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THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

dogmas, and morality. We do not seek to know these through inner religious experience. It is a pity that men of great intellectual power, successful in their use of reason in the way of discovering the deep truths of the natural sciences, etc., think that they will also be able to grasp intellectually the highest religious and moral truths. It is also a pity that the intellect or reason of these men, instead of being a help, is found to be a bar to their comprehension of the Highest Truth by the only means possible—living it in one’s life.

Let us consider the four methods characterizing religious growth.

I. Intellectual Method. The commonly-adopted, natural method, not so effective in realizing the end.

Intellectual development and progression has been natural and hence common to all rational beings. It is our self-conscious: understanding which differentiates us from the lower animals, that are conscious but not