Prof. H. W. Wynn, D.D., one of the great writers of the _Lutheran Observer_, has these wise words concerning the elements of emotion in religion:
“We have discovered that religion as a purely emotional experience may have no religion in it at all, though kindled by the emotional stimuli that religion commands. There is an emotional element in religion, of course, deep, powerful, pervasive; and when you give way to it, enveloping your whole being as in an atmosphere of flame. Those tender feelings which enter so largely into the deeper currents of our domestic and social life—love, pity, joy, hope, the striking of the glad hand, comradeship locking arms under the same great banner to do deeds of heroism in the same great cause—religion calls them all up, and fires them all with a conquering zeal.
“But, manifestly, the zeal may burn out before the deeds of heroism have been begun. We have learned to know that the same emotional fires may be kindled when religion is not the theme. A great crowd, an orator of fluent and persuasive speech, music filling the air with the imaginary shouts of an “Io triumphe” come to stay—it matters very little what may be the occasion that has called these people together, the emotional part of their campaign has been achieved. But, whether in religion or in politics, it would be stupidly unwise to conclude that the excitement itself was the end to be attained—emotion being set down as the deed itself; or, in some way, an assured equivalent of the deed.
“In all such cases fanaticism is the result, and fanaticism has never been an aid, but always, in the long run, an embarrassment to any great cause. Fanaticism stops with the excitement—absurdly confounds excitement with the cause to be maintained.
“In religion, especially, this unhappy 'transvaluation of value' is likely to be made. For long ages it has been systematically taught that the emotional element in religion either summed it all up or was an unmistakable token that, then and there, it had been all summed up for us in the exchequer of the skies. The great transaction had passed, the thing was done when your religious ecstasy swelled to the highest, and you found yourself, as you confidently believed, borne on its billows to the bosom of God.”