in various degrees a religious sense. That is
to say, that they have moments when they are conscious of the
Fatherhood of God, of redemption from sin, of the indwelling of a Holy
Spirit. They have moments when they see all that they might be and are
not--moments when they would rather be pure than impure, unselfish
rather than self-absorbed, kind rather than unkind, brave rather than
cowardly; moments when they perceive, however dimly, that happiness
lies in activity and kindliness, and when they would give much never to
have stained their conscience with evil. It seems to me that school
services ought to aim at developing these faint and faltering dreams,
at increasing the sense of the beauty and peace of holiness, at giving
them some strong and joyful thought that will send them back to the
world of life resolved to try again, to be better and worthier.

I am afraid that I do not value the science of liturgical tradition
very much. The essence of all science is that it should be progressive;
our problems and needs are not the same as mediaeval problems and
needs. The whole conception of God and man has broadened and deepened.
Science has taught us that nature is a part of the mind of God, not
something to be merely contended against; again, it has taught us that
man has probably not fallen from grace into corruption, but is slowly
struggling upwards out of darkness into light. Again, we no longer
think that everything was created for the use and enjoyment of man; we
know now of huge tracts of the earth where for thousands of years a
vast pageant of life has been displaying itself without any reference
to humanity at all. Then, too, as a great scientist has lately pointed
out, the dark and haunting sense of sin, that drove devotees to the
desert and to lives of the grimmest asceticism, has given place to a
nobler conception of civic virtue, has turned men's hearts rather to
amendment than to repentance; well, that, in the face of all this, we
should be limited to the precise kind of devotions that approved
themselves to mediaeval minds seems to me to be a purely retrograde
position.

Then as to arranging services in order to cultivate the power of
continuous prayer among boys, I think it a thoroughly unpractical
theory. In the first place, for one boy so trained you blunt the
religious susceptibilities of ninety-nine others. Boys are quick,
lively, and bird-like creatures, intolerant above all things of tedium
and s