tolerance and persecution which lay heavily upon the human
race. No one who values the freedom to live his own life in his own
way should cast aspersions upon the influence of that school of
thought. Though they argued erroneously about the nature and essence
of religion, we must not forget that they emancipated the human soul
from the shackles of spiritual bondage.

On the other hand, our gratitude to them cannot blind us to their
superficiality and inexperience in the matter of religion. Nineteenth
century thought, with its emphasis upon historic development, exposed
the fallacies and weaknesses of the method they employed to interpret
religious phenomena. The distinction between natural and revealed
religion was an arbitrary one, and the conception of priestly
fabrications a mere figment of the imagination. Historical research
has established that all the great world faiths or revealed religions
have followed laws of development that have been in accord with the
circumstances and mentality of those who professed them, and in that
sense have been perfectly natural. Instead of being the product of
fraud and wilful deceit, the established religions were seen to be the
outcome of a healthy enthusiasm and deep sincerity. The limitations of
knowledge and experience, which marked the earlier expressions of
religious life, were, from the historical point of view, more than
atoned for by the inner worth and sincerity that had prevailed in
former days. In fact, so far did the historical conception change
men's attitude that, upon finding themselves sophisticated and torn by
doubt, they looked back longingly to former ages, when religion had
brought inward calm and serenity. As a consequence of this reaction to
the disintegrating tendencies of eighteenth century rationalism, a
renewed appreciation for the religion of the past made itself felt
among the circles of the cultured, particularly those of Germany and
England, and the institutions in which the spirit of the past clothed
itself were given a new lease of life.

_The Historic Method Is Found Wanting_

THE adoption by religion of the historic method thus represents the
second stage in its process of self-adjustment. It now appealed to
man's natural desire not to allow his past to sink into oblivion.
Nothing is so humanizing as memory. He that is engrossed only in the
future and would make it the only standard of value, he who has no
patience with anything that interfe