sure in our
young people a steady and harmonious spiritual growth. The "conversion"
or psychic convulsion which is sometimes regarded as an essential
preliminary of any vivid awakening of the spiritual consciousness, is
really a tribute exacted by our wrong educational methods. It is a proof
that we have allowed the plastic creature confided to us to harden in
the wrong shape. But if, side by side and in simplest language, we teach
the conceptions: first, of God as the transcendent yet indwelling Spirit
of love, of beauty and of power; next, of man's constant dependence on
Him and possible contact with His nature in that arduous and loving act
of attention which is the essence of prayer; last, of unselfish work and
fellowship as the necessary expressions of all human ideals--then, I
think, we may hope to lay the foundations of a balanced and a wholesome
life, in which man's various faculties work together for good, and his
vigorous instinctive life is directed to the highest ends.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 146: Spencer: "Education," Cap. 1.]

[Footnote 147: "The Cloud of Unknowing," Cap. 39.]

[Footnote 148: Ruysbroeck: "The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage,"
Bk. I, Caps. 12-24.]

CHAPTER VIII

THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE SOCIAL ORDER

We have come to the last chapter of this book; and I am conscious that
those who have had the patience to follow its argument from the
beginning, may now feel a certain sense of incompleteness. They will
observe that, though many things have been said about the life of the
Spirit, not a great deal seems to have been said, at any rate directly,
about the second half of the title--the life of to-day--and especially
about those very important aspects of our modern active life which are
resumed in the word Social. This avoidance has been, at least in part,
intentional. We have witnessed in this century a violent revulsion from
the individualistic type of religion; a revulsion which parallels
upon-its own levels, and indeed is a part of, the revolt from Victorian
individualism in political economic life. Those who come much into
contact with students, and with the younger and more vigorous clergy,
are aware how far this revolt has proceeded: how completely, in the
minds of those young people who are interested in religion, the Social
Gospel now overpowers all other aspects of the spiritual life. Again
and again we are assured by the most earnest among them that in their
vie