With these classes the prevalence of ritual and
anthropomorphism are not so much a matter of reversion as of
continued development out of the past. But the use of ritual and
related features of devotion are also spreading in other
directions. In the early days of the American community the
prevailing denominations started out with a ritual and
paraphernalia of an austere simplicity; but it is a matter
familiar to every one that in the course of time these
denominations have, in a varying degree, adopted much of the
spectacular elements which they once renounced. In a general way,
this development has gone hand in hand with the growth of the
wealth and the ease of life of the worshippers and has reached
its fullest expression among those classes which grade highest in
wealth and repute.
The causes to which this pecuniary stratification of
devoutness is due have already been indicated in a general way in
speaking of class differences in habits of thought. Class
differences as regards devoutness are but a special expression of
a generic fact. The lax allegiance of the lower middle class, or
what may broadly be called the failure of filial piety among this
class, is chiefly perceptible among the town populations engaged
in the mechanical industries.
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