Article April 11, 1908 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

[The Outlook.]

Many people are so confused by the flotsam and jetsam on the surface of the great political and economic movement which now absorbs the interest of the country that they fail to discern its fundamental and intensely ethical spirit. When the incidents and accidents, the foam and froth, the invective of the demagogue and the anathemas of those who are defending what they believe to be their private interests, are put out of the way, it grows more clear every month that we are in the heart of a great moral movement as significant as any that has taken place in the history of the country. This movement has not come in a day. It is not a mere revolt against the oppressive economic conditions, nor is it simply an insurrection against political bosses and robbery. It is a quickening of the conscience of the people, and an attempt, sometimes instinctive, often blind, but with a great wisdom at the bottom of it, to bring the business and social life of the country into harmony with moral ideals. The churches have had much to do with this movement, but not nearly as much as they ought to have had. They have not led it. At the first glance it appears to have grown up very largely outside their walls. Many of its most ardent leaders, who are filled with ethical enthusiasm, are, if not unfriendly, at least indifferent to organized religion. The churches are now in the position of seeing a great moral tide rising around them which they cannot claim to have set in motion, and of which they certainly have not the definite leadership.

[The Universalist Leader.]

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