Mankind has been in some respects indebted to them, but in other respects they have proved disappointing and deceptive. The world of to-day, with its manifold miseries and iniquities, is probably as good a world as the ethnic faiths could be expected to produce.

The social value of true religion.

In considering, therefore, the social benefits which may be hoped for through religious influence, it will be seen that everything depends upon the character of the religion itself. If it is not true in doctrine and pure in practice, if it is not gifted with spiritual vitality sufficiently persuasive and vivifying to control the moral nature, if it does not, in fact, lead men to the living and true God and produce in them a transformation of character after the likeness of the Eternal Goodness, then its powerlessness dooms it to failure. The absolute essential of a true and efficient religion is that it secures reconciliation between God and man, and produces in the latter a worthy moral character. In other words, it must put sinful man into right relations with God, and so renew and purify his nature by the processes of training and soul culture that he is spiritually made over. Whatever else it does, if it does not do this in the case of its individual believers and followers, it will inevitably fail to reconstruct society after the pattern of divine righteousness. There is no basis for purified social ethics except a transformed individual character. If, however, the religious life of a community is true to the higher standards of righteousness, a high and noble religious experience will prove an immense and inspiring force in the moulding of social development. In a word, true religion is a fountain of social and national ideals, and is the source of higher ethical impulses in the State. It becomes also a conservative restraint in times of passion and excitement; it creates a respect for law, and quickens the reverence for justice; it rebukes not only individual, but social and even national selfishness; it stimulates the aspiration after liberty; it checks the spirit of revenge and retaliation; it quickens the desire for peace and conciliation; it identifies true manhood with gentleness, true courage with forbearance, true manly and womanly character with virtue. The constructive forces of society are, therefore, moral; the genesis of all true and high enthusiasm for goodness is religious. is only through religious faith that the influence of invisible realities is brought to bear in an environment of visible things. Faith in immortality, that mighty secret of the soul, comes to us through religion. Only thus can men live here in this world "under the power of the 1 Cf. Hillis, "A Man's Value to Society," especially chap. i., "Elements of Worth in the Individual."

It

world to come." Supernaturalism, to be sure, may be an immense power for evil if it degenerates into superstition, but, on the other hand, it may be a magnificent stimulus for good. With God as its centre, and with the illuminating instruction of revelation poured upon it, it becomes wonderfully fruitful in motive power towards individual and social perfection. We turn now to a few specifications illustrative of the unhappy results upon society of a religious life which is destitute of the purifying and vitalizing forces of Christianity.

The true tests of social value in a religion.

1. DEGRADING CONCEPTIONS OF THE NATURE AND REQUIREMENTS OF RELIGION.-We have said that the influence of a religion upon the individual and social life depends, not only upon the power of its ascendancy over the conscience, but upon the character of the object it presents for worship and the subject-matter of its teaching. If it is conceded that there is but one living and true God, who is alone worthy of religious adoration and faith, and whose moral precepts provide the only safe and helpful guidance to the soul, it follows that if in place of this supreme and holy personal Creator as the spiritual centre of religious faith we have impersonal abstractions, perhaps vaguely personified, or pantheistic theories, or imaginary pantheons, or an environment of demons or fetiches, we have lost touch with a supreme, divine Personality. If we have nature-worship, idolatry, or some gross form of sensualism; if we have mere philosophical dogma, or an ethical code, however elaborate and severe, or pagan mysticism, however ecstatic, or rationalism, however pretentious and dogmatic, or mere humanitarianism, as the sum of religious duty, we are bound to have a moral impression which is worth to society just what the spiritual dignity of its central truth amounts to, and nothing more. We cannot vitalize the moral nature through a religious system which is itself without living spiritual forces. The subject-matter of religious teaching is also a test of its social value. If in place of the sweet, pure morality and the spiritual discipline of Christianity we have crude philosophical formulæ, or error posing as truth, or lax ethical principles, or compromises with the flesh, or external formalism, or sacerdotal pretensions, the result is depressing just in proportion to the degeneracy of the religious standards upheld and practised. Thus, if a religion presents ideals of character in its gods which are degrading; if its worship is compromising to true manhood and womanhood; if the creature is exalted to a dignity which belongs only to the Creator; if religion is

made a matter of forms and ceremonies, of feasts, fasts, festivals, and pilgrimages; if it fosters asceticism, mendicancy, monasticism, self-torture, or vain display; if it nourishes fanatical pride and intolerance, or sanctions persecution, cruelty, and moral defection; if it gives scope to sins of the flesh and severs morality from piety; if it regards a religious profession as valuable simply in proportion to the material advantages and immunities it brings; if it fails to regard humanitarian service as a part of religious duty, or in other ways lowers the scope and efficiency of its spiritual mission, then to that extent it is sure to fail as an uplifting force in society.

Some effects of ancestor-worship on Chinese society.

