The selection of Aaron as priest was a step toward religious organization.
As nearly as such things can be determined among the mixed currents of
human history, it was the beginning of the institutionalization of
religion. What has been gradually growing up in the form of spiritual
vision now began to take the form of a system of rites and ceremonies,
housed in an especially designed building, held at fixed times and under
specified conditions, and presided over by men especially selected,
qualified, and prepared for their task.
Subsequently, this became a stumbling block to many people. A certain type
of mind easily becomes confused in its thinking and fails to recognize the
difference between an institution and the thing it represents. On the one
hand, the priest has sometimes made the mistake of regarding the
institution as an end rather than a means. On the other hand, the man on
the street has sometimes assumed that the church pretends to be the sum
and substance of the faith and has, consequently, failed to use it as a
clearing house for the service he should have rendered to God and his
fellow men.
Any great idea or interest, however spiritual in its nature, must be
incarnated in an institution or it will die. The life of the race could
not be nurtured without the family. Commerce would die without the market
place and the transportation system. Government could not be maintained
without the state. Education could not be effected without the school.
Religion would long ago have perished without the temple and the altar.
Spiritual ideas do not cling to human custom. An institution must make
them visual, real, and effective. Such is the reason for the existence
of the church.
The final vision of the Book of Revelation is of a social order without a
temple. We are led to think that such a day will come, but that it will
come only because the whole world shall have taken on the spirit and
viewpoint of the house of worship. The mission of the church is to make
itself unnecessary. It will be dispensable when all the world shall at
last have conformed to the purposes of God.