least to some appreciation of the principle laid down by Baron von Hügel
in "Eternal Life"--namely, that "souls who live an heroic spiritual life
_within_ great religious traditions and institutions, attain to a rare
volume and vividness of religious insight, conviction and
reality"[122]--seldom within reach of the contemplative, however ardent,
who walks by himself.

History has given one reason for this; psychology gives another. These
souls, living it is true with intensity their own life towards God,
share and are bathed in the group consciousness of their church; as
members of a family, distinct in temperament, share and are modified by
the group consciousness of the home. The mental process of the
individual is profoundly affected when he thus thinks and acts as a
member of a group. Suggestibility is then enormously increased; and we
know how much suggestion means to us. Moreover, suggestions emanating
from the group always take priority of those of the outside world: for
man is a gregarious animal, intensely sensitive to the mentality of the
herd.[123] The Mind of the Church is therefore a real thing. The
individual easily takes colour from it and the tradition it embodies,
tends to imitate his fellow-members: and each such deed and thought is a
step taken in the formation of habit, and leaves him other than he was
before.

To say this is not to discredit church-membership as placing us at the
mercy of emotional suggestion, reducing spontaneity to custom, and
lessening the energy and responsibility of the individual soul towards
God. On the contrary, right group suggestion reinforces, stimulates,
does not stultify such individual action. If the prayerful attitude of
my fellow worshippers helps me to pray better, surely it is a very mean
kind of conceit on my part which would prompt me to despise their help,