This article explains the functions of the priest and what purpose religion serves. No one who compares the religious doctrines and practices of different peoples throughout the world record can avoid forming the conclusion that they are all contrivances for promoting happiness, particularly in untoward circumstances. If the minister of religion is to teach unselfishness effectually he must, evidently, have a profound knowledge of the sexual emotions. The difficulty of the work is that the capacity for loving is unlimited and the longing to be loved insatiable. A pastor who had spent four or five years in mastering Dr. Freud's technique, and at the same time studying group psychology, would be able to find efficacious remedies for not a few of the sorrows by which most people are afflicted at some time or other in their lives. The clergyman could also do much towards bringing about happy marriages. If the minister objects to works of art as vehicles of idealism on the ground that they are almost exclusively concerned with the sex passions, he is condemning religion itself, which, undoubtedly, is an elaboration of love sentiments.
