continuous  labor,  insisted 
upon  the  necessity  of  rest.  The  Fourth 
Commandment  legislates  not  against  re- 
creation nor  amusement,  but  against  toil. 
It  is  the  only  Commandment  of  the  ten 
which  defines  with  exactness  what  it  en- 
joins. "  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to 
keep  it  holy."  But  what  was  the  holiness 
so  rigidly  commanded  ?  Was  there  not 
the  chance  of  misconceiving  or  misinter- 
preting it  ?  The  Commandment,  there- 
fore, was  expanded  into  an  explicit  defini- 
tion of  what  "  keeping  the  Sabbath  day 
holy  "  really  meant.  By  it  there  is  an  ab- 
solute prohibition  laid  upon  all  sorts  of 
work  by  every  sort  of  people.  Sabbath 
breaking  was  thus  identified  with  toil  on 


80        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

the  Sabbath  day.    When  young  Nehemiah 
wished  to  picture  graphically  the  desecra- 
tion of  his  nation's  holy  day,  he  cried,  "  I 
saw  people  treading  winepresses,  binding 
sheaves,  and  lading  asses.    I  heard  the  fish 
dealers  of  Tyre  crying  their  wares  in  the 
streets  and  selling  to   the    inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  men  of  Judah."     Work, 
the  prosecution  of  any  calling  that  involved 
it  for  one's  self  or  for  other  people  —  man- 
servant or  maidservant,  even  for  ox  or  for 
ass  —  was  the  real  breach  of  the  holiness 
of  the  Sabbath  day.     And  all  the  legisla- 
tion which  undertook  to  express  in  statutes 
what  was  necessary  to  safeguard  the  ele- 
mental principle,  conforms  to  the  purpose 
of  that  principle.     The  scrupulous  obser- 
vance of  the   Sabbath  was  to  be  a  sign 
between  God  and  Israel  that  Israel  might 
know  that,  through  strict  obedience  to  the 
Sabbath  law,  Jehovah  "  sanctified "  them, 
that  is,  kept  them   whole,  safe  from   the 
mutilation  which  continuous  toil  has  ever 
caused.    It  is  utterly  to  mistake  the  mean- 
ing of  that  still  powerful,  still  beneficent 
institution  to  regard  it  as  an  exasperating 
restriction    laid   upon    the  happiness  and 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  8 1 

freedom  of  man.     The  true  Fourth  Com- 
mandment  has  ever  been  a  bulwark  against 
the  ignorant,  or  the  sordid,  or   the    ava- 
ricious spirit  which  would  rob  man  of  his 
well-earned  rest.      The   Hebrew  doctrine 
of  the  Sabbath,  when  it  is  philosophically 
and  historically  appreciated,  will  be  seen 
to  be  the   elemental  truth   of  which   the 
larger  and  more  joyous   freedom    of   our 
later  day  is  the  expansion,  just  as  the  sani- 
tary precautions,  which  modern  bacterio- 
logy is  everywhere  crying  up,  are  the  lineal 
de'scendants  of  those  ceremonial  purifica- 
tions in  which  the  Books  of  Leviticus  and 
Deuteronomy  abound ;  for  the  correlatives 
of   sterilization,    antiseptics,    and    medical 
lustrations  are  bountifully  to  be  found  in 
those  old  Scriptures,  the  sanitary  wisdom 
of  which  is  more  and  more  accepted  as 
modern  science  itself  becomes  thoroughly 
enlightened.     Our  modern  Sunday,  with 
its  emphasis  upon  recreation,  so  far  from 
beino-  a  revolt  against   Sabbatarianism  is 
demonstrably  a  return  to  it,  —  a  return  led 
by  that  expansion  of  Religion  which  has 
taught  us  to  look  through  custom,  tradi- 
tion, and  statute  into  the  heart  of  the  great 


82        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

fundamental  principle  of  the  need  of  phy- 
sical rest,  of  which  many  customs,  tradi- 
tions, and  statutes  are  the  distorted  report. 
Of  the  religious  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  Of  the  real  purpose 
of  that  Sabbath  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
And  of  the  true  significance  of  the  emanci- 
pation of  our  modern  Sunday  from  gloom, 
depression,  and  an  irrational  prohibition  of 
recreation,  there  ought  to  be  no  doubt.  It 
is  the  product  of  the  new  anthropology, 
which  itself  is  the  distinct  creation  of  that 
expansion  of  Religion  which  sees  in  man 
a  creature  too  precious  to  be  disfigured  by 
continuous  toil,  and  disheartened  by  lack 
of  recreation.  Sunday  is  the  great  rest 
day.  It  is  kept  sanely  —  that  is  kept 
"holy"  —  when  it  joyously  and  gratefully 
is  used  as  the  clement,  periodic  suspension 
of  the  primary  universal  law  of  human  life 
upon  this  globe,  "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face 
shalt  thou  eat  bread."  With  all  its  stupid, 
irrational,  frivolous,  lamentable,  and  blame- 
worthy features,  exhibited  through  all  the 
year,  it  is  still  a  distinct  religious  gain  that 
our  Sunday  is  not  the  Sunday  of  a  cen- 
tury,  nay,   half   a  century,  ago.      For  we 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  83 

have  come  at  last  to  perceive  that  if  it  is 
to  be  a  day  of  rest,  it  cannot  be  spent  as  a 
day  of  the  repression  of  everything  except 
that  activity  which  takes  the  form  of  pub- 
lic worship.  Doing  nothing  is  not  rest,  it 
is  indolence.  Rest  is  activity  in  recreation. 
We  have,  therefore,  opened  the  doors  of 
museum  and  library,  that  the  weary  thou- 
sands may  enter  in  and  bathe  their  tired 
spirits  in  the  cool  fountains  of  beauty  and 
knowledge.  We  have  deliberately  enlarged 
the  number  of  permitted  pleasures  because 
we  have  intelligently  concluded  that  what- 
ever ministers  to  the  physical  betterment 
of  man  is  a  legitimate  ministry  to  his  soul 
as  well,  for  it  is  providing  him  with  one 
more  chance  to  live  as  God  intended  he 
should  when  He  lodged  his  soul  in  a  body 
and  declared,  in  the  physical  law  which 
governs  the  body  and  in  the  spiritual  law 
which  directs  his  spirit,  what  the  life  of  a 
man  should  be.  Perhaps  a  clergyman  is 
peculiarly  fitted  to  observe  the  effect  of 
Sunday  emancipation  upon  the  general 
religious  public  habit  of  the  people  as  that 
habit  is  seen  in  attachment  to  organized 
Religion.     Disuse  of  public  worship  is,   I 


84        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

think,  more  general  than  it  was  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago.  Abstention  from  it  is 
also  more  respected  and  expected  now  than 
then.  Not  only  does  the  great  body  of  the 
people  find  in  a  multitude  of  provisions 
for  their  entertainment  and  recreation  an 
attraction  more  powerful  than  that  of  the 
Church,  but  the  favored  few  are  accepting 
Sunday  as  the  natural,  as  it  is  the  conven- 
ient, time  for  retreat  to  the  country,  which 
offers  to  the  reawakened  urban  mind  op- 
portunities for  delight  and  healthy  excite- 
ment undreamed  of  a  score  of  years  ago. 
A  Sunday  in  the  country  as  guest  or  host, 
a  Sunday  in  the  country  as  pedestrian  or 
wheelman,  is  now  the  winsome  promise  to 
thousands  whose  weekday  lives  are  bounded 
by  shop  and  factory  and  office,  and  to 
hundreds  who  are  under  the  tyrannous  en- 
gagements of  a  complex  and  conventional 
social  life.  Public  worship  suffers,  —  the 
regularity  of  church  attendance  is  broken, 
becomes  fitful,  frequently  ceases  altogether; 
a  yawning  gulf  of  emptiness  in  many  a 
church,  urban,  suburban,  country,  stretches 
from  the  middle  of  June  to  the  middle  of 
September.     A  period  of  "  masterly  inac- 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  8$ 

tivity  "  in  nearly  all  forms  of  enterprising 
relisfious  endeavor  ensues.  The  centri- 
petal  force  which,  like  a  magnetic  influ- 
ence, draws  thousands  to  the  city  in  the 
winter  is  transformed  into  the  centrifugal 
force  which  sends  them  out  again  on  Sun- 
days to  green  fields  and  the  cool  fringes 
of  the  sea,  singing,  with  altered  meaning, 
"  Welcome,  sweet  day  of  rest."  It  will 
not  be  claimed  that  thus  far  the  people 
have  been  entirely  successful  in  the  use  of 
their  new  freedom.  They  use  it  clumsily, 
vulgarly,  mistakenly,  —  counteracting  the 
blessings  of  air  and  exercise  by  the  curse 
of  drink,  excitement,  and  irrational  exer- 
tion. As  yet  they  are  experimenting,  and 
already  have  paid  heavy  bills  in  disordered 
nerves  and  exhausted  bodies.  Superfi- 
cially viewed,  the  American  Sunday  is  not 
pleasant.  It  is  too  heated,  too  boisterous, 
too  exhausting.  It  lacks  that  calm,  deep 
content,  that  easy  self-restraint,  that  skill 
in  seizing  what  is  most  refining  and  stimu- 
lating, which  we  rightly  associate  w^ith 
symmetrical,  full-rounded  life.  And  one 
can  understand  how  there  still  survive 
those  who  sincerely  and  reflectingly  believe 


S6        THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

that  the  old  Sunday,  with  its  decorous, 
serious,  earnest  behavior,  its  faithful  use 
of  the  church,  and  its  strenuous  endeavor 
to  see  in  all  that  is  done  in  this  world  only 
a  preparation  for  the  next,  is  preferable 
to  this  noisy,  churchless,  material  Sunday 
which  we  have  come  to  know  so  well.  But 
costly  excess  and  misdirected  energy  are 
characteristic  of  emancipation.  We  are 
experimenting.  Physical  recreation,  sen- 
suous amusement,  are  overlaying  that  deep 
sense  of  the  necessity  of  sensitiveness  of 
conscience  and  responsiveness  to  awe, 
which  lives  in  us  all  because  the  conscience 
is  constitutionally  a  faculty  of  human  na- 
ture, and  awe  is  native  to  a  child  of  God. 
We  are  experimenting.  Disuse  of  the 
Church,  which  stands  in  the  community  for 
morality  and  compassion,  for  the  creation, 
maintenance,  and  direction  of  those  power- 
ful currents  which  run  through  all  asso- 
ciated life  to  keep  it  pure  and  true,  seems 
now,  at  least,  to  be  unattended  by  serious 
loss  of  moral  force  in  communities  and 
men.  But  in  a  near  future,  men  will  ask 
whether  there  has  not  resulted  a  serious 
deterioration   in  character  from  an  unre- 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  8/ 

strained  freedom  to  use  Sunday  as  the 
most  acute  impulse  may  suggest.  Such  a 
deterioration  is  bound  to  follow.  But  let 
it  be  clearly  seen  that  reformation  is  not 
to  come  by  way  of  the  old  custom,  nor  by 
a  curtailment  of  recreation.  It  is  to  come 
by  a  serious  awakening  to  the  fact  —  which 
even  now  is  evident  to  many  a  champion 
of  the  freer  Sunday  —  that  unless  along 
with  physical  recreation  and  social  plea- 
sure go  ministries  to  the  conscience  and 
the  spirit,  to  reverence  for  God  and  belief 
in  Heaven  as  the  justification  of  earth, 
physical  culture  will  produce  only  splendid 
animals,  and  social  energy  degenerate  into 
empty-headed  frivolity.  The  modern  Sun- 
day is  imperfect.  But  its  imperfectness  is 
not  due  to  a  misconception  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  recreation,  but  to  a  miscalculation 
of  the  relation  of  recreation  to  the  invigor- 
ation  of  the  conscience,  and  to  the  educa- 
tion of  that  ineradicable  though  slumber- 
ing sense  of  the  nearness  of  God  which 
sets  off  man  from  brutedom.  That  im- 
perfectness will  not  be  corrected  by  pro- 
hibiting recreation,  but  by  restraining  its 
present   excess.     And   that   restraint  will 


88        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

best  and  surest  be  improved  by  leading 
men,  gently  and  persuasively,  into  that 
larger  conception  of  what  it  is  truly  to  live, 
which  includes  the  worship  of  God.  The 
doors  of  the  museum  and  library  will  never 
be  closed  on  Sundays,  the  fields  and  the 
sea  will  not  cease  calling  weary  men  and 
women  to  come  to  them  for  refreshment, 
—  and  no  man  sensitive  to  the  conditions 
of  toil  which  will  forever  be  the  lot  of  our 
humanity  would  wish  it,  —  but  the  doors 
of  the  Church  must  stand  wide  open  too, 
that  the  spirit  may  find  its  recreation  and 
refreshment  in  prayers  and  praise.  For 
3^ears  to  come,  it  may  be,  the  Church  is  to 
suffer  loss,  but  not  forever.  The  great 
human  instinct  of  worship  will  draw  back 
into  a  better  instructed,  into  a  more  enlight- 
ened House  of  God  those  who  can  now 
turn  away  from  it,  to  find  in  physical  activ- 
ity and  acute  sensations  what  hits  the  pre- 
sent mood.  To-day's  treatment  of  Sunday 
is  not  final.  The  very  fact  that  what  it  is 
to-day,  in  larger  freedom  from  ancient  and 
venerated  restraints,  is  due  to  Religion,  is 
ample  warrant  for  believing  that  Religion 
is  competent  to  recast  Sunday  into  a  day 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  89 

in  which  the  culture  of  the  spirit  is  recog- 
nized as  so  vitally  an  accompaniment  of 
the  culture  of  the  body,  that  the  worship 
of  God  in  the  temple  will  be  all  of  a  piece 
with  the  education  of  the  mind  in  museum 
or  library,  and  the  invigoration  of  the 
physical  organism  in  the  field  or  on  the 
river.  At  any  rate,  we  ought  to  be  clear 
as  to  this :  that  if  blame  for  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  old  Sunday  of  our  fathers  is  to 
be  laid  at  any  door,  it  is  at  the  door  of 
Religion,  the  Religion  which  has  taught 
us  the  preciousness  of  the  body,  soul,  and 
mind  of  man,  the  Religion  which  has  stood 
for  Sunday  as  the  great  rest  day,  the  Reli- 
gion which  proclaims  that  rest  is  not  idle- 
ness, and,  finally,  the  Religion  which  de- 
clares that,  since  our  bodies  are  the  temple 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  no  man  can  with  guilt- 
lessness defile  that  temple,  and  whoso  doth 
defile  it,  him  shall  God  destroy. 

It  is  this  new  anthropology,  also,  which 
has  set  sickness  in  a  new  light.  When 
Jesus  healed  the  paralytic  at  the  pool,  He 
dismissed  him  with  the  searching  warning, 
"  Sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  come 
upon  thee."    It  is  a  declaration  that  disease 


90        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

is  frequently  the  outward  and  visible  sign 
of  sin.  That  is  one  of  the  commonplaces 
of  theology.  But  its  common  interpreta- 
tion has  been  that  sickness  is  a  sign  of 
sin  only  when  the  disease  is  casually  or 
visibly  connected  with  a  particular  act. 
The  ship  captain  who  smoked  himself 
stone  blind  and  reached  port  only  to  die, 
the  hardy  sot  who  drank  three  pints  of 
whiskey  at  a  sitting  and  found  himself 
paralyzed  for  life,  these  preeminently  were 
ill  men  whose  disease  visibly  proceeded 
out  of  their  sin.  But  when  the  unnoticed, 
prodigal  expenditures  of  vitality,  or  the 
unnoticed,  persistent  disregard  of  the  laws 
of  the  physical  organism  resulted  in  lan- 
guor or  decay  or  disease,  men  were  pitied, 
not  blamed.  Indeed,  within  the  memory 
of  living  men  it  was  regarded  as  something 
to  be  apologized  for  if  a  member  of  one  of 
the  learned  professions  betrayed  athletic 
strength.  Luther,  with  his  robust  vigor, 
might  have  been  cast  into  the  shade  by 
pale  Philip  Melancthon  in  one  of  our  par- 
ishes half  a  century  ago.  There  are  ill- 
nesses of  which  men  ought  to  be  thor- 
oughly ashamed,  for  which  they  ought  not 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  91 

to  seek  a  cause  in  the  "  mysterious  dispen- 
sation of  Providence,"  and  which  they 
ought  to  have  the  manliness  and  honesty 
to  confess  are  the  result  of  deplorable, 
despicable,  and  deliberate  wrong -doing. 
The  pride  of  health  and  vigor  must  forever 
be  recognized  as  justifying  shame  when 
health  is  broken  and  vigor  falls  into  decay 
long  before  age  has  "  darkened  the  win- 
dows "  and  compelled  "  the  keepers  of  the 
house  to  tremble."  I  knew  nothing  more 
hopeful  in  the  sentiment  of  young  men 
touching  the  whole  question  of  athletics 
than  their  clear  perception  and  their  frank 
declaration  that  ill  health  in  a  young  man 
who  starts  out  with  no  hereditary  or  con- 
stitutional weakness  is  a  disQ:race,  and  not 
a  misfortune.  It  is  a  recognition,  con- 
scious or  unconscious,  that  their  health  is 
in  their  own  keeping,  like  their  manners 
and  their  morals.  When  physical  exercise 
was  made  a  compulsory  part  of  education 
at  Amherst  thirty  years  ago,  ranking  in 
importance  with  the  study  of  Greek  and 
mathematics,  it  was,  and  was  intended  to 
be,  a  bold  denial  of  the  opinion  that  a 
student's  health  w^as  at  the  mercy  of  Divine 


92        THE  EXPANSION  GF  RELIGION. 

Providence,  an  assertion  of  the  truth  that 
health  is  in  part  a  religious  achievement. 
Not  to  train  athletes,  but  to  create  health, 
not  to  develop  the  skill  which  delights  in 
feats,  but  to  secure  to  vitality  that  protec- 
tion which  is  owed  to  the  body  by  its 
possessor,  was  that  experiment  in  educa- 
tion made  in  a  preeminently  religious  col- 
lege. The  result  has  amply  demonstrated 
its  wisdom.  And  the  adoption  of  similar 
systems  elsewhere  has  resulted  in  incal- 
culable good,  not  alone  in  raising  the 
standard  of  physical  vigor,  but  in  creating 
and  spreading  the  belief  that  for  most 
young  men  sickness  is  a  disgrace.  It  is 
the  new  anthropology  declaring  itself  in  a 
new  field,  the  gospel  of  the  body  and  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  working  together  to  pro- 
duce the  perfect  man.  "  Conviction  of 
sin,"  upon  which  evangelicalism  laid  great 
stress,  so  far  from  disappearing  in  the 
so-called  materialistic  spirit  of  our  day, 
receives  a  new  definition  and  a  new  em- 
phasis in  that  expansion  of  Religion  which 
now  includes  physical  health  as  an  object 
of  its  care  and  prayer.  And  we  shall 
never  appreciate  the  meaning  of  all  our 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  93 

provision  for  the  production  and  main- 
tenance of  public  health  until  we  see  in  all 
its  least  arrangements  the  utterance  of  the 
Christian  spirit. 

I  think  I  have  shown  that  the  care  of 
the  sick,  the  application  of  sanitary  science 
to  the  conditions  of  living,  the  growth  of 
interest  in  physical  exercise,  the  transfor- 
mation of  Sunday  and  the  estimate  put 
upon  the  spiritual  significance  of  health 
and  sickness,  are  the  direct  result  of  what 
I  have  called  the  new  anthropology.  And 
the  new  anthropology  is  not  the  child  of 
social  economy,  nor  of  that  vulgar  mate- 
rialism which  knows  nothing  beside  the 
earth  with  its  power  to  furnish  delights 
and  to  evolve  pains,  nor  of  the  reasoned 
purpose  to  secure  the  acutest  sensations 
with  least  loss  of  force  to  repeat  them;  it 
is  distinctly  the  work  of  Religion  seeking 
the  salvation  of  man,  and  counting  that 
salvation  incomplete  unless  man  has  all 
his  chances  fixedly  secure,  and  all  his 
chances  turned  into  the  concrete  facts  of 
vitality  and  health. 

When  one  looks  back  fifty  years  and 
contrasts  the  nature  of  the  effort  Religion 


94        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

made  to  save  man  with  the  passionate 
efforts  she  is  making  now,  he  cannot  think 
that  ReHgion  has  decayed ;  he  must  find, 
rather,  in  the  character  and  extent  of  her 
enterprises  for  the  betterment  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  Hfe  must  be  Hved,  in 
the  firm  recognition  of  the  physical  side 
of  hfe  as  at  least  equal  to  that  of  the 
spiritual,  and  in  the  declaration  that  the 
two  belong  to  each  other,  the  indubitable 
proof  that  Religion  is  more  live,  more  in 
earnest,  more  enlightened,  more  sagacious, 
and,  finally,  more  fruitful,  than  it  has  ever 
been.  Organized  Religion  but  imper- 
fectly records  the  achievements  of  Religion 
itself.  It  never  has  presented  —  possibly 
never  may  present  —  the  perfect  picture  of 
man  steadily  rising  in  the  scale  of  worth. 
In  France,  for  example,  where  renuncia- 
tion and  devotion  are  thoroughly  organ- 
ized, it  is  possible  to  estimate  the  achieve- 
ments of  Religion  by  taking  the  statistics 
of  institutional  enterprise.  Goodness  in 
France  is  largely  vicarious,  if  we  mean  by 
goodness  the  maintenance  of  good  works 
by  organized  Religion.  The  Sister  of 
Charity  is  in  evidence  everywhere,  and  the 


THE   NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  95 

Church  absorbs  into  itself  pretty  much  all 
of  religious  activity  there  is,  sending  it  out 
again  impressed  with  the  seal  of  ecclesias- 
ticism.  But  in  America  Religion  is  every- 
where—  almost  as  much  of  it  outside  as 
inside  the  churches  —  independent  of  visi- 
ble means  of  spiritual  support,  yet  always 
eager  to  do  what  Religion  lives  to  accom- 
plish. And  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
it  has  perhaps  in  nothing  so  powerfully 
and  beneficently  declared  its  presence  as 
in  the  widespread  eagerness  it  has  shown 
to  create  right  physical  conditions  of  liv- 
ing, and  in  the  evident  fact  that  this  eager- 
ness is  born  of  a  profounder  belief  in  the 
preciousness  of  man. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  a  New 
England  Puritan  oflficer  in  the  Colonial 
army  set  down  in  his  diary  an  account  of 
an  incident  in  the  French  and  Indian 
wars :  "  Killed  the  Chief  indian,  a  Saga- 
more from  the  Island  of  St.  Johns,  which 
are  known  by  the  name  Mickmack.  He 
lived  about  five  hours  after  he  was  shott, 
and  behaved  as  bold  as  any  man  could  till 
he  died,  but  wanted  Rum  and  Sider  which 
we  gave  him  till  he  died.     He  was  shott 


9^3        THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

through  the  bodey  just  below  his  ribs. 
He  measured  six  feet  two  inches,  and  very 
large  boned,  but  very  poor."  Is  this  the 
description  of  man  or  brute  ?  Yet  how 
agreeable  it  is  to  the  stern  anthropology 
of  that  elder  day. 

In  Hindoo  catechisms  we  read,  "  What 
is  cruel  ?  The  heart  of  a  viper.  What  is 
more  cruel  than  that?  The  heart  of  a 
woman.  What  is  the  chief  gate  to  hell  ? 
A  woman.  What  are  fetters  to  men? 
Women.  What  is  that  which  cannot  be 
trusted?  Women.  What  poison  is  that 
which  appears  like  nectar  ?  Women. 
Woman  is  a  great  whirlpool  of  suspicion, 
a  dwelling-place  of  vices,  full  of  deceits,  a 
hindrance  in  the  way  of  heaven,  the  gate 
of  hell ! "  That  is  the  Hindoo  anthro- 
pology. The  Hindoo  treatment  of  women 
and  widows,  of  which  America  has  heard 
so  painfully  in  recent  years,  is  the  natural 
outcome  of  that  anthropology.  Place 
Ramabai's  description  of  the  condition  of 
her  sisters  by  the  side  of  what  we  know  of 
widowhood  as  honored  by  Religion,  place 
the  Puritan's  description  of  the  dying  In- 
dian by  the  side  of  Bishop  Whipple's  story 


THE  NEW  ANTHROPOLOGY.  97 

of  his  life  among  the  red  men  of  Minne- 
sota, or  Herbert  Welsh's  reports  to  gov- 
ernment, and  then  ask  whether  the  new 
anthropology  measures  a  Religion  con- 
tracting or  expanding,  decaying  or  waxing 
strong,  among  the  children  of  men.  The 
question.  What  is  man?  can  be  adequately 
answered  only  in  terms  of  Religion. 


III. 

RELIGION    AND    RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Religion  makes  more  stir  in  the  world 
as  a  theology  and  as  an  ecclesiasticism 
than  as  a  visible  moral  force,  working 
through  theology  and  ecclesiasticism,  — 
makes  more  stir,  attracts  more  public  at- 
tention, and  writes  a  more  dramatic,  not 
to  say  theatric  history.  The  councils,  the 
controversies,  the  heresies  and  schisms, 
the  promulgation  of  edicts,  confessions, 
catechisms,  and  articles,  —  these  make  up 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  great  story  of 
organized  Religion  that  it  is  not  strange 
that  we  should  think  of  these  as  the  chief 
indications,  not  only  of  her  existence,  but 
of  her  purpose  and  influence.  When  Pro- 
fessor Draper  wrote  his  interesting  and 
vivacious  book  on  the  "  Conflict  of  Reli- 
gion and  Science,"  Religion,  to  his  think- 
ing, was  altogether  an  ecclesiasticism,  and 
he    consequently   found    no    difficulty    in 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       99 

abundantly  illustrating  the  evil  effect  of 
Religion  upon  the  enterprises  of  science. 
But  the  quick  oblivion  into  which  that 
book,  and  scores  like  it,  fell  is  grateful 
evidence  that  to  the  reflection  of  the  peo- 
ple Religion  is  vastly  more  than  its  theo- 
logy and  ecclesiasticism.  When  a  great 
clergyman  said,  some  years  ago,  "  I  have 
written  about  six  hundred  sermons,  and  I 
thank  God  none  of  them  deals  with  the 
reconciliation  of  Religion  and  science," 
there  were  speedily  found  those  who  criti- 
cised him  for  a  failure  to  do  his  duty  at  a 
time  when  Religion  and  science  were  in 
sore  need  of  reconciliation  in  the  interest 
of  them  both.  But  clearer  and  wiser 
minds  saw  in  that  statement  the  declara- 
tion that  Religion  and  science  have  never 
needed  any  reconciliation  and  never  will, 
because  each  of  them  is  in  search  of  truth, 
and  that  just  in  proportion  as  each  of 
them  finds  her  they  will  be  in  agreement. 
Relisfion  can  make  mistakes,  science  can 
err ;  and  when  the  mistakes  of  the  one  and 
the  errors  of  the  other  meet  together  and 
clash,  it  is  not  a  meeting  of  Religion  and 
science,  but   of    untruths   or   half   truths. 


100      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

That  this  is  true  is  amply  shown  by  the 
chanGfed  attitudes  toward  each  other  of 
oro^anlzed  Reliction  and  that  which  we 
loosely  call  science,  In  the  last  twenty 
years.  Organized  Religion  has  markedly 
receded  from  many  a  position  of  open  and 
sometimes  bitter  opposition  to  the  dis- 
coveries and  theories  of  men  of  science. 
But  that  recession  has  been  an  intelligent 
one,  it  has  not  been  sentimental.  Organ- 
ized Religion  has  been  slow  to  accept  the 
results  of  experiment  and  the  conclusions 
drawn  from  them,  but  its  leisurely  action 
is  due  to  a  wholesome  caution.  It  has 
had  the  wit  to  perceive  that  not  every 
proclaimed  discovery  of  truth  is  real,  not 
every  inference  is  sound.  It  has  for  the 
most  part  patiently  awaited  the  verifica- 
tion of  the  many  startling  announcements 
of  critical  facts,  frequently  acknowledged 
its  mistakes,  and  hastened  to  incorporate 
into  Its  Interpretation  of  its  doctrines  the 
new  truth  finally  established.  Nor  can  it 
be  denied  that  it  has  learned  the  lesson 
of  patient,  expectant  silence.  It  no  longer 
breaks  forth  into  violent  denunciation 
of  the  utterances  of  scholars  and  men  of 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     lOI 

science.  It  has  at  last  perceived  that  what 
at  first  sight  wears  the  look  of  enmity,  on 
closer  inspection  may  prove  friend  and 
ally.  It  can  afford  to  wait  in  silent  hope, 
confident  that  its  fundamental  doctrines 
will  receive  no  harm  from  anything  which 
the  labor  of  man  discovers  in  any  field  of 
investigation.  The  frequently  urged  claim 
that  this  altered  habit  of  organized  Reli- 
gion is  the  child  of  a  less  confident  belief 
in  her  long  cherished  truths,  is  founded 
upon  nothing  more  substantial  than  a  mis- 
interpretation of  her  disciplined  convic- 
tion that  all  truth  is  one.  Her  hold  upon 
her  peculiar  truth  is  not  slackened ;  she 
has  simply  opened  her  doors,  with  a  bolder 
confidence,  to  receive  what  comes  to  her 
claiming  to  be  truth,  ready  to  listen  im- 
partially, yet  ever  cautiously  and  carefully, 
to  what  the  new  truth  can  say  for  itself. 
This,  too,  is  an  expansion  of  Religion,  not 
in  the  direction  of  dogma,  but  of  a  more 
spiritual  confidence  in  the  impregnable 
nature  of  the  fundamental  truth  of  which 
Religion  is  the   expression. 

The    hypothesis    of    evolution    may   or 
may  not  prove  true,  but  the   attitude  of 


102      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

organized  Religion  towards  it  to-day,  in 
contrast  with  the  frightened,  panicky  con- 
demnation both  of  it  and  those  who  urged 
it,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  is  grateful 
evidence  that  Religion  has  grown  calm, 
has  regained  confidence  in  herself  as  in 
no  danger  from  the  new  interpretation  of 
herself  which  evolutionary  theories  may 
require,  or  have  already  effected. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  spirit  and 
temper  of  science  have  changed  more  radi- 
cally, even,  than  those  of  organized  Reli- 
gion. For  Religion  has  acquired  a  new 
interest,  and  consequently  a  new  impor- 
tance, in  the  thinking  of  men  of  science. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Religion  is 
frankly  recognized  as  the  formulation  of  a 
force  just  as  real  and  just  as  persistent  as 
that  of  which  gravitation  is  the  scientific 
name.  Man  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  uni- 
verse as  a  star.  If  it  is  worth  while  to 
determine  the  nature  of  the  star's  sub- 
stance by  the  spectrum  analysis,  and  thence 
to  declare  its  similarity  to  the  material  of 
which  our  earth  is  composed,  it  is  equally 
worth  while  to  determine  the  nature  of  the 
spiritual   forces  which   declare   what  man 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     103 

has  done  and  is  doing,  what  he  has  been 
and  what  he  is  likely  at  last  to  be.  The 
high  doctrine  of  to-day  is  that  the  world 
was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  world. 
Consequently  what  man  is,  is  seen  to  be 
of  more  importance  than  anything  belong- 
ing to  the  world  in  which  he  lives.  He 
has  many  marks  of  identification:  he  is 
a  poet,  musician,  artist,  politician,  adven- 
turer, inventor ;  he  is  a  thinker,  statesman, 
soldier,  by  turns ;  but  he  is  always  and 
everywhere  religious.  He  ceases  to  be 
enterprising  now  and  then  along  all  lines 
save  that  of  Religion.  It  is  the  recogni- 
tion of  this  fact,  more  than  of  any  other, 
which  explains  the  otherwise  puzzling  fea- 
ture of  our  latest  scientific  activity, — its 
growing  interest  in  Religion  while  push- 
ing its  investigations  into  the  phenomena 
of  the  material  world  with  unabated  vigor, 
with  undiminished  brilliancy  of  result. 
Indeed,  it  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  affirm 
that  Religion,  as  distinguished  from  theo- 
logy and  ecclesiasticism,  is  as  much  an 
object  of  serious  and  intelligent  interest  to 
men  of  science  as  to  men  of  Religion.  Its 
persistence,  its  power  of   revival,  its  skill 


104      ^^^^   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

in  adapting  itself  to  altered  conditions 
of  thought,  its  sturdy  appearances  as  the 
great  moral  force  of  humanity  in  crises 
when  morality  is  absolutely  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  public  order  and  the  main- 
tenance of  public  justice,  its  perpetual 
demonstration  of  itself  as  the  visible  sup- 
ply of  all  those  motives  which  influence 
men  to  stand  by  righteousness,  personal 
and  national,  the  proved  inability  of  hu- 
manity to  supplant  it  by  any  system  which 
does  not  root  itself  in  the  divine,  —  all  this, 
and  much  more,  has  made  Religion  of 
first  importance  to  the  scientific  spirit  of 
our  day.  Secondary  causes  are  now  rec- 
ognized as  secondary  causes,  as  much  in 
need  of  explanation  themselves  as  that 
which  they  explain.  After  their  long  mis- 
understanding of  one  another,  and  conse- 
quently their  bitter  hostility  to  each  other, 
Religion  and  science  are  now  sitting  down 
as  friends,  ready  to  learn  what  each  has  to 
teach,  and  convinced  that  the  outcome  of 
their  conference  will  be  a  compact  to  help 
one  another  to  the  uttermost. 

Now,  one  of  the  points  which  is  clearer 
to-day  than  ever,  because  of  this  better  un- 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     105 

derstanding  which  I  have  tried  to  describe, 
is  this :  that  ReHgion  and  science  equally 
perceive  that  the  outcome  of  faith  and 
knowledge  should  be  righteousness.  Heli- 
gion  says :  "  Faith,  unless  it  translate  itself 
into  riofhteousness,  is  dead ; "  and  science 
declares  "  that  knowledge,  if  it  cannot  in- 
corporate itself  in  righteousness,  is  no  true 
contribution  to  the  welfare  of  mankind." 
And  Religion,  having  thus  compelled 
science  to  go  a  mile,  is  now  endeavoring 
to  compel  her  to  go  twain,  and  to  see  in 
Religion  the  power  that  is  forever  using 
fresh  knowledge  to  create  more  righteous- 
ness. But,  first  of  all.  Religion  had  to  be 
expanded  into  a  larger  conception  of  what 
righteousness  for  man  really  involved.  We 
tried  to  trace  that  expansion  in  the  last 
lecture,  which  dealt  with  the  new  anthro- 
pology. You  will  perhaps  recall  that  when 
the  preciousness  and  value  of  a  human  life 
became  a  reason  for  furnishing  a  ministry 
to  all  of  man  that  can  be  ministered  to. 
Religion  seized  upon  all  the  knowledge  of 
whatever  sort  science  had  obtained  and 
used  it  as  material  for  the  construction  of 
human  welfare.     Religion,  in  other  words, 


I06      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

enlarged  itself  to  receive  the  help  which 
science  furnished  in  the  form  of  know- 
ledge. And  now  science  is  enlarging  itself 
to  receive  from  Religion  the  help  which 
Relisfion  furnishes  in  the  form  of  motives 
derived  from  a  divine  source.  I  do  not 
assert  that  as  yet  there  is  the  perfect  un- 
derstanding which  conditions  the  perfect 
success,  but  I  do  assert  that  the  movement 
of  both  science  and  Religion  is  distinctly 
in  the  direction  of  a  compact  whereby  each 
shall  gladly  furnish  the  other  with  what 
shall  produce  the  individual  and  social 
righteousness  which  is  now  seen  to  be  the 
inexorable  condition  of  human  progress. 

