Part 24 (1/2)

and think it is final. But tell me more about these little temples of yours,” I urged. ”And these Temple Mothers you run to.”

Then she gave me an extended lesson in applied religion, which I will endeavor to concentrate.

They developed their central theory of a Loving Power, and a.s.sumed that its relation to them was motherly--that it desired their welfare and especially their development. Their relation to it, similarly, was filial, a loving appreciation and a glad fulfillment of its high purposes. Then, being nothing if not practical, they set their keen and active minds to discover the kind of conduct expected of them. This worked out in a most admirable system of ethics. The principle of Love was universally recognized--and used.

Patience, gentleness, courtesy, all that we call ”good breeding,” was part of their code of conduct. But where they went far beyond us was in the special application of religious feeling to every field of life. They had no ritual, no little set of performances called ”divine service,” save those religious pageants I have spoken of, and those were as much educational as religious, and as much social as either. But they had a clear established connection between everything they did--and G.o.d. Their cleanliness, their health, their exquisite order, the rich peaceful beauty of the whole land, the happiness of the children, and above all the constant progress they made--all this was their religion.

They applied their minds to the thought of G.o.d, and worked out the theory that such an inner power demanded outward expression. They lived as if G.o.d was real and at work within them.

As for those little temples everywhere--some of the women were more skilled, more temperamentally inclined, in this direction, than others.

These, whatever their work might be, gave certain hours to the Temple Service, which meant being there with all their love and wisdom and trained thought, to smooth out rough places for anyone who needed it.

Sometimes it was a real grief, very rarely a quarrel, most often a perplexity; even in Herland the human soul had its hours of darkness.

But all through the country their best and wisest were ready to give help.

If the difficulty was unusually profound, the applicant was directed to someone more specially experienced in that line of thought.

Here was a religion which gave to the searching mind a rational basis in life, the concept of an immense Loving Power working steadily out through them, toward good. It gave to the ”soul” that sense of contact with the inmost force, of perception of the uttermost purpose, which we always crave. It gave to the ”heart” the blessed feeling of being loved, loved and UNDERSTOOD. It gave clear, simple, rational directions as to how we should live--and why. And for ritual it gave first those triumphant group demonstrations, when with a union of all the arts, the revivifying combination of great mult.i.tudes moved rhythmically with march and dance, song and music, among their own n.o.blest products and the open beauty of their groves and hills. Second, it gave these numerous little centers of wisdom where the least wise could go to the most wise and be helped.

”It is beautiful!” I cried enthusiastically. ”It is the most practical, comforting, progressive religion I ever heard of. You DO love one another--you DO bear one another's burdens--you DO realize that a little child is a type of the kingdom of heaven. You are more Christian than any people I ever saw. But--how about death? And the life everlasting?

What does your religion teach about eternity?”

”Nothing,” said Ellador. ”What is eternity?”

What indeed? I tried, for the first time in my life, to get a real hold on the idea.

”It is--never stopping.”

”Never stopping?” She looked puzzled.

”Yes, life, going on forever.”

”Oh--we see that, of course. Life does go on forever, all about us.”

”But eternal life goes on WITHOUT DYING.”

”The same person?”

”Yes, the same person, unending, immortal.” I was pleased to think that I had something to teach from our religion, which theirs had never promulgated.

”Here?” asked Ellador. ”Never to die--here?” I could see her practical mind heaping up the people, and hurriedly rea.s.sured her.

”Oh no, indeed, not here--hereafter. We must die here, of course, but then we 'enter into eternal life.' The soul lives forever.”

”How do you know?” she inquired.

”I won't attempt to prove it to you,” I hastily continued. ”Let us a.s.sume it to be so. How does this idea strike you?”

Again she smiled at me, that adorable, dimpling, tender, mischievous, motherly smile of hers. ”Shall I be quite, quite honest?”