Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/251

development and full consciousness. The established church, the old nursing mother, is the conservative power, which, while it faithfully preserves the great traditions and ancient forms, yet, with a liberal spirit, opens its embrace to receive the many half-matured, uncertain, or, as it were, still unsettled souls, which desire, indeed, but yet cannot bring themselves to a state of stability. She is not inquisitorial towards her own; she is tolerate with regard to inner emotion; she merely requires a certain obedience in the outward. It is only in countries where sects are forbidden by law, and the state-church alone rules, that she becomes despotic and dangerous to young souls, who are not seldom forcibly compelled, on the first occasion, to the Holy Communion, or thrust forth out of the pale of the church, which appears to them rather a police-institution, than a pathway to the kingdom of God. It is very different in countries where the Free Church and Christian sects have equal civil rights. These churches are exclusive, intolerant, but they are, at the same time, honest, and they have the life of conviction. They are frequently one-sided, but they require a fixed creed; they close their spiritual doors to those who will not accept it; they will neither recognize things done by halves, nor any secret reservation; they require decision and candor; they compel people to become keen questioners of their own state; they will not accept an acquaintance which is merely outward. No youthful soul is compelled by them to the Lord's table. If the young acknowledge themselves not ready, not sufficiently faithful as yet, the teachers defer the ecclesiastical ceremony, and advise