Article January 31, 1914 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from W. E. Orchard

[Rev. W. E. Orchard, D.D., in The Christian Commonwealth]

"We are all Socialists nowadays." So Sir William Harcourt declared some years ago. We might alter the saying slightly to, We are all religious nowadays, with the same element of truth and the same amount of exaggeration. Nearly every one wants to be accounted religious now; no one is content to be considered entirely beyond religious appeal or feeling; every man has some ideal, makes some recognition, which he wishes to be reckoned as religious. This is a remarkable change from the attitude prevailing thirty years ago. Then it was almost a sign of superiority to be free from anything that could be called religious. What is the reason for the change?

Something must be set down to the collapse of materialism. No one who counts in the realm of thought today would dream of attempting to explain man or the universe by pure mechanism. Impartial investigation has revealed that everywhere we encounter spiritual principles which cannot be reduced to a material basis or mechanical laws. Something must be set down to increasing culture. Our better knowledge of the past reveals that man is incurably religious. Religion appears before reason, and has been the greatest influence in molding the history of the race. If we are going to understand the past, we must summon up sympathy for religion, or the past will remain forever a closed book to us. The culture of the past comes to us chiefly through art, and art is everywhere bound up with the inspiration of religion. Deepening thought is helping to change the general attitude. It is no longer recommended that we turn from religion to reason, to ethics, or to social reform, in the hope that these will provide a sufficient substitute. If religion is not true, these are not true either.

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