er than all light, but more veiled than all
mysteries; more exalted than all honor, but not to the exalted
in their own conceits. Now was my soul free from the gnawing
cares of seeking and getting. . . . And I babbled unto Thee my
brightness, my riches, and my health, the Lord my God."[69:11]

In these two passages we meet with religious conduct and with the
supreme religious experience, the direct worship of God. In each case
the heart of the matter is an individual's indubitable conviction of the
world's favorable concern for him. The deeper order of things
constitutes the real and the profoundly congenial community in which he
lives.

[Sidenote: Typical Religious Phenomena: Conversion.]

Sect. 22. Let us now apply this general account of the religious
experience to certain typical religious phenomena: _conversion_;
_piety_; and religious _instruments_, _symbolisms_, _and_ modes of
_conveyance_. Although recent study of the phenomenon of _conversion_
has brought to light a considerable amount of interesting material,
there is some danger of misconceiving its importance. The psychology of
conversion is primarily the psychology of crisis or radical alteration,
rather than the psychology of religion. For the majority of religious
men and women conversion is an insignificant event, and in very many
cases it never occurs at all. Religion is more purely present where it
is normal and monotonous. But this phenomenon is nevertheless highly
significant in that religion and irreligion are placed in close
juxtaposition, and the contribution of religion at its inception thereby
emphasized. In general it is found that conversion takes place during
the period of adolescence. But this is the time of the most sudden
expansion of the environment of life; a time when there is the awakening
consciousness of many a new presence. This is sometimes expressed by
saying that it is a period of acute self-consciousness. Life is
conscious of itself as over against its inheritance; the whole setting
of life sweeps into view. Some solution of the life problem, some coming
to terms with the universe, is the normal issue of it. Religious
conversion signifies, then, that in this fundamental adjustment a man
defines and accepts for his life a certain attitude on the part of the
universe. The examples cited by the psychologists, as well as the
generalizations which they derive, bear out this interpretation.

"General Booth