a high and honoured place among institutions. And so it
has fallen a victim to bribery and intrigue and worldly power.

I do not for a moment say that it does not even thus inspire thousands
of hearts to simple, loving, and heroic conduct. The secret is far too
vital to lose its power. It is a vast force in the world, and indeed
survives its capture in virtue of its truth and beauty. But instead of
being the most free, the most independent, the most individualistic
force in the world, it has become the most authoritarian, the most
traditional, the most rigid of systems. As in the tale of Gulliver, it
is a giant indeed, and can yet perform gigantic services; but it is
bound and fettered by a puny race.

Further, there are some who would divide religion sharply into two
aspects, the objective and the subjective. Those who emphasize the
objective aspect, would maintain that the theory that underlies all
religion is the idea of sacrifice. This view is held strongly by Roman
Catholics and by a large section of Anglicans as well. They would hold
that the duty of the priest is the offering of this sacrifice, and that
the essential truth of the Christian revelation was the sacrifice of
God Himself upon God's own altar. This sacrifice, this atonement, they
would say, can be and must be made, over and over, upon the altar of
God. They would hold that this offering had its objective value, even
though it were offered without the mental concurrence of those for whom
it was offered. They would urge that the primal necessity for the
faithful is that by an act of the will,--not necessarily an emotional
act, but an act of pure and definite volition,--they should associate
themselves with the true and perfect sacrifice; that souls that do this
sincerely are caught up, so to speak, into the heavenly chariot of God,
and move upward thus; while the merely subjective and emotional
religion is, to continue the metaphor, as if a man should gird up his
loins to run in company with the heavenly impulse. They would say that
the objective act of worship may have a subjective emotional effect,
but that it has a true value quite independent of any subjective
effect. They would say that the idea of sacrifice is a primal instinct
of human nature, implanted in hearts by God Himself, and borne witness
to by the whole history of man.

Those who, like myself, believe rather in the subjective side, the
emotional effect of religion, would hold that the i