Heart and Soul | Page 9

is superficial thinking. The causes for the change
were not within the churches, but outside, and the ministers of the
gospel, though human beings like the rest of us, were among the very
last to take cognizance of them.
The doubts and questions and misgivings evidently began, some time
ago, among practical, thoughtful minds of scientific training. Certain
statements in the Bible, in the light of modern investigation, were
found to be inaccurate. If parts of it were founded on the ignorance of
men of more or less primitive instruction, it is easy to see where this
line of reasoning was bound to lead. In addition to the statements of
fact, many of the ideas and assumptions set forth in the Bible seemed
crude, narrow, cruel--as primitive as the lives of those early peoples
among whom it came into existence.
The moral code contained in it--the essence of its religious
significance--was undoubtedly sound and eternally true and very
possibly inspired from on high, but the details, the images, the formal
conceptions were decidedly antiquated and unimpressive to the
enlightened spirit of our advanced civilization.
This growing point-of-view began to express itself quite noticeably in
the past generation, at least in America. Thoughtful men, when they
arrived at it, were inclined to keep it to themselves. They did not care to
disturb the simple, whole-souled faith of their wives and mothers and
children. But when these men went to church with the family, and had
to listen to the literal, orthodox expoundings of antiquated dogmas,
they were apt to feel mildly bored and annoyed. They began to beg off
from going to church. Then, little by little, in the various church
congregations, there was a disquieting falling off in the attendance of
men-folk.

Then some of these men began to exchange their views quietly with
others, who felt the same way. Articles were written, here and there,
calling certain dogmas into question--and women were sometimes led
to take part in the discussions and face the conclusions.
Women, as has been observed from time immemorial, are by nature
more conservative than men, more inclined to accept existing
conventions and be governed by traditions. They are also more
impressionable and the outward forms of church service mean more to
them. Religious stimulant can come to them through their feelings and
imagination without greatly involving the intellect. The same is true of
children.
So it has happened that while the men questioned, lost faith and balked
at church-going, the women and children kept on dutifully, for the most
part content to accept things as they had always been.
But the contagion of advanced thought was in the air, spreading among
progressive men, reacting to a certain extent among women, and it was
probably not until this had been going on for some time that it began to
be taken into account by the clergy. Sooner or later it had to be, if the
church was to preserve any harmony with the thoughts of its
congregation.
At the present time, things have reached a point where if you ask any of
the younger women, of average intelligence and education, her
sentiments concerning hell's fire and heaven's glories, and the jealous
on-looking God who demands to be worshipped, the chances are she
will answer with a shrug that those things are no longer preached by
progressive ministers. She believes in the Bible, certainly, and
considers herself a good Christian, but certain portions of the divine
word, certain conceptions of the past, are no longer acceptable--they
have gone into the discard.
And these women, holding such a view, have no hesitancy in
expressing it in the presence of their children, if it so happens that they
are old enough to be sitting by, listening to the conversation.

In the light of all this, when we come to consider the force of religion
as a restraining influence in the growing lives of the new generation,
the nature and extent of the changes is fairly obvious.
Let us suppose that to-day the average little children still have the
beginnings of their religious training in much the same way as it has
always been. And a large proportion of them undoubtedly do, because
that is one of the family traditions which almost any mother would be
loath to change.
The children, then, are taught to say their daily prayer--they are told
that God hears them and sees them--that God is all-wise and
all-powerful--that He loves good people and rewards them, while
people, who do wrong, anger Him and cannot escape His punishment.
And this teaching is continued and developed in the Sunday school, as
soon as the children are old enough to go there.
The child mind absorbs all this, accepts it with the same simple faith
with which it has accepted