[From the Christian Guardian, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Oct. 12, 1923]

True gentleness is stronger than violence, and the kindly word is usually more than a match for the angry one. Looked at from the broader point of view we find that the fighters have a way of obliterating themselves, while the meek inherit the earth. The fighter may be strong and skillful, yet sooner or later he will meet his match; and when the generation of fighters has gone, their place on the earth will be occupied by the men who prefer peaceful pursuits. Are you a fighter by nature and practice? Lay aside the sword and try the other weapon, "a soft answer;" and watch the result. We venture to say that it will surprise you by its effectiveness. But you had better be prepared to keep it up; for sometimes one soft answer may only arouse your adversary's suspicion, and it may take a little while for him to realize that you really prefer peace to a fight. But when he realizes it, it will take much of the fight out of him.

[Rev. William Anderson Philips, in the Journal, San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 6, 1923]

Standing in the presence of those who spoke foolishly and erroneously, Jesus suffered them to speak; then he silenced the babblers and the carping critics by words of infinite wisdom, by words of eternal truth, declaring to them: I am the truth. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." A knowledge of the truth always frees. Society has been emancipated from fears and superstitions and galling traditions through a knowledge of the truth. Civilization has advanced in proportion to the exercise of freedom of speech by the leaders of the age, who, true to the dictates of conscience, have proclaimed the things that were true and beautiful and good for a world's redemption. Exercising freedom of speech, the beloved and lamented President Harding paved the way for the establishment of a world court.... Let the liberty-loving, truth-seeking, God-fearing people of our city and state rally to the support of a clean and fearless press that interprets its freedom to mean, not the right to defame or suppress another, but to discuss freely and frankly the burning question of the hour upon high moral grounds. Let them support the publisher who asks not, "Is it safe?" or, "Is it expedient?" or, "Is it popular?" but, "Is it right?" Let the intelligent reading public come to realize with Disraeli that "the press is not only free, it is powerful." That power is ours.... It was not granted by monarchs; it was not gained for us by aristocracies; but it sprang from the people; and with an immortal instinct it has always worked for the people. Let the public demand from all publishers, all news stands, all paper carriers, freedom of access to a paper that publishes only the news fit to read, that seeks to inspire its readers to measure their lives and conduct by the standards of the Golden Rule.

[Frank R. Forrest, in the State Journal, Topeka, Kans., Aug. 10, 1923]

There are times, my friends, when we are too hasty in our judgments, too early in our conclusions. There are times when the shaft of public comment goes straight to the heart of the national executive, and either invigorates or destroys. I do not call for complete unity of political thought, but I do now and here call upon this people to join me in recording a solemn pledge that henceforth and forever we, as American people, refrain from such criticism of our national executive as shall tend to weaken or destroy him; and that, instead, we shall endeavor at all times to give to the public, constructive thought that shall build up, instead of bitter invective that shall tear down. And this solemn pledge I count assented to in the eager, willing faces I see before me; and here in this hour of earnest tribute ... and reconsecration to patriotic duty we call upon the nation to join us in this pledge of anticriticism to the end that our President ... shall be safeguarded and that he may have sober, undisturbed thought to give to public questions.

[Mark True, in the Journal, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Oct. 6, 1923]

The world is concerned about a multitude of things in these present days, and its interest is spread over a great variety of questions and issues. Many of these things, it is true, are of a purely materialistic kind; and the people whose attention they absorb are sometimes spoken of as "carnal-minded." But there is abundant evidence that religious questions—the things of the spirit as constrasted with the things of the flesh—are also being thought about; and are making effective appeal to many thousands.

