psychology. Four decidedly indigestible morsels for the modern mind.
Yet, group-feeling demands common expression if it is to be lifted from
notion to fact. Discipline requires some authority, and some devotion to
it. Culture involves a tradition handed on. And these, we said, were the
chief gifts which the institution had to give to its members. We may
therefore keep them in mind, as representing actual values, and warning
us that neither history nor psychology encourages the belief that an
amiable fluidity serves the highest purposes of life. Some common
practice and custom, keeping the individual in line with the main
tendencies of the group, providing rails on which the instinctive life
can run and machinery by which fruitful suggestions can be spread. Some
real discipline and humbling submission to rule. Some traditional and
theological standard. Some missionary effort and enthusiasm. For these
four things we must find place in any incorporation of the spiritual
life which is to have its full effect upon the souls of men. And as a
matter of fact, the periodical revolts against churches and
ecclesiasticism, are never against societies in which all these
characteristics are still alive; but against those which retain and
exaggerate formal tradition and authority, whilst they have lost zest
and identity of aim.

A real Church has therefore something to give to, and something to
demand from each of its members, and there is a genuine loss for man in
being unchurched. Because it endures through a perpetual process of
discarding and renewal, those members will share the richness and
experience of a spiritual life far exceeding their own time-span; a
truth which is enshrined in the beautiful conception of the Communion of
Saints. They enter a group consciousness which reinforces their own in
the extent to which they surrender to it; which surrounds them with
favourable suggestions and gives the precision of habit to their