["The Gospel of Life," from the Mercury Herald, San Jose, Calif., Feb. 5, 1924]

Dr. Noel Porter, in a recent sermon, said: "The blessed Master, in his incomparable parable of the good shepherd, said, 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly;' and this is something that all the world is seeking. In sickness we seek for health; in trouble we seek hope and happier times ahead; in time of intimate and clear vision we wish for the better things, for a life more abundant, in elements of enduring satisfaction. We want to be really and truly alive, alive at all points, alive in the most effective and enjoyable ways. ... It is a question of character values, of those qualities of mind and heart which make a man rich, gloriously and permanently rich, at any time, anywhere. We often ask in blunt fashion, 'How much is that man worth?' As a rule we are not thinking of the man himself, we are merely asking about the things he happens to possess. This can be readily ascertained from Bradstreet or from the assessor's books or from a man's returns as to his income tax. The real worth of the man is another question altogether. It turns upon the amount of good he is doing and the character he has won. Life is not to be found in mere material things."

[From the Christian Guardian, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 14, 1924]

Over and over and over again we need to comfort and strengthen ourselves with the remembrance that there is a very wonderful, enduring quality to the things that are good and clean and sound and honest. The story is told of the tearing down of some very old buildings on the Strand in London, and the uncovering of ground that had not seen the sunlight for two thousand years or more, with the very unexpected result that plants and flowers quite strange to present-day England sprang up, the roots or seeds of which, it was supposed, dated back to the early Roman period. ... Life has a wonderful grip: a strange way of enduring. But in no place do we see it more vital and persistent than when we see it enshrined in the heart of a good deed or a noble ambition. ... Talk of it as we will, in our time of misgiving and lack of faith the things that really live and vitally affect the destiny of the race are the things that are good. How dead is Nero to-day, but how very much alive is the Jesus whom he strove to kill!

[Rev. George W. Truett, in the Canadian Baptist, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Jan. 24, 1924]

With our faces always toward the sunrise, let us by the alchemy of faithful stewardship seek to transmute our every talent into noblest helpfulness for all mankind, recognizing that it is our majestic mission to like our human service with that of the great Master, in spreading justice, mercy, peace, and good-will, not forgetting that he shall judge us, not by the prominence or the obscurity of our service, but by the faithfulness with which we perform it. May we wisely realize that every life, however humble, either increases or diminishes the sum total of human happiness, both for to-day and for the long to-morrow. Let us evermore strive to keep out of our lives all cynicism and pessimism, all grudges and ill-will, all misunderstanding and bitterness, all unintelligent and unfraternal intolerance; and let us constantly magnify the more tender virtues of gentleness, courtesy, kindliness, friendliness, and serviceableness to all mankind. May we ever be keenly sensitive to the pathos of all human need, gladly proffering our friendship to the unfriended, our strength to the weak, and worthiest help to all. ... Let us waste no time in striving after the things that can neither satisfy nor endure. ... May we travel on with a steady faith, a victorious patience, a noble courage. ... More and more, may we know how good a thing is life, when it is lived in the reverent fear of God and in devotion to that which He approves.

[From the Tagblatt, St. Gall, Switzerland, Jan 12, 1924 (translation)]

We are living in a period of evolution and change of valuations. The predominating materialistic view of the world has failed; it has broken down together with its artificial theories of evolution, because it was built up on a grave mistake, as is strikingly shown by Albert Schweitzer in his new publication, "Collapse and Reconstruction of Culture;" namely, the mistake that reality can only be looked for and be found in material things and processes, while the spiritual life ... would only be its concomitant appearance. We can find our way out of the present decline of culture only through mediation and reverse thinking, ... and through the understanding that contrary to the materialistic view of the world, spirit and soul constitute the reality.

