defined, one of the most effective is the life and the word
of other men who are minded to be loyal to genuine causes, and who are
already, through the service of their common causes, brought together
in some form of spiritual brotherhood. The real unity of the life of
such fellow-servants of the Spirit is itself an instance of a
superhuman conscious reality; and its members are devoted to bringing
themselves into harmony with the purposes of the universe. Any {273}
brotherhood of men who thus loyally live in the Spirit is, from my
point of view, a brotherhood essentially religious in its nature,
precisely in proportion as it is practically moved by an effort to
serve--not merely the special cause to which its members, because of
their training and their traditions, happen to be devoted, but also
the common cause of all the loyal. Such a brotherhood, so far as it is
indeed human, and, therefore narrow, may not very expressly define
what this common cause of all the loyal is, for its members may not be
thoughtfully reflective people. But if, while rejoicing in their own
perfectly real fraternal unity, they are also practically guided by
the love of furthering brotherhood amongst men in general; if they
respect the loyalty of other men so far as they understand that
loyalty; if they seek, not to sow discord amongst the brethren of our
communities, but to be a city set on a hill, that not only cannot be
hid, but is also a model for other cities--a centre for the spreading
of the spirit of loyalty--then the members of such an essentially
fruitful brotherhood are actually loyal to the cause of causes. They
are a source of insight to all who know of their life, and who rightly
appreciate its meaning. And of such is the kingdom of loyalty. And the
communities which such men form and serve are essentially religious
communities. Each one is an example of the unity of the Spirit. Each
one stands for a reality that belongs to the superhuman world.

{274}

Since the variety of social forms which appear under human conditions
is an unpredictably vast variety, and since the motives which guide
men are endlessly complex, different communities of loyal people may
possess such a religious character and value in the most various
degrees. For it results from the narrowness of the human form of
consciousness that men, at any one moment, know not the whole of what
they mean. No sharp line can be drawn sundering the brotherhoods and
partne