Yet both the home and the church can give something which is nowhere else obtainable by us, and represent values which it is perilous to ignore.

When once the historical character of reality is fully grasped by us, we see that some such organization through which achieved values are conserved and carried forward, useful habits are learned and practised, the direct intuitions of genius, the prophet's revelation of reality are interpreted and handed on, is essential to the spiritual continuity of the race; and that definite churchmanship of some sort, or its equivalent, must be a factor in the spiritual reconstruction of society.

As, other things being equal, a baby benefits enormously by being born within the social framework rather than in the illusory freedom of "pure" nature; so the growth of the soul is, or should be, helped and not hindered by the nurture it receives from the religious society in which it is born.

Only indeed by attachment, open or virtual, through life or through literature, to some such group can the new soul link itself with history, and so participate in the hoarded spiritual values of humanity.

Thus even a general survey of life inclines us at least to some appreciation of the principle laid down by Baron von Huegel 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.