icion that all creeds are
outworn.

This dislike of dogma may cloak an unwarranted scepticism as to the
possibility of reaching truth in religion, but it is symptomatic of the
longing for larger sympathy and broader fellowship. It is but the
extreme expression of a temper which has reduced the angularity of those
who are very far from surrendering or belittling definite beliefs and
doctrines. The denominationalist who used to have no hesitation in
claiming a monopoly of the truth for his particular Church, now falters
where he firmly stood. We are more ready to recognize our limitations. A
growing number of thoughtful minds appreciate Lord Acton's position when
he wrote to Mary Gladstone: 'I scarcely venture to make points against
the religion of other people, from a curious experience that they have
more to say than I know, and from a sense that it is safer to reserve
censure for one's own which one understands more intimately, having a
share in responsibility and action.' This more chastened mood opens the
way to fresh understandings in the religious world. Whence does this
change in atmosphere originate?

In tracing out the causes of this new temper in religion, a first place
may legitimately be assigned to the growth of the scientific spirit. In
considering science as a source of unity, it is a mistake to dwell
exclusively on the creation of a body of common knowledge. To know the
same thing may do little to unite men. To attack problems in the same
way, and to share the same spirit of free inquiry, the same reverence
for fact, the same resolute endeavour to surmount prejudice, issue in a
far closer bond of union. Science unites men even more closely by its
spirit than by its achievement. The application of scientific method to
the literary and historical study of the Bible, as well as in the
psychological analysis of religious experience, has called into being in
every Church and every land, groups of people who approach the
subject-matter of their faith from the same angle and under the guidance
of the same mental discipline. As a result of the critical movement a
man finds his foes in his own and his friends in his neighbours'
ecclesiastical household. The study of religion renews international
contact and requires international co-operation as much as any other
branch of science. It is possible to detect differing characteristics in
the scholarship of the leading nations, though it may be doubted whether
these