rships, and other social organisations which men devise, into
those which for the men concerned are consciously religious, and those
which, by virtue of their absence of interest in the larger and deeper
loyalties are secular. The test whereby such a distinction should be
made is in principle a definite test. But to apply the test to every
possible case requires a searching of human hearts and a just estimate
of deeds and motives whereto, in our ignorance, we are very generally
inadequate.

A business firm would seem to be, in general, no model of a religious
organisation. Yet it justly demands loyalty from its members and its
servants. If it lives and acts merely for gain, it is secular indeed.
But if its business is socially beneficent, if its cause is
honourable, if its dealings are honest, if its treatment of its allies
and rivals is such as makes for the confidence, the cordiality, and
the stability of the whole commercial life of its community and (when
its influence extends so far) of the world, if {275} public spirit and
true patriotism inspire its doings, if it is always ready on occasion
to sacrifice gain for honour's sake--then there is no reason why it
may not become and be a genuinely and fervently religious brotherhood.
Certainly a family can become a religious organisation; and some of
the most ancient traditions of mankind have demanded that it should be
one. There is also, and justly, a religion of patriotism, which
regards the country as a divine institution. Such a religion serves
the unity of the spirit in a perfectly genuine way. Some of the most
momentous religious movements in the world's history have grown out of
such an idealised patriotism. Christianity, in transferring local
names from Judea to a heavenly world, has borne witness to the
sacredness that patriotism, upon its higher levels, acquires.

In brief, the question whether a given human brotherhood is a
religious institution or not is a question for that brotherhood to
decide for itself, subject only to the truth about its real motives.
Has its cause the characters that mark a fitting cause of loyalty?
Does it so serve its cause as thereby to further the expression of the
divine unity of the spirit in the form of devoted human lives, not
only within its own brotherhood, but as widely as its influence
extends? Then it is an essentially religious organisation. Nor does
the extent of its worldly influence enable you to decide how far it
m