The  first  result  of  this  better  under- 
standing of  one  another  and  of  this  expan- 
sion of  the  field  of  each,  is  the  clear  recog- 
nition that  righteousness  has  an  economic 
value.  But  that  economic  value  was  un- 
derrated when  Religion  conceived  herself 
as  concerned  mainly  with  man's  correct 
understanding  of  her  theological  doctrines, 
with  his  spiritual  preparation  for  life  in 
the  world  to  come,  together  with  his  satis- 
factory ecclesiastical  behavior  in  this.  The 
incorporation   of   the   economic   value   of 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     lO/ 

righteousness  into  the  estimate  put  upon 
its  spiritual  value  is  one  of  the  most 
marked  features  of  our  time.  But  it  is 
indisputably  the  outcome  of  an  expanded 
Religion.  We  accept  it  as  a  religious 
achievement,  not  as  an  indication  of  ma- 
terialistic conversion.  That  is  to  say, 
thanks  to  Religion,  which  has  for  its  prime 
endeavor  the  production  of  righteousness, 
an  economic  value  is  set  upon  godliness. 
It  is  worth  as  much  as  the  Fire  Depart- 
ment, the  Public  School  system,  the  Police, 
or  Insurance,  in  the  total  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  is  no  longer  regarded  as  some- 
thing from  which  we  derive  spiritual  bless- 
ing alone,  the  fullness  and  value  of  which 
shall  be  disclosed  only  when  we  enter 
the  New  Jerusalem  ;  but  out  of  it,  here 
and  now,  flow  material  blessings  to  the 
community  and  the  individual.  They  who 
administer  the  government,  in  its  many 
branches,  are  inexorably  dependent  for  a 
successful  administration  upon  the  amount 
and  quality  of  righteousness  active  in  the 
community.  And  they  who  frame  laws 
for  the  government  to  execute  are  com- 
pelled to  reckon  with  the  spiritual  vitality 


I08      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

of  those  for  whom  the  laws  are  enacted. 
A  thoroughly  wise  statute  frequently  be- 
comes inoperative  because  there  is  not 
enough  concrete  righteousness  in  the  peo- 
ple to  bear  it ;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
a  bad  statute  becomes  void  if  the  public 
conscience  and  the  public  moral  habit 
resist  it,  on  the  score  of  its  inadequacy 
or  injustice.  All  government  is,  finally, 
the  expression  of  the  spiritual  will  of  the 
governed.  The  people's  whim,  frenzy,  or 
selfishness,  and  the  people's  will  and  moral 
quality,  are  alike,  but  not  equally,  powerful 
in  shaping  legislation  and  in  enforcing  law. 
Righteousness,  therefore,  so  far  from  being 
a  merely  personal  quality,  limited  in  its 
consequences  to  the  contracted  circle  in 
which  the  individual  moves,  is  that  great 
pervasive  element  in  the  total  life  of  the 
people  from  which  spring,  and  in  which 
thrive,  all  our  public  virtues  and  our  ma- 
terial prosperity  as  well.  It  is  not  merely 
the  light  which  lightens  the  mechanic's 
bench  or  the  pages  of  the  student's  book, 
it  is  the  sunlight  which  floods  the  city  and 
conditions  the  efficiency,  the  safet}^  the 
prosperity,    of   all    its    myriad   men.      To 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     109 

think  of  righteousness  as  no  more  than  a 
beautiful  and  useful  quality  of  those  who 
put  themselves  under  the  guidance  of  God 
that  they  may  gain  and  keep  it,  the  reward 
of  which  is  jealously  reserved  in  heaven,  is 
to  miss  its  true  glory,  and  no  less  its  im- 
mediate and  solid  worth. 

One  of  the  most  alarming  and  discour- 
aging features  of  modern  municipal  admin- 
istration is  its  enormous  cost.  The  crimi- 
nals of  any  great  city  lay  upon  it  a  burden 
of  expense  equal  to  that  of  maintaining  the 
public  education  of  all  the  children  in  its 
schools,  if  all  the  people  who  are  in  its 
hospitals,  asylums,  and  workhouses,  as  the 
direct  or  indirect  result  of  their  wrong- 
doing, are  added  to  the  number  confined 
in  its  jails.  The  statistics  which  the  city 
publishes  for  the  information  of  her  citi- 
zens are  appalling,  if  we  turn  only  to  those 
pages  which  record  the  cost  of  detecting, 
trying,  and  punishing  criminals,  the  cost  of 
maintaining  those  whose  vices  have  landed 
them  in  disease,  povert}^  and  helplessness, 
the  cost  of  repairing  the  damages  caused 
by  criminal  incompetence,  jobbery,  and 
waste.     It  all  makes  a  huge  item  in  the 


no      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

yearly  budget,  and  we  have  heretofore 
regarded  that  item  as  a  yearly  necessity, 
because  somehow  we  had  regarded  the 
unrighteousness  which  created  the  charges 
for  which  the  item  provides,  as  an  inevita- 
ble feature  of  the  city's  life.  We  reasoned 
about  it  in  this  way,  if  we  reasoned  about 
it  at  all :  "  The  provision  for  taking  muni- 
cipal notice  of  committed  crime,  and  for 
caring  for  the  consequences  of  that  crime, 
must  be  cheerfully,  amply  made,  because 
the  government  is  powerless  to  quench  the 
fountains  whence  perpetually  flow  the  evil 
influences  which  make  the  crimes  and 
criminals  that  disturb  our  peace  and  cost 
us  dear,  so  much  as  possible.  The  gov- 
ernment has  power  to  appropriate  money 
to  improve  the  sanitary  condition  of  the 
city  jail ;  it  has  no  power  to  bestow  a  penny 
upon  the  Boys'  Club  which  seeks,  and 
seeks  successfully,  to  train  boys  in  those 
qualities  which  keep  them  out  of  jail.  The 
government  can  create  the  park  through 
which  may  roam  all  through  summer-time 
her  troops  of  children  and  her  hard-worked 
men ;  it  cannot  erect  a  single  decent 
tenement  house  in    her  most   pestiferous 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     Ill 

quarter,  in  which  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren   may   enjoy  the   simplest  conditions 
of  the  wholesome  physical  life   which  so 
powerfully  affects  all  moral  life.     The  city 
is  compelled  to  say, '  If  you  steal  and  cheat, 
if  you  murder  or  burn,  if  you  are  drunk  or 
disorderly,  I  will  put  you   in   my  jail  and 
feed  you  there  at  the  public  expense  ;  if 
you  ruin  your  health  by  your  vices,  if  you 
sink  down  into  pauperism  and  trampdom 
by  your  improvidence  and  evil  living,  I  will 
receive  you  into  my  hospitals,  giving  you 
the  "  best  medical    treatment,   or   into  my 
workhouses,  clothing  and  feeding  you  at 
the  public  expense;   but  I  cannot  spend 
money  in  any  large  or  direct  way  to  set  up 
the  machinery   of  righteousness    to   keep 
you  back  from  the  criminal  spirit,  and  to 
foster  in  you  the  love  of  struggle,  the  hab- 
its  of   right  living,  and   the   principles   of 
thrift.     And  every  year  I  must  take  from 
the    pockets    of    the    industrious,    sober, 
thrifty,  and  well-behaved,  a  sum  of  money 
large  enough  to  defray  the  enormous  cost 
of  your  wickedness,  shiftlessness,  and  self- 
inflicted  disease.'     That  is  what  the  poor 
perplexed  city  is  compelled  to  say  as  she 


112      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

stands  to-day  sadly  looking  at  the  ma- 
chinery for  producing  wickedness  and  dis- 
ease and  pauperism  which  revolves  in  the 
midst  of  her  ceaselessly  every  day.  So  far 
as  she  is  a  government,  that  is  the  only 
utterance  she  can  make,  until  government 
is  something  other  than  we  have  thus  far 
ao-reed  that  it  shall  be."  But  could  there 
be  a  stronger  argument  made  in  behalf  of 
righteousness  than  is  presented  by  even  a 
superficial  study  of  the  expenditures  of  our 
municipalities  ?  Could  there  be  a  severer 
arraignment  of  wickedness  framed  than  is 
already  at  hand  in  these  amazing  figures 
which  tell  us  how  much  unrighteousness 
costs  us  every  year }  Religion  to-day  is 
declaring  that  she  has  a  right  to  ask  the 
people  to  reflect  upon  the  disastrous  con- 
sequences to  political,  industrial,  commer- 
cial, and  social  welfare,  of  the  wickedness 
which  heretofore  she  has  mourned  over 
mainly  because  it  was  disobedience  to 
God  and  the  spiritual  ruin  of  souls.  She 
has  found  a  new  weapon  for  use  in  her 
warfare  against  sin,  and  a  new  argument 
in  her  debate  with  those  who  have  re- 
garded her  as  ministering  to  a  wish  for  no- 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     113 

thinof  nearer  or  surer  than  a  far-off  heaven. 
Unrighteousness  is  waste,  —  waste  of  men, 
w^aste  of  material,  waste  of  energy,  waste 
of  the  pubHc  trust.  Unrighteousness  is 
a  spendthrift,  scattering  the  earnings  of 
health,  of  industry,  of  enterprise,  and  self- 
denial.  It  is  like  a  mob  of  idle  loafers 
insolently  living  upon  labor  of  the  toiler. 
This  has  always  been  true  in  fact,  but 
the  relation  of  wickedness  to  municipal 
expense  has  been  set  forth  vividly  only 
in  modern  times,  and  Religion  is  the  first 
to  cry  aloud  in  the  ears  of  men  who  have 
underrated  her,  that  righteousness  is  as 
necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  city  as 
its  aqueducts  and  sewers,  its  schools  and 
parks,  its  firemen  and  judges.  She  is 
telling  the  people,  as  never  before,  that 
it  is  idle  to  expand  commerce  and  foster 
trade,  idle  to  enlarge  the  city's  borders 
and  to  increase  its  wealth,  unless  there  be 
growing,  with  the  city's  growth,  a  deep, 
strong,  intelligent  hold  upon  that  right- 
eousness of  conduct  and  of  life,  which 
God,  without  consulting  us,  has  made  the 
inflexible  condition  of  prosperity.  Gov- 
ernment  as   government  has   been  cease- 


114 


THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 


lessly  at  work  upon  statutes,  and  methods 
of  stringently  enforcing  them;  has,  with 
marvelous  ingenuity  and  infinite  patience, 
toiled  on  for  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
hoping  with  magnificent  courage  that  the 
burdens  resting  on  all  human  enterprise 
might  be  lightened  ;  and  yet  every  year 
wickedness  rolls  up  its  enormous  cost,  paid 
out  of  the  earnings  of  the  upright.  If  the 
expenditures  caused  by  unrighteousness 
for  half  a  century  could  be  capitalized,  the 
income  would  maintain  the  public  school 
system  for  all  time  to  come.  If  the  annual 
cost  of  crime  could  be  devoted  to  the 
adornment  of  the  city,  every  year  would 
see  added  to  its  beauty  an  object,  perma- 
nent and  refining,  which  in  a  score  of  years 
would  make  the  city  almost  fulfill  our 
dreams  of  the  splendor  of  the  City  of  God. 
Religion,  alive  to  this  economic  truth,  is 
just  beginning  to  make  herself  felt  in  quar- 
ters in  which,  heretofore,  she  has  been  re- 
garded as  too  unworldly  to  have  the  right 
to  speak.  It  is  becoming  clear  that  the  ma- 
terial welfare  of  the  city  is  as  truly  in  the 
custody  of  Religion  as  in  that  of  industry 
and   trade,  and   Reliction  has  once   more 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     115 

found  herself  entrusted  with  a  message.  If 
in  these  last  years  we  have  seen,  as  thank 
God  we  have,  critical  revolutions  in  the 
conduct  of  the  municipal  business  of  more 
than  one  great  city,  —  if  waste  and  cost 
have  so  thoroughly  exasperated  the  people 
that  they  have  turned  upon  wicked  doers 
and  cast  them  out,  we  surely  have  been 
careless  observers  if  we  have  not  seen  that 
it  was  Religion  in  its  simplest  and  most 
august  form  —  the  form  of  righteousness  — 
which  created  the  passion  needed  to  rouse 
the  people  to  attempt  their  emancipation 
from  the  tyranny  of  the  wickedness  which 
was  not  only  fouling  all  the  avenues  of 
public  life,  but  also  draining  the  resources 
of  the  people  to  pay  the  bills  of  sin.  It 
has  not  been  theology  nor  ecclesiasticism 
which  have  won  recent  battles  for  muni- 
cipal reform,  —  it  has  not  been  the  demon- 
strated extravagance  or  corruption  of  offi- 
cial life  which  have  roused  the  people's 
indignation,  nor  the  sense  of  the  huge 
cost  of  meeting  the  charges  of  wicked- 
ness ;  it  has  been  Religion,  seizing  the 
people's  angry  discontent  with  the  econo- 
mic burdens  unrighteousness  has  laid  upon 


Il6     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

them,  which  has  lashed  the  public  con- 
science, until  it  rose  up  in  wrath  and  did  the 
work  which  nothing  but  the  public  con- 
science can  ever  do.  Remember  that  the 
economic  cost  of  crime  has  always  been  a 
fact;  remember  too  that  it  has  been  urged 
again  and  again  in  deaf  ears,  if  you  would 
perceive  that  it  was  Religion,  by  its  appeal 
to  the  instinct  of  righteousness,  which 
turned  economic  cost  into  an  irresistible 
argument  for  a  moral  reformation.  A  city 
without  a  theology  may  live  a  prosperous 
life,  but  a  city  without  righteousness  is  a 
ship  without  a  sail,  an  engine  without 
steam.  The  distinct  contribution  Religion 
has  made  in  recent  times  to  political  sci- 
ence is  the  political  truth  that  you  cannot 
build  up  a  society  or  a  state  ordered,  free, 
prosperous,  and  safe,  unless  you  build  it 
upon  righteousness,  and  that  righteous- 
ness, to  be  strong,  continuous,  inflexible, 
indestructible,  must  be  the  product  of  a 
profound  belief  in  God.  Atheism,  what- 
ever else  may  be  said  of  it,  is  uneconomic, 
because  it  fails  to  create  the  rio-hteousness 
upon  which  economic  prosperity  solidly 
and  forever  rests.     You  can  out-argue  it 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS,     lij 

speculatively,  and  it  will  return.  You  can 
make  it  a  crime  punishable  by  law,  and  it 
will  survive.  You  can  make  it  an  eccen- 
tricity, indicative  of  an  unphilosophical  esti- 
mate of  the  world  and  of  man,  and  it  will 
persist.  But  indict  it  as  hostile  to  the 
proved  best  interests  of  men  who  must 
live  their  lives  on  this  earth,  because  it  is 
hostile  to  that  riHiteousness  without  which 
life  is  not  worth  the  pains  required  to  live 
it,  and  atheism  shrivels  into  the  cold,  un- 
happy thing  it  is  and  ever  must  be.  The 
argument  which  all  men  understand  is  that 
which  can  be  stated  in  concrete  terms. 
Exactly  that  is  what  Religion  is  doing  to- 
day. She  has  done  her  best  to  show  the 
enormous  cost  of  sin,  has  set  before  our  eyes 
with  unprecedented  vividness  the  picture 
of  society  struggling  to  provide  for  all  her 
members  the  chances  each  has  the  right  to 
expect,  battling  with  all  adverse  conditions 
that  she  may  gather  sustenance  for  all  her 
sons,  —  yet  perpetually  checked  by  the  per- 
petual resistance  offered  by  her  criminals, 
loafers,  and  the  prematurely  exhausted,  — 
and  then  has  cried  to  men,  "  Your  noblest 
endeavors,  your  wisest  laws,  your  cleverest 


Il8      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

contrivances,  are  all  in  vain  without  the 
ricrhteousness  which  lives  from  God  to 
man." 

I  foresee  that  insistence  upon  the  eco- 
nomic value  of  righteousness  runs  the  risk 
of  being  regarded  as  rank  utilitarianism, 
or  as  an  exalted  form  of  political  philoso- 
phy. It  might  be  urged,  "  You  are  not 
playing  fair,  you  are  not  consistent  with 
even  your  own  dangerously  broad  defini- 
tion of  Religion,  —  sensitiveness  and  re- 
sponsiveness to  the  Divine,  —  you  are  only 
urging  what  would  be  urged  by  the  most 
thorough-going  materialist,  you  are  appeal- 
ing to  a  sordid  pecuniary  consideration, 
and  yet  you  claim  that  it  is  Religion  which 
speaks."  But  the  answer  to  that  is  simply 
this,  that  when  the  economic  value  of 
righteousness  is  insisted  upon,  there  is 
always  beating  warm  beneath  it  the  con- 
viction that  righteousness  is  the  result  of 
a  personal  and  conscious  relation  to  God. 
If  Religion  can  convince  us  that  godliness 
is  great  gain  in  this  world,  if  it  can  rouse 
in  us  the  acute  belief  that,  in  this  itwrld, 
we  are  suffering  huge  losses  from  the  pre- 
valence of  wickedness,  then  it  has  put  itself 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     1 19 

in  better  position  to  assert  with  power 
that  righteousness  is  possible,  not  to  say 
rational,  only  as  we  both  believe  that  the 
moral  nature  of  God  is  at  the  foundation 
of  the  moral  order  of  the  world,  and  that 
only  a  moral  God  can  produce  moral  men. 
Righteousness,  Religion  is  now  dogmati- 
cally teaching,  becomes  concrete  and  lasting 
by  faith  in  a  Divine  source  for  it,  not  by 
any  clearest  demonstration  of  its  necessity 
and  value.  Religion  frankly  acknowledges 
that  it  is  now  emphasizing  the  imperative 
necessity  of  righteousness  to  the  material 
welfare  of  society  for  no  other  reason  than 
this :  to  set  7nen  seriously  thinking  how 
righteousness  is  produced.  It  is  harnessing 
the  lower  motive  to  the  service  of  the 
higher.  It  is  with  renewed  vigor  and  im- 
mensely increased  confidence  bringing  the 
economic  argument  to  bear  upon  society's 
thinking  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  more 
attentive,  more  sympathetic  hearing,  for 
the  strictly  spiritual  argument.  It  does 
not  for  one  moment  advocate  righteous- 
ness solely  because  righteousness  is  mate- 
rially profitable  to  the  community.  Yet, 
because  that  advocacy  is  legitimate,  it  de- 


120      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

clares  we  ought  to  make  the  most  of  it,  to 
be  moved  and  energized  by  it,  and  finally 
add  it  to  that  supreme  motive  by  which 
every  religious  man  should  be  swayed,  — 
the  motive  that  unrighteousness  should 
be  displaced  by  righteousness  because  that 
is  the  will  of  God.  It  always  comes  back 
to  that.  Religion  has  been  declaring  to 
society  with  almost  startling  passion,  "You 
must  possess  integrity,  self-mastery,  purity; 
these  are  the  only  qualities  that  can  save 
you ;  all  your  successes,  your  wealth,  your 
knowledge,  your  power,  your  countless 
contrivances  for  human  comfort,  and  your 
multiplied  chances  for  expansion,  are  really 
uncovering  your  exigent  need  of  moral 
strength.  The  history  of  your  unparal- 
leled material  and  intellectual  progress 
is  matched  by  the  dark  history  of  your 
moral  failures.  And  you  have  at  last 
begun  to  perceive  it.  You  know  that  the 
uneasiness  which  pervades  the  huge  bulk 
of  your  complex  organism  is  a  moral  un- 
easiness. You  are  afraid.  You  distrust 
yourself.  You  are  wondering  how  long 
you  can  go  on  with  all  this  flagrant  wick- 
edness  in  the  midst  of  you,  with  all  this 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     121 

suspected  powerlessness  to  make  the  pos- 
session of  material  riches  safe.     You  are 
either  vainly  trying  to  blink  the  facts,  or 
idly  hoping  that  some  scheme  may  emerge 
from  this  chaos  of  discussion  and  experi- 
ment  which  shall,  of  itself,  produce   the 
conditions  which  you  are  clever  enough  to 
perceive  are  inexorably  demanded  if  peace 
and  security  are  to  be  your  lasting  portion. 
I  join  my  voice  to  yours  when  you    cry 
that  the  sole  safeguard  of  successful  society 
is   the   prevalence,    not   simply   of   sound 
political    or   economic    principles,    but   of 
that   moral    intensity   and   ethical  virility 
which  are  to  the  community  what  founda- 
tions are  to  the  building  that  rests  its  vast 
w^eight  upon  them.     I  reinforce  your  in- 
dictment of  wickedness  of   every  sort  as 
the  black,  ugly  portent  in  the   social  sky 
over   our   heads.       But   more    than    that, 
I    affirm,  with  a  confidence  reinforced  by 
all  past  history  and  reinvigorated  by  the 
events  of  to-day,  that  the  righteousness  re- 
quired to  give  each  of  us  security  is  to  be 
found  in  a  deeper  dependence  upon  God. 
I  may  have  relaxed  the  rigor  of  my  theo- 
logy,  I  may  have  given  up   the  attempt 


122      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

to  inflict  penalties,  I  may  be  entreating 
instead  of  commanding  and  threatening 
as  in  the  da3^s  of  old  ;  but  I  insist,  with 
an  imperiousness  almost  novel,  that  out 
of  me  received,  used,  magnified,  and  sup- 
ported, can  alone  come  the  power  that  cre- 
ates the  integrity,  justice,  and  purity  you 
so  sorely  need."  So  speaks  Religion  to 
society.  It  is  the  utterance  of  old  truth, 
but  the  tone  of  that  utterance  is  so  fresh, 
so  strong,  so  confident,  that  it  is  almost 
as  if  a  Religion  of  righteousness  were  new 
given.  And  society  is  listening;  she  is 
beginning  to  heed  these  voices  proceeding 
from  quarters  whence  she  has  for  so  long 
heard  only  contentions  about  dogmas  and 
politics.  Original  sin  is  pushed  aside  by 
interest  in  contemporary  sin.  Baptismal 
regeneration  is  thrust  one  side  by  a  pas- 
sion to  secure  goodness  in  all  men  whether 
baptized  or  not.  Religion  has  her  eye 
upon  concrete  society,  and  is  anxious,  with 
a  divine  solicitude,  that  the  social  organ- 
ism shall  be  penetrated  with  a  thorough- 
going dependence  upon  God,  because  only 
so  shall  be  arrested  the  vast  economic 
waste  which  is  taxing  society's  resources 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     123 

beyond  her  permanent  ability  to  pay. 
This  discovered  genius  for  enforcing  the 
value  of  godliness  to  human  society  and 
government  is  one  of  the  most  character- 
istic marks  of  the  expansion  of  Religion, 
and  is  destined  soon  to  become  the  bond 
of  a  new  union  between  Religion  and  the 
world.  For  it  is  a  frank  declaration  that, 
after  all,  their  interests  are  one.  It  is  a 
revelation,  if  you  like,  that  they  belong  to 
one  another,  and  that  even  the  material 
welfare  of  organized  society  is  bound  up 
with  the  life  of  Religion,  and  the  concern 
of  the  citizen  is  identical  with  the  concern 
of  the  saint. 

We  ought  to  be  prepared  to  see  this 
new  attitude  of  Religion  increasingly 
strengthened  in  the  immediate  future,  be- 
cause Religion  is  sure  to  draw  to  herself, 
when  she  speaks  as  we  have  just  been 
making  her  speak,  all  those  who  felt  little 
interest  in  her  when  she  seemed  concerned 
only  with  the  life  that  is  to  come  and 
bent  only  on  getting  men  through  this 
world  in  any  sort  of  fashion,  because  the 
other  world  is  the  only  one  of  any  impor- 
tance.   So  long  as  the  New  Jerusalem  was 


124      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

accounted  the  city  for  which  we  were 
to  wait  and  for  citizenship  in  w^iich  we 
w^ere  to  prepare,  the  glowing  splendor  of 
which  ought  to  reconcile  us  to  a  patient, 
unenterprising  toleration  of  the  city  of 
Boston,  it  was  idle  to  expect  men  whose 
heart  was  in  the  activities  of  this  earth 
to  care  very  much  for  what  Religion  con- 
cerned herself  with.  Whether  or  not  a 
man  had  been  baptized  could  not  be  con- 
cluded by  anything  he  did  as  an  official  of 
the  town.  His  view  of  inspiration  and  his 
eschatology  could  not  be  learned  by  w^atch- 
ing  him  in  the  market.  If  he  took  bribes, 
his  baptism  was  the  symbol  of  a  super- 
stition. If  his  word  was  rightly  distrusted, 
men  cared  little  for  his  theological  opin- 
ions or  his  ecclesiastical  attachments.  His 
unrighteousness  w^as  entailing  economic 
loss  to  society,  and  Religion  seemed  more 
anxious  about  his  theology  and  ecclesias- 
ticism  than  about  his  character.  Rightly, 
therefore,  society  concluded  that  Religion 
was  of  little  value,  spite  of  its  promises 
of  heaven  and  its  threats  of  hell,  because 
society  perceived  that  unrighteous  men 
would  not  find  heaven  to  their  taste  were 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     125 

they  safely  landed  In  it ;  and  it  wondered 
with  a  legitimate  wonder  how  correct  opin- 
ions united  with  bad  character  could  pro- 
duce any  other  results  in  heaven  than  they 
are  producing  on  earth,  namely,  loss,  mis- 
ery, and  waste.  But  now  that  Religion  ac- 
counts Boston  as  of  equal  importance  with 
the  New  Jerusalem,  because  it  takes,  al- 
most literally,  the  vision  of  St.  John,  who 
saw  the  "  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  out 
of  heaven  "  to  occupy  this  earth,  and  be- 
cause it  resents  with  the  passion  of  a  bur- 
dened taxpayer  the  presence  of  costly 
wickedness  and  would  banish  it,  not  simply 
as  wickedness,  but  as  indefensible  cost, 
Religion  has  made  itself  attractive  —  at- 
tractive by  its  usefulness  to  the  social  life 
that  now  is.  The  old  question  whether 
Religion  should  have  anything  to  do  with 
politics  ceases  to  be  a  question,  for  politics 
is  Religion  and  Religion  pohtics,  by  virtue 
of  the  identity  of  their  ideal  struggle  to 
produce  political  righteousness  and  right- 
eous politics.  Religion  has  enlarged  her 
territory  and  made  room  for  those  earnest 
spirits  upon  whose  hearts  rests  heavy  the 
burden  of  the  world  s  costly  sin. 


126      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

But  some  men  will  ask,  "  Has  organ- 
ized Religion  eagerly  and  sympathetically 
accepted  this  new  attitude  of  real  Reli- 
gion ?  "  It  has  not.  It  is  still  too  eagerly 
absorbed  in  quesions  of  dogma  and  polity 
to  manifest  to  society  that  passion  for 
righteousness  of  which  I  have  spoken  so 
much,  still  too  unconscious  of  its  real  iden- 
tity with  the  world  against  whose  attitude 
toward  it  it  fights,  and  which  resents  its 
description  of  itself  as  a  misdescription  of 
what  a  true  Church  should  be.  And  yet 
the  signs  of  the  coming  revival  of  organ- 
ized Religion  to  meet  the  new  needs  of  a 
new  day  are  neither  few  nor  feeble.  Here 
and  there  are  churches  which  have  awak- 
ened to  the  fact  that  their  only  chance  of 
life,  their  only  warrant  for  hoping  that 
they  can  gain  the  ear  and  hold  the  love  of 
the  multitudes,  is  in  their  more  frank  and 
hearty  identification  of  themselves  with 
the  real  life  of  the  people,  tormented  by 
wickedness  and  impoverished  by  costly 
crime.  And  when  all  organized  Religion 
shall  have  courageously  thrown  itself  into 
the  stru!jo-le  ao-ainst  unrio-hteousness,  then 
we  shall  hear  the   Church  crying,  ''  Unto 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     127 

you,  O  men,  I  call;  give  me  your  encour- 
agement and  cheer,  if  you  cannot  give  me 
your  belief;  give  me  your  strong,  intelli- 
gent, virile  help  in  my  effort  to  produce 
the  righteousness  which  the  poor,  stum- 
bling world  so  sorely  needs,  and  out  of 
your  help,  so  given,  must  one  day  come 
a  strong  and  reasonable  belief;  for  it  is 
abstention  from  the  effort  to  make  society 
righteous,  here  and  now,  which  makes 
belief  in  a  Redeemer  and  a  world  to  come 
so  hard." 

But  not  only  is  Religion  insisting  upon 
the  necessity  of  righteousness  to  the  eco- 
nomic welfare  of  society,  she  is  re-defining 
righteousness.  It  needed  re-definition. 
Righteousness  is,  as  we  might  phrase  it, 
conformity  to  what  is  right,  that  is,  to 
what  is  good.  This  is  perfectly  simple 
and  thoroughly  clear.  One  need  only 
know  what  is  right,  or  good,  in  order  to 
determine  whether  or  not  a  man  is  right- 
eous, whether  or  not  a  society  possesses 
rlofhteousness.  But  to  know  what  is  rlo^ht 
or  good  is  not  the  simple  affair  it  pro- 
mises at  the  start  to  be.  The  determina- 
tion of  right  is  not  the  sole  work  of  the 


128      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

intellect  and  the  conscience.  The  intel- 
lect may  be  weak  and  the  conscience  dark, 
and  this  weakness  and  this  darkness  may 
be  the  result  of  forces  working  uncon- 
sciously in  the  total  nature.  Consequently, 
we  find  that  even  men  seriously  in  earnest 
for  righteousness  may  blunder,  and  substi- 
tute for  real  righteousness  conventional 
righteousness.  The  history  of  Religion 
abundantly  declares  how  frequently  this 
happens.  The  Old  Testament  is  very 
largely  the  record  of  a  people's  struggle  to 
keep  the  real  righteousness,  which  is  salva- 
tion, from  degenerating  into  that  counter- 
feit of  it  presented  by  express  statutes 
which  could  be  scrupulously  kept  while  the 
righteousness  they  were  intended  to  secure 
vv'as  successfully  evaded.  Selfishness  of 
whatever  sort  can  always  play  havoc  with 
statutes  and  yet  manage  to  preserve  a 
fairly  good  conscience.  That  was  the  be- 
setting sin  of  Israel.  The  nation  had  a 
genius  for  righteousness,  never  ceased  ex- 
tolling it,  declared  righteousness  was  peace 
and  joy,  taught  their  children  that  only  the 
righteous  should  be  blessed  and  that  the 
wicked  should  not  live  out  half  his  days. 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     129 

The  Old  Testament  Is  simply  unintelligi- 
ble without  the  word  righteousness  to  in- 
terpret it.  It  plays  as  conspicuous  a  part 
in  the  history,  poetry,  and  prophecy  as 
does  Jehovah  himself.  It  is  canvas  and 
pigment  both,  with  emotion  as  color.  No 
one  can  take  up  the  Old  Testament  to- 
day, and  read  it  as  the  record  of  a  nation's 
religious  struggle,  and  fail  to  be  impressed 
by  Israel's  continuous,  insistent,  and  con- 
sistent belief  that  salvation  is  the  outcome 
of  righteousness.  The  one  hundred  and 
nineteenth  psalm  is  a  marvelous  achieve- 
ment in  poetry,  which  can  sing  the  praises 
of  law,  statute,  commandments,  testimo- 
nies, precepts,  and  judgments,  through  a 
hundred  seventy  and  six  perfected  lines, 
with  no  impression  of  monotonous  repeti- 
tion ;  but  it  is  more  than  matched  by  the 
whole  body  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
which  begin  and  end  with  the  exultant  cry, 
"  Thou  hast  loved  righteousness  and  hated 
iniquity,  therefore  God  hath  anointed  thee 
with  tlie  oil  of  joy  above  thy  fellows." 
And  yet,  "  Poor  Israel !  Poor  ancient  peo- 
ple !  It  was  revealed  to  thee  that  right- 
eousness is  salvation  :   the  question  what 


I30      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

righteousness  is  was  thy  stumbling-stone. 
Seer  of  the  vision  of  peace  that  yet  could 
not  see  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy 
peace  !  "  —  could  not  see  that  the  conven- 
tional righteousness  of  statutes  and  cere- 
monies scrupulously  kept  was  not  the  right- 
eousness which  exalte th  and  saveth  the 
nation  and  the  man.  The  ruin  of  Israel 
was  not  wrought  by  her  failure  to  perceive 
the  necessity  of  righteousness,  but  by  her 
failure  to  understand  exactly  what  it  was, 
—  justice,  mercy,  and  truth  ;  by  her  falHng 
before  that  world-old,  fierce,  subtle,  satanic 
temptation  to  cloud  her  perfect  vision 
for  the  sake  of  temporary  gain.  There 
grew  up  that  masterly  system  by  the  opera- 
tion of  which  injustice  was  made  to  look 
like  justice,  cruelty  sheltered  itself  behind 
law,  and  blindness  became  vision.  But 
there  is  nothing  peculiarly  Jewish  in  that 
system,  except  its  form,  and  its  form  is 
determined  altogether  by  local  custom  and 
national  chances.  Christianity  started  out 
with  the  clearest  possible  perception  of 
the  fatal  error  in  Jewish  righteousness. 
Jesus  laid  his  finger  upon  the  heart  of 
Israel  and  said,  "  The  disease  is  there ;  you 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     131 

are  trying  to  create  righteousness  by  ma- 
chinery, the  machinery  of  statute.  Good- 
ness Cometh  not  by  way  of  the  under- 
standing, it  Cometh  by  way  of  the  heart, 
it  is  an  inward  creation.  Not  the  man 
who  understands,  but  the  man  who  does, 
possesses  the  secret  of  the  Lord."  No- 
thing could  be  more  satisfactory  than  was 
Christianity  at  the  beginning,  in  laying 
bare  what  righteousness  is  and  how  it 
could  be  obtained.  It  boldly  declared  in 
the  face  of  venerable  tradition  and  invet- 
erate custom  that  statutes,  ceremonies,  and 
observances  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
As  St.  John  explicitly,  and  with  refresh- 
ing candor,  said,  "  He  that  doeth  right- 
eousness is  righteous."  No  one  else  can 
be.  And  what,  at  the  start,  distinguished 
the  early  Christians  from  the  Jews  was  not 
theological  opinion  or  ecclesiastical  polity, 
for  it  required  nigh  a  hundred  years  to 
complete  the  doctrinal  separation  of  the 
new  faith  from  the  old,  so  that  everybody 
could  appreciate  it;  it  was  a  fundamental 
difference  between  the  two  conceptions  of 
the  origin,  and  the  nature  of  righteous- 
ness.    Jesus,  and  the  Apostles  after  Him, 


132      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

asked  men  to  divest  goodness  of  its  set- 
ting, to  banish  from  their  minds  the  idea 
that  any  part  of  outwardness  of  conduct 
had  anything  to  do  with  inwardness  of 
life.  They  were  not  to  expect  righteous- 
ness of  Hfe  to  grow  out  of  righteousness  of 
conduct,  but  conduct  to  grow  out  of  life. 
The  whole  stress  of  early  Christian  teach- 
ing, and  the  great  glory  of  early  Chris- 
tian life,  are  right  there :  the  fundamental 
truth  that  righteousness  is  the  expression 
of  a  pure  heart  and  a  trained,  disciplined, 
energized  will,  joyfully  placed  at  the  ser- 
vice of  the  pure  heart,  —  the  whole  man 
intent  on  securing  the  favor,  not  of  men, 
but  of  God.  The  essential  inwardness  of 
righteousness  is  the  commanding  feature 
of  the  earliest  Christianity.  It  seems  im- 
possible that  Christians  should  ever  repeat 
the  blunder  of  the  Jews,  when  we  recall 
how  plain  Jesus  made  the  path  which 
avoids  that  blunder.  But  we  have  re- 
peated it,  and  are  only  just  now  discov- 
ering how  great  it  is  and  how  costly  it 
has  been.  Let  me  try  to  make  this  plain. 
One  of  the  evil  results  of  an  otherwise 
beneficent  evangelicalism   pushed  too  far 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     133 

—  or,  rather,  too  heavily  emphasized,  — 
is  its  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  in- 
terpreted (as  it  was  inevitable  it  would  be 
interpreted  when  accepted  undiscriminat- 
ingly  by  ordinary  people)  as  meaning  that 
it  is  far  more  important  that  a  particular 
doctrine  should  be  believed  and  acted  upon 
than  that  conduct  should  square  with  eter- 
nal right.  No  one  has  ever  frankly  taught, 
nor  ever  will,  that  conduct  is  of  no  impor- 
tance. On  the  contrary,  evangelicalism 
urged  that  the  man  justified  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  should  manifest  as  a  result 
the  fruits  of  the  spirit :  love,  joy,  long- 
suffering,  meekness,  temperance.  But  the 
special  emphasis  was  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  justification ;  that  was  the  critical 
affair;  all  else  was  important,  but  secon- 
dary. Consequently,  salvation  was  inter- 
preted as  the  conscious  possession  of  par- 
don of  sin,  not  sins  simply  ;  and  as  the 
conviction  that  this  pardon  would  stay  by 
throughout  the  longest  life,  warranting  its 
hope  of  entrance  into  heaven.  "  Once 
saved,  forever  saved,"  became  a  postulate 
of  evangelicalism.  When  evangelicalism 
ceased  to  be  a  visible,  organized,  powerful 


134       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

body,  residing  In  many  of  the  denomina- 
tions and  welcomed  as  the  highest  expres- 
sion of  Christian  faith,  it  did  not  cease  to 
be  an  influence.  It  colored  the  ideas  of 
four  fifths  of  all  our  religious  bodies,  even 
after  they  ceased  to  look  to  it  as  authorita- 
tive and  fruitful.  Consequently,  the  ten- 
dency to  substitute  doctrinal  correctness 
on  the  one  hand,  and  demonstrative  emo- 
tion on  the  other  (and,  between  them,  lib- 
eralism as  well),  for  inward  righteousness, 
has  characterized  Religion  for  nigh  a  cen- 
tury. To  be  sure,  that  tendency  appeared 
very  early  in  the  history  of  Christianity,  and 
was  carrying  almost  everything  before  it 
when  Christianity  and  the  Empire  joined 
hands;  but  it  never,  perhaps,  was  so  fla- 
grant as  within  the  memory  of  living  men. 
More  than  half  the  dreadful  scandals  which 
have  disgraced  and  harmed  organized  Re- 
ligion In  the  last  fifty  years  can  be  traced 
back  to  this  vicious,  irrational,  and  irreli- 
gious tendency  to  make  doctrinal  correct- 
ness, demonstrative  emotion,  and  liberal- 
ism, do  duty  for  that  "  stern  daughter  of  the 
voice  of  God  "  which  insists  that  Integrity 
of   life  is  the  only  legitimate   ground  for 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     135 

believing  that  a  man  is  justified  before  his 
God.  The  difficulty  is  not  in  the  doctrine, 
but  with  the  use  —  or,  rather,  the  misuse 
—  of  the  doctrine  which  is  held;  and  once 
more  the  traditions  of  men  make  void  the 
commandments  of  God.  The  limitations 
wisely  placed  upon  this  Lectureship  expli- 
citly forbid  the  illustration  of  this  evil 
tendency  in  current  Religion  about  us,  but 
that  man  of  us  who  has  not  indignantly 
resented  or  sadly  owned  the  disastrous 
working  of  this  tendency  is  dull  and 
stupid,  or,  what  is  worse,  dishonest.  It 
assumes  as  many  forms  as  there  are  organ- 
izations to  shape  it  to  their  ends.  But  it 
is,  and  ever  has  been,  that  worst  of  all 
foes,  the  foe  that  intrenches  itself,  unsus- 
pected, within  the  household  walls.  Now 
Religion,  as  I  said,  has  begun  to  discover 
her  blunder  or  her  sin  —  call  it  which  you 
will  —  and  to  set  herself  once  more  in  her 
rightful  place  as  the  teacher  of  doctrine 
for  the  sake  of  righteousness.  Her  great 
announcement  is  no  longer  the  absolute 
necessity  either  of  a  definite  dogma  or  of 
a  particular  experience ;  it  is  rather,  "  Let 
every  one  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ 


136      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

depart  from  iniquity.  Abhor  that  which 
is  evil,  cleave  to  that  which  is  good."  No- 
thing can  take  the  place  of  that  real  right- 
eousness which  is  inward  personal  purity ; 
not  thorough  adhesion  to  any  definitive 
dogma,  not  the  mystical  spell  of  a  demon- 
strative spiritual  experience,  not  a  liberal 
mind.  For,  however  true  the  dogma,  pre- 
cious the  experience,  and  beautiful  the 
tolerance,  and  however  powerful,  in  coop- 
eration with  a  consenting  will,  to  develop 
purity,  integrity,  and  truthfulness,  they  are 
not  the  equivalents  of  these  virtues.  The 
disasters  and  losses  which  have  ever  over- 
taken Religion  w4ien  she  has  forgotten 
the  imperative  of  Jesus,  "  Seek  -^^  first  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  the  righteousness  of 
it,"  are  as  natural  as  the  shipwreck  of  the 
vessel  which  bends  new  sails  on  rotten 
masts  and  spars.  Insistence  upon  real 
righteousness  is  now  everywhere  the  char- 
acter mark  of  living  Religion.  The  new 
fields  on  which  Religion  is  to-day  culti- 
vating righteousness,  the  new  conditions 
which  she  is  attempting  to  create  by  an 
application  of  it  to  enterprises  v/ith  which 
it  was  once  thought  to  have  nothing  to  do, 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     137 

we  shall  speak  of  in  another  lecture  ;  but 
to-night  I  wish  to  make  clear,  as  a  needed 
preparation  for  what  is  to  follow,  that  Reli- 
gion has  fairly  been  born  again  in  her 
fresh  consecration  of  herself,  even  at  the 
sacrifice  of  some  things  she  has  long  held 
dear,  to  the  cause  of  producing  a  type  of 
goodness  which  will  stand  the  fierce  tests 
applied  to  it  by  the  mordant  temper  of 
our  day. 