One of the oldest and best newspapers in the United States has recently begun running a Saturday page of church news and religious discussion. It has, on its own confession, been surprised at the ready and favorable reception which that page has been given by its readers, many of whom have been quick to express their approval and appreciation; and the inference drawn by the editorial management of the paper is that people are still greatly and vitally interested in things religious. On this side of the border it is not so easy to reach the same conclusion on the same evidence, for people do not so freely express themselves in our country, and are less ready, it would appear, to show their appreciation of religious news in the papers, though columns of it are printed. But there is reason to believe that the same interest in things of the spirit obtains here as elsewhere. It is not strange that news of this kind should appeal to newspaper readers, for religion is still, as it always has been, the most interesting thing in the world. To those who have a sense of spiritual values it is the supreme interest in life; and such it ever will be. The problem of the church, which is entrusted with the chief care and development of religion, is to widen that interest and to extend its appeal to men who have not yet felt it. That is no new task. From the days of the fathers until now, it has been the church's mission; and it forms again the essential feature of the fall and winter program of all the churches here in Edmonton.

[From the Express, Superior, Nebr., July 19, 1923]

Through the kindness of friends the Express is on the exchange list of The Christian Science Monitor; and whether one agrees with that doctrine or not, we are free and glad to say that the Monitor is absolutely the cleanest and best edited daily paper in America; and it would be a fine thing if every home in the land could be favored with the daily visits of this excellent paper. There is so little of the theory of Christian Science in its pages that one need have no fear of being offended if one has a keen sense of antagonism to this form of worship. While, on the other hand, one shoudl be delighted by the clean editorials, the crisp and entertaining style in which the news is gotten up. And above all, there is absolutely no line of scandal, murder, or sensationalism in it. We certainly enjoyed the way in which the Monitor rebuked the editor of the New York Times for printing yards of fight dope, while in the same issue but a few inches sufficed for the meetings of the world conference on education. The Times carries at its head the slogan: All the news that's fir to print; and of course the Monitor insists that prize fight news is unfit, since it is of a debasing nature, and merely a money-making scheme in which everybody, except the two pugilists, lose their money.

[President Coolidge, in the Call, San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 4, 1923]

We need to change our standards, not of property, but of thought. We need to stop trying to be better than some one else, and start doing something for some one else. If we put all the emphasis on our material prosperity, that prosperity will perish, and with it will perish our civilization. The best that is in a man is not bought with a price. To offer money only is to appeal to hs weakness, not his strength. Employer and employed must find their satisfaction, not in a money return, but in a service rendered; not in the quality of goods, but in the quality of character. Industry must be humanized, not destroyed.

[From the Times, New York, N. Y., Oct. 18, 1923]

Prohibitionists can afford to smile at the news from London of renewed activity on the part of the Ligue Internationale Contre les Prohibitions. That league would not have been formed, with members in many countries, if prohibition had not come to be regarded as a dangerous enemy by those who hitherto have viewed it with scron or derision. The delegates now conferring in London are planning defensive measures, not offensive ones, against the spread of the American infection, and that can mean nothing except that they are afraid of the attack which they see preparing.

[From the Expositor, Cleveland, Ohio, September, 1923]

Expert medical opinion testifies that religion gives the drug addict the necessary momentum for overcoming his vice. Dr. Carleton Simon, chief of the Narcotic Squad, and Deputy Police Commissioner, New York, says that materialism is responsible for much of the increased use of cocaine, heroin, and morphine, and that only a great spiritual uplift can check such habits.

[From the Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 16, 1923]

Rudyard Kipling said ... on the occasion of his installation as rector of St. Andrew's University, Scotland, ... "After all, you, yourself, are the only person you can by no possibility get away from in this life and maybe not in another.... Be good to him. Let your counsel be your heart, for there is no man more faithful to thee than it. For a man's mind is wont to show him more than the seven watchmen who sit above in a high tower."

[From the Jewish Review and Observer, Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 7, 1923]

Aaron Wirpel writes that when a Jew becomes a Christian Scientist he at once begins to rely on God, reads the Bible, and begins to make his life conform to religious standards.

[From the Daily News, Jackson, Miss., Aug. 5, 1923]

Southern Democrats have made it plain that they will not support the plan of their northern brethren to reopen the prohibition question by dignifying it as a national party issue. The "solid South" seems to be "solid" for the national honor.

[Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, in the Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, Wash., Oct. 19, 1923]

Christianity is the reproduction in our lives of the spirit and quality of Jesus.