schools has been due largely to their strong religious atmosphere; but, in general, religious influences must be supplied by the church.
§5. The Church. The church differs in an important respect from the institutions which we have already considered. It is a voluntary society, and a man may be a member of it or not, as he pleases. A man not merely chooses to be an adherent of some particular religion, and a member of some particular denomination, he chooses whether or no he will be connected with any religious society at all. But participation in the activities of all the other institutions is obligatory. The child must be a member of some family, and a national of some state; and when he is old enough he must go to some school. The family, the school, and the state are institutions under whose influence he is bound to come.[1] But with the church it is different. Unless his parents have chosen to associate themselves with some religious society, the child will never receive that training which the church is peculiarly well fitted to give. There can be little doubt that the child who is debarred from learning the lessons which the church has to teach is being severely handicapped for the struggle of the moral life. At all times the church has exercised a profound moral influence; and that in two ways.
(1) The church has done more than all the other institutions put together to cherish lofty ideals, ideals which are capable of becoming in the characters of those who are inspired by them, not the empty visions of a day-dream, but dynamic forces
- ↑ Exceptional cases are possible.