But,  it  may  be  urged,  has  not  this  new 
attitude  of  Religion  towards  actual  life 
been  purchased  at  the  cost  of  paring  down 
her  cardinal  truths  ?  Has  she  not  been 
compelled  to  throw  aside  much  which  has 
so  long  been  identified  with  her  very  sub- 
stance as  to  appear  to  be  essential  to  her 
very  existence  as  Religion,  as  distinguished 
from  morality  ?  Have  you  not  unwittingly 
explained  the  "  theological  thaw  "  of  which 
we  have  heard  and  seen  so  much  in  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  ?  Have  you  not 
lost  from  Religion  what  you  have  gained 
for  righteousness  ?  Are  you  not  pleading 
for  an  ethical  school  in  place  of  organized 
Religion  ?  And  what  room  have  you  left 
for  God  ?     These  are  indeed  fair  and  they 


138      777^   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

are  familiar  questions.  But  an  adequate 
reply  is  not  difficult.  Religion  has  cast 
aside  nothing  that  is  peculiarly  hers,  no- 
thing that  is  essential  to  her  integrity. 
The  old  elemental  beliefs,  say  what  men 
will,  are  as  resolutely  held  as  ever,  though 
their  interpretation  changes  as  often  as 
religious  experience  deepens  and  reveals 
a  new  thought  of  God.  Divine  pardon  is 
as  eagerly  besought  to-night  by  some  sin- 
ner overtaken,  not  alone  by  the  material 
consequence  of  his  sin,  but  by  the  acute 
consciousness  that  he  can  no  longer  be- 
lieve the  love  of  God,  as  it  was  in  the  days 
of  Wesley ;  but  what  that  pardon  means, 
what  it  involves,  and  what  it  may  accom- 
plish, look  very  strange  beside  what  was 
thought  of  it  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago.  The  death  of  the  Redeemer  as  the 
guarantee  that  the  obstacles  to  pardon  are 
made  by  human  hands,  and  that  besides 
these  there  are  none  in  heaven  or  hell,  is 
as  firmly  rooted  in  current  Religion  as  it 
has  ever  been,  though  we  no  longer  hear 
of  contrived  plans  of  salvation  and  very 
little  of  the  atonement.  The  real  expla- 
nation of  the  present  passion  of  Religion 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     139 

for  righteousness  Is  not  the  decay  of  theo- 
logy, but  of  the  theological  temper,  not 
the  displacement  of  old  beliefs,  but  the 
replacement  of  them  in  their  true  posi- 
tion. "  You  may  be  orthodox^  you  must  be 
righteous,  if  you  would  inherit  that  eternal 
life  which  is  as  true  a  part  of  this  life  as 
this  life  is  of  that  which  is  to  be.  You 
may  find  yourself  unable  to  accept  what  I 
hold  to  be  true,  no  matter ;  you  must  strive 
to  develop  love,  joy,  long-suffering,  meek- 
ness, gentleness,  temperance,  truth,  into 
concrete  character.  These  are  the  fruit 
of  that  spirit  which  you  can  receive,  even 
though  you  cannot  receive  my  statements 
of  what  God  has  revealed  as  truth."  To 
speak  particularly  of  the  Christian  Church. 
It  holds,  in  its  familiar  language,  that 
"  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  are 
necessary  to  salvation."  But  when  it  says 
that,  it  means  by  salvation  a  far  larger 
thing  than  was  meant  when  that  proposi- 
tion was  framed.  Books  are  necessary  to 
intellectual  salvation,  but  a  man  is  not  in- 
tellectually saved  by  shutting  him  up  in 
a  library  full  of  them.  It  is  only  as  the 
student   transmutes   books    into    personal 


140       THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

knowled2:e  that  he  delivers  himself  from 
ignorance ;  and  the  process  of  intellectual 
salvation  is  a  long  one,  never  finished,  be- 
cause truth  is  never,  on  this  earth,  fully 
explored  and  disclosed.  Baptism  is  not  a 
magical  rite,  it  is  the  symbol  of  entrance 
into  a  chance  "  to  live  a  godly  and  Chris- 
tian life."  It  is  "  necessary  to  salvation  " 
only  in  the  sense  that  to  possess  a  chance  to 
be  virtuously  brought  tip  is  necessary  to  the 
development  of  the  personal  righteousjiess, 
which  is  salvation.  The  Lord's  Supper  is 
necessary  to  salvation  only  because  through 
it  and  by  it  the  reverent  soul  receives  a 
Divine  strength  which  that  reverent  soul 
is  to  transmute  into  the  personal  right- 
eousness which  is  salvation.  Neither 
Baptism  nor  the  Lord's  Supper  are  salva- 
tion, any  more  than  matriculation  and  resi- 
dence at  the  university  are  intellectual 
salvation ;  but  they  are  in  Religion  what 
matriculation  and  the  university  are  in 
education,  the  bestowment  of  the  chance, 
the  help,  the  inspiration,  the  direction 
which  in  the  one  lead  to  knowledge,  and 
in  the  other  lead  to  righteousness.  To" 
educate,  not  to  grant  diplomas ;  to  make 


RELIGION  AND   RIGHTEOUSNESS.     141 

riehteous,  not  to  secure  doctrinal  correct- 
ness,  are  the  aim  of  the  College  and  the 
Church ;  yet  the  one  grants  diplomas  and 
the  other  asks  for  faith.  Religion  is  in 
no  danger  of  becoming  an  ethical  school 
because  her  passion  for  righteousness  is 
measured  by  her  conviction  that  righteous- 
ness is  not  the  product  of  a  perception, 
but  the  outcome  of  a  faith  in  God.  Her 
new  attitude  towards  conduct  is  not  at  the 
expense  of  any  cardinal  truth,  because  her 
cardinal  truth  is  that  salvation,  the  state 
she  aims  to  produce,  is  righteousness,  and 
righteousness  is  possible  only  as  man 
knows,  obeys,  and  loves  a  righteous  God. 
And  we  have  not  lost  from  Religion  what 
we  have  o:ained  for  rio^hteousness,  because 
there  is  no  real  righteousness  without  Re- 
ligion. 

I  think  we  have  but  begun  to  appreciate 
what  this  promises  for  the  future.  It  leaves 
dogmatic  truth  intact,  but  puts  it  in  its 
proper  place.  It  leaves  ecclesiasticism 
substantially  untouched  in  bulk,  but  de- 
clares it  is  an  instrument  and  not  an  end. 
It  refuses  any  longer  to  go  on  with  the 
old  reversal  of  the  divine  order,  righteous- 


142       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

ness  and  the  kingdom  first.  Religion  is 
asserting  that  all  other  things  —  faith,  wor- 
ship, creed  —  will  never  be  added  unto  it 
unless  first  of  all  it  can  make  it  plain  that 
its  foremost  purpose  is  to  produce  right- 
eousness of  life. 

A  score  of  years  ago  Matthew  Arnold 
gave  to  the  world  "  Literature  and  Dogma." 
It  was  a  strong,  clear  plea  for  reality,  a 
somewhat  flippant,  if  brilliant,  arraignment 
of  the  Religion  which  made  the  three  Lord 
Shaftesburys  of  more  importance  than 
the  development  of  justice,  mercy,  and 
truth  in  the  life  of  the  English  people. 
After  twenty  years,  what  do  we  see  ?  The 
Bishops  of  Gloucester  and  Winchester 
still  believing  that  their  conception  of  Je- 
hovah is  far  truer  to  fact  and  reason  than 
the  metaphysical  "  not  ourselves  which 
makes  for  righteousness  "  that  Mr.  Arnold 
defines  and  explains  in  a  speculative 
phraseology  which  rivals  the  nomenclature 
he  condemns.  Not  one  of  their  dogmas  is 
relinquished,  but  no  longer  are  they  set  in 
the  door  of  entrance  into  life,  no  longer 
are  they  urged  as  the  condition  of  salva- 
tion.    Mr.  Arnold  would  have  swept  them 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     143 

relentlessly  away.  The  result  he  was  sin- 
cerely bent  on  securing,  and  to  which  he 
gave  his  genius  for  revealing  the  intensely 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  Bible,  seemed  to 
him  possible  only  as  dogma  was  supplanted 
by  literature.  But  all  that  Mr.  Arnold 
contended  for  in  his  exaltation  of  right- 
eousness has  been  secured.  Dogma  re- 
mains ;  it  always  will  remain.  Mr.  Arnold 
himself  framed  a  new  dogma  which  for  a 
while  was  ardently  accepted  by  the  dogma- 
haters  ;  but  righteousness  is  now  almost 
everywhere  in  Religion  made  the  end 
which  dogma  must  loyally  serve.  It  is  a 
great  triumph,  the  meaning  and  result  of 
which  we  as  yet  but  imperfectly  grasp,  but 
in  the  coming  years  we  shall  more  and 
more  reap  the  fruits  of  it  in  the  finer  char- 
acter, the  larger  moral  power,  of  those  who 
profess  and  call  themselves  religious,  and 
in  the  more  ready  allegiance  to  Religion, 
with  her  faith  and  worship,  of  all  those 
who  forsook  her  in  the  days  when  she  was 
theologically  stubborn  and  ecclesiastically 
insistent,  rather  than  obsessed  by  a  passion 
for  righteousness. 

Finally,  it  must  needs  be  said  that  Reli- 


144       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

gion  has  by  no  means  thoroughly  finished 
her  work  of  discriminating  between  real 
and  conventional  righteousness.  For  the 
frame  in  which  conduct  is  set  still  blinds 
us  to  the  moral  quality  of  that  conduct. 
There  are  no  more  misleading  terms  in 
use  to-day  than  "  criminal  classes,"  "  vicious 
classes."  The  "criminal  class"  means,  to 
almost  all  of  us,  low,  brutal  rufHans  who 
murder,  steal,  and  burn  whenever  the  safe 
opportunity  is  presented.  The  "vicious 
classes "  are  the  social  outcasts,  stained 
black  or  red  with  dissipation,  debauchery, 
and  sensuality,  and  frankly  refusing  to  do 
any  work  save  as  work  is  necessary  to 
keep  body  and  soul  together.  These,  we 
say,  are  the  moral  pests  of  all  society ; 
these  are  the  real  menace  to  civilization 
and  corporate  righteousness.  Their  sur- 
roundings are  repulsive,  base,  filthy;  or 
tawdry  and  impure.  Their  haunts  are  un- 
der constant  surveillance.  We  increase 
the  police  force  on  their  account.  We 
localize  them,  and  then  speak  of  the  "  bad 
quarters  "  of  the  town  in  which  they  con- 
gregate and  to  which  they  give  a  notorious 
character.     Their  very  appearance  is  for- 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     145 

bidding,  their  language  coarse  and  brutal, 
their  manner  of  life  repulsive.  Yes,  truly, 
these  are  the  "  criminal  and  vicious  classes" 
whom  we  justly  dread,  and  on  whom  we 
pour  our  indignation.  But  Religion,  be- 
fore it  shall  thoroughly  rehabilitate  itself, 
must  include  in  the  criminal  class  that  not 
inconsiderable  number  of  respected,  though 
not  respectable,  men  who  break  law  in  gen- 
tlemanly fashion,  who  have  grown  richer 
far  than  any  burglar,  by  methods  not  one 
whit  more  honest  than  the  burglar's  and 
tenfold  more  destructive  to  the  security 
of  society.  There  is  no  smallest  room  for 
doubt  that  thieving  on  a  colossal  scale  has 
characterized  all  too  many  of  our  huge 
enterprises  of  the  last  twenty  years.  The 
courts  now  and  then  convict  it,  but  for  the 
most  part  it  goes  untouched.  Too  often  it 
is  like  the  clever  work  of  the  bank  burglar 
who  leaves  no  clue  for  his  detection.  But 
the  fact  of  robbery  remains.  Success,  with 
the  concomitants  of  good  breeding,  good 
manners,  generous  alms,  and  pure  life,  has 
blinded  Religion  to  the  moral  fact  that 
breach  of  law  lies  at  the  door  of  many  of 
our  "  best  citizens,"  as  we  like  to  call  them. 


146       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

There  are  too  many  corporations  wrecked 
outright,  or  rendered  profitless,  by  men  who 
are  not  included  in  the  "criminal  classes," 
who  have,  on  the  contrary,  waxed  fat  and 
who  shine,  for  us  ever  to  believe  that  Reli- 
gion has  done  all  she  ought  in  discriminat- 
ing between  real  and  conventional  right- 
eousness, between  real  and  conventional 
wrong.  The  contrast  between  the  usual 
surroundings  of  crime  and  this  fine  and 
refined  condition  in  which  dishonest  suc- 
cess, and  the  powerlessness  of  law,  per- 
mit our  well-bred,  gentlemanly  criminal  to 
live,  has  befogged  our  moral  vision.  The 
beauty  of  the  frame  has  made  us  forget 
the  ugliness  of  the  picture.  But  there  are 
signs  in  our  moral  sky  that  the  expansion 
of  Reliction  in  the  direction  of  ethical  clair- 
voyance  will  not  always  tolerate  this  con- 
fusion. Unrighteousness  will  be  spied  out 
and  denounced  even  when  its  appearance 
is  so  respectable  that  it  seems  by  right  to 
deserve  respect.  We  shall  no  longer  de- 
fine the  criminal  class  as  the  ruffians  and 
common  thieves  who  infest  society  in  bru- 
tal fashion ;  we  shall  include  in  it  any  man 
who  has  broken  laws,  however  safe  he  be 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     147 

from  the  penalties  of  the  law  which  he  has 
broken. 

And  so  of  the  vicious  class.  Religion 
will  ask,  if  indeed  it  is  not  asking  now, 
whence  comes  the  material  support  of  this 
dreadful  vice  which  festers  in  all  our  great 
towns.  And  it  will  not  hesitate  to  track  it 
back  to  the  doors  of  those  gentlemanly 
people  whose  evil  desires,  regulated  by  a 
devilish  calculation  of  what  it  is  safe  or 
dangerous  for  the  man  of  good  repute  to 
do,  lead  them  from  the  quiet,  respectable 
quarters  of  the  town,  or  from  well  behaved 
villages,  into  the  haunts  of  vice,  at  which 
they  pharisaically  shudder  w^hen  safely 
back  again  in  their  homes.  There  wall 
surely  come  a  day  of  reckoning  between 
the  so-called  vicious  classes  and  those  who, 
preserving  their  respectability,  have  helped 
to  support  vice,  and  it  is  odds  on  which 
side  shall  lie  the  weight  of  blame.  But 
meanwhile  Religion,  expanding  more  and 
more  to  the  moral  exigencies  of  a  complex 
and  artificial  society,  will  grow  bold  and 
firm  in  its  determination  to  characterize 
with  ethical  exactness,  and  to  treat  with  un- 
pitying  and  equal  sternness,  the  wickedness 


148      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

which  is  dull  and  ugly,  or  clever  and  re- 
fined. The  frame  fools  no  artist  as  to  the 
artistic  value  of  the  picture.  The  dexter- 
ously arranged  lights  of  the  auctioneer  mis- 
lead only  untrained  and  conceited  purchas- 
ers. It  may  be  hard  for  me  to  class  the 
drunkenness  of  the  ragged  sot  with  the  tip- 
siness  of  the  fine-mannered  gentleman,  the 
lowness  which  is  brutal  with  the  vileness 
that  sparkles.  Indeed,  without  Religion, 
uttering  itself  as  righteousness,  it  may  be 
impossible  for  me  to  see  that  each  is  but  a 
manifestation  of  a  wickedness  which  is  only 
too  ready  to  don  rags,  or  purple  and  fine 
linen.  But  that  only  goes  to  prove  how  nec- 
essary Religion  is,  and  how  necessary,  too, 
that  its  standard  of  righteousness  should  be 
such  as  inerrantly  to  discriminate  between 
the  conventional  and  the  real.  "All  unright- 
eousness is  sin,"  runs  the  old  Hebraic  phrase. 
Centuries  old,  we  have  not  yet  learned  its 
truth  ;  but  we  are  learning  it.  Out  of  the 
perpetual  tendency  of  Religion  —  markedly 
vigorous  at  the  end  of  the  century,  as  I 
have  tried  to-nioht  to  set  forth  —  to  trans- 
late  itself  into  conduct,  is  to  come  that  in- 
errant,  quick  perception  of  intrinsic  right- 


RELIGION  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS.     149 

eousness  which  shall  deliver  us  from  the 
moral  blunders  which  we  excuse  on  the 
ground  of  love  of  the  beautiful,  the  clever, 
the  refined.     Yes !  out  of  Religion.     For 


'&' 


what  but  Religion  is  nurturing  men  in 
righteousness  and  love?  What  but  Reli- 
gion speaks  uncompromisingly  of  our  need 
of  godliness  ?  The  new  claim  which  she  is 
making  upon  the  loyalty  of  all  men  is  pre- 
eminently one  which  appeals  to  them  on 
the  score  of  what  she  is  doing  for  the  life 
that  now  is,  —  never  mind,  for  to-night, 
that  which  is  to  come.  If  she  is  hold- 
ing men  back  from  wickedness,  if  she  is 
reclaiming  criminals  and  sinners,  setting 
their  feet  once  more  in  honest  ways,  then 
she  is  increasing  the  world's  material  pros- 
perity and  saving  its  money  for  noblest 
uses.  If  she  is  insisting  that  the  laws  of 
health  ought  to  be  obeyed,  or  warning  us 
of  the  inevitable  physical  consequences  of 
evil  living,  then  she  is  improving  the  qual- 
ity of  the  public  health.  If  she  is  preach- 
ing industry  in  her  manual  schools  and 
inculcating  thrift  in  her  postal  savings,  then 
she  is  doing  something  to  destroy  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  costly  idle  and  the 


150     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

expensive  improvident  come  to  be.  Every 
man  whom  she  saves,  in  that  large  mean- 
ing of  salvation  we  have  used  thus  far  in 
our  lectures,  is  an  addition  to  the  common- 
weal, the  commonwealth.  The  expansion 
of  Religion  is  in  very  truth  the  hope  of 
the  future.  Our  security  lies  not  in  our 
wealth,  our  knowledge,  our  government,  or 
our  society.  The  public  safety  —  safety  for 
goods,  for  persons,  for  laws,  for  rights,  for 
privileges  —  lies  in  the  moral  quality  of  the 
people  produced  by  the  Religion  that  holds 
up  for  the  people's  reverence  a  moral  as 
truly  as  a  loving  God.  There  is  no  other 
place  under  heaven  in  which  to  bestow  it 
and  have  it  sure.  Righteousness  is  peace, 
and  it  is  peace  because  it  is  the  work  of 
God  in  man. 


IV. 

RELIGION    AND   INDUSTRIALISM. 

Within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  to 
speak  in  the  rough,  there  have  grown  up 
a  class  of  problems  and  a  series  of  move- 
ments which  are  rather  loosely  included 
under  the  name  of  Industrialism.     These 
problems  are  made  up  of  questions  touch- 
ing  wages,   hours  of    work,  conditions  of 
labor,  a"nd  distribution.     The  movements 
are  almost  entirely  towards  some  sort  of 
association,  first  for  the  protection  of  cer- 
tain advantages  already  secured,  and,  sec- 
ond, for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  more  of 
these  advantages.    I  do  not  mean  to  assert 
that   these  problems  and  movements  are 
characteristic  of  the  last  half  of  our  century 
alone.     In  variant  form  they  have  always 
haunted  civilization,  disturbed  it,  affected 
it,  and  critically  changed  it.     But  the  agi- 
tations in  respect  of  labor,  previous  to  our 
day,  have  been  concerned  with  particular 


152      772^^  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

crafts.  The  organizations  which  resulted 
from  those  agitations  were  essentially  local 
and  selfish.  The  trades  guilds  were  de- 
signed to  be  protective  of  the  interests  of 
a  single  industry.  They  seem  to  have 
included,  but  incidentally  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  increasing  their  attractiveness,  a 
good  many  provisions  for  social  pleasure 
and  religious  worship.  They  grew  in 
strength,  finally  acquired  political  power, 
and  developed  the  guild  merchant,  who  was 
the  capitalist  of  that  elder  day.  But  the 
idea  of  a  federation  of  all  guilds,  in  order 
to  protect  all  labor  of  every  kind,  cannot 
be  discovered  in  the  history  of  those  or- 
ganizations which  are  frequently  cited  as 
the  ancient  types  of  the  labor  unions  of 
the  modern  world.  The  reason  is  not 
obscure.  The  conception  of  the  interde- 
pendence of  every  form  of  industrial  labor 
had  not  then  been  wrought  out.  The 
crafts  appear  to  have  been,  economically 
and  socially,  independent  of  one  another. 
Craft  was  caste,  and  caste  has  never  con- 
cerned itself  with  any  questions  save  those 
which  touch  its  own  safet}^  Craft  as  caste 
can  be  cruel,  unjust,  grasping,  sordid;  and 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     1 53 

the  craft-guilds   not  infrequently  built  up 
their  power  and  wealth  at  the  expense  of 
general    labor,  or   of    other   crafts.     It   is 
unprofitable,  therefore,  to  go  back  to  the 
history  of  mediaeval  guilds  for  light  upon 
the  industrial   conditions   which    confront 
us  to-day;  for  what  preeminently  charac- 
terizes  labor   unions    now   is    their   clear 
perception  and  strong  conviction  that  the 
interests  of  all  labor,  whatever  be  its  spe- 
cial form,  are  one.     It  is  the  present  soli- 
darity of  labor  which,  more  than  any  other, 
or  all  other,  contemporary  conditions,  has 
created  what  is  called  Industrialism.     And 
what  brought  the  fact  of    solidarity   into 
view  is  first,  the  rise  of   great    industrial 
enterprises    which    transformed    the    pro- 
ducers of  a  finished  article  into  producers 
of  a  single,  and  frequently  slight,  part  of  a 
completed  article.     The  fact  that  the  fail- 
ure of  one  shift  to  turn  out   in  sufficient 
quantity,  or   with    sufficient    rapidity,  the 
part  it  was  set  to  produce,  threw  out  an- 
other shift,  dependent  upon  the  first  for 
prepared  material,  disclosed  how  intimately 
all  the  workers  in  a  huge   establishment 
are  related  to,  and  dependent  upon,  one 


154      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

another.  Take  the  construction  of  a  great 
modern  building.  It  impHes,  for  its  pro- 
gressive, economical  erection,  the  simul- 
taneous, or  the  cooperating,  labor  of  stone 
masons,  stone  cutters,  draymen,  miners, 
smelters,  iron-workers,  house-smiths,  car- 
penters, carvers,  plasterers,  painters,  plum- 
bers, electricians,  gas-fitters,  and,  above  all, 
transportation.  Each  craft  is  dependent 
upon  all  the  others.  Disturbance  in  any 
one  of  them  means  disturbance  of  the 
whole ;  and  w^ien  skilled  labor  is  scarce, 
or  the  organization  of  the  particular  craft 
disturbed  is  perfect,  there  is  paralysis  of 
the  whole.  A  bid  for  a  big  contract  is  not 
only  a  nice  calculation  of  the  amount  and 
cost  of  materials,  of  the  amount  and  kind 
of  labor,  and  of  the  special  engineering  or 
other  difficulties  likely  to  arise  ;  it  is  also 
a  plan  of  campaign,  mapping  out  strate- 
gically how  to  meet  successfully  the  sur- 
prises and  checks  which  may  at  any 
moment  rise  out  of  organized  labor  to 
confront  the  contractor.  But  this  is  an 
illustration  of  the  interdependence  of  labor 
in  modern  times,  drawn  from  a  single 
enterprise.     We  need  only  extend  it,  until 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     155 

it  embraces  the  industries  of  the  whole 
country,  adequately  to  understand  the  co- 
lossal proportions  of  this  new  figure  which 
has  risen  up  in  sturdy  strength  among  the 
movements  of  the  end  of  the  century. 

Moreover,  w^e  must  count  in  the  con- 
solidation of  the  worlds  markets.  The 
provincialism  of  trade  and  industry  has 
expanded  into  the  cosmopolitanism  of 
industrial  and  commercial  activity.  Fall 
River  competes  not  alone  with  Lowell, 
Lawrence,  and  the  new-born  textile  estab- 
lishments of  the  South,  but  with  every 
loom  running  anywhere  in  the  civilized 
world.  Massachusetts  carpets  are  dis- 
played by  the  side  of  genuine  Oriental 
tapestries  in  the  shops  of  the  whole  coun- 
try, and  the  wages  of  the  Persian  work- 
man, toiling  in  his  solitary  hut  in  the 
dim,  far-off  East,  touch  the  wages  of  the 
weavers  of  New  England.  Any  sort  of 
production  anywhere  affects  every  sort 
of  production  everywhere.  The  industrial 
world  is  now  one  huge  workshop,  and  all 
its  parts  are  interdependent. 

Again,  this  feature  of  work  is  compar- 
atively new.     It  is  the  result  of  the  new 


156      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

forces  discovered  in  the  last  century,  for 
the  most  part,  but  applied  in  this.  The 
great  industrial  centres  and  the  methods 
of  regular  and  rapid  transportation  are  all 
of  recent  origin.  They  came  into  exist- 
ence long  before  their  economical  signi- 
ficance was  clearly  foreseen,  much  less 
provided  for.  They  have  disturbed  all  the 
traditional  economics,  complicated  all  the 
venerable  theories,  and  displaced  many  of 
the  old  methods.  The  nature  and  extent 
of  the  disturbance  in  industrial  relations 
are  far  less  momentous  than  we  had  reason 
to  expect.  The  radical  changes  wrought 
by  a  score  of  new  forces  are  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  economic  difficulties 
thus  far  experienced.  The  number  of 
strikes,  the  amount  of  violence,  and  the 
losses  entailed  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  however  deplorable,  do  not  for  a 
moment  compare  with  what  might  have 
been  predicted  by  some  prophet  who,  a 
hundred  years  ago,  "  had  dipped  into  the 
future  far  as  human  eye  could  see,"  and 
had  beheld  the  vision  of  all  the  industrial 
and  commercial  changes  which  are  now 
before  our  eyes.     We  have  gotten  off  thus 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     157 

far  very  easy,  so  easy,  in  fact,  that  there 
are  still  multitudes  of  people  who  refuse 
to  believe  that  Industrialism  presents  any 
specially  critical  problems  for  civilization  to 
solve.     These  people,  it  may  be  urged,  are 
the  blind,  the  dreamers,  the  idlers,  and  the 
hopelessly  selfish.     But  they  exist  in  force, 
and  meanwhile  Industrialism  is  filling  our 
ears  with  its  angry  and  defiant,  or  its  sad 
and  hopeless  cries,  and  equally  filling  with 
reasonable   alarm   those    who   know   how 
real  are  the  problems  this  age  is  set  to 
solve,  how  sure  it  is  they  will  not  settle 
themselves.     The  importance  conceded  to 
them   is  not  too   great,  nor  is  the   hard, 
patient,  heroic  study  given  them  a  costlier 
service  than  they  deserve.     So  much  real 
distress,  so  much  blind    revolt,  so  fright- 
fully huge  losses,  and  so  much  bitter  con- 
flict   must    mean  —  together   with    much 
wise,  effective,  and  sagacious  organization 
—  the  existence  in  the  midst  of  us  of  a 
deep-seated  trouble.      In  other  words,  we 
must  reckon  with  Industrialism. 

Now  labor  —  using  that  word  for  the 
sake  of  convenience,  and  asserting  at  the 
outset  that  it  is  totally  unsatisfactory,  be- 


158      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

ing  largely  misdescriptive  —  urges  against 
civilization  that  it  is  unjust  in  these  three 
respects:  first,  it  metes  out  to  labor  an 
insufficient  wage  ;  second,  compels  too 
long  hours ;  and  third,  insists  upon  an 
inequitable  distribution  of  the  products 
of  labor.  I  beg  you  to  notice  that  this 
charge  brought  against  civilization  differs 
from  the  concrete  charges  urged  against 
individuals  or  corporations  that  employ 
labor.  It  implicitly  declares  that  low 
wages,  long  hours,  and  an  inequitable  dis- 
tribution of  what  labor  produces,  are  the 
result  only  incidentally  of  the  injustice  of 
Mr.  A.  or  corporation  B.  They  are  the 
outcome  of  a  condition  wdiich  civilization 
has  created  deliberately  or  unconsciously, 
and  which  civilization  is  unwilling  to 
change.  The  average  workingman  and 
the  average  capitalist,  as  well,  regard  them- 
selves as  hopelessly  at  the  mercy  of  forces 
which  they  vaguely  call  civilization  or 
society.  The  workingman  denounces  soci- 
ety as  unjust,  cruel,  sordid;  claims  that 
until  she  is  thoroughly  reformed,  radically 
readjusted,  there  is  no  hope  that  labor 
will  have  its  "  rights."     And,  on  the  other 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM,     159 

hand,  capital  cries,  "  What  can  I  do  other 
than  what  I  am  doing?  I  did  not  create 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  I  did  not 
inaugurate  competition.  Society,  not  I, 
is  responsible  for  them.  I  found  them 
ready  to  my  hand  and  I  employed  them, 
because  there  was  nothing  else  to  employ." 
Each,  at  any  rate,  disclaims  any  share  in 
creating  or  perpetuating  the  conditions 
which  labor  pronounces  to  be  unjust. 
This  accounts  for  two  distinguishing  fea- 
tures of  the  situation :  first,  the  inability 
of  Industrialism  to  prosecute  its  claims  and 
obtain  its  "  rights ; "  and,  second,  the  in- 
ability of  our  political  economists  to  bring 
civilization  to  a  real  account.  Civilization 
cannot  be  brought  into  court.  Society 
cannot  be  subpoenaed.  That  is  to  say, 
civilization  cannot  be  unjust,  only  a  per- 
son or  a  corporation  can  be  unjust,  and 
civilization  is  neither  a  person  nor  a 
corporation.  Society  cannot  be  cruel, 
only  a  person  or  an  association  can  be 
so.  Justice  and  injustice,  cruelty  and 
kindness  are  qualities  of  civilized  and 
social  individuals.^     However  convenient, 

1  The  Reverend  William  Kirkus,  LL.  B. 


l6o     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

therefore,  it  may  be  to  charge  civilization 
or  society  with  wrong,  it  really  means 
nothing,  save  as  we  regard  civilization  as 
an  aggregate  of  civilized  persons,  who 
have  co7icerted  to  do  an  unjust  thing.  If 
this  aggregate  of  individuals  has  made  a 
compact  to  do  and  to  perpetuate  a  wrong, 
that  compact  must  somehow  be  put  in 
evidence ;  otherwise  the  wrong  is  either 
no  wrong  at  all,  or  is  the  expression  of  a 
maleficent,  but  undetermined,  result  of  an 
aggregation  of  individuals.  No  one  for  a 
moment  doubts  that  the  result  of  the  ex- 
istence of  a  great  city  is  hardship  for  thou- 
sands of  people,  but  no  one  will  claim  that 
great  towns  are  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  subjecting  any  of  their  inhabitants  to 
hardship.  For  the  history  of  municipal 
legislation  and  administration  is  the  story 
of  unflagging  attempts  to  reduce  and  re- 
move hardships.  Savagery  has  its  dis- 
advantages, but  the  reason  savage  people 
never  accuse  their  savagery  of  responsi- 
bility for  those  disadvantages  is  that  there 
are  no  contrasting  advantages  to  bring  the 
disadvantages  into  disrepute.  In  a  civil- 
ized state,  on  the  contrary,  there  are  pro- 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     i6l 

duced  abundantly  striking  and  precious 
benefits  in  which  all  generally,  but  un- 
equally, share.  "  How  big  is  too  big?  How 
small  is  too  small  ? "  have  ever  been  the 
questions  civilized  beings  have  always 
asked,  as  their  respective  shares  were 
sharply  contrasted.  Why  a  palace,  why  a 
hovel?  Why  unceasing  toil,  why  unlimited 
leisure  ?  But,  as  the  tenure  of  the  hovel 
stands  or  falls  with  the  tenure  of  the  pal- 
ace, as  the  laborer's  holiday  is  but  a  bit 
broken  from  the  idler's  life-long  leisure, 
the  easiest  way  of  expressing  discontent 
w^ith  social  arrangements,  and  disbelief  in 
their  essential  justice,  has  ever  been  to 
call  civilization  unjust  and  society  cruel. 
Once  more,  I  say,  civiHzed  human  beings 
can  be,  and  are,  unjust,  and  their  aggre- 
gated injustice  be  the  dreadful  thing  it  is 
claimed  it  is ;  but  civilization  itself  can 
do  neither  right  nor  wrong.  We  shall 
return  to  this  further  on  in  our  lecture, 
but  meanwhile  it  ought  to  be  clear  that 
to  hold  civilization  responsible  for  low 
wages,  long  hours,  and  inequitable  dis- 
tribution of  labor's  produce,  is  as  idle  as 
to  hold  the   sunlight  responsible  for  bad 


1 62       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

pictures,  or  bronze  guilty  of  the  aesthetic 
crimes  which  so  frequentl}^  stare  us  in  the 
face  in  pubHc  squares. 

