Experience has convinced me that bricks and mortar and sectarian loyalty
have more often been hindrances than helps to that expression of faith
in him which Jesus looks for in our lives. I admit I have not lived long
enough in one place fully to appreciate the possibilities for stimulus
and help this tying up into bundles can afford. On the other hand, I
feel so certain that buildings set aside for public worship are
essential in every place, that where none exists I feel wretched, and I
have shares in quite a number all along our Labrador coast.
I love to wander through an ancient edifice in which generations of men
have come and worshiped and found help and comfort. I like looking at
the Viking ship, but I don't want to cross the Atlantic in it.
Personally, I like to hear, to see, and to understand. The dim religious
light and sonorous sounds do not waken me to a keener sense of the call
of God to be up and doing. They just make me sleepy. Besides being
difficult as a rule to hear, there is too much around to distract my
attention. I don't think Westminster Abbey helps me personally to attend
to the service. On the contrary, I think it makes me think of the
building. I used somehow to imagine that service in the open air was
necessarily associated with cant. Now I like it far the best. Not merely
because it is more sanitary--till some one learns how to ventilate a
building decently--but because it absolutely forces you to feel
insignificant, and anxious that the great Creator should condescend to
care about a mosquito like you. Moreover, I have often noticed out in
the open a unity between those of different sects that was perfectly
delightful. Meanwhile I am not unmindful that in many, if not in all, a
deep inborn spiritual craving, no child of philosophy, is a powerful
factor in helping men Godward. Also that many find their only help in
authority and the faith of others. All these the Church has to provide
for. It is no easy task to be prophet and conservative custodian at the
same time.