would this give us of bridging the gulf that divides Protestants from Catholics, and both from Jews and free thinkers? Yet what we need is a principle which shall bind together all the members of the nation, and, in time, all the nations of the earth.

Our only hope seems to lie in discovering some fresh standpoint from which the doctrines and disciplines of all faiths may be seen in a new light and re-valued. This I have attempted to do by raising the question of the sociological function of religion. My first inquiry is not as to the truth of the creeds, but as to their reason for existence. What are those needs which have urged men into religious fellowships, and induced them to elaborate the various inadequate philosophies called theologies, and the numerous systems of worship, prayer and sacrament? Can these needs be isolated and studied apart from the attempts made to satisfy them? If so, may it not be possible to discover means of meeting them upon which there could be the same kind of practical agreement as there is in regard to the findings of physical science?

In seeking to answer these questions, I have availed myself in this volume of the luminous and helpful method of the psychological students of religion. This is the method of distinguishing between experience and its theoretical interpretation. I have ventured to assume that the creeds and doctrines of all the Churches are attempts to precipitate into conceptual form certain experiences of the human spirit, certain demands which it makes upon the universe, and the response of the universe to those demands. Now since the creeds are unverifiable (because their propositions cannot be subjected to experimental investigation), it seemed necessary

to turn direct to the experience out of which they grew. Moreover, it seems probable that the study of the disciplinary practices of the Churches, their sacramental and other devices for placing the individual in contact with the sources of spiritual strength,-will bring us directly into the presence of those needs in response to which organized religion has functioned.

This book is thus an attempt to bring to light some of the verifiable factors in religion. Its suggestion is that the Churches should concentrate exclusively upon these. To those who are accustomed to find mental rest and satisfaction in the detailed creeds of the older Churches, such a suggestion may sound chilling and disenchanting in the extreme. It will not do, however, to make the wilfulness of a pampered appetite our guide when truth and the other sovereign interests of mankind are at stake. No doubt it might have been possible, in the days of the infancy of science, to construct a much grander and more fascinating view of the universe than was then verifiable, if wilfulness and imagination had been substituted for the slow and plodding method of investigation and experiment. Not only, however, would such an unreal world have been fruitless, but it would also have constituted a most effectual and permanent barrier to the attainment of that truth, transcending in grandeur all possible imaginary constructions, which the slower method has gradually won.

Now, theologies elaborated in the days of alchemy and astrology, and by the same a priori methods as those employed by the alchemist and the astrologer, must needs bear to the undiscovered truth such a relation as alchemy and astrology bear to chemistry and astronomy. And just as, in the process of converting those

romances into our sciences, the first step was to cast overboard all mere speculation and guesswork, and to concentrate upon the tiny fragments of assured truth, so to-day we must begin by denying ourselves the luxury of indulgence in that which is unverifiable. We now stand in religion where the fifteenth century stood in physical science. We are only at the stage of beginning to invent the new instruments and to devise the new methods of inquiry by which we may at last attain to as full a body of ascertained truth in religion as we have won in our knowledge of the physical world.

It is because of an intense conviction that religion is suffering through our failure to recognize the need of new methods and instruments, that I have in these pages. given so large a place to the question of intellectual honesty, and of that kind of sincerity which consists in the rigorous separation of what is known from what is merely assumed. Hence my assertion of the claim of Socrates to rank beside Jesus Christ as a Saviour of the world, in the conviction that his method and secret are not only an integral part of any true religion, but a part which, under present circumstances, needs emphasis more than any other factor.

This book, I am aware, can scarcely justify its title. The subject of the Religion of Experience is too vast for adequate treatment within the limits I have imposed upon myself. I am in the dilemma remarked by Seeley in the Preface to his Natural Religion: "An author has always to decide whether he will write short or long; and it is a choice of evils. If he writes long the public will decline to read him; if he writes short they will misunderstand him." My only possible justification is that this book, like several others of recent date, may

supply hints and suggestions which, if worked out by a multitude of other thinkers, will at last lead to the elaboration of the new philosophy, psychology and sociology of religion. I am chiefly anxious that the book shall be recognized as an essay towards a basis of peace and cooperation. The day of the warfare between the provisional hypotheses of science and the speculations of theology (which was mistaken for a warfare between science and religion) is over. The time has come to seek peace upon the only possible worthy basis: that of the acceptance of principles recognized as valid by both belligerents, and the application of those principles to the task of achieving human salvation, by giving to the whole of life a spiritual interpretation and a spiritual orientation that will call forth a devotion at once rational and enthusiastic.

My hope is that this volume may secure the attention of laymen of all denominations, and of those who are not members of any religious organization. To experts in theology and philosophy I fear I have little to offer that is profound enough to merit their consideration. The salvation of religion, however, must come, in my judgment, from the laity, and from those clergy who, by the multiplicity of their tasks, are prevented from becoming specialists in its ultimate problems. Both the clergy and the unchurched laity may, indeed, be weary of the theme. I can but hope that there may be in these pages enough freshness of treatment and suggestion of points of view which have not hitherto been emphasized, to engage their interest. My desire is to set their minds working in fresh directions, rather than to convert them to agreement with my own views on points of detail.

As my colleagues in the Chicago Ethical Society have

generously undertaken the distribution of a number of copies of this book, it is due to them to state that these pages contain a frank expression of my own convictions, the censure of which must fall exclusively upon myself. The Ethical Movement is one in which the members are challenged to do their own thinking. The leaders are neither expected to supply a body of dogmas to their congregations nor to submit their own minds to collective coercion. Hence the distribution of this work by my colleagues does not commit them to acceptance of the more debatable positions it sets forth.

My obligations are too extensive for detailed specification. It is this fact, and not any deficiency of gratitude, which deters me from mentioning names here. I cannot, however, deny myself the pleasure of thanking my friend Mr. Arthur Little Hamilton for his constant help and encouragement, and in particular for his practical assistance in reading and criticizing this volume in manuscript and proof.

CHICAGO, June, 1916.

H. J. B.