Remembering  this  perhaps  common- 
place truth,  let  us  examine  the  charges 
Industrialism  urges  against  civilization. 
Its  wages  are  too  low.  If  by  this  is  meant 
that  wages  are  less  than  wage  earners 
would  like  them  to  be,  lower  than  is  neces- 
sary to  secure  certain  desirable,  or  at  least 
desired,  conditions  and  possessions,  lower 
than  is  consistent  with  the  cost  of  what  is 
frequently,  not  always,  necessary  for  the  re- 
pair of  exhausted  force,  we  are  all  agreed. 
If  any  one  asks  me  how  I  should  like 
to  work  for  one  dollar  per  day,  of  course 
I  must  reply,  I  should  not  like  it  at  all 
if  I  can  get  two  or  ten,  any  more  than  I 
should  like  ten  if  I  could  get  a  thousand ; 
nor  should  I  like  to  earn  less  than  would 
secure  me  certain  comfortable  conditions, 
good  and  enough  food,  good  and  enough 
clothing,  sanitary  housing,  and  the  like. 
But  after  easily  answering  these  easy  ques- 
tions, every  one  of  us  knows  that  the  real 
question  is  this :  how  much  can  the  fund, 
out  of  which  all  wages  are  paid,  devote  to 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     163 

the  compensation  of  labor  without  exhaust- 
ing itself,  without  failing  to  receive  the 
increase  necessary  to  preserve  it  as  a  fund 
from  which  wages  can  be  paid  ?  That,  of 
course,  is  a  purely  economical  question, 
which  only  political  economy  can  answer, 
if,  indeed,  there  is  ever  to  be  an  answer  to 
it.  Into  its  determination  enter  a  score  of 
complex  considerations,  the  currency,  the 
tariff,  the  state  of  trade,  the  quantity  of 
labor  —  regarded  for  one  moment  as  a 
commodity  —  the  quantity  of  labor  avail- 
able, the  quantity  of  capital  seeking  em- 
ployment, the  cost  of  living,  the  amount 
of  the  product,  and  the  cost  of  producing, 
distributing,  and  selling  it.  Before  civili- 
zation can  say  how  much  wages  should  be 
paid,  science  must  first  show  us  how  much 
can  be  paid,  without  fatal  injury  to  the 
industry  itself.  That  wages  fluctuate,  that 
the  nominal  wage  is  sometimes  greater 
than  the  real  wage,  and  sometimes  less ; 
that  wages  are  at  times  so  high  as  to 
cause  capital  to  stop  paying  them  alto- 
gether, that  on  the  other  hand  they  fall  so 
low  as  to  make  idleness  as  profitable  as 
labor,  since  the  idle  man  eats  less  than  the 


1 64     THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

toiler;  that  for  one  year  capital  enjoys 
profit  and  for  another  pays  losses  —  all 
this  is  now  so  familiar  that  one  is  tempted 
to  apologize  for  rehearsing  it.  But  it  is 
worth  rehearsinor  for  the  sake  of  makinQ^ 
clear  this  truth :  that  civilization,  as  such, 
is  absolutely  powerless  to  raise  and  equally 
powerless  to  lower  the  wages  of  any  man. 
That  act  is  performed  by  another  aggre- 
gate of  forces.  The  engineer  who  drives 
the  fast  express  from  New  York  to  Spring- 
field, a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  miles,  in  three  hours  and  a  half,  re- 
ceives fifteen  dollars  for  the  trip.^  The 
operative  in  Fall  River,  by  working  fifty- 
two  hours  per  week,  receives  thirteen  dol- 
lars. Now  suppose  civilization  had  a  voice, 
what  ought  civilization  say  to  this  appar- 
ently gross  inequality,  not  to  say  injus- 
tice }  Civilization  would  be  under  the 
necessity  of  ascertaining  with  exactness  a 
score  of  facts  difficult  to  obtain,  and  still 
more  difficult  to  interpret  in  their  bearing 
upon  the  point  involved.  That  is  to  say, 
she  would   be  obliged  to  accept  the  con- 

^  So,  at  least,  I  was  informed  in  1S91,  by  apparently 
good  authority. 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     165 

elusions  of  political  economy,  which  has 
undertaken  to  collect,  arrange,  and  inter- 
pret all  the  economical  data  which  alone 
can  determine  whether  the  engineer  is 
overpaid,  the  operative  underpaid.  Im- 
agine the  result,  if  that  bit  of  civilization 
represented  here  to-night  should  undertake 
to  decide  the  question  by  a  show  of  hands. 
The  folly  of  it  would  be  unspeakable.  But 
what  guarantee  is  there  that  our  folly 
would  become  wisdom  if  we  multiply  our 
numbers  here  by  a  million,  or  by  ten  ?  If, 
however,  it  is  urged  that  civilization  should 
promptly  accept  the  precisely  stated  con- 
clusions of  political  economy,  and  straight- 
way come  to  the  relief  of  the  wage  earn- 
ers, we  are  sadly  obliged  to  confess  that 
there  are  no  such  conclusions ;  that  is  to 
say,  conclusions  touching  the  regulation  of 
wages  by  legislation.  Every  attempt  thus 
far  made  in  that  direction  has  resulted  in 
demonstrated  failure.  The  legal  rate  in  the 
long  run  has  been  the  market  rate ;  and 
legislation  by  representatives  of  the  people 
is  the  nearest  approach  to  action  by  civili- 
zation conceivable.  Indirectly,  legislation 
can    improve  wages.     It  can  provide  for 


1 66      772^^  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

methods  and  times  of  payment,  secure 
their  protection  from  attachment,  consti- 
tute them  privileged  debts,  and  make  suit 
for  their  recovery  an  easy  and  inexpensive 
process ;  but  that  is  all.  Political  economy 
has  to-day  no  accepted  theory  of  regulat- 
ing wages  by  arbitrary  enactment.  It  is 
obliged  to  admit  that  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand,  no  matter  how  much  that  law 
can  be  modified  by  special  and  local  con- 
ditions, is  still  the  only  law  according  to 
which  the  business  of  the  world  can  be 
conducted.  Hence,  to  charge  civilization 
with  injustice  in  the  matter  of  wage  rates 
is  irrational.  The  labor-unions,  all  forms 
of  association  for  the  protection  of  indus- 
trial interest,  have  had,  and  in  the  future 
are  bound  more  and  more  to  have,  a  power- 
ful influence  in  securing  better  wages,  but 
only  because  "  combinations  can  make  bet- 
ter bargains  than  individuals."  The  unions 
are  the  consolidation  of  labor  just  as  ma- 
chinery is  the  consolidation  of  individ- 
ual skill,  and  they  are  destined  to  produce 
ultimately,  when  perfected,  a  permanent 
and  beneficent  effect  upon  the  condition 
of  wage  earners.     But  the  point  I  wish  to 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     167 

make  and  keep  clear  is  this :  that  labor 
unionism  itself  is  an  industrial  factor  to  be 
treated  like  other  factors,  such  as  the  cur- 
rency, the  tariff,  and  the  cost  of  living. 

Secondly,  it  is  charged  that  civilization 
decrees  long  hours  to  wage  earners.  It  is 
obvious  that  "  long,"  applied  to  hours,  is 
altogether  indefinite.  Eighty  years  ago, 
men  worked  ninety,  and  in  some  instances 
and  countries,  one  hundred  hours,  a  week. 
To-day,  the  average  number  of  hours  for 
adults  is  fifty-three,  if  we  exclude  a  small 
number  of  special  trades.  Here,  then,  is 
a  very  considerable  reduction  of  hours  of 
labor,  so  considerable  that  to  designate  the 
hours  of  eighty  years  ago  and  those  of  to- 
day as  "  long  "  is  misleading.  The  work- 
ingmien  and  the  political  economists  have 
recognized  this  inconsistency,  and  have 
therefore  agitated  for  a  fixed  number  of 
w^orking  hours.  First,  for  a  ten-hour  law, 
then  a  nine-hour  law,  next  a  nine-hour  law 
with  Saturday  half  holiday,  and  finally  for 
an  eight-hour  law.  Beyond  eiglit  hours  no 
one  has  thus  far  proposed  to  go.  Eight 
seems  to  be  tacitly  accepted  as  a  limit. 
But  as  Mr.  Cox  and  Mr.  Webb,  who  are  its 


1 68      THE  EXPANSION  OE  RELIGION. 

vigorous  and  able  champions,  take  pains  to 
admit,  "  there  is  nothing  sacred  about  the 
figure  eight,  and  any  other  unit  would  do 
as  well  for  the  rough  purposes  of  political 
agitation.  Largely  from  historical  and  sen- 
timental considerations,  eight  has  forced 
itself  to  the  front  as  symbolizing  the  popu- 
lar demand  for  a  shortened  working  day." 
Of  the  physiological  and  social  advantages 
of  reduced  hours  of  toil,  we  shall  speak 
further  on.  The  primary  question  is  what 
would  be  the  economical  effect  of  shorter 
hours  on  wages,  on  production,  its  cost 
and  its  amount,  and  finally  on  profit.  The 
history  of  the  economical  results  of  the 
reduction  of  hours  already  secured,  while 
it  does  not  show  an  unvarying  result  to 
wages,  production,  and  profit,  conclusively 
proves  that  the  dire  prophecies  of  the  man- 
ufacturers, and  many  of  the  economists, 
failed  of  fulfillment.  Wages  have  not  de- 
creased, except  during  a  short  period  fol- 
lowing immediately  the  operation  of  the 
ten-hour  and  nine-hour  laws  in  Great  Bri- 
tain. Production  has  increased  in  amount 
and  at  no  greater  cost,  although  unchanged 
cost  has  been  affected  by  causes  other  than 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     169 

that  of  reduced  hours.  Profits  have  de- 
creased, in  a  few  instances  have  disap- 
peared. On  the  whole,  however,  the  eco- 
nomical results  of  shorter  w^orking  days 
during  the  last  fifty  years  have  vindicated 
the  economical  wisdom  of  the  reduction. 
Shareholders  and  capitalists  have  recon- 
ciled themselves  to  diminished  profits,  if 
not  with  grace,  at  least  with  equanimity. 
The  question  of  to-day  is  simply  this  : 
whether,  under  general  industrial  condi- 
tions, another  reduction  of  hours  can  be 
made  with  safety  to  any  dividends  or  prof- 
its at  all,  and  with  safety  to  wages.  It  is 
once  more  a  problem  in  economics.  That 
problem  is  still  unsolved.  There  is  no 
agreement  among  the  economists,  no  agree- 
ment among  manufacturers,  nor  among 
workingmen.  The  old  arguments  fail. 
That  a  man  can  do,  and  will  do,  as  much 
work  in  nine  hours  as  he  did  in  twelve 
may  be  true ;  that  he  can  do  as  much  in 
ten  hours  as  he  did  in  eleven  is  true.  That 
his  work  will  be  more  carefully  done,  with 
less  damao^c  to  material  and  fewer  defects 
in  the  manufactured  fabric  or  article  is 
true.     But  manifestly  there  is  a  point  in 


lyo     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

reduction  of  hours  beyond  which  it  cannot, 
economically,  be  carried  with  safety  to  all 
the  interests  involved.  Whether  ei2:ht 
hours  is  that  point,  we  have  at  present  no 
means  of  knowing,  and  prophec}^  when 
one  reflects  upon  the  m.ultitudinous  and 
complex  elements  involved,  is  not  rational. 
When,  then,  civilization  or  society  is  ac- 
cused of  guilt  in  imposing  long  hours  upon 
labor,  it  ought  to  be  clear,  as  it  was  in  the 
case  of  wages,  that  civilization  is  powerless 
to  inaugurate  a  change.  Goodness  and 
love,  mercy  and  compassion,  are  simply  in- 
capable of  overriding  the  stern  laws  which 
decree  what  shall,  and  shall  not,  be  the 
length  of  a  day's  toil.  If  the  matter  could 
be  decided  by  a  show  of  hands,  very  likely 
the  eight-hour  law  would  be  enacted,  if 
the  owners  of  the  hands  were  willing  to 
decide  the  question  solely  on  the  basis  of 
what  they  would  like.  Whether  or  not 
eight  hours  are  sufficient  for  the  continu- 
ance of  a  healthy  industrialism  has  not 
been  determined,  however  many  individ- 
uals may  think  it  has ;  and  until  it  is  de- 
termined, and  determined  with  enough  of 
demonstration  to  win  the  rational  assent 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     l/i 

of  those  whose  interests  are  immediately 
concerned,  both  employers  and  employees, 
it  is  not  sane  to  charge  civilization  with 
injustice ;  and,  for  reasons  which  will  be 
given  further  on,  when  it  is  demonstrated 
that  eio-ht  hours  of  work  meets  all  the  re- 
quirements  of  society,  economically,  society 
will  not  only  yield,  she  will  initiate. 

In  the  third  place.  Industrialism  charges 
civilization  with  the  responsibility  of  main- 
taining an  inequitable  distribution  of  la- 
bor's produce.  But  it  ought  first  to  be 
ascertained  how  much  of  all  that  is  pro- 
duced by  the  only  three  producers  known 
to  political  economy  —  land,  capital,  and 
labor — is  directly  due  to  labor.  Suppose 
we  imagine  the  total  production  of  the 
United  States  to  be  heaped  up  on  one  of 
our  western  prairies  in  the  shape  of  com- 
modities. It  would  be  a  vast  and  complex 
pile.  Every  article  known  to  the  arts  and 
sciences  would  be  there.  Foods,  clothing, 
drugs,  implements,  machinery,  furniture, 
books,  pictures,  architects'  drawings.  To 
produce  them  there  had  to  be  land,  capital, 
and  labor.  Each  of  these  three  is  unpro- 
ductive without  the  other,  in  an  industrial 


172      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

sense.  Each  Is  clamoring  for  the  largest 
share  of  this  heap  of  commodities.  Rent, 
interest,  and  wages,  put  in  their  respective 
claims.  Now  rent,  now  interest,  and  now 
wages,  seems  the  rightful  claimant  to  the 
lion's  share ;  and  each  in  turn  has  been 
the  successful  claimant,  each  in  turn  the 
rejected  claimant,  though  in  the  long  run 
land  or  rent  has  beaten  capital,  or  interest 
has  beaten  labor,  or  wages.  Occasionally 
there  has  been  a  fight,  or  scramble,  as  the 
three  have  gathered  round  the  heap  of 
commodities  produced  by  their  joint  effort, 
eager  for  its  division  among  them ;  but  no 
fight  thus  far  has  substantially  altered  the 
proportionate  division  which  from  time 
immemorial  has  been  made.^  The  share 
of  each  has  been  increased  in  this  century, 
but  only  because  the  heap  is  bigger  than 
it  used  to  be,  for  the  nation's  productivity 
has  enormously  increased.  But  Industrial- 
ism is  not  content  with  an  actual  larger 
share,  it  demands  a  larger  proportionate 
share.  The  laboring  man  to-day  is  fed, 
clothed,  and  sheltered,  in  a  manner  of  which 

1  Whence   I   borrowed  this  illustration  I  cannot  now 
ascertain.    I  am  confident,  however,  that  it  is  not  my  own. 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     173 

the  tollers  of  a  hundred  years  ago  never 
dreamed.  He  has  opportunities  of  recrea- 
tion, self-culture,  and  self-assertion,  some 
of  which  were  open  to  a  very  limited  num- 
ber in  the  last  century,  many  of  which  were 
open  to  nobody.  None  the  less,  round 
that  supposed  heap  of  commodities  are 
gathered  the  producers  of  it,  each  strenu- 
ous to  maintain  his  claim  to  the  biggest 
share,  each  resting  his  claim  on  his  biggest 
contribution  in  its  production.  Labor, 
however,  has  recently  made  the  claim  that 
it  produced  the  whole  of  it ;  and,  if  it  could 
substantiate  that  claim,  it  would  get  the 
whole  of  it;  but  labor  has  not  convinced 
land  and  capital  that  its  contention  is  true. 
Indeed,  the  indications  are  that  capital,  or, 
as  Mr.  Mallock  calls  it,  "  ability,"  has  been 
the  chief  force  in  the  enormous  production 
of  modern  times.  But,  at  any  rate,  it  ought 
to  be  clear  that  whether  or  not  the  present 
proportion  of  distribution  is  equitable  or 
inequitable,  the  question  is  not  to  be  de- 
termined by  anything  save  the  working  of 
economic  law.  First  comes  the  question. 
Can  land  give  more  of  what  is  produced  to 
capital  and  labor .?  next,  Can  capital  give 


174      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

more  to  land  and  labor  ?  and  finally,  Can 
labor  give  more  to  land  and  capital  ?  Until 
these  questions  are  determined,  it  is  idle 
to  discuss  whether  each  will  give,  or  is 
morally  bound  to  give,  or  can  be  made  to 
give,  more  than  each  is  giving  now.  Can 
one  afford  to  relinquish  from  its  respective 
share  a  substantial  portion  for  the  relief  or 
enrichment  of  the  others  and  still  maintain 
its  ability  to  go  on  doing  its  part  as  a  pro- 
ducer? For  it  is  absolutely  essential  — 
and  here  anybody  may  be  dogmatic  —  that 
each  one  of  the  three  producing  forces 
shall  be  maintained  in  its  efHciency  as  a 
producer.  Labor's  interest  in  the  econom- 
ical welfare  of  capital  is  as  real  as  capital's 
in  that  of  labor.  An  injury  to  one  has 
always  turned  out  to  be  an  injury  to  the 
other.  If  every  part  of  a  machine  is  essen- 
tial to  the  operation  of  every  other,  the 
efficiency  of  any  one  part  is  dependent 
upon  the  efficiency  of  all  the  rest.  The 
integrity  of  each  of  our  three  producers  is 
economically  imperative.  It  is  clear,  there- 
fore, that  the  determination  of  labor's 
claim,  like  that  of  land  and  capital,  is  to 
be  effected  by  the  economic  operation  of 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     175 

economic  law.  There  is  no  escape  from 
such  a  conclusion ;  for  if  any  one  of  the 
proposed  schemes  of  cooperation  shall  be 
adopted,  its  success  will  be  wholly  depen- 
dent upon  the  working  of  the  three  world- 
old  forces  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
laws  which  govern  them.  The  farmer 
owns  his  land,  supplies  his  necessary  capi- 
tal out  of  his  surplus  —  never  mind  now 
whence  he  derived  it  —  and  does  his  own 
work  unaided.  His  produce  is  a  hundred 
bushels  of  wheat.  He  takes  as  his  own 
every  one  of  those  bushels,  but  he  takes 
them  as  landowner,  capitalist,  and  laborer, 
—  all  in  one.  If  he  cared  to  keep  books 
and  credit  himself  as  landowner,  capitalist, 
and  laborer,  with  the  respective  shares  due 
to  each,  he  would  be  in  a  fair  way  to  ap- 
preciate the  mysteries  of  our  industrial 
problems.  The  great  practical  truth  which 
is  slowly  emerging  from  the  history  Indus- 
trialism is  making,  and  from  the  studies  of 
our  political  economists,  seems  to  be  this : 
that  the  action  of  none  of  the  three  pro- 
ducers should  ever  be  hampered  or  checked 
in  such  a  way  as  to  diminish  their  pro- 
ductive efficacy,  either  by  interfering  with 


176      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

their  freedom,  or  by  so  diminishing  their 
rewards  as  to  diminish  the  vigor  which  they 
themselves  exert ;  but  that,  on  the  con- 
trar)^  each  should  have  its  freedom  and 
rewards  jealously  maintained  and  guarded, 
and  the  conditions  most  favorable  to  its 
exercise  most  scrupulously  secured.  "  By 
such  means,  and  by  such  means  alone,  is 
there  any  possibility  of  the  national  wealth 
being  increased,  or  even  preserved  from 
disastrous  and  rapid  diminution." 

This  examination  of  the  threefold  indict- 
ment of  civilization  has  thus  far  been  con- 
ducted on  economic  lines.  But  you  will 
have  noticed  that  no  prophecy  has  been 
uttered,  and  no  economic  solution  of  the 
problems  involved  has  been  so  much  as 
suggested.  It  appeared  to  me  necessary 
to  state  in  simple  and,  I  hope,  lucid  fashion, 
the  irrational  character  of  that  indictment 
as  it  is  commonly  framed.  I  wished  com- 
pletely to  separate  the  work  of  political 
economy  from  the  task  of  Religion,  in  order 
the  more  clearly  to  set  forth  the  powerful 
influence  which  Religion,  expanded  to  the 
new  needs  of  the  new  day,  is  destined  to 
exert  in  determining  the  solution  of  the 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.     177 

problems  of  Industrialism.  It  is  the  con- 
fusion of  the  offices  of  each  which  has 
brought  political  economy  into  contempt 
and  Religion  into  distrust,  not  seldom  into 
disrepute.  Political  economy  will  never 
be  a  Religion,  Religion  will  never  be  polit- 
ical economy,  but  an  identity  of  purpose 
as  regards  a  part  of  man's  salvation  —  that 
salvation  which  means  having  all  that  is 
best  in  a  man  at  its  best  —  will  ever  make 
them  friends  and  allies.  They  are  the 
brain  and  heart  of  the  coming  civilization. 
The  one  must  point  the  way,  the  other 
must  persuade  us  to  take  it,  even  if  taking 
it  involves  sacrifices  and  concessions. 

It  is  significant  that  Religion  has  at  last 
roused  itself  to  a  consciousness  that  it  has 
a  duty  towards  Industrialism.  The  vener- 
able tradition  that  Religion  had  no  vital 
relation  to  Industrialism,  that  its  function 
was  wholly  that  of  an  alms-gatherer  and 
alms -distributor,  caring  for  the  conse- 
quences of  a  disturbed  Industrialism  — 
poverty,  disease,  and  misery  —  has  been 
completely  shattered.  It  lingers  only  in 
quarters  where  men  are  too  timid  to  face, 
or  too  blind  to  see,  the  thoroughly  altered 


178      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

conditions  of  our  later  day.  Yet  even  in 
these  quarters,  men  are  vaguely  aware  that 
the  perpetuation  of  old  traditions  are  fla- 
grantly failing  to  satisfy  the  demands  made 
upon  them  by  the  imperious  and  outspoken 
champions  of  the  new  order.  They  are 
not  skeptical  as  to  the  truth  they  hold,  the 
aims  they  pursue,  but  they  are  dimly  con- 
scious that  their  truth  is  not  all  the  truth, 
their  aims  are  not  sufficiently  inclusive. 
But  enterprising  Religion  —  the  Religion 
which  is  obsessed  by  the  larger  conception 
of  salvation  —  is  thoroughly  alive  to  the 
fact  that  it  has  a  duty  towards  every  form 
of  human  movement,  and  has  already  be- 
gun to  provide  itself  with  the  knowledge 
and  the  spirit  which  the  fulfillment  of  that 
duty  inexorably  requires.  To  such  an  ex- 
tent has  this  been  done  that  organized  Re- 
ligion has  now  and  then  been  betra3^ed 
into  uttering  a  warning  to  those  of  its  rep- 
resentatives who  have  forged  a  little  ahead 
of  their  more  conservative,  not  to  say  more 
intelligent  brethren.  The  incident  of  Doc- 
tor McGlynn,  complicated  though  it  was 
with  purely  personal  accidents,  is  a  case  in 
point.     His  suspension  and  his  reinstate- 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      179 

ment  are  significant.  Frequently  the  com- 
plaint is  uttered  that  the  clergy  no  longer 
preach  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  but  the  doc- 
trines of  political  economy.  Our  Divinity 
Schools  have  made  provision  for  sociologi- 
cal training,  and  some  of  them  have  ele- 
vated social  economics  to  the  rank  of 
scriptural  exegesis  and  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory. The  institutional  Church,  of  which 
we  hear  so  much  and  are  destined  to  hear 
more,  finds  a  place  for  the  study  of  all 
those  industrial  questions  which  touch  the 
real  life  of  man.  Religion  is  thoroughly 
awake  to  something  more  visibly  pressing 
than  original  sin  and  baptismal  regenera- 
tion. There  are  not  wanting  clergymen 
who  openly  champion,  in  the  name  of  Reli- 
gion, some  of  the  most  radical  of  industrial 
measures.  An  increasingly  large  amount 
of  the  spiritual  vitality  of  our  churches  is 
every  year  disengaged  from  the  technically 
religious  enterprises  of  organized  Religion 
and  attached  to  enterprises  which  are  not 
religious  in  name  at  all,  but  promise  to 
mitio-ate  the  industrial  and  social  burdens. 
Many  of  the  best  missionaries  the  churches 
have  ever  trained  and  sent  forth  are  found 


l80      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

to-day,  not  in  Africa  and  China,  nor  in 
Arizona  and  Nevada,  but  in  the  organiza- 
tions which  directly  seek  to  secure  to  our 
toilers  more  of  the  concrete  blessings  which 
their  toil  has  largely  produced,  organiza- 
tions whose  field  of  operation  is  the  great 
cities  and  the  centres  of  industrial  activity. 
It  is  hard  to  exaggerate  the  profound  in- 
terest which  Religion  is  disclosing  in  every 
movement  which  promises  to  make  this 
earth  fairer  and  the  conditions  of  life 
sweeter  to  the  members  of  that  vast  indus- 
trial world  which,  by  its  rapid  organization 
of  itself,  is  every  year  more  in  evidence. 
It  is  a  signal  proof  of  that  statement  which 
I  made  in  my  first  lecture,  that  Religion, 
so  far  from  being  in  a  state  of  decay,  is  all 
alive  with  a  divine  purpose  to  make  itself 
felt  on  fields  from  which  it  was  once  with- 
held or  rejected.  There  can  no  longer  be 
room  for  doubt  that  whatever  may  have 
been  the  interest  or  the  attitude  of  Reli- 
gion in  the  past,  she  is  to-day  in  the  fore- 
front of  the  ranks  of  radicals,  revolution- 
ists, visionaries,  and  doctrinaires,  as  regards 
a  deep  and  permanent  interest  in  indus- 
trial problems. 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      i8l 

And  yet  Religion  was  never  so  blamed 
as  to-day  for  withholding  her  influence  and 
her  effort  from  the  cause  of  the  working- 
man.  The  labor  unions  would  very  likely 
deny  everything  which  I  have  claimed  for 
religious  interest  in  industrial  conditions. 
They  do  deny  it.  They  are  denying  it 
with  bitter  vehemence,  and  thorough  sin- 
cerity. The  radicals  deny  it,  and  urge,  as 
a  reason  for  deserting  the  churches,  that 
Religion  is  on  the  side  of  privilege,  and 
that  they  prefer  to  work  for  the  salvation 
of  man  in  this  world  to  working  for  his 
salvation  in  a  world  to  come.  This  ap- 
parent contradiction  of  our  primary  asser- 
tion must  be  explained. 

In  the  first  place,  Religion  is  identified 
with  ecclesiasticism,  and  the  behavior  of 
the  churches  is  naturally  charged  to  Reli- 
gion. It  must  have  been  noted,  however, 
that  in  these  lectures  Religion  has  been 
treated  as  essentially  distinct  from  the 
churches.  The  churches  exist  for  the  pur- 
pose of  uttering  Religion  in  social  life. 
This  distinction  is  fundamental,  and  how- 
ever illicit  it  may  appear,  is  radical  and 
real.     Now,  "  disbelief  in  Religion  is  for 


1 82      THE  EXPANSION-  OF  RELIGION. 

the  most  part  intellectual,  while  disbelief 
in  the  churches  is  social  or  moral,  or  emo- 
tional. The  one  comes  to  a  man  through 
education,  the  other  through  the  experi- 
ences of  life.  Disbelief  in  Religion  may 
go  hand  in  hand  with  conformity  to  a 
Church :  disbelief  in  the  churches  involves 
the  refusal  to  be  identified  with  Religion 
as  they  present  it,  or  to  join  in  their  pro- 
fession and  worship.  The  two  unbeliefs 
are  generically  unlike.  The  one  is  that  of 
the  man  whose  mind  has  outgrown  the 
faith  of  a  world  with  whose  social  order  he 
is  satisfied  and  wishes  to  maintain :  the 
other  that  of  the  man  who  is  dissatisfied 
with  the  social  order  in  which  he  finds 
himself,  and  so  comes  to  doubt  the  ideas 
or  facts  invoked  as  its  sanction  and  basis." 
But  the  churches  have  always  lagged  a  lit- 
tle behind  the  free  religious  spirit.  They 
have  the  conservative  caution  of  organiza- 
tion, and  are  tempted  to  send  out  scouts 
to  reconnoitre  and  experiment,  before 
throwing  the  great  bulk  of  the  unwieldy 
organization  upon  one  side  or  the  other  of 
a  pressing  present  question.  Moreover, 
the   churches  are  probably  right.      They 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      183 

avoid  costly  blunders,  and  even  ludicrous 
mistakes,  by  their  slow  conservatism.  Only 
the  very  impatient  or  the  very  prophetic 
will  blame  them  for  deliberated  delays. 
But,  at  any  rate,  the  organized  churches 
are,  as  organizations,  frequently  in  the  rear 
of  the  frank  championship  of  new  causes. 
Consequently,  whoever  identifies  Religion 
and  ecclesiasticism  will  upbraid  Religion 
for  her  tardy  allegiance  to  the  cause  of  the 
workingman.  But  Religion,  which  only  im- 
perfectly utters  itself  through  the  churches, 
is  always  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle 
waged  against  injustice  and  wrong.  And 
it  must  be  so,  for  Religion  cherishes  the 
profound  belief  that  man  and  God  belong 
absolutely  to  one  another ;  that  man,  be- 
cause of  that  belonging,  was  meant  to  be 
perfect;  and  that  he  cannot  be  perfect  — 
be  saved,  that  is  —  so  long  as  he  is  the 
victim  of  injustice  and  wrong.  It  takes 
possession  of  individuals  and  through  them 
gets  on  the  side  of  right  and  justice,  when 
the  churches,  out  of  which  they  come  and 
by  which  they  are  nurtured,  lag  sadly  in 
the  rear.  The  moment  Religion  is  differ- 
entiated from  the  churches  which  it  ere- 


1 84     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

ated  as  organs  of  utterance  of  itself,  half 
the  charge  that  Religion  is  on  the  side  of 
privilege  and  the  present  social  order  falls 
to  the  ground. 

In  the  second  place,  Religion  is  de- 
nounced as  hostile  to  industrial  conditions 
because  it  does  not  commit  itself  to  all  the 
plans  of  relief  which  Industrialism  or  polit- 
ical economy  have  proposed.  The  signi- 
ficance of  the  long  statement  of  the  purely 
economic  character  of  industrial  problems, 
with  which  we  started  out,  becomes  ap- 
parent. How  can  Religion  champion 
plans  which  have  not  received  the  sanction 
of  political  economy  ?  It  is  not  her  func- 
tion, she  has  not  the  requisite  knowledge. 
It  might  turn  out  that  the  very  scheme 
which  she  is  blamed  for  not  championing 
would,  in  concrete  operation,  injure  the 
very  cause  she  is  most  anxious  to  serve. 
Is,  for  example,  the  proved  history  of  the 
effect  of  legislation  touching  wages  so  eco- 
nomically promising  that  Religion  would 
be  certain  to  inflict  no  injury  upon  indus- 
trial interests  if  she  should  throw  all  her 
weight  in  favor  of  further  and  radical  legis- 
lation ?     Is  it  economically  so  sure  that 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      185 

eight  hours  a  day  would  be  a  real  boon  to 
the  workingman,  so  sure  that  it  would  not 
only  result  in  the  maintenance  of  his  nom- 
inal wages  but  of  his  real  as  well,  that  Re- 
ligion is  justified  in  rising  up  to  demand 
of  law-makers  the  enactment  of  the  law 
which  fixes  eight  hours  as  the  maximum 
length  of  a  day's  toil  ?  Is  it  so  demon- 
strably certain  that  a  serious  alteration  of 
the  proportion  of  the  world's  production 
now  given  labor  could  be  inaugurated  with 
perfect  safety  to  that  interdependent  play 
of  all  the  forces  of  production  upon  which 
the  material  welfare  of  the  people  solidly 
rests,  that  Religion  may  dare  to  commit 
herself  to  its  championship?  One  needs 
not  to  be  a  political  economist  to  per- 
ceive the  possible  folly  of  these  industrial 
changes  ;  and  the  truest  and  wisest  friends 
of  workingmen  would  be  the  first  to  hesi- 
tate radically  to  alter  our  present  economic 
arrangements  with  no  more  knowledge  of 
the  consequences  of  such  an  alteration 
than  is  possessed  to-day  by  any  set  or 
school  of  economic  theorists.  Each  of  the 
schemes  of  Industrialism  may  sometime 
prove  the  highest  economic  wisdom ;    no 


l86     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

one  of  them  is  beyond  reasonable  doubt 
to-day.  But  it  is  the  unwillingness  of  Re- 
ligion to  identify  herself  with  industrial 
programmes  which  explains  the  charge 
so  frequently  urged  against  Religion  that 
she  is  against  Industrialism  itself.  It  is 
the  business  of  Religion  to  side  boldly 
and  vigorously  with  the  wronged,  the  op- 
pressed, —  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  that ; 
but,  first  of  all,  it  is  necessary  to  ascer- 
tain by  methods  more  trustworthy  than 
vehement  pity  and  pitiable  vehemence  who 
are  the  wronged  and  oppressed,  and  w^iere 
lies  the  cause  of  the  wrong  and  oppres- 
sion. And  that  was  never  easy,  save  in 
those  instances  where  the  wrong  was  so 
indubitably  visible  and  so  unerringly  lo- 
cated that  righting  it  has  followed  hard 
upon  detecting  it. 

Discriminating  between  Religion  and 
ecclesiasticism,  between  sympathy  wdth  In- 
dustrialism and  adherence  to  industrial 
programmes,  we  shall  have  no  room  for 
a  doubt  that  Religion's  interest  in  labor's 
complaint  is  keen  and  enterprising.  Nor 
ought  we  to  doubt  that  her  influence  is 
powerful  when  we  attend  to  the  real  busi- 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      187 

ness  of  Religion  in  its  relation  to  Indus- 
trialism, which  we  now  proceed  to  do. 

