the present scientific facts were obtained. The suppositions of astronomers led to the location and naming of planets before they had been discovered through their telescopes; they postulated dark stars which are not yet apparent to the senses. Chemists have discovered new elements by reason of suppositions that were entertained because of abnormal results from their experiments. The suppositions of Einstein are now being subjected to extensive scrutiny, out of which new facts will be established. In short, progress in all the sciences has been attained through speculations that had no tangible proof behind them; they were stimulations from the fringe surrounding the dominant impulses that affected the brain patterns.

The consistent Christian formulates a God to whom he ascribes all that his sensory patterns seem to tell him are the highest and best, finding an ecstacy in contemplating those qualities, which are in truth but the impulses which well up from his sympathetic system. So with all other religions which may be accounted for by a "feeling after God if haply we may find him."

Is not the Supreme Essence, as exemplified in the imponderable attributes, the God that humanity has always been seeking? Do we not find in all religions, in all writings that have gripped the feelings of many people, however much distorted and misinterpreted in language, befogged by ignorance and weaknesses of a poorly or ganized sensory system, as re-interpreted in accordance with the latest science, give proof of this indwelling Essence? poetry, music and other fine arts, which appeal to and are supported by the inner feelings and impulses of man, proclaim that all embracing influence of the imponderable qualities? This is a God, divested of all anthropomorphic features, that can be reverenced. worshipped, loved and followed by the scientist, by the idealists, by the atheists and agnostics, by the ignorant and the learned, without violence to their acquirements and which will accord with their inner recognition of the "Beautiful, the Good, and the True?"

A

THE OUTLOOK FOR RELIGION

BY CURTIS W. REESE

CURSORY survey shows religion in a rather bad plight. Even a thorough searching leaves an advocate of religion somewhat puzzled as to its future. Obviously this is a testing time for things ecclesiastical. Always there have been periodically crises in religion. Prophets have frequently dug new channels for the streams of faith, and reformers have often wrecked temples from si to pinnacle. But the revolutionary process today seems to be vastly more determined than heretofore; and what is more significant, it is more thoroughgoing and intelligent.

I

One who wants to know how religion fares today need not look far from home. Everywhere are the evidences of lost power and prestige. Especially is this the case with the church and other organized expressions of religion.

How is the church viewed by the ordinary man? While the ordinary man is not an authority on theological matters, it is still true. that the church cannot fare very well without him. His opinion, therefore, should be sought and valued. Now the ordinary man simply does not take the church seriously, nor does he take religion as he understands it seriously. There are, of course, notable exceptions, but this is the rule. The ordinary man really believes in "human kindness large among the sons of men", and he has the feeling that the order of things cosmic to some extent sustains such values. But he finds the church inactive or hostile to his specific aspirations for a larger life. He finds the church more active in devising prohibitions than in promoting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Consequently, while a certain strain of mysticism

may cause him to retain nominal relations with the church, his heart is not there.

It is likewise with authors of note. Where is the modern literature of commanding importance that glorifies the institutions of religion? In vain does one search the volumes of Hardy, Shaw, Wells, Hergesheimer, Drieser, and Lewis for evidence of confidence in the influence of organized religion. A frontal attack like Elmer Gantry follows a period of silent contempt as in Main Street.

The primary assumption of the enormous number of magazine articles dealing with religion is that the church and its allied institutions are not functioning adequately, that the ointment is verily infested with pestiferous insects. The attitude of the press is distinctly not favorable to the church.

But what is still more serious, competent, honest and devoted students of life, servants of humanity, frankly regard the church as a social problem. Witness Bertrand Russell. In London he delivers an address telling why he is not a Christian, and incidentally challenging the foundations of the old religions. Page the whole world of humanitarian leaders, and only a small percentage will be found actively interested in organized religion.

And of still more significance, the whole lot of scientists and philosophers are little more than patronizing when not actually hostile.

II

The causes of these gloomy phases of the present religious situation have been searched for by many persons both inside and outside the church and are fairly well understood.

