Religion 73
the faithful who may practise their religion in worship or
fellowship. Almost universally it is accepted in western
civilization that the individual citizen or group of citizens
must have freedom for the exercise of religion. The State
cannot justifiably lay claim to control all the activities of its
citizens. There is a wide field besides religion in which it
should not exercise jurisdiction, and into which it can only
enter if it has reason to believe that the practice of the
activities, promoted by the relevant societies, thwarts the
end of the State, which is to regulate the community in such
orderly fashion as to guarantee the citizen reasonable free-
dom to work out his own salvation, material, intellectual,
moral, and spiritual.
Churches then are to be taken into account as one of
the independent factors in the creation of the character of
the citizen. But they are neither inclusive of all who have
religious faith, nor are they solely religious associations.
There are some devoutly religious persons who belong to no
church ; on the other hand many members of churches take
no active part in them, just as many citizens do not, more
is the pity, evince enough interest in the State to vote. Even
for those, however, who become interested members of it,
a church does more than provide a means of satisfying their
devotional aspirations; it surrounds them also with an
atmosphere in which their lives are unconsciously fashioned
to traditional forms of conduct and thought. Inherited
ideas are woven almost inextricably into faith; buildings
and worship mould the aesthetic judgment; methods of
conduct and moral opinions reproduce generation after
generation a society like-minded in its outlook on life,
against the authority of which it is very difficult for the
average individual to assert himself. This is especially
marked in such an historic institution as the Church of