We  have  already  seen  how  real  is  the 
distinction  between  the  functions  of  Reli- 
gion and  political  economy,  but  those 
functions  will  never  be  exercised  fruitfully 
for  the  welfare  of  mankind  save  as  they 
work  together,  mutually  influencing  one 
another  at  every  step.  It  is  the  business 
of  Religion  to  create  an  atmosphere  of 
love  and  trust  in  which  the  rightful  claims 
of  antagonized,  but  not  antagonistic,  inter- 
ests may  be  calmly  and  dispassionately 
presented ;  an  atmosphere  of  justice  and 
righteousness,  in  the  pure  sunlight  of 
which  the  richest  advantage  looks  poor  and 
mean  beside  the  slightest  injustice  which 
secures  it ;  an  atmosphere  of  brotherhood 
in  which  the  selfish  powers  of  might  shall 
hesitate  and  falter  and  fail  to  do  any  deed 
which  crushes  out  of  a  brother's  life  that 
ideal  of  salvation  —  having  all  that  is  best 
in  a  man  at  its  best  —  w^iich  it  is  the  duty 
of  man  to  evoke  and  nurture  and  refine 
in  every  man  born  on  this  earth.  For 
it  is,  first  of  all,  a  condition  of  dislike  and 
hard  suspicion  which  makes  the  settlement 


1 88      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

of  industrial  disturbances  so  difficult  to 
effect.  No  strike  has  ever  been  caused  by 
the  purely  economical  question  of  wages, 
hours,  or  distribution  alone ;  that  is  an 
element,  powerful  and  capital ;  but  into 
every  strike  there  enter,  as  almost  equally 
powerful  elements,  the  angry  or  sad  dis- 
like of  the  workingman,  the  hard,  suspi- 
cious dread  of  the  employer.  It  is  these 
which  defeat  all  attempts  to  resolve  the 
differences  in  debate,  these  which  destroy 
the  possibility  even  of  the  compromise 
wdiich  is  better  than  war  when  no  princi- 
ple of  morality  is  surrendered,  these  which 
breed  the  conscienceless  and  stupid  pride 
which  finally  accepts  ruin,  misery,  and 
social  disaster,  rather  than  accept  anything 
less  than  unconditional  capitulation.  Long 
after  it  is  clear  that  an  increase  of  wages 
is  economically  safe  for  the  employer,  or  a 
return  at  the  old  rates  is  economically  best 
for  the  workman,  the  angry,  defiant  con- 
testants prolong  the  costly  struggle,  when 
nothing  divides  them  save  the  passion 
which,  unlike  the  economical  element,  is 
absolutely  within  their  personal  control. 
It  is  becoming  as  clear  as  a  proposition  in 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      189 

geometry,  that  no  industrial  problem  into 
which  the  personality  of  man  enters  as  an 
element  will  ever  be  satisfactorily  or  peace- 
fully solved,  unless  there  is  love  enough  to 
create  the  patience,  forbearance,  consider- 
ation, and  conciliation  necessary  to  hear 
and  understand  the  truth,  and  to  create 
the  conviction  that  a  difference  of  opinion 
touching  an  industrial  disturbance  is  con- 
sistent with  an  honest  determination  to 
extricate  from  tangled  meshes  the  truth 
which  shall  make  all  clear.  Political  econ- 
omy, which  for  years  has  depreciated  Reli- 
gion, is  now  prompt  to  own  her  incompa- 
rable influence  in  fields  whereon  she  was 
once  regarded  as  an  impotent  intruder. 
The  Bishop  of  Durham  brought  to  a 
happy  end  the  great  miners'  strike ;  but  he 
did  not  do  it  as  a  bishop  (in  spite  of  his 
ecclesiastical  office,  perhaps),  nor  did  he 
do  it  because  he  was  the  superior,  in  eco- 
nomic knowledge,  of  all  those  who  had 
tried  their  hand  at  a  settlement  and  had 
failed ;  he  did  it,  could  do  it,  because  he 
brought  to  the  task  so  much  of  genial 
love,  of  willingness  to  believe  in  the  integ- 
rity of  motive  on  the  part  of  employers  and 


190      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

employed,  that  he  could  melt  out  of  them 
their  bitter  anger  and  their  stubborn  pride 
and  so  make  a  way  over  which  the  shining 
feet  of  peace  could  walk  in  safety.  That 
was  Religion,  the  influence,  not  of  a  great 
Church  dignitary,  but  of  a  man  full  of  the 
love  of  Christ,  and  therefore  able  to  teach 
his  brothers  the  lesson  of  love  and  trust. 
What  a  Giffen  or  a  Marshall  or  a  Rogers 
could  not  do  was  done  by  one  who  would 
humbly  sit  at  their  feet  as  masters  of  the 
science  of  economics ;  and  he  did  it  by  the 
power  of  Christian  love.  That  achieve- 
ment of  Religion  outranks  any  most  defi- 
nitive championship  of  any  of  the  especial 
propositions  which  labor  has  laid  down  as 
essential  to  the  material  welfare  of  work- 
ingmen.  The  scornful  rejection  by  the 
parties  in  interest  of  the  good  offices  of 
Religion  in  creating  a  kindly  spirit,  as 
impotent  good  nature,  is  irrational.  Lu- 
brication is  not  power,  nor  is  it  machinery, 
but  without  it  the  machine  is  motionless 
or  tears  itself  in  pieces.  "  Love  one  an- 
other," which  is  the  social  watchword  of 
Religion,  is  worth  as  much  to  Industrialism 
as  the  announcement  and  verification  of 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      191 

its  most  precious  economical  truth.  And 
it  is  the  profound  and  passionate  convic- 
tion of  this  truth,  it  is  the  hope  which  has 
been  created  by  what  it  has  already 
achieved,  that  arms  Religion  to-day  with 
the  invincible  belief  that  she  has  a  minis- 
try of  healing  to  Industrialism  which  no- 
thing else  can  give.  That  belief  keeps  her 
patient  and  unresentful  when  she  is  bit- 
terly denounced  by  labor  for  not  coming 
bodily  and  boldly  over  to  its  programme 
—  silent  and  undiscouraged  when  radicals 
in  her  own  ranks  upbraid  her  for  timidity 
and  cowardice.  Industrialism  has  faith  in 
the  justice  of  its  cause,  hope  in  its  final 
triumph.  Religion  is  begging  it  to  add 
the  charity,  which,  though  it  suffereth 
long,  is  kind,  thinketh  no  evil,  and  can 
rejoice  in  the  truth  even  when  the  truth 
declares  itself  to  be  something  other  than 
was  hoped  or  believed.  Political  economy 
will  deserve  Carlyle's  fretful  characteriza- 
tion of  it  as  "  the  dismal  science  "  until  it 
thoroughly  accepts  love  as  the  sole  medium 
through  which  to  speak.  But  more  than 
love  is  needed.  Love  can  deofcnerate  into 
an  easy  good  nature,  which,  like  the  tender 


192      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

mercies  of  the  wicked,  is  cruel.  Religion 
must  also  create  an  atmosphere  of  justice 
and  righteousness  in  which  the  richest 
advantage  will  look  poor  and  mean  beside 
the  slightest  injustice  which  secured  it. 
The  idea  that  justice  and  righteousness 
are  entities,  that  they  can  be  handled,  dis- 
tributed, and  dealt  in  like  commodities, 
finds  support  nowhere  in  Religion,  morals, 
or  government.  Justice  and  righteousness 
are  known  to  us  only  as  they  appear  in  the 
person  of  a  just  and  righteous  God  and  of 
just  and  righteous  men.  The  appeal  to 
justice  is  not  to  an  abstraction,  but  to  a 
person.  If  the  cry  of  oppressed  men  for 
justice  does  not  enter  into  the  ears  of  a 
just  God  or  of  just  men,  it  is  as  if  it  had 
never  been  uttered.  Now  "  Religion  is 
the  power  which  makes  and  keeps  men 
just,  because  it  believes  in  a  just  God. 
The  character  of  the  God  believed  in  de- 
termines the  character  which  men  are  to 
achieve.  This  explains  why  the  progress, 
the  forward  movement  of  the  world,  has 
been  worked  by  good  persons  —  persons 
made  just  by  their  religious  beliefs ;  no- 
tice that  I  do  not  say  ecclesiastical  alle- 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      193 

giances."  Therefore  Religion,  instead  of 
giving  herself  wholly  or  even  mainly  to 
the  task  of  establishing  justice  by  enact- 
ment, has  thrown  herself  into  the  work  of 
making  men  just.  In  the  world  of  Indus- 
trialism, more  just  and  righteous  men  are 
needed,  in  order  that  justice  and  right- 
eousness may  have  their  way  in  settling 
the  incessant  disputes  and  differences 
which  seem  inseparable  from  the  working 
of  a  vast  and  complex  machinery  of  pro- 
duction. They  are  necessary,  because  not 
infrequently  arrangements  and  agreements, 
which  were  believed  by  both  parties  to  them 
would  work  exact  justice,  unexpectedly 
turn  out  to  be  flagrantly  unjust,  harsh,  or 
burdensome  to  one  of  them.  In  such  a 
situation  there  is  no  redress,  short  of  costly 
violence  and  equally  costly  rupture,  save 
as  a  high  sense  of  justice  lives  in  the 
breasts  of  all  —  employers  or  employed. 
The  sight  of  the  employer,  imperiled  by 
his  agreement,  is  as  dreadful  in  the  eyes  of 
employees  who  love  justice  and  righteous- 
ness, as  is  the  sight  of  starving  employees 
in  the  eyes  of  the  employer  who  would 
rather  be  right  than   be   rich.      Religion 


194      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

has  expanded  to  the  recognition  of  this 
truth,  and  holds  it  with  the  firm  tenacity 
with  which  organized  ReHgion  keeps  its 
fundamental  creeds.  This  energized  de- 
votion to  the  task  of  leading  men  up  to 
the  idea  of  a  just  and  righteous  God,  and, 
through  that  idea,  to  personal  obedience 
to  Him,  is  the  preeminent  characteristic  of 
Religion  to-day.  Men  full  of  the  passion 
for  justice  are  always  men  to  whom  the 
action  which  promises  to  enrich  them  by 
its  injustice  is  abhorrent.  No  considera- 
tions of  economical  rectitude  ever  silence 
the  voice  of  moral  rectitude  when  men  are 
determined  that  their  material  gain  shall 
not  be  the  measure  of  their  moral  loss. 
And  so  Religion,  awakened  to  her  splen- 
did chance,  expanded  to  take  that  chance, 
is  resolutely,  confidently,  vigorously  plead- 
ing for  the  prime  necessity  of  just  and 
riorhteous  men  as  one  of  the  essential  con- 
ditions  of  industrial  peace  and  prosperity. 
And  Religion  is  right.  The  irreligious 
and  the  radicals  may  despise  her  for  what 
the  one  calls  her  po\verlessness,  may  taunt 
her  with  what  the  other  calls  her  cowardly 
timidity.     No  matter.     Her  head  at  last  is 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      195 

clear,  her  heart  warm,  and  she  is  doing  to- 
day a  far  nobler  and  truer  work  than  when 
of  old  she  literally  baptized  nations  in  a 
day.  Not  only  shall  the  just  live  by  their 
faith  in  justice,  they  shall  also  impart  life 
to  all  who  are  on  the  lookout  for  justice. 

In  the  third  place,  Religion  is  creating 
an  atmosphere  of  brotherhood  in  which  the 
selfish  powers  of  might  hesitate,  falter,  and 
fail  to  do  any  deed  which  crushes  out  of 
a  brother's  life  that  ideal  of  salvation,  hav- 
ing all  that  is  best  in  a  man  at  its  best, 
which  it  is  the  duty  of  all  of  us  to  evoke, 
nurture,  and  refine.  The  tendency  of 
naked  political  economy  is  to  produce 
separations  among  men  by  subtly  teach- 
ing them  to  look  at  one  another  as  imper- 
sonal parts  of  a  huge  machine.  The  em- 
ployer is  perpetually  tempted  to  look  upon 
his  employees  as  he  does  upon  his  looms, 
—  impersonal  producers  of  so  many  com- 
modities. The  loom  and  its  attendant  can 
turn  out  so  many  yards  of  textiles  per  day. 
The  improvement  of  the  loom,  and  the 
improvement  in  manual  skill  of  the  man 
who  tends  it,  are  so  indissolubly  bound  up 
together  in  the    employer's  mind  that  he 


196      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

can  as  easily  think  of  the  man  as  a  ma- 
chine as  to  think  of  him  as  a  living  soul. 
That  is  the  snare  into  which  all  too  many 
of  our  employers  fall.  How  much  can  the 
workman  produce  1  is  the  first  and  last 
question,  and  the  man  is  lost  in  the  produc- 
tive intricacies  of  the  machine.  The  work- 
man, on  the  other  hand,  is  equally  tempted 
to  regard  his  employer  as  no  more  than  a 
bank  on  which  he  draws.  "  How  much 
can  I  make  him  pay  ?  "  is  his  first  and  last 
question,  and  the  man  is  hidden  beneath 
his  ability  to  honor  the  drafts  labor  makes 
upon  him.  There  can  be  no  brotherhood 
between  a  machine  and  a  depository; 
brotherhood  exists  between  persons,  and 
the  more  acute  the  consciousness  of  per- 
sonality, and  the  more  sensitive  the  re- 
sponse of  man  to  man,  the  stronger  will 
be  the  sense  of  brotherhood,  and  the  more 
vital  the  feeling  of  responsibility  for  the 
welfare  of  each.  The  prevalence  of  the 
pragmatic  spirit,  this  loss  of  the  man  in 
the  maze  of  the  machinery  which  he  guides, 
has  cost  Industrialism  dear.  It  has  hard- 
ened the  heart  of  many  a  manufacturing 
Pharaoh    to   say,    "  The   people    are    idle, 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      197 

therefore  they  complain  !  "  and  has  caused 
workingmen  to  turn  against  some  mod- 
ern Moses,  who  has  led  them  into  the 
wilderness  of  concession  and  concilia- 
tion, that  he  might  bring  them  into  the 
promised  land  of  industrial  freedom  and 
social  chances.  It  has  produced  the  deep- 
seated,  irrational,  destructive  feeling  that 
there  is  not,  nor  can  be,  a  sameness  of 
interests,  a  sameness  of  purposes  and 
ideals.  And  this  feeling  has  negatived 
many  a  demonstration  of  the  economic 
fact  that  labor,  land,  and  capital  stand  or 
fall  together  finally.  But  Religion,  which 
has  been  working  recently  along  the  lines 
of  the  new  anthropology  —  that  anthro- 
pology of  which  we  spoke  in  our  second 
lecture  —  is  insisting  upon  the  necessity  of 
brotherly  union  in  the  interest  of  the  com- 
monweal. ^'  That  is  no  true  success,"  she 
confidently  asserts,  "  which  is  content  with 
the  achievement  of  a  material  product." 
Man  is  worth  more  than  anything  he 
makes ;  and  if  the  making  of  anything 
means  the  deterioration  of  the  man  who 
makes  it,  it  were  better  for  civilization  that 
it   had    never  been  made.     A  really  reli- 


198      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

gious  employer — that  is,  one  who  believes 
in  salvation  as  we  have  defined  it  —  will 
not  be  content  to  see  his  wealth  increase 
if  the  human  beings  who  cooperate  with 
him  to  create  it  are,  by  the  conditions  of 
their  toil,  deprived  of  every  chance  to 
develop  and  discipline  themselves  into 
something  other  than  cogs  on  the  great 
wheel  of  Industrialism.  He  will  not  only 
see  that  an  improvement  of  men  is  an  im- 
provement of  product;  he  will  also  see 
that  every  man,  w^ho  is  lifted  out  of  the 
hopelessness  of  servitude  into  the  hopeful- 
ness of  work,  is  a  distinct  addition  to  the 
causes  which  are  to  fashion  human  soci- 
ety into  a  true  City  of  God,  and  that  every 
man  who  is  changed  from  a  "  hand  "  into 
a  person,  with  all  the  chances  of  personal- 
ity guarded,  is  a  fresh  contribution  to  the 
stability,  order,  and  happiness  of  the  world. 
He  will  in  practice  conform  to  his  belief 
that  he  and  his  workmen  are  brothers, 
owing  one  another  duties  of  generosity, 
kindness,  care,  and  not  simply  the  bare, 
hard  duty  of  justice.  The  curse  which 
has  long  rested  upon  Industrialism  is  the 
curse  of  unsympathetic,  unintelligent,  and 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      199 

unnatural  relations  between  all  the  parties 
who  create  Industrialism.  Those  relations 
are  unsympathetic,  because  neither  em- 
ployer nor  employed  has  cared  for  each 
other's  ideals  of  life,  but  only  for  each 
other's  ability  to  produce  some  material 
commodity;  unintelligent,  because  each 
has  failed  to  see  that  the  higher  the  ideal 
of  life,  the  loftier  will  be  the  sense  of 
responsibility  for  each  other's  permanent 
and  symmetrical  welfare  ;  and  unnatural, 
because  the  whole  history  of  mankind  is 
witness  to  a  struggle  to  fit  men  to  dwell 
with  one  another  in  a  society  which  shall 
furnish  all  with  chances,  and  protect  all 
in  their  rights  to  those  chances.  To  lift 
that  curse,  to  teach  the  world  the  precious- 
ness  of  life,  and  so  to  lead  men  to  set  life 
above  anything  which  living  men  produce, 
promptly  to  put  herself  upon  the  side  of 
any  movement,  agency,  enterprise,  which 
is  demonstrably  enriching  life  or  demon- 
strably promises  to  do  so,  is  the  task  Reli- 
gion in  these  last  days  has  set  herself  to 
perform.  And  her  evident  purpose  never 
to  rest  until  her  task  is  finished,  her  grow- 
ing willingness  to  see  value  in  every  enter- 


200      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

prise  which  aims  to  lift  life  out  of  the  mire 
of  wickedness,  misery,  stupidity,  clumsi- 
ness, ignorance,  or  mistake,  is  the  evidence 
of  her  large  expansion. 

It  is  this  characteristic  of  Religion  which 
discloses  her  nearness  to  the  as  yet  in- 
complete federation  of  labor.  The  trades 
unions  began  in  unconscious  selfishness. 
They  sought  to  gain  and  retain  certain 
advantages  for  themselves  alone,  not  sel- 
dom securing  their  ends  at  a  heavy  cost  to 
workmen  outside  their  crafts.  They  were 
bent  on  conipassing  very  limited  results. 
But  long  ago  their  narrow  vision  widened 
till  it  embraced  every  toiler  in  any  depart- 
ment of  industry.  The  federation  of  labor 
means  the  consolidation  of  all  the  inter- 
ests, and  all  the  powers  and  resources,  of 
those  who  toil,  for  the  purpose  of  safe- 
guarding their  rights.  It  is  a  noble  dream, 
for  the  realization  of  which  no  lover  of 
men  will  fail  to  hope,  for  it  is  only  another 
form  of  the  working  of  the  spirit  of  Him 
who  came  that  men  "  might  have  life  and 
have  it  more  abundantly,"  however  incom- 
pletely the  membership  of  the  unions  to 
be  federated  have  conceived  the  nature  of 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      201 

that  life  to  be.  The  essential  selfishness 
of  the  unions  is  to  be,  nay,  is  fast  being, 
destroyed  by  the  unselfishness  of  federa- 
tion. And  when  federation  is  completed, 
when  all  the  rights  of  all  the  toilers  have 
been  safeguarded  to  the  farther  verge  of 
organization's  ability  to  protect,  when  the 
cries  for  justice  are  hushed  in  the  full  pos- 
session of  power,  then  shall  surely  come 
the  acute  consciousness  that  man  for  his 
salvation  needs  something  more  than  to 
possess  his  rights :  he  needs  to  be  guided, 
lifted,  chastened  by  a  Divine  Power ;  needs 
something,  nay,  some  one,  to  breed  in  him 
self-respect,  self-control,  reverence,  compas- 
sion, purity,  and  love,  without  which  all 
his  material  gains  will  count  for  naught. 
It  is  the  certainty  that  this  truth  will 
finally  be  grasped  by  Industrialism,  which 
is  leading  Religion  to  watch  eagerly  for 
any  signs  that,  here  and  there,  the  labor 
unions  are  catching  glimpses  of  it.  The 
contention  of  later  labor  utterances  that 
not  simply  higher  wages  and  a  larger 
share  of  production  for  the  laborer  is 
wanted,  but  a  better  chance  to  develop 
and  discipline  and  refine  himself,  and  that 


202      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

higher  wages  and  shorter  hours  are  merely 
the  conditions  of  that  development,  marks 
an  advance  over  the  earlier  demands.  It 
means  a  faint  but  true  suspicion  that  what 
the  man  becomes  is  more  important  than 
what  he  possesses,  and  that  what  he  pos- 
sesses is  important  at  all  only  as  it  minis- 
ters to  quality  of  life.  That  is  the  working 
of  Religion,  imperfect,  feeble,  impercepti- 
ble to  the  ecclesiastical  mind  that  cannot 
see  over  its  wall  of  historic  tradition,  but 
still  Religion,  because  it  is  a  tendency 
towards  man's  salvation.  If  they  did  but 
know  it,  the  aims  of  Industrialism  and  of 
organized  Religion  are  every  year  ap- 
proaching identity,  however  divergent  be 
their  methods.  And  the  more  Religion 
expands  to  embrace  every  human  interest, 
the  more  its  sympathies  reach  generously 
and  warmly  out  to  every  struggle  man  is 
making  to  free  himself  from  the  machine- 
quality  industrial  relations  tend  to  fasten 
on  him  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  more 
Industrialism  opens  to  receive  the  full 
rounded  doctrine  of  the  nature  of  man, — 
a  being  capable  of  spiritual  and  social  and 
intellectual  development,  —  the  nearer  will 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      203 

be  their  approach  to  one  another,  and  the 
more  feasible  their  complete  union.  The 
federation  of  labor  is  imperfect  Religion, 
just  as  a  good  deal  of  our  ecclesiasticism 
is  imperfect  Religion.  Their  concurrent 
and  symmetrical  expansion  will  be  the  be- 
ginning of  their  happy  and  fruitful  unity ; 
their  unity  the  pledge  and  prophecy  of 
their  union.  Labor  unionists  are  begin- 
ning to  perceive  this  truth.  One  or  two 
of  their  wisest  leaders  have  already  more 
than  hinted  that  until  the  labor  unions 
have  added  the  religious  element,  success 
will  delay  its  coming;  and  the  services 
which  Religion,  in  the  persons  of  its  no- 
blest sons,  has  already  rendered  Industrial- 
ism, justifies  this  intimation. 

I  should  like  to  close  my  lecture  by 
briefly  pointing  to  one  unhappy  feature  of 
modern  Industrialism  in  regard  to  which  I 
am  unaware  that  any  special  notice  has 
been  taken.  With  the  rise  of  our  sfreat 
manufacturing  establishments,  there  has 
been  an  enormous  increase  in  the  employ- 
ment of  women  as  toilers  by  the  side  of 
men.  Our  factories  of  various  sorts  are 
crowded  with  them,  from  the  a^^e  of  six- 


204      ^-^^  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

teen  upwards.  Their  superior  deftness, 
not  to  say  conscientiousness,  has  proved 
them,  in  certain  branches  of  productive 
enterprise,  the  equal  of  men ;  perhaps,  eco- 
nomically, their  superiors,  if  we  take  into 
account  their  lower  wages.  Dating  from 
the  Civil  War,  women  have  invaded  more 
and  more  those  places  which  theretofore 
had  been  traditionally  reserved  to  men, 
until  to-day  there  is  scarcely  an  occupation, 
outside  of  those  in  which  crude  physical 
strength  is  an  essential,  which  does  not 
count  women  in  the  ranks  of  its  workers. 
That  this  innovation  has  brought  women 
a  larger  freedom,  and  a  more  self-respect- 
ing independence,  cannot  be  doubted,  nor 
that  it  has  increased  the  amount  of  pro- 
duction and  wealth.  Moreover,  the  eco- 
nomical disturbance  which  it  was  prophe- 
sied would  ensue  has  failed  to  occur.  We 
have  reconciled  ourselves  to  it  socially, 
commercially,  economically.  Unchival- 
rous  man  is  willing,  after  all,  that  woman 
should  do  his  work.  But  it  cannot  be 
long  before  we  shall  have  to  pay  the  cost 
of  it ;  and  that  cost  will  be  an  enfeebled 
feminine  physique,  disclosing  itself  in  neu- 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      205 

rotic  diseases,  in  hypersensitiveness,  and 
in  functional  disturbances  of  many  and 
alarmincr  varieties.  The  deterioration  of 
the  stock,  to  use  an  objectionable  phrase, 
is  eventually  inevitable,  even  if  its  shadows 
have  not  already  fallen  upon  the  coming 
generations.  For  the  holy  ofHce  of  mater- 
nity, the  present  position  of  woman  in  In- 
dustrialism, the  tasks  laid  upon  her,  the 
hours  and  conditions  of  toil,  are  the  worst 
preparation  conceivable.  One  need  be 
neither  a  biologist  nor  a  physician  to  fore- 
see what  the  effect  upon  posterity  must 
be  of  an  arrangement  which  permits,  or 
compels,  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
women  of  the  nation  to  do  work  for  which 
they  are  fitted  neither  by  physique  nor 
temperament,  nor  by  their  intended  des- 
tiny as  the  possible  childbearers  of  the 
world,  to  perform.  All  the  economic  advan- 
tages of  the  present  system  shrivel  into 
nothingness  in  comparison  with  the  fun- 
damental damage  done  to  woman  by  her 
unnatural  struggle  to  secure  those  advan- 
tages. Her  competition  with  man  in  sev- 
eral departments  of  industry  is  injurious 
to  her  and  to  man  alike.     Not  to  speak 


206      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

of  the  waning  power  of  that  chivalry  which 
is  of  inestimable  value  in  giving  tone  to 
the  social  and  domestic  relations  of  the 
sexes,  there  is  a  serious  blow  given  the 
sacred  institution  of  marriage,  and,  by  con- 
sequence, to  the  family.  Anything  which 
lowers  the  general  estimate  of  marriage 
and  the  family  is  a  distinct  social  wrong. 
Not  yet  —  but  in  a  future  less  remote  than 
the  public  unconsciousness  of  the  evil 
wrought  by  the  modern  place  of  w^oman 
in  Industrialism  would  lead  one  to  expect 
—  we  shall  set  ourselves  radically  to  reform 
the  culpably  careless  arrangement  which 
has  increased  our  wealth,  but  has  corre- 
spondingly decreased  reverence  for  mar- 
riage, by  lessening  its  social  necessity,  and 
has  weakened  many  of  the  bonds  which 
bind  the  family  together  and  preserve  it 
as  the  most  powerfully  beneficent  social 
force  in  civilization.  If  it  was  Religion, 
the  Religion  of  Jesus,  which  originally 
lifted  woman  from  a  condition  of  ignoble 
servitude,  and  too  often  something  worse, 
and  set  her  in  the  respect,  the  chastened 
affection,  and  the  chivalrous  reverence  of 
the  world,  it  may  turn  out  that  Religion, 


RELIGION  AND  INDUSTRIALISM.      207 

seeking  to  have  all  that  is  best  in  a  human 
being  at  its  best,  is  to  be  the  power  that 
shall  once  more  bring  her  back  to  a  more 
intelligent,  rational,  and  natural  position 
in  the  economy  of  civilization. 


RELIGION   AND   SOCIALISM. 

Raphael  Aben  Ezra  dwells  upon  the 
bad  temper  Hypatia  betrayed  if  he  ven- 
tured to  ask  her,  when  making  her  appeals 
to  universal  experience,  how  she  proved 
that  the  combined  folly  of  all  fools  re- 
sults in  wisdom.  It  is  some  form  of  that 
question  which  occurs  to  all  of  us  when 
we  are  presented  with  any  plan  to  place  in 
the  custody  and  under  the  direction  of  all 
men  what,  when  under  the  direction  and 
in  the  custody  of  individuals,  fails  to  pro- 
duce the  results  we  all  desire.  We  proba- 
bly should  all  turn  monarchists  if  we  could 
find  the  king  who  knew  as  much  as  all  of 
us  and  a  little  more,  and  was  as  good  as 
the  best  of  us  and  a  little  better.  But 
though  the  world  has  been  on  the  lookout 
for  this  sort  of  king,  and  has  known 
Arthur  the  Good  and  Peter  the  Great, 
Arthur's  goodness  has  not  been  enough 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  209 

without  Peter's  greatness,  nor  Peter's 
greatness  without  Arthur's  goodness,  to 
reconcile  humanity  to  the  idea  that  roy- 
alty is  divine.  It  will  be  divine  when  the 
Divine  King  appears  and  has  His  divinity 
of  goodness  and  greatness  recognized ; 
not  till  then.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
should  all  be  converted  to  thorough-going 
democracy  —  to  which  at  present  we  are 
not  converted  —  if  the  demos  acting  as 
demos  made  fewer  mistakes  and  achieved 
more  wisdom  than  history  assures  us  is 
true.  It  is  one  of  the  great  commonplaces 
of  history  that  the  failure  of  the  noblest 
speculative  theories  and  the  most  wisely 
elaborated  programmes  for  the  improve- 
ment of  human  society  have  been  wrecked 
upon  the  rocks  of  human  selfishness  in 
one  or  many  of  the  forms  of  wrong- 
ness  which  selfishness  perennially  assumes. 
Until  this  century,  nearly  all  the  ideal 
societies  which  philosophers  and  poets 
have  described  as  realized  in  actual  cir- 
cumstances, have  been  judiciously  located 
upon  islands  ;  and  Mr.  Richard  Whiting's 
rediscovery  of  Pitcairn's  Island,  as  set  forth 
in  his  too  little  noticed  book,  is  a  skillful 


2IO       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

employment  of  the  old  device,  to  make  a 
speculative  theory  work  well  by  exhibiting 
it  in  the  framework  of  a  distant  and  un- 
knov/n  —  or  at  least  unnoticed — civiliza- 
tion, in  which  Individualism  could  be  repre- 
sented as  acting  as  it  should.  Between  the 
ideal  beauty  of  the  perfect  society  and  the 
iron  facts  of  existing  Individualism,  there 
has  been  from  the  beginning  of  civiliza- 
tion an  uninterrupted  warfare,  with  varying 
fortunes  to  either  of  the  combatants.  The 
ground  lost  by  the  one  to  the  other  in  one 
century  is  recovered  in  the  next.  Mon- 
archical supremacy  in  one  age  yields  to 
democracy  in  the  next.  It  looks  like  a 
perpetual  seesaw,  this  alternating  battle 
between  Society,  pictured  as  it  should  be, 
and  Individualism  as  it  is;  and  the  only 
pleasant  feature  of  it  is  the  unfailing  hope 
which  shines  through  it  that  in  a  future, 
as  certain  as  the  past,  such  an  adjustment 
of  Society  and  Individualism  shall  be 
evolved  as  will  cause  Society  to  do  only 
justice  and  Individualism  to  perform  all 
its  duties.  For  Society  recognizes  that  it 
must  reckon  with  Individualism,  and  In- 
dividualism perceives  that  Society  is  prac- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  211 

tically  itself.  They  so  fundamentally  be- 
long to  and  are  so  necessary  to  each  other, 
that  any  proposition  to  extirpate  either 
has  failure  written  upon  its  face.  That,  I 
think,  is  the  truest  characterization  that 
can  be  made  of  the  present  agitation  for  a 
radical  reorganization  of  all  Society.  So- 
cialism, as  defined  by  the  extreme  left, 
will  never  be  incorporated  into  living  gov- 
ernment, not  because  its  arguments  will 
fail  to  convince  us  of  its  abstract  justice  or 
beneficence,  but  because  it  must  perpet- 
ually meet  the  "  wild  living  intellect  "  of 
the  individual.  And  pure  Individualism 
can  never  become  the  working  law  of 
Society  because  it  must  meet  the  solid  re- 
sistance of  instinctive  organization.  This 
statement  is  fundamental  in  all  I  shall 
have  to  say  in  to-night's  lecture  ;  and  in 
the  attempt  to  state  the  relation  of  Reli- 
gion to  Socialism,  I  shall  be  guided  by 
the  elementary  truth  that  Religion  can  be 
oil  the  side,  exclusively,  of  neither  Socialism 
nor  Individnalism,  because  from  the  be- 
ginning Religion  has  taught  Socialism, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  insisting  upon 
Individualism,  and  because  it  is  this  fea- 


212      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

ture  of  it  which  makes  it  Religion,  and 
not  political  philosophy  nor  political  econ- 
omy. Jesus  may  have  been  the  first  and 
the  great  socialist,  but  He  was  also  the 
great  individualist.  He  had  a  doctrine  of 
Society  and  a  doctrine  of  the  individual ; 
and  these  two  doctrines,  runnino:  down 
through  Christian  civilization,  have  sur- 
vived in  undiminished  vitality  unto  this 
day.  An  exposition  of  these  will  make 
clear  this  eternal  relation  to  both  Social- 
ism and  Individualism  —  especially  to  So- 
cialism, which  for  nearly  half  a  century, 
though  its  voice  has  been  heard  all  round 
the  world  for  not  more  than  a  score  of 
years,  has  been  exploiting  a  social  revolu- 
tion beside  w^iich  the  change  from  the 
ancient  world  to  feudalism,  and  again  from 
feudalism  to  the  existing  order  of  free  con- 
tract, are  insignificant. 

It  will  be  helpful  to  point  out  how 
strenuously  Religion  insists  upon  the  sepa- 
rateness  of  the  individual.  It  is  its  nature 
to  do  so,  for  Religion  is  primarily  a  mat- 
ter between  God  and  a  personal  soul.  So 
long  as  men  regard  themselves  as  related 
to  humanity,  as   the  lump  of  coal   to  the 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  213 

vein  from  which  it  is  mined,  not  as  the 
soldier  to  his  comrade  and  to  the  captain 
whom  both  obey,  there  is  no  chance  of 
their  appreciating  the  part  each  man  plays 
in  the  evolution  of  the  race.  To  believe 
that  one  is  no  more  than  a  helpless  frag- 
ment of  the  nation,  or  of  the  class  to  which 
one  belongs,  is  to  stifle  every  generous 
ambition,  and  to  dull,  if  not  destroy,  the 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  for  not 
only  character  but  for  influence  upon  the 
forces  which  are  working  in  mankind. 
And  so  Religion  cries  to  each  of  us,  "  Re- 
alize your  own  separateness,  stand  up  for 
your  character  as  an  individual,  recognize 
your  own  power  of  self-determination, 
resent  and  reject  that  conception  of  the 
individual  which  represents  him  simply  as 
a  cog  on  the  great  wheel  of  humanity 
turned  helplessly  by  an  unknown  power ; 
and  develop  and  cling  to  that  conception 
of  yourself  which  gives  you  the  power  to 
elect,  select,  choose,  and  reject."  One  of 
the  finest  of  Hebraic  phrases  is,  "  Come 
and  let  us  reason  toc^ether,  saith  the 
Lord  ;  "  for  it  is  the  splendid  representa- 
tion of   Deity  entering  into  rational  con- 


214       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

verse  with  a  rational,  self-determining 
being.  Christianity  is  preeminently,  char- 
acteristically, eager  for  the  growth  and 
vigor  of  the  idea  of  Individualism  realized 
in  a  virile,  personal  will.  It  bids  man 
be  candid  about  his  individual  attitudes 
towards  everything  which  can  conceivably 
touch  with  shaping  hands  any  legitimate 
human  interest,  to  be  "  either  cold  or  hot," 
never  "lukewarm."  It  charges  him  to 
retain  possession  of  his  mind  and  con- 
science, even  when  ecclesiasticism  would 
have  him  give  them  away.  It  exhorts  him 
to  look  clean  through  every  institutional 
arrangement  to  which  he  consents,  or  by 
which  he  is  coerced,  and  to  behold  the  im- 
mediate relation  which  he  sustains  to  God 
and  truth  and  justice.  "  The  soul  that 
sinneth,  it''  and  not  some  other  soul, 
"  shall  die ; "  the  soul  that  obeyeth  and 
loveth  truth  and  justice,  it,  and  not  some 
other  soul,  shall  live.  All  through  the  his- 
tory of  vigorous  Religion  runs  the  strong 
thread  of  the  Individualism  which  is  the 
assertion  of  the  total  separateness  of  every 
being  born  into  this  world.  Without  this 
individual  consciousness,  there  is  no  strong, 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  21  5 

clear  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  and 
men  will  throw  upon  society,  upon  class, 
upon  a  general  set  of  conditions,  upon 
ancestry,  ill  health  or  good  health,  upon 
inherited  tendencies  —  upon  anything  — 
the  guilt  of  acts  whose  consequences  are 
only  evil.  Where  no  perso7t  is  responsible 
for  personal  character  nor  for  social  condi- 
tions, there  is  no  responsibility,  and  men 
rage  against  civilization  as  the  impersonal, 
yet  real,  creator  of  the  evils  w^hich  weigh 
them  down.  The  bad  cry  out,  "  We  are 
delivered  to  do  all  these  abominations;" 
the  ofood  moan  and  lament  their  birth  into 
a  world  of  hopeless  misery,  hopeless  sin. 
The  complete  absence  of  Individualism  is 
fatalism,  and  fate  may  be  lodged  anywhere, 
in  secondary  causes,  or  in  a  single  self- 
originating  cause,  named,  described,  ex- 
plained, as  each  of  us  may  take  a  fancy,  — 
but  always  fate,  the  power  which  shapes  us 
to  its  will,  irrespective  of  anything  we  do. 
Half  of  being  "  born  again,"  in  the  phrase 
of  Jesus,  is  the  recovery  of  the  conscious- 
ness of  separate  self-hood.  That  recovery 
is  the  beginning  of  a  true  moral  educa- 
tion, which,  again,  is  a    rationalized    and 


2l6      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

refined  form  of  what  science  has  called 
"  the  struggle  for  existence  "  in  the  world 
of  organic  life.  The  instinct  of  self-pres- 
ervation and  self-assertion,  which  works  as 
thoroughly  in  a  baby  as  in  a  philosopher, 
is  altogether  unconscious,  and  placidly  ex- 
ists concurrently  with  the  conviction  that 
we  are  the  passive  instruments  of  another's 
power.  But  the  interpretation  of  the  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation  as  the  prophecy 
of  conscious  personality,  as  the  rudiment- 
ary form  of  what,  by  reflection,  may  and 
ought  to  become  the  power  of  self-deter- 
mination, is  the  work  of  Religion,  because 
it  insists  that  each  of  us  was  meant  to  live 
in  a  relation  of  conscious  dependence 
upon  God.  That  is  Religion,  for  the  reli- 
gious man  is  he  whose  conception  of  God 
is  such  that  it  reacts  immediately  upon 
his  total  personality.  This  is  preemi- 
nently true  of  Christianity.  Its  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  is  summed  up  in  the 
statement  that  Christ  sought  to  bring  man 
to  God  through  the  sublime  illustration 
of  an  intensely  individual  human  life  in 
complete  union  with  God.  Jesus  is  al- 
ways exhibiting  the  necessity  of  this  con- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  217 

sciousness  and  fact  of  individual  separate- 
ness.  "  I  lay  down  my  life  of  myself,  no 
man  taketh  it  from  me.  I  have  power  to 
lay  it  down,  and  power  to  take  it  again. 
What  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for 
his  soul  ? "  that  is,  himself  realized  as  a  self- 
determining  personality !  "  What  shall  it 
profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world 
and  lose  his  own  soul  ? "  Christianity  has 
been  truest  to  itself  when  it  has  coura- 
geously and  consistently  stood  upon  this 
fact.  It  has  been  visibly  at  the  height  of 
its  power  when  it  has  laid  the  emphasis  of 
its  teaching  upon  the  duty  which  one  owes 
himself  as  a  distinct  and  separate  person- 
ality and  upon  this  duty  as  a  natural  and 
inalienable  fact.  "  Our  being,  with  its 
faculties,  mind  and  body,  is  a  fact  not 
admitting  of  question,  all  things  being  of 
necessity  referred  to  it,  not  it  to  other 
things.  If  I  may  not  assume  that  I  exist, 
and  in  a  particular  way  —  that  is,  with  a 
particular  mental  constitution  —  I  have 
nothing  to  speculate  about,  and  had  better 
leave  speculation  alone.  Such  as  I  am,  it 
is  my  all ;  this  is  my  essential  standpoint 
and  must  be  taken  for  granted  ;  otherwise 


2l8       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

thouQ:ht  is  but  an  idle  amusement  not 
worth  the  trouble.  There  is  no  medium 
between  using  my  faculties  as  I  have  them 
and  flinging  myself  upon  the  external 
world,  according  to  the  random  impulse 
of  the  moment,  as  spray  upon  the  surface 
of  the  waves,  and  simply  forgetting  that 
I  am.  I  am  what  I  am,  or  I  am  nothing. 
If  I  do  not  use  myself,  I  have  no  other 
self  to  use.  My  only  business  is  to  ascer- 
tain what  I  am  in  order  to  put  it  to  use. 
It  is  enough  for  the  value  and  authority 
of  any  function  which  I  possess  to  pro- 
nounce that  it  is  natural."  This  clear, 
firm,  conscious  conviction  of  self-separate- 
ness  or  personality  is  the  door  through 
which  .all  responsibility  passes.  Anything 
which  threatens  to  weaken  or  destroy  it  is 
fundamentally  false.  I  am,  of  course,  well 
aware  how  differently  speculative  philoso- 
phy has  interpreted  this  fact,  how  variously 
its  oriorin  and  limits  have  been  defined, 
but  all  our  great  speculative  thinkers — if 
one  who  is  not  a  scholar  may  venture  to 
speak  of  them  —  are  agreed  that  personal- 
ity is  not  only  a  fact,  but  the  only  fact 
which  is   capital   in   the   spiritual   life   of 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  219 

man  on  the  human  side.  Relicfion  is  both 
on  the  side  of  IndividuaHsm  as  a  fact 
inaHenable  from  humanity,  and  on  the 
side  of  whatever  develops  and  refines  its 
operation.  Through  it  man  comes  into 
his  intended  relation  to  God  and  into  his 
intended  relation  to  Society.  I  have  in- 
sisted upon  this  natural  fact,  as  reinforced 
and  revitalized  by  Religion,  because  it  has 
an  indestructible  relation  to  any  form  of 
Socialism  which  has  been,  or  ever  can  be, 
proposed,  because  it  lays  bare  one  of  the 
primary  foundation  stones  upon  which  the 
structure  of  Society  can  alone  solidly  rest; 
and  because,  finally,  its  exaggerations  and 
distortions  are  not  to  be  made  a  warrant 
for  denying  its  value  or  its  necessity.  Our 
first  proposition,  therefore,  is  that  Reli- 
gion is  on  the  side  of  whatever  emphasizes 
the  self-separateness  of  the  individual. 
The  importance  of  this  proposition  will 
appear  further  on. 