1. The first and perhaps the greatest cause of the lack of vital interest in organized religion is the other-worldly emphasis which prevailed for so long. This world was a period of probation only. It was not to be considered home. It was a vale of tears. Real interest was centered on heaven and things to come. Poverty and disease were borne as temporary inconveniences. The day of compensation was ahead. In its neurotic phases this other-worldly emphasis sold all that it had and gave the poor or made no plans beyond the expected day of deliverance. Songs, prayer, sermons, books neglected the affairs of this world and emphasized other-world relations. One of the most famous of all sermons was entitled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

The reverse swing of the pendulum was bound to come, and as is

usual it went too far in the other direction. The church became all-too-worldly in many respects; that is to say it took over cheap and tawdry methods of the world. In some instances the church became "gas stations" on the way to heaven. Instead of adapting divine things to human needs the church adapted things all-too-human to divine needs. The resulting impression was not that the world needs religion but that religion needs the world. Cheap sensations and lowered ideals will never bring religion back into power and influence. Religion must foreswear the shallow and ephemeral and get a grasp on great issues of commanding importance in world affairs. Let there be no mistake on this point. Lowered standards do not bring success. Great causes make great men and great movements. It is now common-place to say that preaching is not what it once was. Without conceding too much we may grant that one cause of the decline of religious influence is the prevalence of mediocre preaching, and this in turn is due in part to the neglect of great issues.

In a period when industry has produced its greatest leaders, the church has been strikingly lacking in great leaders. Creative imagination in ecclesiastical affairs was never less in evidence than now.

All in all religion, especially in its organized expression, needs much searching of heart and mind-especially the latter.

In spite of these gloomy shadows on the surface, underneath. mighty changes are taking place, and in my judgment religion is in a fair way to out distance its past record for good in human affairs.

1. Perhaps the most significant thing today is the redefinition of religion and the expansion of religious conceptions. The understanding of religion as the binding of man to a supernatural being is changing to the understanding of religion as the binding of man to those causes and ideals that have significance for his kind in personal and social quests. Whatever may prove to be the cosmic sitration, there are gropings to be satisfied, there are loves to be fostered, there are friendships to be cultivated, there are physical and mental needs to be satisfied; and more and more we find the need for increased intelligence and more accurate technique in meeting these needs. Religion is man's effort to defeat whatever foes there are and to achieve whatever goals may be.

2. Along with this redefinition of religion is a corresponding expansion of religious concepts that bids fair to throw religion actively into every phase of hur While these expanded conceptions

are commonplace in liberal circles, it is nevertheless profitable that we should from time to time focus attention upon them.

(1) The idea of the spiritual is coming to include the whole of life's aspirations, strivings, and achievements. Happily the whole dualistic arrangement is passing, we had God and the devil, heaven and hell, sacred and secular, spiritual and carnal; and these divisions were largely arbitrary and not moral in nature. But the old warfare between the sacred and the secular is drawing to a close. We are coming to see that the divine was never more sacred than when engaged in secular pursuits. The fireside and the more seemly aspect of home, the anvil and the less romantic tools of toil, the plow and the laboratory, the school and the press, the state, the nation, and the world, are all altars and crosses and incense and holies of holies when made so by noble purposes. Ecclesiastical practices and paraphernalia are never holy unless made so by the service of worthy ends.

Let it be understood that this change definitely is in the direction of more not less spirituality. There are those who cannot enjoy themselves in pleasant past-times without feeling God-forsaken. Also there are those who give no thought to the divine in ordinary diversion. Of the two groups the latter is to be preferred; but better still is the mind that consciously finds spiritual values throughout the whole of life, and this type of mind is increasing.

The most ardent anti-religious man cannot possibly object to spirituality when it comes to stand for the very values that he himself holds. The world will be spiritualized not by veiling the spiritual in mysteries and wonders, but by giving a divine glow to the pleasures and the tasks of ordinary life. Everything is holy that is consecrated to human well-being.

(2) Closely related to the expansion of the idea of the spiritual is the expansion of the attitude of reverence to include within its scope all that is humanly worthful. Skeptics have rightfully resented the seeming limitations of the reverent attitude to deity, and holy places and the like. But religion now specifically holds that there can be no true reverence for deific realms if there is none for human realms, that the essential processes of life are all to be revered, that all useful places should be viewed with wholesome

reverence.

The old type of worship, confined largely to the Sunday hour in church, is discounted save when it eventuates in worshipful living