, but which are both present even in their
fullest harmony. Were I to be taken out of myself so completely as to
forget myself, I should inevitably lose that sense of sympathy from
which arises the peculiar exultation of religious faith, a heightened
experience of the same type with the freedom and spontaneity that I
experience in the presence of those with whom I feel most in accord. The
further graces and powers of religion readily submit to a similar
description. My sense of positive sympathy expresses itself in an
attitude of well-wishing; living in an atmosphere of kindness I
instinctively endeavor to propagate it. My buoyancy is distinctly of
that quality which to a lesser degree is due to any sense of social
security; my power is that of one who works in an environment that
reenforces him. I experience the objective or even cosmical character of
my enterprises. They have a momentum which makes me their instrument
rather than their perpetrator. A paradoxical relation between religion
and morality has always interested observers of custom and history.
Religion is apparently as capable of the most fiendish malevolence as of
the most saintly gentleness. Fielding writes that,

"When religion is brought out or into daily life and used as
a guide or a weapon in the world it has no effect either for
good or evil. Its effect is simply in strengthening the heart,
in blinding the eyes, in deafening the ears. It is an
intensive force, an intoxicant. It doubles or trebles a man's
powers. It is an impulsive force sending him headlong down the
path of emotion, whether that path lead to glory or to infamy.
It is a tremendous stimulant, that is all."[74:13]

Religion does not originate life purposes or define their meaning, but
stimulates them by the same means that works in all corporate and social
activity. To work with the universe is the most tremendous incentive
that can appeal to the individual will. Hence in highly ethical
religions the power for good exceeds that of any other social and
spiritual agency. Such religion makes present, actual, and real, that
good on the whole which the individual otherwise tends to distinguish
from that which is good for _him_. In daily life the morally valid and
the practically urgent are commonly arrayed against one another; but the
ethical religion makes the valid urgent.

[Sidenote: Religious Instruments, Symbolism, and Modes of Conveyance.]

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