ights of Thee,
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.

It is the aim of this movement, for the establishment of ethical
religion, to re-discover to man's wondering eyes the imperishable
beauty of a religion allied to no transitory elements, wrapped up in no
individual philosophy, bounded by no limitations of time, place or
race, but ever the self-same immutable reality, though manifesting
itself in most diverse ways, the sense of the infinite in man, and the
communion of his spirit with that alone.

Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet,
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.

What has philosophy, creed or council to say to that high and ennobling
conception? Shall "articles" and "confessions" venture to intrude
there in the innermost sanctuary of man's spiritual being and dictate
to him what he shall hold or not hold of a reality about which he alone
is conscious? What has the conflict about the Hebrew cosmogony, of
Genesis, baptismal regeneration, or the validity of orders to do with
that serene peace in which religion alone can dwell? It were profanity
surely to intrude such strife of words in a sanctuary so sacred as that.

One of our saddest thoughts as we reflect on the "little systems," so
called, of the day, must be that they have so inconceivably belittled
religion, tearing away that veil of reverence which should ever
enshrine the Holy of Holies. The only atmosphere in which religion can
really live is one of intense reverence, and when we hear of revivals,
pilgrimages, elaborate ritualism (I am afraid Emerson describes it as
"peacock ritual"), we may safely doubt whether the soul of religion be
there. It is an excitement, a large advertisement for one or other of
the many ecclesiastical corporations of the age, but where is the
lonely communing with the Unseen, as revealed in the story of Jesus or
the Buddha? The reason why Jesus is so fascinating a memory to his
church disciples is that he is so wholly unlike them. So little is
there really spiritual and suggestive of the higher life in what is
exclusively ecclesiastical, that in their best moments men
instinctively turn away from it, and find inspiration and peace in
quiet thoughts about the Master, who said, "The Kingdom of God," that
is the kingdom of righteousness, or the ethical church, "cometh not
with observation," and "The Kingdom of God is within you". The more
inward religion is,