In  the  second  place.  Religion  is  on  the 
side  of  organization  by  the  great  stress  it 
lays  upon  the  duty  of  loyalty  to  superiority, 
and  upon  the  duty  of  protection  to  in- 
feriority.    These  two  duties  are  rooted  in 


220      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

the  stubborn  fact  of  the  native  inequalities 
of  men.  If  we  were  all  born  equal,  there 
w^ould  be  no  need  of  loyalty  to  superiority, 
no  need  of  protection  to  inferiority.  But 
as  w^e  all  know,  the  differences  among  men 
are  so  wide  as  respects  a  dozen  powers, 
that  the  moment  the  most  rudimentary 
society  emerges,  it  is  largely  a  reflection  of 
the  effect  of  these  differences ;  and  the 
question  which  tormented  the  earliest,  tor- 
ments the  latest  Society:  "  What  shall  be 
the  attitude  of  the  less  favored  to  the  most 
favored,  and  what  shall  be  the  position  of 
native  superiority  to  native  inferiority  ? " 
The  first  of  these  questions  is  as  important 
as  the  second  in  affecting  the  well-being  of 
that  total  Society  which  is  necessarily  made 
up  of  unequally  gifted  human  beings.  The 
progress  of  the  w^orld  has  been  attained 
largely  through  competent  leadership,  in- 
telligently and  loyally  followed.  When  we 
say  that  the  history  of  civilization  is  the 
history  of  its  greatest  men,  we  are  only 
half  right ;  but  we  are  half  right.  The 
great  man,  with  the  power  of  leadership, 
is  the  coronation  of  the  widely  diffused  in- 
telligence, virtue,  and  struggle  of  the  na- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  221 

tlon.  He  takes  up  into  himself  the  lesser 
leaderships,  and  the  great  total  body  of 
hopes  and  activities  to  which  each  indi- 
vidual contributes,  and  gives  them  direc- 
tion and  force.  His  greatness,  his  power 
to  secure  beneficent  results  —  liberty, 
chances,  justice,  rights,  possession,  know- 
ledge —  is  inexorably  dependent  upon  the 
intelligent  and  continuous  support  of  those 
to  whom  these  results  are  a  boon.  His 
contribution  of  ability  is  always  prodigious, 
—  prescience,  wisdom,  courage,  skill  —  but 
there  must  be  a  bulk  of  ability  of  the  same 
sort,  though  of  inferior  degree,  resident  in 
the  people  upon  w^^ich  his  superior  ability 
plays.  In  war  the  strategist,  engineer, 
commander ;  in  politics  the  statesman ;  in 
industrial  arts  the  inventor  and  the  user 
of  the  invention  the  inventor  invents  ;  in 
Religion  the  thinker,  the  saint ;  these  are 
the  leaders  by  whose  leadership  obediently 
followed  the  blessings  of  victory,  govern- 
ment, increased  production,  and  spiritual 
truth  descend  upon  Society.  "  He  that 
receiveth  the  righteous  man  m  the  name 
of  a  righicotts  7na7z  shall  receive  a  right- 
eous man's  reward."     That  is  the  voice  of 


222       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

Religion  urging  the  necessity  of  loyalty  to 
proved  superiority,  not  unintelligently  nor 
with  any  slightest  diminution  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  separate  self-hood,  but  rather 
with  the  loyalty  that  perceives  in  the  act 
of  obedience  the  exercise  of  individual  rea- 
son and  wisdom.  Now  it  is  clear  that  this 
loyalty,  to  be  thoroughly  effective,  must  in 
some  way  be  the  exercise  of  an  association 
which,  while  binding  men  together,  unites 
them  as  independent  persons,  not  as  pas- 
sive instruments.  It  is  Religion  which 
furnishes  the  type  of  such  association,  be- 
cause, dimly  in  its  lowest  forms  and  dis- 
tinctly in  its  highest,  it  asserts  the  duty  of 
obedience  to  God.  It  sometimes  calls  Him 
the  Supreme  Being,  and  sometimes  Father, 
but  always  it  requires  that  every  man  shall 
intelligently  yield  his  personal  will  to  that 
of  God,  yet  ever  retain  the  consciousness 
of  distinct  personality.  In  all  Religions, 
but  of  course  preeminently  in  the  highest, 
the  well-being  of  man  is  represented  as 
hanging  upon  his  obedience  to  his  Creator, 
individual  perfection  ever  issuing  from  the 
personal  union  of  man  with  God.  The 
leadership  of  God,  not  the  omnipolejice  of 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  223 

God,  is  the  true  idea  of  the  relation  of  man 
and  his  Creator.  But  once  men  perceived 
that  by  putting  themselves  under  leader- 
ship, and  not  simply  by  resting  passive 
under  power,  they  were  in  the  way  of  life, 
their  endeavor  became  energetic  to  organ- 
ize their  loyalty,  and  to  add  to  individual 
obedience  corporate  obedience.  This  is 
the  genesis  of  the  Church,  which  is  ideally 
a  brotherhood,  that  total  brotherhood  ex- 
hibiting, as  an  organization,  the  corporate 
loyalty  which  lives  in  the  individual,  and 
receiving,  as  an  organization,  the  corporate 
blessings  which  descend  upon  the  individ- 
ual. "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God," 
is  addressed  to  the  individual,  and  the  spir- 
itual value  of  such  a  love  is  forever  certi- 
fied to  the  individual.  But  to  this  is  added, 
"  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself ;  "  immedi- 
ately the  social  duty  of  man  appears,  not 
as  rooted  in  something  diverse  from  that 
in  which  duty  to  one's  self  finds  its  sanc- 
tion, but  as  growing  out  of  obedience  to 
God.  Part  of  that  social  duty,  and  the 
part  we  have  in  hand  just  now,  is  that 
which  is  owed  by  inferiority  to  superiority. 
To  the  man  who  can  lead  me,  guide  me, 


224      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

inform  me,  teach  me  the  path  of  safety 
and  welfare,  I  owe  loyalty  because  it  is  my 
duty  to  make  the  most  of  myself,  and  I 
can  make  the  most  of  myself  only  as  I  am 
loyal  to  him.  But  more  than  this,  I  can 
help  my  neighbor,  my  brother,  my  fellow- 
man,  to  make  the  most  of  himself  only  as 
I  consent  to  be  led  by  superiority.  Even 
if  I  am  willing  to  forego  the  advantages  to 
myself  of  such  loyalty,  I  have  no  right 
by  disloyalty  to  diminish  like  advantages 
to  my  brother.  The  moment  obedience  to 
competent  leadership  is  demonstrated  to 
be  fruitful  in  valuable  result,  obedience 
becomes  a  duty.  Individualism  is  for  the 
sake  of  the  highest  order  of  association, 
and  the  highest  order  of  association  thus 
far  known,  is,  in  part,  the  result  of  an  in- 
telligent subordination  of  the  individual  to 
proved  superiority.  The  "  divine  right  of 
kings "  and  the  "  omnipotence  of  Parlia- 
ment "  are  the  historical  distortions  of  this 
fundamental  truth  of  Religion  and  organ- 
ized Society.  Tyrannies  of  every  sort  — 
oppressions,  hereditary  rights,  intrenched 
injustices,  a  whole  multitude  of  wrongs 
—  are  the  irrational  exaggerations  of  this 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  225 

elemental  truth.  But,  for  all  that,  it  is  as 
evident  now  as  it  has  always  been  in  the 
history  of  civilization  that  this  truth  is 
essential  —  I  will  not  say  to  any  sort  of 
progress  —  but  to  progress  of  the  noblest 
order.  Religion  without  loyalty  to  God  is 
unthinkable.  Progress  without  loyalty  to 
superiority  is  impossible.  The  two  ideas 
are  so  indissolubly  bound  together  that 
vigorous  Religion  and  continuous  progress 
have  always  gone  together  in  human  his- 
tory. Religion  dies  before  progress  decays 
in  the  national  life. 

But  the  duty  of  protection  to  inferiority 
is  equally  fundamental.  Leadership  is  un- 
der bonds  to  furnish  its  followers  with  all 
the  blessings  leadership  can  secure.  Now, 
the  effect  of  leadership  is  to  bring  out 
into  visible,  concrete  conditions  the  natu- 
ral inequality  of  human  beings.  It  empha- 
sizes the  differences  in  physical  strength, 
intellectual  power,  in  daring  ingenuity  and 
enterprise,  which  are  common  everywhere. 
It  reveals,  as  by  some  powerful  alchemy, 
the  inequalities  into  which  we  are  born, 
sets  them  in  circumstances  which  attract 
attention,  creates  measures  of  value,  deter- 


226      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

mines  rank  and  reward,  and  originates 
contrasts  which  inevitably  tend  to  become 
fixed  and  final.  As  a  consequence,  the 
leadership  which  begins  with  the  noblest 
purposes  to  secure  advantages  to  the  whole 
social  body  is  under  subtle  and  fierce  temp- 
tation to  furnish  by  attaching  to  itself,  for 
its  own  use  and  as  its  own  possession,  such 
a  share  of  those  advantages  as  it  never 
dreamed  of  when  powder  was  put  into  its 
hands.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  duty 
of  inferiority  to  be  loyal  to  superiority  is 
absolutely  conditioned  upon  the  duty  of 
superiority  to  protect  inferiority.  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  "  is  the 
formal  sanction  of  leadership.  "  He  that 
would  be  greatest  among  you,  let  him  be 
your  servant,"  is  the  noblest  description  of 
its  function.  Leadership  for  leadership's 
sake  is  tyranny  and  finally  suicide.  If  it 
forgets  its  sole  sanction,  if  it  betrays  its 
trust,  the  result  is,  first,  a  fixed  inequality 
of  chances  for  classes  and  individuals,  ever 
producing  contrasts  of  wealth  and  poverty, 
culture  and  ignorance,  power  and  helpless- 
ness, which  appal  the  mind  and  wring  the 
heart;  and,  second,  a  revolutionary  move- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  22/ 

ment  which  may  blindly  overturn  Society 
at  enormous  loss  to  every  interest  con- 
cerned, and  strive  to  build  up  another  so- 
ciety just  as  maleficent,  because  founded 
upon  the  opposite  principle  of  disobedience 
to  superiority.  The  first  of  these  results 
is  bountifully  illustrated  in  history.  Lead- 
ership in  some  form  false  to  itself,  that  is, 
recreant  to  the  obligations  it  incurs  by  the 
very  fact  of  being  entrusted  with  power, 
is  responsible  for  almost  all  the  disasters 
which  have  overtaken  the  world  since  it 
had  anything  like  an  organized  Society. 
Leadership  has  been  the  greatest  curse 
and  the  greatest  blessing  the  race  has  ever 
known,  but  the  curse  is  the  perversion  of 
the  blessing ;  and  the  only  known  force  to 
persuade  or  to  compel  leadership  to  dis- 
charge its  sacred  trust  is  Religion,  which 
consecrates  leadership  to  the  unceasing 
task  of  exercising  itself  to  secure  equality 
of  chance  to  inequality  of  endowment. 
Religion  forever  broods  over  superiority, 
and  urges,  through  the  conscience,  through 
compassion,  justice  and  love,  the  indestruc- 
tible claims  of  inferiority  to  the  best  pro- 
tection superiority  can  afford. 


228      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

These,  then,  are  the  elemental  proposi- 
tions of  Religion  toucliing  the  everlasting 
conflict  between  Individualism  and  Social- 
ism. First,  Religion  is  pledged,  by  its 
doctrine  of  the  personal  relation  of  every 
soul  to  God,  to  help  on  all  those  forces 
which  are  emphasizing  and  refining  the 
sense  of  separate  self-hood.  Second,  it  is 
equally  pledged,  by  its  doctrine  of  human 
brotherhood,  to  further  the  exercise  of 
every  leadership  which  produces,  or  tends 
to  produce,  the  welfare  of  the  great  total 
body  of  Society.  These  two  propositions 
describe  the  means  of  the  moral  education 
of  the  individual  and  a  bond  of  union  for 
the  race.  They  exhibit  the  necessity  of 
preserving  a  balance  in  the  w^orking  of  the 
law  of  life,  the  law  which  provides  for  self- 
preservation  and  self-assertion,  and  for  the 
intelligent  subordination  of  these  to  the 
organization  which  w^e  call  Society.  Such 
a  statement  runs  the  risk  of  being  branded 
as  a  cowardly  compromise  by  those  who 
hotly  demand  the  sanction  of  Religion  for 
pure  unrestricted  Individualism  on  the  one 
side,  or  for  thoroughgoing  Socialism  upon 
the   other.      But    these    propositions    are 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  229 

simply  the  formulation  of  the  law  of  all 
life  in  any  of  its  developments.  We  find 
them  powerfully  at  work  in  every  Society 
of  which  record  remains,  and  in  undimin- 
ished vigor,  though  with  varying  fortunes, 
in  the  marvelous  social  changes  which  are 
developing  under  our  eyes  to-day.  "  The 
balance  which  sustains  our  solar  system 
between  the  central  force  drawing  all  into 
one  and  the  centrifugal  velocity  which  rep- 
resents at  every  point  the  tendency  of  each 
body  to  continue  its  own  isolated  course, 
is  a  symbol  of  the  spiritual  law  of  society 
formulated  by  Religion,  but  rooted  in  hu- 
manity itself." 

I  have  dared  to  dwell  so  long  upon 
these  two  propositions  and  their  indisso- 
luble relations  because  one  or  the  other  of 
them  is  likely  to  be  obscured  according  as 
we  accept  or  reject  that  scheme  of  social 
revolution  now  known  in  a  vague  way  as 
Socialism.  The  attitude  of  Religion  to- 
wards it  ought  to  be  determined  by  intel- 
ligent acceptance  of  the  two  propositions 
we  have  named.  The  individualist  is 
wrong,  as  against  Socialism,  when  he  stands 
up  for  unrestricted  free  contract  and  com- 


230      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

petition ;  the  socialist  is  wrong,  as  against 
Individualism,  when  he  champions  the 
scheme  that  reduces  the  sense  of  independ- 
ent personality  and  dulls  the  incentive  to 
fullest  self-development. 

Before  attempting  to  define  Socialism,  it 
is  necessary  to  describe  briefly  the  causes 
which  have  made  it  the  formidable  or 
hopeful,  but  always  the  important  and  in- 
terestino^,  movement  of  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury.  Apparently  it  is  a  modern  growth 
or  discovery,  but  really  it  dates  back  to 
the  days  when  the  military  organization  of 
society  was  slowly  broken  up  and  the  pro- 
cess of  political  emancipation  and  enfran- 
chisement was  inaugurated.  The  French 
Revolution  is  the  spectacular  exhibition  of 
how  far  this  process  had  extended  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century  in  much  of  Euro- 
pean society.  It  was  an  astounding  reve- 
lation of  the  strength  and  extent  of  the 
forces  which  had  been  at  work  in  the 
constitution  of  Society,  a  revelation  which 
startled  radicals  and  conservatives  alike. 
It  did  not  create  those  forces,  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  it  appreciably  strengthened  them  ; 
but,  as  nothing  had  ever  done  before,  it 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  231 

displayed  them,  put  them  on  record,  and 
bade  Society  henceforth  remember  their 
existence.  And  since  the  French  Revo- 
lution an  ahnost  uninterrupted  process  of 
extending  powers  and  privileges  to  classes 
once  excluded  from  them  has  characterized 
modern  Society.  Politically,  no  Society  in 
Europe,  not  even  Germany,  is  to-day  more 
than  a  reminiscence  of  what  it  was  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  Every  govern- 
ment has  yielded  something  to  democracy, 
regarded  either  as  a  theoretically  sound 
abstraction,  as  in  France,  or  as  an  institu- 
tion which  practically  suits  the  purposes 
of  Society,  as  in  England  and  America.^ 
The  power  of  the  people  has  increased 
since  1832  with  every  decade,  and  is  in- 
creasing still.  Political  rights  are  so  uni- 
versal that,  with  no  more  worlds  to  con- 
quer, female  suffrage  becomes  rational, 
and  all  the  rights  and  privileges  which 
the  people  politically  have  acquired  are 
subtractions  from  the  possessions  of  the 
privileged  classes.  But  the  extension  of 
political  rights  has  been  accompanied  by 
an  equally  significant,  though  not  equally 

'  French  Traits.     William  G.  Brownell. 


232     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

great,  admittance  of  the  people  to  educa- 
tional, industrial,  and  social  opportunities. 
The  number  of  highly,  not  to  say  academ- 
ically, educated  persons  in  Europe  and 
America  is  estimated  to  be  tenfold  more 
to-day  than  fifty  years  ago  in  proportion  to 
the  population.  Entrance  to  the  univer- 
sities and  technical  schools  of  a  high  grade 
is  more  costly,  but  more  free ;  and  the 
chance  of  education  once  open  almost  ex- 
clusively to  the  well-to-do  or  to  young  men 
who  proposed  to  enter  the  sacred  but  not 
lucrative  ministry,  is  now  practically  open 
to  any  one  who  is  willing  to  undergo  the 
self-denial  which  is  and  always  will  be 
involved.  The  public  school  system  has 
been  not  only  extended  but  lifted.  Laws 
have  been  enacted  in  certain  communities 
making  attendance  upon  the  schools  com- 
pulsory. Equally  significant  is  the  history 
of  industrial  legislation.  It  is  all,  without 
a  break,  on  the  side  of  labor.  It  would  be 
difficult  —  I  have  found  it  impossible  —  to 
name  a  single  act  of  legislation  frankly 
intended  to  reo^ulate  industrial  relations 
which  is  not  protective,  or  intended  to 
be  protective,  of  the  rights  and  chances 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  233 

of  the  workingman.  All  the  demands  of 
labor  upon  legislation  have  not  been 
granted,  but  none  of  the  requests  of  capital 
for  relief  has  been  incorporated  into  stat- 
ute. Any  advantage  capital  has  secured 
has  been  by  indirection.  The  encroach- 
ments of  the  people  upon  the  privileges  of 
the  powerful  classes  by  the  peaceful  meth- 
ods of  legislation  in  the  last  fifty  years 
would,  if  exhibited  in  bulk,  look  enormous. 
Those  of  us  whose  interests  are  not  directly 
affected,  fail  to  appreciate  the  radical  and 
wide  extent  of  the  changes  in  laws  regu- 
lating the  rights  of  employers  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  duties  of  employed  upon 
the  other,  which  have  been  wrought 
throughout  the  whole  industrial  world; 
but  those  whose  lives  and  fortunes  are 
immediately  touched  are  aware  that  the 
changes  directly  resulting  from  machinery 
and  inventions  are  matched  by  changes 
in  statutory  regulation  of  the  conditions 
under  which  that  machinery  shall  be 
worked.  And  finally,  the  social  improve- 
ment of  the  people  has  kept  pace  with 
their  political,  educational,  and  industrial 
betterment.      The   larger  leisure,  the  op- 


234     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

portunity  for  culture,  the  easy  and  safe 
depositing  of  savings,  the  plentifulness 
and  cheapness  of  many  articles  of  luxury, 
—  all  these  have  made  their  mark  upon 
the  general  social  condition.  The  un- 
stayed tendency  of  modern  Society  is  to- 
wards an  equalization  of  chances,  to  an 
equal  distribution  of  rights  and  privileges. 
But  this  tendency  which  has  already 
wrought  the  social  changes  we  have  briefly 
enumerated,  this  tendency  which  is  so  dis- 
tinct and  powerful  that  it  cannot  be  mis- 
taken, has  suggested  the  thought  that  by 
the  operation  of  law,  enacted  by  the  State, 
there  may  be  created  an  absolute  equality 
of  every  human  being  as  regards  means, 
rights,  opportunities,  labor,  and  enjoyment. 
It  is  the  historical  fact  of  an  unprece- 
dented advance  towards  such  an  equality 
in  the  last  one  hundred  years,  without  the 
aid  of  state  action,  except  in  isolated  stat- 
utes, and  not  the  speculative  philosophy  of 
Marx  and  his  more  recent  disciples,  which 
has  made  Socialism  the  hope  and  dread 
which  it  is  to-day.  The  successful  past 
has  prophesied  a  still  more  successful 
future    through    the    employment    of    an 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  235 

agency,  existing  from  the  beginning  of 
civilization,  but  never  utilized.  The  utili- 
zation of  the  State  to  produce  absolute 
equality  of  opportunity  and  means  for 
every  human  being  is  the  programme  of 
real,  thoroughgoing  Socialism.  I  must 
not  be  criticised  for  giving  a  definition  of 
Socialism  which  many  socialists  would 
repudiate,  nor  be  accused  of  ignorance  of 
the  many  varieties  of  Socialism  which 
are  vigorously  urging  their  different  pro- 
grammes upon  our  consideration.  The 
historical  fact  is  that  Socialism,  as  a  prin- 
ciple of  organization  for  the  reconstruction 
of  society,  is  comparatively  simple.  Com- 
plexity arises  from  the  chaos  of  methods 
which  different  schools  of  socialists  have 
agreed  to  adopt,  and  from  an  unconscious 
unwillingness  to  accept  all  the  logical  con- 
sequences of  the  characteristic  and  cardi- 
nal principles  of  true  Socialism.  And  I 
shall  not  allow  myself  to  be  betrayed  into 
attempting  the  endless  task  of  elucidating 
the  relations  of  Religion  to  any  or  all  of 
the  milder  and  less  logical  forms  of  Social- 
ism, which  bear  to  the  real,  the  undiluted, 
article   about   the   same  significance  that 


236      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

the  "  domestic  cat  bears  to  the  royal  Ben- 
gal tiger."  Socialism  is  in  strict  principle 
the  proposal  so  to  reorganize  human  So- 
ciety by  state  enactment  that  there  shall 
be  an  absolute  statutory  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity and  possession  for  every  member  of 
Society.  That  this  definition  is  not  un- 
just to  Socialism  is  apparent  by  contrast- 
ing it  with  that  of  one  of  its  foremost  and 
frankest  champions.  "  Socialism,"  he  says, 
"  denies  individual  private  property,  and 
affirms  that  Society,  organized  as  the  State, 
should  own  all  wealth,  direct  all  labor,  and 
compel  the  equal  distribution  of  all  pro- 
duce." That  we  understand;  it  is  frank, 
lucid,  self-consistent.  "  When  Proudhon 
was  brought  before  the  French  magistrate 
in  1848  and  asked,  '  What  is  Socialism  .f* ' 
he  answered,  '  Every  aspiration  towards 
the  amelioration  of  Society.'"  That  is 
generous,  but  it  is  not  frank  nor  lucid  nor 
self-consistent.  It  is  applicable  to  the 
great  total  body  of  human  struggle  from 
the  beginning,  and  no  more  describes  So- 
cialism than  it  does  the  Salvation  Army. 
Similarly  Doctor  Barry  says,  "  Socialism,  I 
take  it,  must  mean  the  emphasizing  and 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  237 

cultivating  to  a  predominant  power  all  the 
socializing  forces  —  all  the  forces,  that  is, 
which  represent  man's  social  nature  and 
assert  the  sovereignty  of  human  Society." 
Apart  from  the  fatal  effect  of  bringing  into 
the  body  of  the  definition  the  very  thing 
to  be  defined  as  part  of  the  definition,  the 
word  means  nothing  at  all  as  regards  So- 
cialism, because  civilization  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  not  simply  in  the  last  fifty 
years,  has  been  struggling  to  cultivate  all 
the  forces  which  represent  man's  social 
nature.  Social  evolution,  as  distinguished 
from  Socialism,  began  the  moment  two  or 
more  men,  forced  to  live  near  to  and  de- 
pend upon  one  another,  found  it  was  not 
an  easy  matter,  and  set  to  work,  uncon- 
sciously to  be  sure,  to  invent  a  modus 
vivcndi.  The  history  of  civilization  is  the 
record  of  a  blind  or  reasoned  effort  to 
establish  Society  by  cultivating  all  the 
forces  which  represent  man's  social  na- 
ture. Cain  and  Abel,  the  Israelites  and 
the  Canaanites,  the  Puritans  and  the  In- 
dians, were  all  involved  in  that  effort,  one 
as  much  as  the  other.  Socialism,  on  the 
contrary,  has   just   celebrated   its  sixtieth 


238      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

birthday.  So  Doctor  Westcott  —  whose 
ability  is  unquestioned,  and  of  whose  ser- 
vices in  behalf  of  the  EngHsh  miners  I 
have  already  spoken  in  a  previous  lecture 
—  writes :  "  Socialism  has  been  discredited 
by  its  connection  with  many  extravagant 
and  revolutionary  schemes,  but  it  is  a  term 
which  needs  to  be  claimed  for  nobler  uses. 
It  has  no  affinity  with  any  forms  of  vio- 
lence or  confiscation,  or  class  selfishness 
or  financial  arrangement.  I  shall  there- 
fore venture  to  employ  it  apart  from  its 
historical  associations  as  describing  a  theory 
of  life,  and  not  only  as  a  theory  of  econo- 
mics. In  this  sense  Socialism  is  the  oppo- 
site of  Individualism,  and  it  is  by  contrast 
with  Individualism  that  the  true  charac- 
ter of  Socialism  can  be  described.  Indi- 
vidualism and  Socialism  correspond  with 
opposite  views  of  humanity.  Individual- 
ism regards  humanity  as  made  up  of  dis- 
connected or  warring  atoms.  Socialism 
regards  it  as  an  organic  whole,  a  vital 
unity  formed  by  the  combination  of  con- 
tributory members  mutually  interdepend- 
ent. It  follows  that  Socialism  differs  from 
Individualism  both    in   method   and  aim. 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  239 

The  method  of  SociaHsm  is  cooperation, 
the  method  of  Individ uaHsm  is  competi- 
tion. The  one  regards  man  as  working 
with  man  for  a  common  end,  the  other  re- 
gards man  as  working  against  man  for 
private  gain.  The  aim  of  SociaHsm  is  the 
fulfiUment  of  service ;  the  aim  of  Individ- 
uahsm  is  the  attainment  of  some  personal 
advantage,  riches,  or  place,  or  fame.  So- 
cialism seeks  such  an  organization  of  life 
as  shall  secure  to  every  one  the  most  com- 
plete development  of  his  powers.  Indi- 
vidualism seeks  primarily  the  satisfaction 
of  the  particular  wants  of  each  one  in  the 
hope  that  the  pursuit  of  private  interest 
will,  in  the  end,  secure  public  welfare." 
This  definition  of  Socialism  is  very  beau- 
tiful, and  if  it  were  true  would  win  our 
instant  and  cordial  assent.  But  it  is  not 
Socialism  —  the  historical  fact  —  which 
Doctor  Westcott  eloquently  champions ; 
it  is  a  conception  of  it  which  he  himself 
has  made,  independent  of  hard,  undeni- 
able facts,  in  answer  to  a  profound  sympa- 
thy with  those  upon  whom  heaviest  fall 
the  evils  of  an  exaggerated,  unregulated 
Individualism.      Without  being  aware  of 


240     THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

it,  he  would  extirpate  the  IndividuaHsm 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  creation  of  the 
sort  of  Socialism  he  so  attractively  de- 
scribes. Socialism  does  have  afhnity  with 
forms  of  confiscation  and  the  most  impor- 
tant conceivable  financial  arrangements. 
To  say  that  a  scheme  which  proposes  to 
do  away  with  final  fee  simple  in  land,  and 
to  distribute  with  exact  equality  the  total 
produce  of  the  world's  energy,  has  no 
affinity  with  confiscation  or  financial  ar- 
rangements is  to  turn  both  language  and 
thought  upside  down  and  downside  up. 
No.  Socialism,  frank,  philosophical,  his- 
torical, is  none  of  these  mild,  pared-down, 
and  worked-over  theories;  it  is  the  straight- 
forward doctrine,  no  private  property,  and 
state  ownership,  state  management,  and 
state  distribution.  It  is  well,  now  and 
then,  to  call  things  by  their  right  names. 

The  two  forms  which  Socialism  assumes 
are  Communism  and  Collectivism,  the  for- 
mer being  fast  superseded  by  the  latter. 
Isolated  communistic  associations  have  be- 
come familiar  to  us  in  America,  with  a 
history  beautiful  like  that  of  Brook  Farm, 
which  was  worth  all  it  cost  in  money  and 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  241 

disappointment,  since  it  gave  us  the  im- 
mortal "  Blithedale  Romance,"  or  hideous 
like  that  of  Mormonism,  or  fantastic  like 
that  of  the  Shakers ;  but  each  of  them  has 
proved  powerless  as  a  social  force,  save 
as  their  members  have  turned  away,  cut 
themselves  loose,  from  the  very  Society 
they  longed  to  reconstruct.  Communism  is 
like  those  perfectly  working  models  which 
utterly  break  down  when  realized  in  the 
massive  engines  they  \vere  fashioned  to 
prove  the  practicableness  of.  The  seques- 
tered company,  knit  together  by  homoge- 
neous beliefs  and  similarity  of  spirit,  creat- 
ing its  own  state,  so  to  speak,  is  able  to 
exhibit  the  graces  of  Communism  ;  but  the 
great,  restless,  heterogeneous  mass  of  men, 
out  in  the  world,  long  ago  perceived  that 
Socialism  would  never  find  in  Commun- 
ism the  highway  which  leads  to  equality  of 
opportunity  and  possession,  and  they  have 
discredited  it  by  abandoning  it  to  those 
who  timidly  shrink  from  following  social- 
istic principle  to  its  ultimate  conclusion. 
Communism  is  equality  by  voluntary  con- 
sent, erected  into  fact  by  the  free  action 
of  all  contributors  and  consequent  sharers ; 


242      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

but  Collectivism  is  another  thing.  It 
means,  not  simply  the  abolition  of  private 
property  by  a  free  compact,  as  Commun- 
ism preaches,  but,  by  capturing  the  gov- 
ernment, the  imposition  of  itself  by  legis- 
lation upon  the  nation.  The  State  is  to 
own  all  material,  all  tools,  all  products,  to 
own  and  direct  all  systems  of  transporta- 
tion and  communication ;  is  to  manage 
directly  all  financial,  industrial,  and  agri- 
cultural enterprises ;  and  to  determine 
every  economic  question  which  may  arise ; 
guaranteeing  to  all  citizens  an  equal  share 
of  all  the  benefits  of  every  sort  which  may 
result.  Collectivism  rejects  as  final  or 
logical,  every  attempt  which,  under  the 
name  of  Socialism,  seeks  a  readjustment 
of  industry  and  administration  by  arbitra- 
tion or  private  compact.  This  readjust- 
ment must  be  incorporated  into  national 
law,  and  must  be  enough  thoroughgoing 
not  to  stop  short  of  merging  the  State 
into  an  organized  Commonwealth,  absolute 
owner  of  everything  there  is  to  own.  This 
Socialism  has  its  philosophers,  orators, 
writers,  and  agitators,  and  is  animated  by 
a  deep,  earnest,  almost  prophetic  convic- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  243 

tion  that  the  regeneration  of  the  world 
hangs  helplessly  upon  Its  universal  adop- 
tion. 

