IT is difficult for us, and some may even feel that it is impossible, to make an impartial survey of an institution of which we ourselves form a part; on the other hand, it is equally difficult, unless one can realize something of its life from the inside, to appreciate the real nature of that life. And thus it must ever be peculiarly hard for us to understand the true relationship of the Christian churches to the world in which they work and to the ideal which guides them. And yet as we seek to see the difficulties others feel, and to enter into sympathy alike with the critic without and the workers within, we may come near at least to understanding some portion of the truth. It may remain true that "all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool," but as we endeavour to clear our minds and hearts of prejudice and to use others' eyes as well as our own, the pool grows clearer and the reflection becomes less broken, and more nearly an image of the reality it represents. To see the failure of the Church does not mean that we ignore its victories: but if we are to carry [p.21] those victories further, it must be by noting our shortcomings, and all that we have not achieved. Looking out upon the life of men to-day, we cannot forget how, bad as it is, society has been again and again in large measure redeemed and kept alive through lives that have been the light and strength of the Church as well as of the world, but this need not prevent us from seeing how far the Church as a whole has failed to act in the same way. Organised Christianity to-day in England, as represented in the churches, is very largely a middle class institution. Not only the very rich, but the great mass of the poorer workers, stand aloof from it. It has not given its strength to prophesy against the evils that attack our social life; and to remedy above all that utter separation of the lives of rich and poor, employer and employed, which is the terrible characteristic of twentieth-century urban civilisation. There is much religious "activity," of a limited kind, using old and recognised channels of expression, and an earnestness in defence of particular religious views or in attacking particular errors of doctrine or forms of worship. But if we can for a moment forget our own individual standpoint and endeavour to look from the point of view of an outsider upon such religious enthusiasm as shows itself upon different sides in , let us say the present education controversy. we shall surely feel that if this represents the life of the churches, they [p.22] are far indeed removed from the spirit of their Founder.