In the religious life of China, for example, whatever amiable and, were it not for its idolatrous trend, comparatively venial faults may be connected with the worship of ancestors, there are certain aspects of the subject which inflict a burden of needless fears and pessimistic alarms upon all Chinese society. The whole realm of the dead becomes peopled with spirits, not of ancestors alone, but of thousands who have died around them, and of this swarming host the Chinese stand in troubled awe and haunting fear. "They worship them just as they worship devils or demons to keep them away. They regard all such pretty much as they do the living beggars who come to their doors, and the sole object in contributing to either is to induce them to leave. Shopmen who do not wish to be annoyed by the professional beggars can be exempt by paying regularly in advance a certain sum to the king of the beggars, who will place a mark over their doors that is readily understood by all the craft of professionals. Thus the people hope, by contributing at regular periods to the comfort of the forlorn spirits in the other world, in like manner to be exempt from annoyance from them." 1 This burden of worshipping the dead imposes an enormous annual monetary outlay upon the Chinese, estimated by Dr. Yates at $151,752,000. This immense expenditure to quiet the spirits of the dead is not merely a tribute of filial piety or charity, but of servile fear. The living become the slaves of the dead, and all in the name of religion. Mr. Smith, in "Chinese Characteristics" (p. 184), expresses his conviction thus: "The true root of the Chinese practice of filial piety we believe to be a mixture of fear and self-love, two of the most powerful motives which can act on the human soul. The spirits must be worshipped on account of the power which they have for evil." Dr. Henry says in the same connection: "The motives for this devotion are not 1 The Rev. M. T. Yates, D.D., in an essay on "" Ancestral Worship," published in the "Report of the Shanghai Conference, 1877," p. 383.

found in reverence or affection for the deceased, but in self-love and fear of personal distress. The people are chained to the dead. They cannot move or act without encountering prosperous or adverse influences excited by the spirits of the dead. They are kept all their lifetime in fear, not of death, but of the dead."1 This dread of the spirits overshadows the whole life of the Chinese. It gives to geomancy its paralyzing influence, since it is dangerous to disturb the natural configuration of the earth, lest it excite the fatal animosity of lurking spirits of evil. Grading for a railway becomes presumptuous trifling with unseen foes; mining for coal, iron, copper, silver, and other metals is simply a blasphemous assault upon a stronghold of demons. At every turn the Chinaman has to reckon with impending calamity. This brooding apprehension gives to the priestly class a monopoly of power in the use of their supposed gift of exorcism, which they are not slow

to use.

Other illustrations from China.

Take, once more, the Chinese doctrine of metempsychosis, or the possible transmigration of the soul, either for better or for worse, after leaving the present life. Of this Dr. Martin remarks that he considers this doctrine, as generally held, "largely responsible for the prevalence of suicide, leading those who are hopelessly wretched to try their luck on another throw of the dice." 3 On the other hand, in the expectation of a reward and a betterment of his condition in the future state, the Chinaman looks to his Buddhist priest as the "established medium, through whom his merits may be demonstrated and made known in heaven, and from whose hands he looks to receive his official diploma of celestial promotion." Here again is slavery, and an opportunity for extortion which is not neglected. Once more, the

4

By

Chinese doctrine of merit robs morality of its power to command. special donations, or by gifts to charity or for religious purposes, the Chinese believe that they can make atonement for immoral lives, and so can purchase immunity from the condemnation of public opinion here, and from the judgments of a higher tribunal beyond.5 All this serves to illustrate the moral disorder which settles down upon society as the result of mistaken conceptions of the nature and requirements of religion.

1 "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 125. Cf. also Du Bose, "The Dragon, Image, and Demon," p. 80.

2 Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 150.

3 "A Cycle of Cathay,” p. 39.

4 Curzon, "Problems of the Far East," p. 377.

5 Moule, "New China and Old," p. 170.

The social influence of Hinduism.

In India the strict observance of caste amounts to a religion with the great mass of Hindus, so that social life is shot through and through with the exactions of that strange system. In other respects the religious ideas and practices of Hinduism are a degrading social incubus. There are features of Hindu worship which no society with any self-respect would tolerate, and which make social morality impossible without an utter break with religion. So mysterious and abominable are the tenets and the ceremonial observances of certain sects in India that educated Hindus themselves stand aghast when they undertake to refer to them in language addressed to Occidental readers.1 Saivism, or the worship of Siva, and Vaishnavism, or the worship of Vishnu, are mysteries into which the very passwords of entrance must be left unsaid." Saktism, or the worship of force personified as a goddess, as exemplified in the religious honors paid to Kal, Durga, and other goddesses, often represented in places of worship by living women, goes to an extreme which the Hindu himself recognizes as esoteric.3 Then there is the endless repetition of the names of gods, the worship of heroes, saints, and devotees, and the reverence paid to animals, including especially cows, monkeys, and serpents, and the religious honors rendered to sacred trees and various inanimate objects, all of which tend to lower the tone of religion and degrade it to the level of superstition, until its influence as a social uplift is practically destroyed. It has so little to do with the moral life of the people that religion goes one way and social morals go another. Fasts, festivals,

1 Mr. Bhattacharya, in his "Hindu Castes and Sects," designates a number of Hindu sects as disreputable," and in writing of the nature of Sakti worship he draws a deep veil of reserve over his references. Concerning the image of Siva which they worship, he remarks: "The true nature of such images is not generally known, though it is defined in unmistakable terms in the Dhyan, or formula for contemplating the Goddess Kali." In referring to the image of Kali, he states that popular ideas on the subject by no means reach the mysterious vileness it suggests. "What its real meaning is," he remarks, cannot possibly be explained here. Those inclined to dive into such filth must study the ritual for Kali worship" (p. 408). 2 Sir M. Monier-Williams, " Brahmanism and Hinduism,” pp. 73–94, 101, 136, 137, 143; Bhattacharya, "Hindu Castes and Sects," p. 368.

3 Sir M. Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," pp. 190-192; Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 94, 193-321; Bhattacharya, "Hindu Castes and Sects," pp. 407-413.

4 "In this land of mysticism, religion has long been dissociated in the popular mind from ordinary human conduct. To hundreds and thousands of people religion is a something apart from the moral conduct of a person. He may be mean, or selfish, or untruthful, he may cheat his neighbour or rob the poor widow, yet if he