It  is  time  to  determine,  if  we  can,  what 
is,  not  what  ought  to  be,  the  relation  of 
Religion  to  Socialism  as  thus  defined  by 
itself.  Religion,  as  we  saw,  stands  for  per- 
sonality, for  the  assertion  and  refinement 
of  self-separateness  and  for  the  duty  of  self- 
development.  That  is  cardinal  in  Religion, 
because  it  seeks  to  bring  the  individual,  as 
an  individual,  into  relation  with  God,  to 
elicit  personal  love,  personal  obedience,  per- 
sonal righteousness.  It  follows,  therefore, 
that  Religion  is  opposed  to  Socialism,  if 
the  effect  of  Socialism  is  to  reduce  what 
is  most  characteristically  individual  and  to 
sacrifice  it  upon  the  altar  of  organization. 
But  is  that  the  effect }  Manifestly,  there 
is  no  answer  to  that  question,  because 
there  is  nowhere,  and  never  has  been  out- 
side of  books.  Socialism  realized.  Appar- 
ently the  effect  of  Socialism  upon  the 
individual  is  an  affair  of  pure  prophecy, 
always  an  uncertain,  and  frequently  an 
unheeded,  voice.  But  those  isolated  illus- 
trations of  voluntary  Communism,  which 


244      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

are,  thus  far,  the  only  examples  of  concrete 
Socialism  to  which  anything  like  a  rational 
appeal  can  be  made,  seem  to  show  what 
that  effect  would  be.  Brook  Farm  broke 
in  pieces  because  the  organization  was  not 
powerful  enough  to  subjugate  the  person- 
ality of  its  members,  or  their  individual 
vigor  was  too  much  for  the  organization. 
Its  theoretical  excellence  preserved  a  sem- 
blance of  success  long  after  the  impossi- 
bleness  of  such  an  arrangement  was  as 
clear  to  its  founders  as  were  the  waters  of 
the  brook  which  gave  their  farm  its  name. 
They  foresaw  the  certainty  of  defeat  in 
the  splendid  Individualism  which,  in  an- 
other frame,  was  to  lay  literature  and  poli- 
tics and  philosophy  under  imperishable 
obligations.  If  it  be  urged  that  a  com- 
munistic experiment,  tried  by  men  like 
Hawthorne,  Ripley,  Dana,  and  Dwight, 
was  doomed  to  fail,  it  may  in  turn  be 
asked  whether  the  success  of  Socialism  is 
dependent  at  all  upon  the  exclusion  of  all 
strong,  enterprising  Individualism  from 
the  field  of  its  operation  —  and  Social- 
ism would  be  the  first  to  deny  so  dismal 
a  condition.     The  pot  was  shattered   by 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  245 

the  growing  oak ;  oaks  always  break  pots ; 
always  have,  always  will.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  communistic  communities 
which  have  survived  illustrate  "  a  monot- 
onous, dull,  unprogressive  existence,  the 
prosperity  of  peasants,  with  a  peasant's 
hope,  a  peasant's  aim."  There  is  no  great 
uplift  for  the  individual.  He  sinks  down 
to  the  level  of  the  general  mediocrity. 
Genius  is  dangerous  or  discredited,  educa- 
tion is  reduced  to  a  strict  utilitarianism. 
There  is  no  art,  no  poetry,  no  outlook, 
no  vision,  and  ambition  is  dead.  A  safe, 
unenterprising,  material  prosperity  of  low 
degree  is  all  that  the  oldest  and  most 
successful  of  our  communistic  communi- 
ties can  show  as  the  social  result  of  their 
theory  reduced  to  practice.  It  is  depress- 
ing, repressing,  the  social  influence  of  such 
a  community  upon  the  vigorous  Individu- 
alism which  produces  leadership,  heroism, 
invention,  and  illumination  of  life.  There 
is  no  place  for  recreation,  little  for  emo- 
tion, none  at  all  for  that  illimitable  hope- 
fulness which  is  the  source  of  almost 
everything  that  lifts  life  up  out  of  the 
dullness   which    the  constant  attrition    of 


246      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

care,   toil,  sorrow,   and   loss    everlastingly 
tends  to  create. 

This  criticism  of  Socialism  is  neither 
theoretical  nor  prophetic  ;  it  is  strictly  his- 
torical, and  it  shows  that  Socialism,  so  far 
as  it  destroys  Individualism,  is  opposed 
by  Religion.  It  fails  to  conserve  the 
consciousness  of  self-separateness  which  is 
essential  to  salvation ;  as  Religion  con- 
ceives it  —  having  all  that  is  best  in  a 
man  at  its  best.  If,  then.  Religion  is  on 
the  side  of  a  regulated  and  refined  Indi- 
vidualism, it  cannot  be  on  the  side  of  that 
thoroughgoing  Socialism  which,  under  the 
form  of  Collectivism,  proposes  by  legisla- 
tion to  reorganize  society  nationally  upon 
the  basis  of  absolute  equality  of  opportu- 
nity and  wealth.  Notice  I  say  "  it  cannot 
be."  Organized  Religion  may  be  on  its 
side,  may  possibly  champion  it  as  the 
formulation  of  the  aims  it  has  all  along 
been  cherishing,  but  organized  Religion 
has  been  on  the  wrong  side  too  often  in 
the  history  of  mankind  for  us  ever  to  regard 
its  position  as  necessarily  infallible.  The 
severest  test  to  which  Socialism  can  be  sub- 
mitted is  its  ability  to  counteract  success- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  247 

fully  its  powerful  tendency  to  extirpate  the 
spontaneity  of  personality.  Tested  on  a 
small  scale,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Shakers, 
the  Icarians  of  Iowa,  the  Rappists,  the 
Oneida  Community,  and  forgotten  Flor- 
ence, Socialism  has  dismally  failed,  and 
failed  simply  because  either  too  strong  per- 
sonalities cracked  and  split  it,  or  too  weak 
personalities  reduced  it  to  a  dull,  dreary, 
repulsive,  organized  mediocrity.  Religion 
is  unwilling,  nay,  is  unable,  to  give  itself 
to  Socialism,  not  at  all  because  it  does 
not  acutely  sympathize  with  its  sincere  and 
noble  aim,  but  because  Socialism  funda- 
mentally contradicts  a  cardinal  principle  of 
Religion  —  the  principle  of  the  self-sepa- 
rateness  of  man  as  essential  to  his  complete 
development  Godward  and  manward  both. 
That  contradiction  is  fatal.  It  is  an  im- 
pregnable argument  against  that  thorough- 
going Socialism  with  which  alone  we  are 
concerned.  One  need  not  so  much  as  refer 
to  the  vulgar  identification  of  Socialism 
with  atheism  and  agnosticism,  or  even 
with  the  immoralities  incident  to  the  abo- 
lition of  the  family  and  a  community  of 
wives,  in  order  to  show  how  irreconcilable 


248      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

Collectivism  and  Christianity  are.  For 
apart  from  the  fact  that  unbelief  and  wick- 
edness have  no  more  to  do  with  Socialism 
than  with  democracy  or  monarchism,  and 
therefore  will  not  be  considered  by  the 
impartial  student  of  its  elemental  princi- 
ple, it  is  enough,  and  more  than  enough, 
to  discredit  Socialism  in  the  eyes  of  real 
Religion  that  it  would  inevitably  overturn 
one  of  the  eternal  foundations  upon  which 
Religion  solidly,  eternally  rests.  For  as 
the  disappearance  of  vigorous  personality 
is  necessary  to  the  establishment  and  main- 
tenance of  Socialism,  so  the  perpetual 
presence  of  personality  is  necessary  to  the 
vitality  of  Religion. 

But  this  is  not  all.  You  will  remember 
that  we  found  Religion  standing  for  the 
duty  of  loyalty  to  leadership  and  of  protec- 
tion to  inferiority,  and  we  now  proceed  to 
inquire  how  far  Socialism  squares  with 
this  elemental  duty.  I  find  in  Socialism 
no  place  for  leadership,  but  only  for  power, 
and  power  lodged  in  a  vague  organization. 
Society  must  be  directed,  but  how  can  it 
be  directed  without  a  director.?  and  how 
can  there  be  a  director  when   all  oppor- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  249 

tunity  for  the  rise  of  a  director  has  been 
removed  —  rigidly,  completely  removed  ? 
Genius  becomes  an  impudent  intrusion,  a 
dangerous  quality,  in  a  society  which  looks 
upon  the  first  beginnings  of  superiority  as 
hostile  to  that  absolute  equality  of  every 
human  being  as  regards  opportunity  and 
wealth,  upon  which  Society  is  to  be  se- 
curely based.  Genius  is  inequality  of  op- 
portunity, because  it  is  competent  of  itself 
to  open  new  paths  of  enterprise  and  to 
behold  new  visions  of  truth.  But  what 
must  Socialism  do  ?  Either  it  must  fol- 
low genius  —  that  is,  leadership  —  and  so 
give  to  Individualism  an  irregular  power, 
that  is,  an  exceptional  opportunity,  which 
theoretically  and  practically  would  be  the 
end  of  Socialism  as  a  principle,  or  it  must 
suppress  genius,  so  closing  up  the  path  of 
development  and  causing  the  vision  of  new 
truth  to  vanish  away.  One  or  the  other. 
But  God  has  so  ordered  the  deep  instincts 
of  humanity  that  they  can  be  interpreted, 
regulated,  and  refined  only  through  leader- 
ship ;  blessing  follows  obedience,  safety 
issues  from  obedience ;  likewise  enliorhten- 
ment,  inspiration,  and  the  vision  without 


250      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

which  "  the  people  perish."  Whatever 
view,  theologically,  men  may  take  of  the 
Incarnation,  its  marvelous  power  is  best 
explained  by  the  insistence  of  Jesus  that 
His  disciples  should  follow  Him,  should 
accept  Him  as  the  true  interpretation  of 
the  nature  of  God  and  the  destiny  of  man. 
The  Divine  leadership  and  the  human 
obedience  to  it  constitute  the  real  history 
of  Christianity,  and  remain  the  source  of 
its  power.  It  was  not  an  arbitrary  crea- 
tion, a  novel  arrangement.  It  was  the 
perfect  exhibition  of  processes  of  human 
development  as  old  as  Society  itself.  It 
built  itself  up  upon  the  inalienable,  ele- 
mental qualities  of  human  nature.  It  was 
God's  great  declaration  that  by  and  through 
obedience  to  leadership,  —  the  leadership 
thoroughly,  divinely  competent,  and  the 
obedience  thoroughly  intelligent,  —  the 
salvation  of  humanity  alone  could  be  se- 
cured. The  vigor  and  fruitfulness  of  Chris- 
tianity spring  not  from  councils,  agree- 
ments, order,  organizations  of  any  sort 
whatever,  but  from  loyalty  to  the  leader- 
ship of  Jesus.  The  divine  method  of  the 
education  and  development  of  the  race  is 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  251 

illustrated  in  the  heart  of  Africa  and  in  the 
heart  of  America,  only  in  America  the 
leadership  is  perfect  (in  the  incomparable 
words  of  the  Bible,  "  The  Captain  of  our 
Salvation  is  perfect  through  suffering "), 
and  the  obedience  is  both  more  rational  and 
implicit,  because  largely  the  inherited  habit 
of  centuries  of  Christian  faith.  But  at  any 
rate,  the  Incarnation,  which  is  the  supreme 
and  central  power  of  Christianity  —  in- 
creasingly so  —  testifies  that  salvation  — 
having  all  that  is  best  in  a  man  at  its  best 
—  comes  through  obedience  to  leadership. 
Socialism  makes  no  provision  for  anything 
of  the  kind.  Absolute  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity and  wealth  excludes  it,  rigorously, 
pitilessly  excludes  it,  and  so  immense 
chances  for  development  are  unsuspected 
and  unused.  That  is  why  I  think  Social- 
ism can  never  be  the  basis  of  human  So- 
ciety. It  contradicts  a  natural  instinct 
which  Religion  has  so  marvelously  devel- 
oped and  directed,  that  it  is  essential  to 
the  existence  of  any  sort  of  human  associa- 
tion that  can  be  called  Society.  To  deny 
the  right  of  that  instinct  to  utter  itself,  to 
shut  it  completely  out  from  the  play  of  all 


252      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

other  social  forces  and  yet  look  for  a 
Society  in  which  all  that  is  best  in  man  is 
at  its  best,  and  all  that  is  best  in  Society  is 
at  its  best,  is  like  trying  to  obtain  a  product 
in  arithmetic  with  a  single  factor. 

Again,  Socialism  makes  no  provision  for 
the  duty  of  protection  which  strength  owes 
weakness.  It  is  not  foolish  enough  to 
claim  that  under  its  universal  sway  there 
shall  be  no  weakness,  no  inferiority.  It 
sees  with  clear  eyes  that  men  wdll  continue 
to  be  born  with  flagrant  inequalities  of 
powers  and  gifts  for  fighting  the  battle  of 
life.  But  it  protests  that  when  it  shall 
have  remade  the  world,  there  will  be  no 
battle  of  life,  because  weakness  shall  have 
as  good  a  chance  as  strength.  But  weak- 
ness needs  a  better  chance  than  strength, 
needs  it  because  it  is  weakness^  and  what 
the  Society  that  now  exists  is  trying  to  do 
is  to  secure  to  weakness  that  better  chance. 
Religion  has  developed  compassion  to  the 
point  of  energetic,  explicit  demand  that 
superiority  shall  stand  aside  that  inferior- 
ity may  secure  the  opportunity  which, 
unaided,  it  is  powerless  to  seize,  yet  pa- 
thetically  needs.      We    find   the   modern 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  253 

movement  in  Religion  simply  unintelligi- 
ble unless  we  perceive  its  direction  toward 
guarding  the  rights  of  those  who  formally 
have  an  equal  chance  with  the  strong,  yet 
really  are  on  grossly  unequal  terms.  An 
adjustment  can  never  protect  the  weak, 
an  arrangement  can  never  put  men  upon 
equality  of  footing,  no  legislation  under 
heaven  can  make  "  chances  equal  by  mak- 
ing them  uniform,"  and  uniformity  is  all 
that  even  Socialism  dreams  of  establishing. 
Inflexible  uniformity  of  chances,  with  no 
provision  for  protecting  the  inferiority 
bound  to  exist  forever,  is  no  better  than 
inequality  of  chances  with  a  perpetual  in- 
sistence upon,  and  a  growing  provision 
for,  the  protection  of  the  weak  against  the 
strong.  Nay,  it  is  not  so  good ;  for,  with 
the  expansion  of  Religion  to  perceive  and 
meet  the  duties  which  arise  out  of  the  ap- 
palling contrasts  of  the  modern  world,  and 
with  the  indubitable  and  really  undoubted 
accumulations  of  compassionate  justice  in 
the  heart  of  Society  directed  by  economical 
wisdom,  one  by  one  —  as  fast  as  is,  per- 
haps, good  for  us  —  the  old  injustices  fall 
and  the  weak  find  protection  and  protec- 


254      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

tors.  If  the  goal  toward  which  our  social 
evolution  is  peacefully  moving  is  ever 
reached,  it  will  be  found  to  be,  not  the 
Socialism  whose  programme  I  have  tried 
to-night  to  be  fair  to,  but  something  in- 
finitely better,  a  Society  in  which  Religion, 
enlarged  for  all  its  new  and  nobler  duties, 
shall  sacredly  guard  the  rights,  refine  and 
regulate  the  exaggerations,  of  Individual- 
ism, provide  competent  leaderships  for  in- 
telligent obediences,  and  exact  from  supe- 
riority a  scrupulous  and  tender  protection 
for  every  form  of  inferiority  humanity 
betrays  —  a  Society  which  shall  exhibit 
throughout  its  complicated  structure  the 
perfect  working  of  that  social  truth  w^hich 
St.  Paul  has  finely  phrased,  "  We  that  are 
strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the 
weak." 

Doubtless  the  criticism  has  already  been 
passed  upon  this  lecture,  "  Why  has  it  not 
discussed  Socialism  in  terms  of  its  ow^n 
political  economy  ?  Why  has  it  been  silent 
ujDon  the  cardinal  questions  of  private 
owaiership  of  land,  of  private  capital,  of 
private  production  ?  "  My  answ^er  must  be 
that  I  am  not  a  political  economist ;  that 


RELIGION  AND   SOCIALISM.  255 

I  confess  my  incompetence  adequately  to 
discuss  the  economic  aspects  of  Socialism. 
A  certain  intellectual  temper,  unwilling  to 
accept  second-hand,  and  even  third-hand, 
expositions  of  social  economics,  and  un- 
able to  find,  after  prolonged  and  careful 
study  of  the  literature  of  Socialism,  any  uni- 
versally accepted,  or  at  all  demonstratively 
established,  economic  truths  as  the  basis 
of  Socialism,  is  inclined  to  test  it  by  its 
conformity  to  those  fundamental  facts  of 
humanity  which  have  persisted  in  all  the 
social  constitutions  that  have  ever  been. 
Man  himself  is  more  than  a  match  for  his 
own  political  economy.  In  war  it  looks  to- 
day as  if  man  had  contrived  death-dealing 
engines  so  dreadful  that  soon  no  soldiers 
will  be  found  to  face  them.  And  it  may 
be  that  when  men  intelligently  appreciate 
what  Collectivism  means  to  humanity,  not 
merely  economically,  but  spiritually,  they 
will  shrink  back  from  it  in  reasonable 
alarm.  For  humanity  by  nature  is  in- 
dividual, by  nature  loves  leadership;  by 
nature,  when  enlightened  by  Religion,  is 
on  the  side  of  weakness. 

I  should  be  sorry  to  create  the  impres- 


256      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

sion  that  Religion  has  no  deep  and  tender 
sympathy  with  the  social  conditions  which 
have  given  the  programme  of  Socialism 
the  interest  it  possesses  for  all  thoughtful 
men.  The  havoc  unregulated  Individual- 
ism has  caused,  and  is  causing  Society,  is 
dreadful.  It  cannot  long  be  tolerated.  It 
is  not  tolerated.  For  all  the  changes  in 
the  direction  of  securing  a  more  substan- 
tial and  a  more  intelligent  equality  of 
chances  for  men  of  every  occupation,  which 
the  last  fifty  years  have  wrought,  are  enor- 
mous. History,  not  contemporaneous  ob- 
servation only,  is  necessary  to  a  just  appre- 
ciation of  the  distance  Society  has  traveled 
along  the  road  which  leads  from  oppres- 
sion to  freedom,  from  harsh  condition  to 
gentle  condition.  And  the  beneficent 
movement  has  not  ceased ;  nor  will,  until 
strength  has  conceded  all  it  can  with  safety 
to  itself  as  one  of  the  supporting  pillars 
of  the  social  organization.  Religion  is 
behind  it  and  beneath  it,  —  Religion  ex- 
panded to  meet  the  duties  which  are  rooted 
in  all  of  human  life,  individual  and  corpo- 
rate. Religion  is  the  inspiration  of  every 
proposition  that  looks  towards  human  wel- 


RELIGION  AND  SOCIALISM.  257 

fare,  and  has  the  right  to  claim  the  credit 
of  creatino^  all  the  social  forces  which  are 
working  for  the  commonweal,  though  she 
may  hold  aloof  from  many  of  the  forms 
through  which  those  forces  work.  And, 
if  I  may  venture  to  quote  the  book  which 
has  proved  a  wedge  to  cleave,  as  well  as  a 
bond  to  unite,  let  me  set  down  these  words 
of  Mr.  Kidd :  "  It  is  seen  that  the  process 
of  social  development  which  has  been  tak- 
ing place,  and  which  is  still  in  progress  in 
our  Western  Civilization,  is  not  the  pro- 
duct of  the  intellect,  but  that  the  motive 
force  behind  it  has  its  seat  and  origin  in 
that  fund  of  altruistic  feeling  with  wdiich 
our  civilization  is  equipped,  and  that  this 
altruistic  development,  and  the  deepening 
and  softening  of  character  which  has  ac- 
companied it,  are  the  direct  and  peculiar 
product  of  the  religious  system  on  which 
our  civilization  is  founded."  These  are 
wise  words.  The  expansion  of  Religion 
precedes  and  creates  the  altruism  without 
which  every  plan  to  raise  man  in  the  social 
scale  is  doomed  to  irretrievable  failure. 


VI. 

ORGANIZED    RELIGION. 

Not  long  ago  one  of  our  most  distin- 
guished artists,  after  an  unbroken  absten- 
tion of  nearly  thirty  years,  attended  divine 
service  at  one  of  our  large  churches.  So 
unusual  an  event  could  not  fail  to  make  a 
deep  impression  upon  his  mind,  and  what 
he  had  seen  and  felt  became,  in  the  even- 
ing, the  subject  of  his  familiar,  unreserved 
conversation.  He  said  that  the  feeling 
which  was  strongest,  as  he  watched  the 
reverent  behavior  of  the  multitude,  volun- 
tarily assembled,  was  that  humanity  must 
have  some  one  to  adore,  some  one  lifted 
clean  above  all  that  we  know  of  one  an- 
other, and  holding  the  secrets  and  desti- 
nies of  life  in  his  intelligent  and  loving 
keeping.  Then,  as  he  noted  the  ordered 
beauty  of  the  service,  he  felt  how  imper- 
ishably  necessary  is  some  form  of  ritual  as 
the  vehicle   of  this   instinctive  adoration. 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  259 

And  finally,  he  said  that  to  his  thinking 
it  must  be  true  that  the  sermon  (which 
very  likely  was  no  better  than  the  average 
one  heard  from  our  pulpits),  boldly  ad- 
dressed to  the  conscience,  must  inevitably 
help  to  make  men  ashamed  of  their  sins, 
and  to  create  a  wish  to  live  nobler  lives,  — 
that,  indeed,  it  had  that  effect  upon  him. 
This  is  not  common  testimony.  It  is  the 
expression  of  a  thoroughly  candid  and 
unprejudiced  opinion  regarding  Religion, 
uttering  itself  in  worship  and  prophecy,  by 
one  who  came  to  Religion  with  a  freshness 
untouched  by  custom.  That  spectacle  of 
Religion  set  in  the  frame  of  public  worship 
was  a  surprise.  It  was  a  revelation  of  the 
fact  that  there  is  a  great  human  instinct 
which  is  to-day,  as  truly  as  in  any  past  age, 
interpreting  prayer  and  praise,  and  minis- 
try to  the  conscience,  as  a  rational  exercise 
of  the  human  spirit. 

The  artist  rests  his  case  confidently  upon 
the  existence  in  man  of  a  love  of  the  beau- 
tiful. He  seldom  stops  to  ask  whether 
this  instinctive  love  of  beauty  is  rational. 
He  never  questions  its  reality  in  himself 
or  in   his  fellows ;    and  his    imagination, 


26o      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

penetrating  into  the  mysteries  of  life  and 
of  the  world,  always  seeing  events,  ideas, 
and  things,  as  pictures,  sets  in  the  sensible 
form  of  beauty  what  his  spiritual  vision 
has  beheld.  His  canvas,  marble,  song,  or 
symphony,  is  organized  beauty.  It  is  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen,  the  proof  of 
their  reality.  It  is  the  everlasting  and  im- 
pregnable demonstration  of  the  living  love 
of  the  invisible  which  is  an  inalienable 
ingredient  of  humanity.  A  cracked  vase 
dug  from  Greek  earth,  untouched  for  two 
thousand  years,  is  worth  more  than  a  bond 
of  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railroad,  but 
the  actuary  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company  cannot  tell  us  why.  The  cost 
of  a  Van  Dyke  would  build  a  commodious 
asylum  for  the  poor,  but  payment  for  the 
Van  Dyke,  while  the  asylum  goes  unbuilt, 
is  wholly  defensible.  George  Peabody, 
Cardinal  Newman,  and  Corot,  make  an  im- 
pression upon  us  different  from  that  made 
by  Watt,  Stephenson,  and  Mr.  Edison,  but 
it  is  not  less  distinct  or  deep.  Education, 
Religion  and  art,  which  have  no  visible 
foundations,  are  as  real  in  humanity,  as  are 
force,  locomotion,  and  communication  in 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  26 1 

the  world.  Education  is  the  name  given 
the  process  of  imparting  information  and 
of  disciplining  the  mind,  the  knowing  and 
the  knowing  how  to  know.  The  school,  the 
university,  the  library,  are  education  organ- 
ized. The  schools  use  many  faulty  methods, 
the  universities  contain  much  dead  wood, 
the  libraries  hundreds  of  books  opaque  or 
discredited.  Yet  library,  university,  and 
school  stand  justified  by  all  their  legiti- 
mate children.  Art  is  both  the  report, 
and  the  creative  process,  of  beauty.  The 
schools  and  museums  and  galleries  are  art 
organized.  The  art-schools  suffer  from  the 
hard  tyranny  of  precedent  and  convention, 
extolled  and  exalted  by  the  practitioners 
of  technique,  frequently  smoothing  down 
a  vigorous  originality  to  the  correctness 
of  a  harmless  mediocrity.  The  museums 
gather  by  purchase  sometimes,  by  gift 
many  times,  the  work  of  men's  hands,  but 
not  the  caught  visions  of  their  imagina- 
tions. The  big  galleries  easily  bear  this 
burden  of  inartistic  possession  because  of 
their  splendid  wealth  in  solid  beauty  of 
color  and  form ;  the  little  ones  are  fre- 
quently  crushed  by  it.     But  both   school 


262      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

and  museum,  spite  of  their  flagrant  defects, 
have  won  recognition  from  both  artists  and 
people.  They  reinforce  and  refine  the 
general  love  of  beauty,  they  awaken  and 
direct  the  artist's  slumbering  soul,  and  they 
reveal  the  wonders  of  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth  in  which  dwelleth  beauty.  Their 
imperfectness  is  recognized,  their  failure  to 
produce  all  the  results  which  their  institu- 
tion and  the  cost  of  their  maintenance  lead 
us  to  hope,  is  admitted ;  and  yet,  if  art  is 
to  be  something  more  than  a  vague  sen- 
timent, uttering  itself  in  happy-go-lucky 
performances,  and  vainly  struggling  to  ex- 
press contemporary  ideas,  these  schools  of 
training,  and  these  museums  which  exhibit 
the  creations  of  the  past,  must  be  main- 
tained. Let  us  grant  that  the  art  schools 
are  frequently  their  own  enemies,  that  the 
museums  are  treasuring,  among  the  no- 
blest works  of  the  human  imagination, 
the  whimsical  products  of  an  unregulated 
fancy,  none  the  less  they  are  the  powerful 
influences  and  instruments  of  that  art-in- 
stinct which  occupies  the  total  body  of  the 
people.  Without  them,  no  one  knows,  and 
there  is  no  knowing,  whither  our  aesthetic 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  263 

taste  would  drift,  to  what  depths  it  would 
sink.  They  are  to  be  valued  for  their  pur- 
pose, and  for  their  finest  achievements, 
even  at  the  moment  when  we  are  most 
acutely  dissatisfied  or  unsatisfied  with  their 
work  in  specific  direction.  Our  artists 
and  lovers  of  beauty  would  be  guilty  of 
gross  folly,  and  of  a  destructive  enmity  to 
the  development  of  art,  if  they  should  re- 
nounce the  schools  and  museums  on  the 
ground  of  their  failure  to  be  perfect. 

These  commonplace  observations  may 
serve  to  introduce  the  subject  of  our  last 
lecture,  —  the  claims  of  organized  Religion 
upon  the  allegiance  of  the  people.  Thus 
far  in  our  treatment  of  our  general  subject 
we  have  had  our  eyes  upon  the  Religion 
which  is  living  both  without  and  within 
the  churches,  but  I  own  that  it  was  with 
the  deliberated  intention  of  finally  present- 
ing the  cause  of  organized  Religion  that 
that  special  method  of  dealing  with  Reli- 
gion was  adopted.  Theoretically,  it  is  easy 
to  find  Religion  outside  of  organization, 
and,  practically,  it  is  not  hard  to  find  it 
there,  if  we  are  spiritually  alert.  But  the 
plain  fact  is  that  for  the  most  part,  in  the 


264      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

past  and  in  the  present,  Religion  is  to  be 
found  inside  of  organization.  Popularly  it 
will  be  always  judged  by  the  spirit  of  the 
organization  through  which  it  utters  itself. 
Much  as  a  considerable  number  of  us 
would  like  to  see  it  disowning  organization, 
much  as  others  of  us  would  be  glad  to 
have  it  reduce  its  organization  to  the  scanty 
and  loose  agreements  of  general  society, 
abolishing  tests  and  conditions  of  every 
sort,  making  rites  and  ceremonies  the 
spontaneous  expression  of  a  momentary 
impulse,  we  are  to  see  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Indeed,  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  the 
uneconomic,  the  spiritually  disastrous,  and 
the  theologically  impotent,  result  of  easy 
sectarianism  shall  turn  our  intelligent 
attention  towards  the  necessity  of  more 
compact  and  unified  organization.  The 
perfect  Church  on  this  earth  is  a  dream. 
Reduce  its  creed  and  polity  to  the  precise 
requirements  of  John  and  Jane,  and  Jane 
will  have  her  doubts  about  John.  The 
"  glorious  Church,  not  having  spot  or  wrin- 
kle or  any  such  thing,"  is  the  Church  of 
the  "  first  born  written  in  heaven,"  not 
these  communions,  jealous,  wrangling,  im- 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  265 

perfect,  which  we  know  so  w^ell  on  earth. 
Only  the  thoroughgoing  ecclesiast,  Catho- 
lic or  Hberal,  ever  expects  the  coming  of 
an  organization  which  shall  satisfy  all  the 
needs  of  all  men,  and  is  willing  to  go  on 
with  the  unending  process  of  adjustment, 
as  if  perfection  could  ever  reside  in  the 
framework  and  not  in  the  spirit.  A  mu- 
seum in  which  every  picture  is  perfect  and 
every  marble  faultless  will  never  be.  A 
church  whose  doctrinal  structure  is  with- 
out flaw,  and  whose  ritual  is  absolutely 
adequate  for  the  general  need,  has  never 
stood  upon  this  earth,  and  never  will. 
Forever  we  shall  be  pained  by  some  out- 
break of  narrowness,  by  some  jar  upon  a 
sensitive  ear,  and  by  some  repression  of  a 
generous  ardor.  Forever  we  shall  find  our 
separate  ecclesiasticisms  failing  to  minister 
fully  to  our  deepest  hunger,  to  our  pas- 
sionate wdsh  to  hear  the  full  rounded  doc- 
trine of  man  and  God.  We  all  sympathize 
with  one  another  when  we  try  to  set  forth 
symmetrically  the  distinguishing  marks  of 
the  church  of  our  affection  and  find  them 
unsatisfactory.  The  unended  creed  revi- 
sions, the  perpetual  tinkering  with  canons, 


266      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

the  frequent  ritual  enrichments,  the  divi- 
sions and  the  schisms,  all  bear  testimony 
to  the  venerable  fact  that  the  churches,  in 
almost  everything  bat  their  spirit  and  their 
noblest  aims,  are  regarded  as  either  com- 
plete or  perfect  by  nobody,  least  of  all  by 
those  whose  allegiance  to  them  is  most 
loyal.  The  very  love  we  bear  the  churches 
of  our  choice  frequently  makes  us  sensi- 
tive to  their  defects,  as  the  mother  is  most 
jealous  of  the  fame  of  her  best  loved  son. 
When  one's  own  Communion  perpetrates 
a  folly,  ignores  a  splendid  chance,  or  be- 
trays an  ungenerous  spirit,  the  pain  it  gives 
us  is  far  more  acute  and  lasting  than  the 
glee  of  her  enemies  can  ever  be.  But  that 
pain  each  of  us  has  felt  in  turn.  The  his- 
tory of  every  church  that  has  ever  stood 
in  the  community  has  pages  which  its  ad- 
herents wish  were  blotted  out.  The  his- 
tory which  every  church  is  making  now, 
is,  to  its  noblest  children,  far  from  being 
the  history  they  long  and  pray  might  be 
written.  Only  stiff  ecclesiasts,  to  whom 
the  polished  beauty  of  the  instrument  is 
an  ample  excuse  for  its  dull  edge,  will 
deny  this ;  but  denying  it  does  not  make 
it  untrue. 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  267 

What,  then,  can  organized  Religion  in 
our  time,  thus  frankly  admitted  to  be  im- 
perfect, urge  as  valid  claims  upon  the  alle- 
giance of  the  people  ? 

First  of  all,  I  name  the  substantial  con- 
tribution organized  Religion  makes  in  the 
form  of  ministry  to  man's  instinctive  sen- 
sitiveness to  God.  It  is  the  reality  and 
richness  of  this  ministry  which  keeps  our 
churches  alive.  Without  it  they  would 
wither  and  die.  They  may  keep  their 
particular  creeds,  perpetuate  their  peculiar 
rituals,  maintain  their  benevolences,  but 
unless  beneath  all  these  there  throbs  a 
deep,  passionate  belief  in  the  real  presence 
among  men  of  the  God  Who  made  heaven 
and  earth  and  sustains  them  by  His  power 
and  love,  a  deep,  passionate  belief  in  His 
mysteriously  given  strength  to  weakness, 
consolation  to  sorrow,  and  illumination  to 
bewilderment,  the  Church  is  bound  to  die. 
Churches  can  die,  do  die  ;  but  they  die 
only  when  God  is  no  longer  felt  to  be  in 
them.  Upon  this  instinctive  sensitiveness 
to  the  presence  of  God  in  all  human  life 
the  churches  are  solidly  built  up,  and  from 
it  particular  churches,  interpreting  in  dif- 


268       THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

ferent  ways  what  this  sensitiveness  requires 
for  full  expression,  evolve  their  architecture, 
liturgies,  and  ceremonials.  It  is  a  reversal 
of  the  historical  process  to  conclude  that 
architecture  and  its  symbolical  accompa- 
niments create  the  awe  and  adoration  of 
those  who,  beneath  the  cathedral's  lofty 
roof,  kneel  in  hushed  and  solemn  rever- 
ence, when, 

"  in  the  high  altar's  depth  divine, 
The  organ  carries  to  their  ear 
The  accents  of  another  sphere." 

For  who  reared  the  cathedral,  of  what  idea 
is  it  the  material  expression,  and  whence 
came  an  idea  so  powerful  that  not  once,  but 
many  times,  in  widely  separated  lands,  it 
has  captured  the  human  imagination,  and 
bent  it  to  the  joyous  task  of  realizing  in 
these  massive  structures,  which  sing  their 
way  in  rhythmic  beauty  up  to  heaven,  the 
hope  which  lived  in  David  and  Solomon, 
and  lives  with  undiminished  force  in  the 
breast  of  man  to-day  ?  It  was  not  a  people 
that  believed  God  could  be  imprisoned  in 
earthly  walls  of  stone,  that  builded  Solo- 
mon's Temple ;  for  the  King,  at  its  dedi- 
cation, declared  in  a  spirit  almost  modern, 


ORGANIZED  RELIGIOJV.  269 

"  The  heaven  and  heaven  of  heavens  can- 
not contain  Him,  much  less  this  house 
which  I  have  builcled."  Not  a  supersti- 
tion, then,  but  a  reverent  and  intelligent 
belief  that  the  great  Temple,  which  em- 
bodied in  strength  and  beauty  the  convic- 
tion of  the  people  that  God  made  Himself 
a  felt  presence  on  this  earth,  would  per- 
petually minister  to  that  conviction,  living 
in  all  the  generations,  built  and  adorned 
that  Jewish  temple.  The  history  of  every 
great  house  of  God  tallies  exactly  with 
that  of  the  Temple  erected  by  "  David's 
son,  the  sad  and  splendid."  Every  church 
is  at  once  a  testimony  to  the  living  faith 
of  the  past,  and  to  the  living  faith  of  the 
present,  if  it  is  still  reverently  used  —  faith 
in  an  unseen  God ;  and  that  faith  is  the 
utterance  of  the  world-wide  instinct  which 
God  has  safely  lodged  in  the  nature  of  all 
His  children.  It  ought  to  be  clear  —  for 
it  shines  like  a  star  in  the  religious  firma- 
ment of  man's  long  history  —  that  the  visi- 
ble, material  temple  does  not  create  belief 
in  an  overshadowing  God ;  belief  in  a 
never  absent  God  rears  the  temple.  But 
once  built,  it   stands  as  a  witness   to  an 


270     THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

everlasting  truth,  when  man  is  tempted  to 
forget  that  truth,  or  to  allow  other  consid- 
erations to  obscure  it.  Apart  from  any 
statements  of  particular  theological  truths 
which  a  Church  may  urge,  apart  from  any 
liturgical  arrangements  it  may  adopt  as 
vehicles  for  worship,  apart  from  any  politi- 
cal theories  of  ecclesiastical  government 
it  may  cling  to,  the  primary  significance 
of  organized  visible  Religion  is  its  articu- 
late witness  to  the  real  presence  among 
men  of  a  living  God.  It  gathers  up  into 
itself  the  separate  convictions  of  the  com- 
munity, robs  them  of  any  suspicion  of 
eccentricity,  challenges  the  superstitious 
accretions  which  tend  to  fasten  upon  them, 
and  presents  itself  as  the  reflection,  imper- 
fect yet  real,  of  the  universal  sentiment  of 
all  humanity.  To  minister  to,  not  to  cre- 
ate, veneration  and  awe,  are  the  churches 
maintained.  To  furnish  opportunities  for 
self-expansion,  to  interpret  and  direct  the 
hunger  for  worship,  and  to  keep  faith  from 
degenerating  into  fantastic  extravagance 
on  the  one  hand,  and  into  idle  dreaming 
upon  the  other,  has  been  and  is  the  func- 
tion of  organized  Religion  from  the  begin- 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  271 

ninsf.  To  men  who  believe  that  God  is  the 
manufactured  product  of  human  imagina- 
tion, hope,  and  fear,  a  Church  will  always 
wear  the  look  of  a  transparent  device  for 
foolinor  the  unreflective  and  timid ;  or,  as 
a  skillfully  contrived  social  machinery  for 
giving  a  decorous  or  decorative  treatment 
to  the  perpetually  recurring  and  necessary 
functions  of  organized  society,  it  will  al- 
ways be  a  thin  trick  performed  by  human 
hands.  "  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it 
all,"  said  one  of  these  men  at  the  close  of 
a  funeral  service  which  social  and  personal 
considerations  compelled  him  to  attend, 
"but  so  long  as  funerals  must  be,  and  Reli- 
gion has  charge  of  them,  nothing  could  be 
more  decorous  and  decent  than  this  ofHce 
for  publicly  bidding  the  dead  good-by." 
Or,  as  another  like-minded  man  observed 
with  frank  candor,  "  I  wish  my  children 
to  attend  a  Church  for  the  same  reason 
I  send  them  to  dancing-school,  and  search 
out  a  governess  from  Paris  to  teach  them 
the  refined  accent  of  the  French  tongue. 
Some  day  they  v/ill  be  married,  or  they 
may  die,  and  what  but  the  Church  should 
take  charge  of  the  wedding  or  the  funeral? 


