gs as fit subjects of human rights and
privileges.' In other words, Morality, Morality alone, Morality
without any sanction from Above, or any hope from Beyond, is the
all-sufficient strength and ennoblement of man.

But what is the superstructure which Dr. Stanton Coit proceeds to build
upon this foundation? One would naturally expect that Prayer and
Churches and Sacraments would have no place. But these are exactly
what he insists on retaining; these will apparently be more important,
more necessary, in the future than in the past. 'We should appropriate
and adapt the materials furnished us by the rites and ceremonies of the
historic Church. As the woodbird, bent on building her nest, in lieu
of better materials makes it of leaves and of feathers from her breast,
so may we use what is familiar, old, {43} and close at hand. It is all
ours; and the homelike beauty of the Church of the future will be
enhanced by the ancient materials wrought into its new forms.' So much
enhanced, indeed, that most people will be inclined to tolerate the new
forms simply because of the ancient materials which are allowed to
remain. Among the ancient materials which Dr. Coit appropriates or
adapts, prayer occupies a prominent place. And he is severe upon
those, _e.g._, Comte and Dr. Congreve, who would banish petition from
the sphere of worship. He delights in pointing out that, in despite of
themselves, they include requests for personal blessings. Nor is
prayer to be a mere aspiration or inarticulate longing of the soul.
'No mental activity can become definite, coherent, and systematic, and
remain so, except it be embodied and repeated in words.... A petition
that does not, or cannot, or will not, formulate itself in words, and
let the lips move to shape them, and the {44} voice to sound them, and
the eye to visualise them on the written or printed page, becomes soon
a mere torpor of the mind, or a meaningless movement of blind unrest,
or a trick of pretending to pray. Perfected prayer is always spoken.'

To whom, or to what, this prayer, uttered or unexpressed, is to be
offered, may be difficult of comprehension. It is not to God, as we
have hitherto employed that sacred name; but Dr. Coit insists that the
word 'God' shall be retained, and that we have no right to deny to this
God the attribute of Personality. 'Any one who worships either a
concrete social group or an abstract moral quality may justly protest
against the