iful, forgiving, and
understanding friend is the God whom Christianity pictures.
God waits with infinite patience for the confessions and the
surrender of the contrite heart. The normal human desire
to rid one's self of a tormenting secret, to "exteriorize one's
rottenness," finds satisfaction on an exalted plane in confession
to God, or to his appointed ministers.

JOY AND ENTHUSIASM--FESTIVALS AND THANKSGIVINGS. So
far our account has been confined to experiences in which man
felt the need or fear of the divine, because of his own desires,
weaknesses, or sins. But humans find religious expression
for more joyous emotions. Even primitive man lives not
always in terror or in tribulation. There are occasions, such
as plentiful harvests, successful hunting, the birth of children,
which stir him to expressions of enthusiastic appreciation and
gratitude toward the divine. Some of the so-called Dionysiac
festivals in ancient Greece are examples of the enthusiasm,
joy, and abounding vitality to which religion has, among so
many other human experiences, given expression. In the
religion of the Old Testament, again, we find that the Psalmist
is time and again filled with rejoicing:

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endureth
forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from
the hand of the enemy.
And he gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the
west, from the north and from the south.
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no
city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered
them out of their distresses.
And he led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city
of habitation.
O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his
wonderful works to the children of men.
For he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry heart with
goodness.

Nor need this rejoicing be always an explicit thanksgiving
for favors received. It may be, as were the dithyrambic
festivals of Greece, the riotous overflow of enthusiasm, a
joyous, sympathetic exuberance with the vital processes of
Nature. Dionysos stood for fertility, life, gladness, all the
positive, passionate, and jubilant aspects of Nature. And the
well-known satyr choruses, the wine and dance and song of
the Greek spring festivals, are classic and beauti