Article August 29, 1903 Issue

Religious Items

HENRY VAN DYKE

The signs are many that a great and radical change of opinion on religious and social questions is going forward. No one believes now as men believed fifty years ago, and social ideals are widely different at the present time. What is most interesting about this transformation of opinion is that there is now a widespread expectation of change. Persons of all beliefs and parties, except the most conservative and stubbornly retrogressive, are anticipative that we are entering upon a new period of intellectual and spiritual life, which will bring about large changes in the social ideals and relations of men.

However imperfect may be this diagnosis of the mental attitude that anticipates change, there can be no doubt about the fact that such anticipation is widespread and radical. It shows itself in many directions, in many forms of expression, and in the shape of a great number of theories as to what should be done. That many persons are anticipating change may be taken as proof that we are on the eve of a new epoch, but such conclusion must be accepted with caution. Every age is one of transition, and changes are always taking place with greater or less rapidity. In many directions the present time is in no sense remarkable in its transitional character.

Although there is always at work a powerful motive against change, yet it is to be anticipated that changes will come. The anticipation is always in considerable measure a prophecy, and it is even an assurance that the change has already begun. The desire for a new kind of life is in itself the realization of that life, else the demand for it would not find utterance. When it is declared that love is the greatest thing in the world, it is at once not only accepted as the truth, but it is discovered that many persons are living in harmony with that ideal, or else it would not find expression.

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