But (4) On the other hand, it must not be so contemptuous of the past and its priceless symbols that it breaks with tradition, and so loses that very element of stability which it is its special province to preserve.
I go on now to the second aspect of institutional religion: Cultus.
We at once make the transition from Church to Cultus, when we ask ourselves: how does, how can, the Church as an organized and enduring society do its special work of creating an atmosphere and imparting a secret?
How is the traditional deposit of spiritual experience handed on, the individual drawn into the stream of spiritual history and held there?
Remember, the Church exists to foster and hand on, not merely the moral life, the life of this-world perfection; but the spiritual life in all its mystery and splendour--the life of more than this-world perfection, the poetry of goodness, the life that aims at God.

And this, not only in elect souls, which might conceivably make and keep direct contacts without her help, but in greater or less degree in the mass of men, who _do_ need help.

How is this done?
The answer can only be, that it is mostly done through symbolic acts, and by means of suggestion and imitation.
All organized churches find themselves committed sooner or later to an organized cultus.

It may be rudimentary.

It may reach a high pitch of aesthetic and symbolic perfection.