erior to its
best members: but it will be superior to the weakest, and with its
leader will possess a dynamic character and reproductive power which he
could never have exhibited alone. It should form a compact organization,
both fervent and business-like; and might take as its ideal a
combination of the characteristic temper of the contemplative order,
with that of active and intelligent Christianity as seen in the best
type of social settlement. This double character of inwardness and
practicality seems to me to be essential to its success; and
incorporation will certainly help it to be maintained. The rule should
be simple and unostentatious, and need indeed be little more than the
"heavenly rule" of faith, hope, and charity. This will involve first the
realization of man's true life within a spiritual world-order, his utter
dependence upon its realities and powers of communion with them; next
his infinite possibilities of recovery and advancement; last his duty of
love to all other selves and things. This triple law would be applied
without shirking to every problem of existence; and the corporate spirit
would be encouraged by meetings, by associated prayer, and specially I
hope by the practice of corporate silence. Such a group would never
permit the intrusion of the controversial element, but would be based on
mutual trust; and the fact that all the members shared substantially the
same view of human life, strove though in differing ways for the same
ideals, were filled by the same enthusiasms, would allow the problems
and experiences of the Spirit to be accepted as real, and discussed with
frankness and simplicity. Thus oases of prayer and clear thinking might
be created in our social wilderness, gradually developing such power and
group-consciousness as we see in really living religious bodies. The
group would probably make some definite piece of social work, or some
definite question, specially its own. Seeking to judge the problem this
presented in the Universal Spirit, it would work towards a solution,
using for this purpose both heart and head. It would strive in regard to
the special province chosen and solution reached to make its weight
felt, either locally or nationally, in a way the individual could never
hope to do; and might reasonably hope that its conclusions and its
actions would exceed in balance and sanity those which any one of the
members could have achieved alone.

I think that these groups wo