light. Enthusiasm is restless and hasn't time to see that if the
church holds itself as nothing but the symbol of the greater
light it is life itself--as a symbol of a symbol it is dead. Many
of the sincerest followers of Christ never heard of Him. It is
the better influence of an institution that arouses in the deep
and earnest souls a feeling of rebellion to make its aims more
certain. It is their very sincerity that causes these seekers for
a freer vision to strike down for more fundamental, universal,
and perfect truths, but with such feverish enthusiasm, that they
appear to overthink themselves--a subconscious way of going
Godward perhaps. The rebel of the twentieth century says: "Let us
discard God, immortality, miracle--but be not untrue to
ourselves." Here he, no doubt, in a sincere and exalted moment,
confuses God with a name. He apparently feels that there is a
separable difference between natural and revealed religion. He
mistakes the powers behind them, to be fundamentally separate. In
the excessive keenness of his search, he forgets that "being true
to ourselves" IS God, that the faintest thought of immortality IS
God, and that God is "miracle." Over-enthusiasm keeps one from
letting a common experience of a day translate what is stirring
the soul. The same inspiring force that arouses the young rebel,
brings later in life a kind of "experience-afterglow," a
realization that the soul cannot discard or limit anything. Would
you have the youthful enthusiasm of rebellion, which Emerson
carried beyond his youth always supplemented by the shadow of
experience?

Perhaps it is not the narrow minded alone that have no interest
in anything, but in its relation to their personality. Is the
Christian Religion, to which Emerson owes embryo-ideals, anything