272      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

For  the  one,  the  Mayor  is  utterly  inade- 
quate, spite  of  his  authority ;  and  for  the 
other,  civil  or  chance  arrangements  are 
clumsy,  cold,  and  bald."  But  these  voices 
are  eccentric,  they  are  misrepresentative  of 
the  universal  human  voice  when  men  are 
confronted  with  the  great  mysteries  and 
the  critical  experiences  of  life.  For  that 
voice,  responding  not  to  the  tyrannous 
bidding  of  social  convention,  but  to  the 
deep  undertones  of  all  healthy  being,  turns 
instinctively  to  the  organization  which 
speaks  a  blessing  and  declares  a  "  reason- 
able and  religious  hope."  The  Church 
does  not  create  that  blessing,  it  conveys  it, 
utters  it,  accents  it.  The  Church  does 
not  claim  to  have  sole  possession  of  that 
reasonable  hope,  she  claims  only  to  declare 
it  in  the  ears  of  men  who  cherish  it  as 
their  only  solution  of  the  dread  mystery 
of  death.  The  "  burial  of  an  ass  "  is  ab- 
horrent to  humanity,  because  to  the  sane 
thinking  of  humanity  the  brute  is  other 
than  man.  That  is  why  men  who  find 
themselves  incapable  of  assenting  to  much 
which  the  churches  hold  and  teach,  in- 
capable likewise  of  cordially  sympathizing 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  273 

with  many  of  their  methods,  still  give 
them  a  measure  of  support.  They  in- 
stinctively recognize  that  with  all  their 
faults  of  administration  and  teaching,  the 
churches  do  consistently  voice  the  univer- 
sal human  conviction  that  God  is  not  an 
intellectual  abstraction,  that  man  is  more 
than  a  tree  or  stone,  and  that  the  felt  pre- 
sence of  a  Father  "  too  wise  to  be  mis- 
taken, too  honest  to  deceive,  and  too  good 
to  harm,"  is  the  richest  possession  man 
can  hold.  And  what  I  claim  for  the 
churches  at  the  end  of  the  century  is,  that 
relaxing,  but  not  relinquishing,  the  impor- 
tance of  formal  test,  they  are  more  and 
more  ready  to  give  a  cordial  welcome  to 
all  who  wish  to  live  lives  inspired  by  the 
elemental  truth  of  Religion.  The  tend- 
ency towards  expansion  has  invaded  the 
churches,  all  of  them,  though  in  different 
degrees,  and  is  distinctly  declared  in  the 
freer  spirit,  the  wider  hospitality,  the  more 
characteristic  spirituality,  which  have  be- 
gun to  fashion  and  color  all  their  wa3^s. 
The  contemporary  fiction  which  upbraids 
and  derides  the  churches  for  their  bigotry 
and    unhumanness  is   already    antiquated, 


274      ^^^   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

discredited,  pitiably  inadequate  as  pictures, 
or  even  amateur  photographs,  of  the  organ- 
ized Reh'gion  of  to-day.  The  churches  are 
best  represented  by  their  largest-hearted, 
widest-minded  leaders,  and  they  are  for- 
ever opening  wider  the  doors  that  the 
multitudes,  who  are  more  eager  to  be  pro- 
foundly moved  by  the  felt  presence  of  God 
than  to  define  Him  and  dictate  to  Him, 
may  enter  in  to  worship  and  adore.  And 
when  this  altered  attitude  of  the  churches, 
this  splendid  expansion  of  their  spiritual 
purpose,  is  thoroughly  understood  and  cor- 
dially received  —  as  to-day  it  is  not  — 
we  shall  yet  hear  the  old  Hebraic  phrase 
on  the  lips  of  our  American  churchless, 
but  not  unchurched,  people,  "  I  was  glad 
when  they  said  unto  me.  Let  us  go  unto 
the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  He  will  teach 
us  of  His  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  His 
paths." 

I  am  not  dismayed  by  the  indisputable 
fact  that  this  ministry  of  the  churches  to 
elemental  faith  in  God  is  still  so  largely 
unrecognized  by  those  who  have  forsaken 
them,  because  the  lack  of  recognition  is 
due  to   ignorance  of  what   the   churches 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  275 

stand  for  to-day.  And  that  ignorance  is 
best  explained  by  an  abstention  from  the 
churches  which  began  to  be  general  five 
and  twenty  years  ago,  and  which  is,  I 
think,  at  its  height  to-day,  with  signs  of  an 
ebb,  however,  that  promises  to  increase 
and  become  general.  I  frankly  confess 
that  the  churches  were  themselves  unwit- 
tingly, but  none  the  less  really,  respon- 
sible for  the  defections  which  thinned 
the  ranks  of  their  adherents.  For  the 
churches,  by  an  irrationally  rigid  interpre- 
tation of  their  several  dogmas,  and  by 
failure  to  place  in  the  forefront  their  true 
purpose,  and,  on  the  other  side,  by  their 
suicidal  depreciation  of  the  value  of  or- 
ganization, rites,  and  worship,  created  the 
impression  that  outwardness  of  ecclesias- 
tical behavior  was  of  far  more  importance 
than  the  inward  spirit  of  reverence  and 
faith  in  God  our  Father.  As  a  conse- 
quence, we  see  to-day  multitudes  of  men 
and  women  who  believe  in  God,  who 
really  reverence  Him,  and  are  showing 
forth  their  reverent  faith  in  their  lives, 
detached  from  the  churches,  because  they 
ignorantly  regard  them  as  still  absorbed  in 


276      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

the  antiquated  business  of  protecting  their 
dogmas  or  mildly  proclaiming  that  intel- 
lectual liberalism  is  spiritual  salvation. 
And  we  see  another  thing:  multitudes  of 
people,  unable  completely  to  suppress  the 
religious  instinct,  drifting  helplessly  into 
the  depths  of  indescribable  superstitions, 
sometimes  into  immoralities  masked  under 
Religion  itself,  while  the  churches  they 
have  abandoned  are  slowly  but  surely  ex- 
panding in  power  of  expressing  adequately 
and  wholesomely  the  very  instinct  they 
are  so  grossly  or  grotesquely  misinterpret- 
ing. No  patient  student  of  Religion,  and 
no  one  who  has  profoundly  felt  the  incom- 
parable value  to  life  of  a  rational  and 
steady  belief  in  God,  will  ever  accept  this 
defection  from  the  Church  of  so  much 
ethically  and  spiritually  noble  character  as 
final.  It  cannot  be  ;  for  when  once  it  is 
widely  perceived  and  cordially  believed 
that  organized  Religion  with  all  its  imper- 
fections —  the  imperfections  of  excess  and 
defect — is  in  earnest  to  minister,  first  of 
all,  to  our  elemental,  native  desire  to  feel 
about  us  and  above  us  a  gracious,  divine 
presence,    to   whom    our   perplexities   are 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  277 

clear  and  by  whom  our  sorrows  are  felt, 
the  people  will  return  to  the  churches 
with  an  intelligence  new  born.  They  will 
share  with  the  artist,  of  whom  I  spoke  at 
the  beginning  of  my  lecture,  the  convic- 
tion that  some  sort  of  ordered  ritual  is 
necessary  as  the  vehicle  of  instinctive 
human  adoration.  I  should  not  be  sur- 
prised if  the  coming  revival  of  Religion 
had  its  origin,  not  among  outcasts  and 
the  frankly  bad,  but  among  the  intelligent 
and  upright.  But  its  note  will  be,  not 
repentance,  but  recovery,  —  the  recovery 
of  the  lost  sense  of  God's  presence  among 
men. 

The  second  claim  I  urge  in  behalf  of 
organized  Religion  is  its  exercise  of  ethi- 
cal force  in  the  life  of  Society.  Righteous- 
ness is  as  necessary  to  Society  as  com- 
merce and  industry,  and  righteousness  is 
the  product  of  Religion.  It  is  incontest- 
able that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  Religion 
outside  the  churches,  and  consequently, 
much  of  the  righteousness  which  we  find 
active  in  Society  is  not  directly  traceable 
to  the  churches.  We  have  sufficiently 
emphasized  this.     But  an  impartial  exam- 


2/8      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

ination  of  the  influence  of  organized  Reli- 
gion upon  Society  abundantly  discloses 
that  the  most  continuous,  steady,  frank, 
and  powerful  force  in  ethical  fields  is  exer- 
cised by  the  substantially  uniform  moral 
action  of  our  churches.  By  a  trained  and 
disciplined  instinct  they  are  on  the  side 
of  right,  frequently  before  right  is  clearly 
defined  or  generally  acknowledged,  in- 
variably when  the  moral  issue  is  fully  dis- 
closed. That  they  have  been  on  the  wrong 
side  in  more  than  one  great  moral  battle 
on  the  morning  it  was  joined,  is  freely 
admitted,  but  before  the  struggle  was  over 
they  had  changed  sides,  and  helped  win 
the  victory.  Every  experience  of  ethical 
error  has  been  followed  by  both  repent- 
ance and  an  increase  of  resolute  deter- 
mination to  exercise  a  more  clairvoyant 
spiritual  vision  in  the  future.  To-day  the 
churches  are  more  sensitive  to  the  ethical 
significance,  not  only  of  their  own  especial 
action,  but  of  all  those  movements  and 
agitations  in  the  great  world  of  Society 
which  tell  the  direction  of  its  current,  than 
at  any  time  in  their  history.  There  is  a 
wholesome  dread  of  that  sharp  criticism 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  279 

unsparingly  passed  upon  them  by  those 
who  are  hostile  to  their  dogmas  when  the 
genius  for  righteousness,  or  the  passion 
for  it,  decays,  and  there  is  a  lofty,  earnest, 
enterprising  spirit  resident  in  them,  which 
is  emphasizing  the  imperatives  of  truth, 
justice,  and  purity.  Society  confidently 
counts  upon  organized  Religion  to  cham- 
pion every  thoroughly  ethical  question 
which  arises.  Society  invariably  turns  to 
the  churches  when  some  extraordinary 
issue  demands  an  untiring,  undaunted  ad- 
vocate. You  cannot  name  a  'eaw'^^  frankly 
Tnoral  movement  in  any  community  which 
the  Church,  in  some  one  of  its  many  or- 
ganizations, is  not  behind.  It  must  be 
frankly  moral ;  not  some  muddle  of  liquor 
legislation  nor  any  perennially  vexing  ques- 
tion of  manners  as  distinct  from  morals, 
but  a  clear  ethical  issue.  In  any  such 
crisis  the  churches  take  the  side  of  right- 
eousness, hold  it,  urge  it,  and  wait  for 
the  certain  victory.  Their  contributions, 
through  their  unbroken,  tireless  insistence 
upon  the  imperatives  of  conscience,  to  the 
moral  vigor  of  Society  is  simply  enormous. 
Without  those  contributions  no  one  knows, 


280      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

and  there  is  no  knowing,  whither  would 
drift  the  standards  and  principles  of  soci- 
ety. The  figure  the  churches  make,  save 
in  those  comparatively  rare  instances  wdiich 
display  them  set  only  in  noble  architecture 
and  magnificent  ritual,  may  be  dull,  petty, 
grotesque,  fantastic  —  what  you  like  —  but 
it  is  always  moral ;  it  is  never  that  of  the 
Italian  marquis  deploring  the  desecration 
of  Good  Friday  by  Madame  Cardinal,  the 
mother  of  his  mistress.  No!  Whatever 
else  organized  Religion  is,  it  is  the  change- 
less friend  of  goodness,  the  changeless  foe 
of  badness. 

Contrast  the  impression  and  influence 
of  the  churches  with  the  influence  and  im- 
pression, ethically,  of  the  press,  the  stage, 
the  schools,  our  three  powerful  agencies  in 
affecting  Society.  A%  journals,  the  press 
almost  without  exception  is  on  the  side  of 
righteousness,  social  and  individual.  It 
voices  the  best  moral  sentiment  of  the 
community,  it  values,  while  freely  criticis- 
ing, contemporary  Religion,  denounces 
crime  and  vice,  and  gives  generous  sup- 
port to  all  our  noblest  endeavors  to  lift 
society  up.    But  as  newspapers  —  with  rare 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  28 1 

and  honored,  as  well  as  honorable,  excep- 
tions —  the  press  is  largely  on  the  side 
of  what  inevitably  stains,  vulgarizes,  and 
finally  corrupts  the  imagination  and  heart 
of  man.  To  turn  from  the  serious,  re- 
flective, measured  dignity  of  the  editorial 
gauge  to  the  unspeakable  dreadfulness  of 
too  many  of  the  news  columns,  is  like 
turning  from  the  crystal  waters  of  a  moun- 
tain lake  to  the  noisome  liquid  of  a  sewer. 
The  mystery  of  it,  short  of  the  stereotyped 
explanation  that  the  people  want  it,  is  the 
"  mystery  of  iniquity."  No  one  seriously 
denies  it;  the  press,  when  driven  into  a 
corner,  admits  it,  and  offers  the  indefensi- 
ble defense  that  a  newspaper  is  a  photo- 
graph of  the  world's  daily  life.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  churches  care  nothing  for 
the  wishes  and  hankerings  of  the  people. 
Not  what  we  like,  but  what  we  ought  to 
like,  is  the  sole  motive  of  their  utterances 
and  endeavors.  As  never  before  in  their 
long  history  they  seek  to  know  what  the 
world  really  is,  boldly  acquaint  themselves, 
first  hand,  with  the  sentiments,  habits,  aims, 
and  struggles  of  the  people,  but  always 
that  they  may  resist  the  evil  and  foster  the 


282      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

good.  If  the  churches  of  any  denomi- 
nation should  unite  to  condone  a  clearly 
defined  immorality,  public  or  private,  or  if 
they  should  conjoin  a  lofty  ethical  teach- 
ing with  a  grossly  demoralizing  practice, 
they  would  instantly  feel  the  lash  of  an 
indignant,  overwhelmingly  united,  protest 
from  all  the  other  churches,  which  would 
bring  them  to  their  moral  senses.  The 
press,  with  all  its  visibly  exercised  power 
for  righteousness,  is  every  day  negativing 
its  noblest  influence  by  its  willingness  to 
make  evil  attractive  by  dressing  it  in  gauze 
and  spangles  that  it  may  be  interesting. 
So  dressed  it  is  interesting,  but  which  of 
us  does  not  know  that  the  public  con- 
science is  thereby  dulled,  the  public  taste 
vulgarized,  the  public  habit  stained?  The 
"  liberty  of  the  press  "  is  not  worth  to  So- 
ciety half  so  much  as  the  vigor  of  the 
churches,  for  what  Society  needs,  as  it 
needs  nothing  under  heaven,  is  the  strong, 
uncompromising  utterance  of  the  impera- 
tives of  the  moral  law.  That  utterance 
to-day  proceeds  from  organized  Religion 
as  it  proceeds  from  nothing  else,  and  while 
it  may  be  true  that  the  total  influence  of 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  283 

the  press  is  wider  and  weightier  than  that 
of  the  churches,  it  is  not  an  influence  un- 
mixedly  pure  and  wholesome.  It  stains 
even  when  it  seeks  to  cleanse. 

Of  the  need  of  the  playhouse  to  healthy 
life  there  ouo^ht  to  be  no  serious  doubt.  It 
directly  and  fruitfully  ministers  to  one 
of  the  most  legitimate  instincts  of  human 
nature.  The  strain  of  uninterrupted  toil 
is  too  great,  the  drain  of  unbroken  serious- 
ness is  too  heavy,  the  pressure  of  care  and 
anxiety  is  too  severe,  and  the  tendency  of 
emotion  to  subside  into  hardness  is  too 
pronounced,  for  a  healthy  nature  to  forego 
all  amusement  and  the  hour  which  obliter- 
ates the  acute  consciousness  of  self.  It  is 
good  for  a  man  to  laugh  the  hearty  laugh 
which  brushes  the  cobwebs  from  his  brain, 
to  feel  the  unusualness  of  a  strong  emo- 
tion kindled  by  something  other  than  his 
chances  of  success,  his  danger  of  defeat, 
and  to  be  freed,  if  only  for  a  space,  from 
the  heavy  weight  upon  his  heart.  And 
the  opportunity  for  this  the  playhouse  fur- 
nishes. How  important  a  part  the  theatre 
plays  in  modern  Society  it  is  needless  to 
describe.      How  wholesome   much    of   its 


284      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

influence  is  upon  the  spirit  of  Society  we 
gladly  admit.  But  there  haunt  its  doors, 
like  evil  spirits,  the  subtle  temptations  to 
mingle  with  its  innocent  diversions  and 
with  its  representation  of  life's  noblest  pas- 
sions, the  vulgar  spectacle  that  debases,  the 
clever,  brilliant  wickedness  that  destroys 
the  bloom  of  innocence  and  introduces 
sweet  poison  into  the  soul.  The  playhouse 
is  not  set  for  the  ethical  health  of  Society ; 
it  is  set  for  its  entertainment.  The  exi- 
gence of  success  too  frequently  drafts  the 
unwholesomeness  of  a  bad  excitement,  the 
portrayal  of  a  false  situation,  into  the  ser- 
vice of  diversion,  and  evil  —  evil  that  lives 
and  grows  and  obsesses  —  is  done  the  soul, 
though  at  the  moment  the  soul  is  uncon- 
scious of  it,  as  the  man  cut  by  the  sharp 
stone  in  the  tumbling  waters  knows  he  is 
wounded  only  when  his  skin  is  dry  and 
the  gash  begins  to  throb.  But  the  churches, 
which  in  the  last  twenty  years  have  intro- 
duced many  an  attraction  which  the  sober, 
perhaps  sombre,  judgment  of  our  elders 
would  repudiate,  have  never  —  save  in  in- 
stances too  insignificant  to  be  worthy  of 
notice  —  lowered   the    standards  of   right- 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  285 

eousness.  Their  aim  has  been  openly 
ethical.  Diversion  for  the  sake  of  moral 
education  has  been,  and  is,  the  principle 
which  is  intended  to  control  the  aim  of 
every  enterprise,  not  specifically  religious, 
which  the  churches  have  organized  and 
maintained.  Nothing  so  visibly  marks  the 
expansion  of  Religion,  as  illustrated  in  the 
life  of  the  churches,  as  the  extension  of  its 
interest  and  action  Into  scores  of  fields 
once  abandoned  to  purely  secular  associa- 
tions or  to  the  chances  of  circumstance. 
But  nothing  more  successfully  proves  how 
competent  Religion  is  to  cover  all  these 
fields  and  to  reap  on  them  harvests  of 
good  living,  than  Its  evident  power  to  be 
Religion  when  apparently  engaged  in  the 
business  of  entertainment.  Whoever,  in 
his  thought,  elevates  the  moral  influence 
of  the  stao-e  to  the  heiofht  of  that  of  the 
churches,  is  Ignorant  of  either  the  theatre 
or  the  Church,  or  both.  And  yet  scores 
of  us,  who  see  clearly  that  only  righteous- 
ness exalteth  a  nation  and  keeps  Society 
sweet  and  true,  are  expending  upon  the 
playhouse  ten  times  the  amount  they  de- 
vote to   the    Church,  unconscious,  appar- 


286      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION, 

ently,  that  the  producer  of  righteousness 
makes  the  dispenser  of  diversion  a  safe 
person  in  the  community.  The  churches 
are  the  doors  which  open  into  righteous- 
ness; the  theatres  are  the  beautiful  gate- 
ways into  wholesome  recreation,  but  too 
frequently  also  into  ways  of  harm  and  sin 
and  shame. 

The  primary  purpose  of  the  school  is  to 
impart  knowledge  and  discipline  powers. 
Their  wards  are  to  be  informed,  mentally 
trained,  and  physically  developed.  It  would 
be  too  sweeping  to  affirm  that  Religion 
and  morals  have  been  banished  from  our 
schools.  It  would  be  more  exact  to  say 
that  ecclesiasticism,  and  the  ethics  which 
are  grounded  in  ecclesiasticism,  have  dis- 
appeared from  the  formal  curriculum  of  all 
state  schools  and  of  many  private  schools 
as  well.  But  there  is  still  an  appreciable 
insistence  in  our  public  education  upon 
cardinal  morality,  and  a  clear  recognition 
that  character  is  the  only  guarantee  of  the 
safe  possession  of  knowledge.  The  ex- 
pansion of  Religion  has  permeated  to  a 
considerable  degree  the  atmosphere  of  our 
public  schools.     They  are  neither  wholly 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  287 

irrelig:Ious  nor  unmoral.  The  character  of 
those  in  whose  care  they  are  forbids  it. 
Yet  the  nature  and  extent  of  ethical  teach- 
ings in  them  are  satisfactory  to  no  one 
who  is  alive  to  the  fact  that  what  is  done 
for  children  in  developing,  directing,  and 
vitalizing  moral  force,  is  worth  more  than 
is  done  for  them  in  the  after  years  of  the 
longest  life.  The  ethical  bent  of  our  boys 
and  girls  is  given  before  they  are  fifteen. 
"  Give  me  your  boy  until  he  is  twelve,"  said 
the  shrewd  ecclesiastic,  "  and  you  may  have 
him  after  that."  And  he  was  thinking, 
not  alone  of  the  boy's  future  ecclesiastical 
allegiance,  but  of  his  moral  fibre  as  well. 
This  unsatisfactory  condition  of  the  ethical 
influences  in  public  education  explains 
the  disposition  to  maintain  parochial  and 
Church  schools,  which  has  developed  mar- 
velously  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 
Those  whose  heated  imaginations  see  in 
these  schools  a  covert  attack  upon  the  pub- 
lic system  of  education  and,  finally,  upon 
our  liberties,  are  the  victims  of  an  irrational 
fear.  For  it  is  the  conviction  that  for  the 
healthy  development  of  sound  morals  there 
must  be  a  distinct  religious  education,  and 


288      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

that  a  distinct  religious  education  in  our 
public  schools  is  impossible,  which  has 
led  so  many  people  to  make  the  costly 
sacrifices  necessary  to  maintain  parochial 
schools,  and  elicited  the  generosity  which 
has  founded  other  schools  under  denomi- 
national control.  After  making  full  allow- 
ance for  the  patrician  spirit  which  depre- 
ciates the  public  schools  and  exalts  private 
institutions  for  selected  youth,  there  re- 
mains a  sturdy  belief  among  thousands  of 
our  most  thoughtful  citizens  that  educa- 
tion will  never  be  what  it  ought  until  some 
plan  is  evolved  which  shall  secure  to  the 
future  generations  of  America  an  adequate 
ethical  training  based  upon  a  rational  reli- 
gious belief.  And  we  shall  see  in  the 
future  an  extension  of  private  and  denomi- 
national schools,  in  which  such  training 
can  be  and  is  given,  unless  we  can  success- 
fully solve  the  momentous  question  of  how 
to  make  our  public  schools  thoroughly  reli- 
gious without  making  them  offensively 
sectarian.  That  unsolved  question  em- 
phasizes the  importance  and  value  of  the 
churches,  which  are  free  to  teach  their 
several    conceptions    of    Religion    which, 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  289 

though  issuing  in  conflicting  theological 
and  ecclesiastical  opinions,  produce  a  mo- 
rality that  is  identical.  Theology  may 
be  denominational ;  morality  is  undenomi- 
national, and  it  is  morality  for  which  we 
struggle.  The  claim  of  the  churches  upon 
an  intelligent,  ethically  earnest  Society  is 
stronger  to-day  than  ever,  because  Society 
recoo:nizes  as  never  before  how  indissolu- 
ble  are  social  rio-hteousness  and  social 
prosperity,  and  because  the  schools  have 
been  deprived  of  an  adequate  provision  for 
reliQ:ious  teachinof.  "  You  teach  too  much 
arithmetic,"  said  the  Japanese  traveler  at 
the  close  of  his  inspection  of  one  of  our 
typical  public  schools ;  "  you  teach  too 
much  arithmetic.  In  Japan  we  teach  our 
boys  manners,  then  we  teach  them  morals, 
after  that  we  teach  them  arithmetic;  for 
arithmetic,  without  manners  and  morals, 
makes  men  sordid."  Perhaps  we  do  not 
have  too  much  arithmetic;  it  is  certain  we 
have  too  little  of  manners  and  morals. 

In  the  third  place,  organized  Religion 
urges,  as  a  valid  claim  upon  the  allegiance 
of  Society,  that  it  is  distinctly  on  the  side 
of   weakness,    iirnorance,    and    innocence. 


290      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  assert  that  at 
the  end  of  the  century  we  find  the  great 
agencies  for  the  protection  of  the  unfortu- 
nate and  helpless  in  Society,  not  most  fre- 
quently in  the  direct  control  of  the  churches, 
but  in  unecclesiastical  hands.  The  state 
creates  and  maintains  these  agencies  more 
adequately  every  decade,  and  non-ecclesias- 
tical corporations  relieve  the  churches  of 
what  once  was  wholly  in  their  hands.  I 
should  repeat  much  of  my  first  lecture  if  I 
should  describe  the  causes  of  this  detach- 
ment, from  the  Church  to  state  and  secular 
corporations,  of  the  work  of  relief  and 
care.  To-night  I  wish  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  as  from  the  churches  in  the  past 
proceeded  the  influence  which  penetrated 
and  intenerated  the  public  conscience  and 
the  public  heart,  so  to-day  the  strength  of 
Society's  compassion,  generosity,  and  gen- 
tleness is  most  largely  recruited  from  the 
life  of  the  churches.  They  are  educating 
thousands  in  the  grace  of  personal  sympa- 
thy with  suffering,  in  the  art  of  intelligent 
helpfulness,  in  the  doctrine  that  possession 
of  any  sort  —  wealth,  health,  brains,  skill, 
wisdom,  —  is  a  stewardship ;  they  are  per- 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  291 

petually  and  persuasively  urging  that  to 
bear  one  another's  burdens  is  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  law  of  Christ,  and  ought 
therefore  to  be  the  fulfillment  of  the  law 
of  humanity.  Out  from  the  churches,  as 
a  consequence,  flows  a  beautiful  and  boun- 
tiful stream  of  compassionate  generosity 
towards  every  institution  which  seeks  to 
lift  weakness  into  strength,  and  to  protect 
innocence  from  the  snares  laid  in  its  path. 
Out  from  the  churches  comes  the  divine 
hopefulness  which,  all  through  Society, 
keeps  men  and  women  from  dismay  and 
desertion  when  the  tides  of  misery  and 
wickedness  roll  in  black,  cold,  and  strong. 
Out  from  the  churches  issues  the  warm 
pity  for  the  clumsy,  the  dull,  the  unskilled, 
who  have  only  a  capacity  for  suffering, 
but  whose  claim  upon  grace,  wit,  and  skill, 
must  not  go  unheeded.  And  up  to  the 
churches  confidently  goes  every  appeal  in 
behalf  of  helplessness  and  ignorance  and 
want.  The  black  man  with  his  pathetic 
plea  for  the  creation  of  a  chance  to  repair 
the  ravages  of  two  hundred  years  of  debas- 
ing slavery,  and  of  thirty  years  of  riotous 
freedom;    the  blind  crying  for  light  and 


292      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

the  deaf  mutely  asking  for  the  sight  that 
must  do  duty  for  sound ;  the  incurable, 
the  maimed,  the  poor,  the  little  children 
starved  and  stunted  in  their  cradles,  the 
struggling  schools  and  colleges  of  the 
South  and  West,  the  whole  world  s  want 
and  woe  —  all  are  there,  looking  to  the 
churches  for  a  help  that  is  never  refused. 
It  is  a  marvelous  sight,  a  stupendous  fact. 
That  these  churches  which  can  be  so  nar- 
row, so  intolerant,  so  theologically  stub- 
born, and  so  ecclesiastically  unyielding, 
can  yet  be  fountains  of  blessing  and  hope 
to  Society,  is  indisputable  proof  of  a  claim 
upon  the  allegiance  of  men  which  cannot 
rationally  be  refused.  For  Society  needs 
to  feel  throuQ-h  all  her  frame  the  beatins: 
of  a  warm  heart  as  well  as  to  possess  a 
clear  head.  Many  of  our  finest  social 
achievements  in  modern  times  have  been 
secured  to  us  by  the  insight  of  compassion 
and  the  civic  illumination  of  a  profound 
sympathy  with  those  whom  the  harsh  con- 
ditions of  congenital  defects,  of  accident, 
disease,  and  social  maladministration  have 
heavily  handicapped  in  the  race  of  life. 
The  man    who  cherishes  the    belief   that 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  293 

justice  is  enough  for  the  success  of  social 
evolution,  is  not  only  leaning  upon  a  reed, 
he  is  clinging  to  a  theory  which  Society  is 
fast  casting  aside  as  discredited  by  history, 
because  Society,  as  I  have  tried  to  show, 
is  consciously  and  unconsciously  energized 
by  the  Religion  which  speaks  on  this 
wise :  "  None  of  us  liveth  unto  himself 
and  no  man  dieth  unto  himself ;  for 
whether  one  member  suffers,  all  the  mem- 
bers suffer  with  it."  And,  because  the 
churches  are  the  chief,  though  not  the 
only,  producers  of  the  compassionate 
sympathy  which  works  miracles  of  social 
healing  and  social  progress,  no  one,  who 
believes  that  Society  ought  to  be,  and  will 
be,  something  better  and  more  beautiful 
than  a  chaos  of  warring  individuals,  classes, 
and  aims,  will  refuse  to  give  these  imper- 
fect, unsatisfactory,  yet  always  spiritually 
fruitful,  organizations  called  churches,  the 
allegiance  which  their  demonstrated  value 
to  Society  warrants  them  to  claim. 

I  have  no  authority  to  speak  for  the 
churches,  but  I  think  that  one  who  care- 
fully and  candidly  studies  the  history  of 
their  spirit  as  illustrated   in  the  concrete 


294      '^HE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION 

working  of  their  several  organizations,  and 
as  declared  In  their  more  enlightened  mod- 
ern treatment  of  their  dogmas,  is  com- 
petent to  assert  that  their  conception  of 
the  meaning,  value,  and  purpose  of  Reli- 
gion has  so  splendidly  expanded  that  their 
future  is  bound  to  be  more  beneficent 
than  their  past.  They  will  never  be  ex- 
empt from  a  legitimate  criticism,  never 
incorporate  into  the  body  of  their  beliefs 
all  the  truth  men  hold,  never  banish  from 
their  symbols  everything  other  men  long 
since  rejected,  never  be  ready  always  to 
acknowledge  that  sincerity  of  motive  and 
nobleness  of  aim  do  not  guarantee  wisdom 
of  method,  never  be  emancipated  com- 
pletely from  the  sentiment  which  cherishes 
the  past  because  it  is  venerable  and  dear, 
never  be  stripped  bare  of  the  tendency  to 
identify  an  enthusiasm  for  novelty  with 
devotion  to  the  truth ;  but  forever  and 
forever,  because  in  them  reside  a  profound 
faith  in  the  presence  of  God,  a  puissant 
force  of  righteousness,  and  a  divine  com- 
passion, they  will  be  the  great,  visible, 
practical  instruments  for  bringing  all  that 
is  best  in  man   and  Society  to   its    best. 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  295 

which  we  have  called  salvation,  and  which 
is  the  sole  and  splendid  purpose  for  which 
Religion  exists.  The  expansion  of  Reli- 
gion is  a  fact  of  history  —  like  the  expan- 
sion of  chemistry,  pyschology,  transporta- 
tion—  what  you  like — as  the  civilizations 
of  Europe  and  America  attest ;  and  when 
this  expansion  is  recognized,  its  profound 
significance  appreciated,  those  of  us  who 
have  either  complacently  tolerated  organ- 
ized Religion,  or  half  sadly,  half  scornfully 
deserted  it,  will  begin,  or  renew,  our  alle- 
giance to  It  with  a  more  intelligent  devo- 
tion and  a  chastened  spirit. 

We  have  heard  much  in  these  last  easfer 
years  of  the  duty  of  Religion  towards  the 
"  lapsed  masses "  of  our  great  cities,  the 
"  pagans  "  of  our  rural  communities.  The 
mission  to  these  Is  energetically  prosecuted 
with  varying  results.  The  churches  have 
awakened  to  the  peril  to  Society  of  enor- 
mous aggregations  of  people  who  have 
practically  abandoned  organized  Religion. 
One  prays  that  they  may  never  relax  their 
heroic  efforts,  and  that  every  organization 
which  seeks  to  draw  men  into  the  cleans- 
ing currents  of  civic  righteousness  and  reli- 


296      THE   EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

glous  faith  may  never  die ;  but  I  think  the 
most  significant  portent  in  the  rehgious 
firmament  to-day  is  the  abstention  from 
organized  ReHgion  of  so  many  people  in 
whom  culture,  education,  and  refinement 
are  in  admirable  evidence,  and  to  whom 
righteousness  enough  for  social  safety  is 
dear.  Organized  Religion  will  never  be 
content  —  ought  not  to  be  —  with  the 
allegiance  of  those  who  are  the  weakest 
members  of  Society;  she  longs  for  the 
support  and  loyalty  of  her  best  and  noblest 
sons.  She  must  have  them  if  she  would 
wield  her  strongest  influence.  She  cannot 
be  the  power  she  ought  to  be  if  those  to 
whom  she  has  the  best  right  to  appeal  shall 
ignore  her  call.  The  churches'  work  for 
men,  hi  this  world,  ought  to  be  warrant 
enough  for  the  sympathetic,  energetic 
support  of  those  who  cannot  accept  all 
the  articles  of  her  creeds,  or  be  helped  by 
the  use  of  all  her  provisions  for  worship. 
Let  the  churches  stand  convicted  of  im- 
perfection, like  our  government,  our  art, 
our  education,  our  society,  but  let  them 
also  be  generously  recognized  as  the  chief 
producers  of  the  human   faith,  the   civic 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION.  297 

righteousness,  and  the  social  compassion, 
which  are  the  sunhght  of  our  civiHzation. 
It  is  not  chivalry  to  allow  the  great  moral 
and  social  forces  of  our  time  to  struggle 
against  the  indifference  to  them  which  so 
much  of  our  culture  and  educated  compe- 
tence show ;  it  is  not  generous,  it  is  not 
just,  if  men  see,  as  in  these  lectures  I  have 
tried  to  set  forth,  that  Religion  has  out- 
o-rown  her  exclusive  devotion  to  ecclesias- 
ticism  and  dogma,  and  has  expanded  to 
the  human  conditions  which  confront  her 
on  every  side  —  eager,  with  a  divine  eager- 
ness, to  achieve  the  salvation  of  humanity, 
that  salvation  which  is  having  all  that  is 
best  in  a  man  at  its  best,  and  which  has 
been  the  inspiration  of  all  I  have  endeav- 
ored to  make  clear  as  a  rational  interpre- 
tation of  our  times. 

And  if  this  modest  treatment  of  Reli- 
gion as  the  Great  Force  of  Modern  Life,  as 
the  Creator  of  a  New  Anthropology,  as  the 
Unfaihng  Source  of  Righteousness,  as  the 
Hope  of  Industrialism,  as  the  Reconcilia- 
tion of  Individualism  and  Socialism,  and 
finally,  as  Uttering  Itself  Mainly  in  our 
Several  Churches,  has  been  of  help  to  any 


298      THE  EXPANSION  OF  RELIGION. 

one,  I  may  heartily  thank  God  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  standing  here  to  speak  to  you  — 
to  you  intelligent  believers  in  God  and  in 
the  Society  which,  through  belief  in  God, 
is  one  day  to  realize  itself  in  beautiful  per- 
fection upon  our  earth. 


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of  the  first  order.  —  Christian  Register. 

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Job,  translated  anew.  With  Introductory  Study,  Notes, 
etc.     i6mo,  gilt  top,  $1.25. 

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General  History  of  the  Christian  Religion  and 
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