Professor Paul Haeberlin in his book "Body and Soul" proves this with undeniable clearness, and even modern natural science confirms it. ... As to the present situation of the world Schweitzer says: "What we have experienced and still are experiencing must convince us that Spirit is all and that the 'institutions' are little. Our institutions fail, because the spirit of barbarism is operating in them." First of all we have to see perfectly clearly for ourselves, what our nature is. The history of the world is determined by the relation between its spirit and God, the omnipotent creator of the world, who is Spirit, that is to say, who is alone the source of all truth and reality, which we certainly can only understand through an intrepid faith in the truth.

[Rev. Prof. W. P. Paterson, D. D., in the Herald, Glasgow, Scotland, Feb. 16, 1924]

The claim made by religion to give protection against the worst evils of the human lot, and to be the vehicle of the richest blessings, was a very definite claim which gave it a place of its own in the economy of a human life. While other agents proffered particular services to body, mind, or estate, religion took charge of man as a whole and of his most vital interests. It offered deliverance from the evils of sin and sorrow, with which no human agency can adequately cope, and even promised victory over the "last enemy." It was a daring ... claim, and it had evoked opposition, not merely from secular and skeptical minds, but from some who spoke as the representatives of a sensitive piety and of a high-pitched morality. The conception of religion as primarily the means of a personal salvation had been declared to be essentially irreligious. Fichte declared it to be a form of idolatry in which self was enthroned and God was made the servant of man's selfish desires; and the author of the book of Job seemed to have had the same misgivings about the value of self-regarding piety. There was, however, an obvious distinction between the conviction that we need to apply to God for the greatest things, and the belief that God exists for our advantage and for the attainment of our private ends. Ethical criticism had been heard to a similar effect—that the highest venture of the soul must not be described in terms of self-seeking; and it had to be admitted that in some of its representatives the quest of salvation had been neither more nor less ethical than the measures which men take in ordinary life to defend and advance their material interests. But in the spiritual faiths the salvation sought had included as its most vital elements the purified heart and the unselfish spirit; and this form of self-seeking, if such it could be called, was indistinguishable from the loftiest moral aspirations. A third stricture enforced by the whole weight of Feuerbach's famous treatise was that since in religion man proposes to himself that satisfaction of his deepest wants and the gratification of his highest wishes, this circumstance is sufficient to stamp religious belief as an illusion. But while such a circumstance undoubtedly created prepossession and bias, on the other hand, it could not be said that the fact that we desired a thing proved that our hope was vain. It was a position well capable of being defended that man is a being who, in respect of his spiritual dignity, was entitled to look forward to the attainment and the secure possession of his chief good. It had also been objected that the great expectations which religion had ever aroused had not, as a fact, been fulfilled. It was true that in all ages multitudes whose notions of the religious blessings were of the unspiritual kind had had their hopes shattered, and had, in consequence, often ceased to believe in their religion, or exchanged it for another; but little complaint had been heard of the slackness or unfaithfulness of God from those who coveted spiritual gifts, and these had even been able to rejoice in their tribulations as adding to the inner wealth of their souls.

[From the Herald, Yonkers, N. Y., Jan. 23, 1924]

Our thoughts, our habits of thinking—our attitude of mind—these are our real investments in this life; and as they are, so must be our dividends. We attribute too much importance to environment, to outside influences, in the shaping of our characters and our lives. Our characters and our lives unfold, like the rose, from within. ... If the spring is pure, the stream is pure; and as the mind is, so is the life. Our every thought is an investment—the only real investment we can make—and like unto it will be our dividends. These in the aggregate, noble or base, true or false, make up our fortunes or our failures. According to his thought-investments, each one of us may make himself a millionaire of cheerfulness, of charitable impulse, of human helpfulness, or he may make himself a moral bankrupt and a miserable pauper. For, after all of the so-called "practical" things are said—after all the gold in the world is weighed—the real riches of this life, our dividends of real substance, are the satisfaction and the uplift we get in our hearts, and the satisfaction and uplift we give to the hearts of others.

[From the Young People's Weekly, Elgin, Ill., Oct. 13, 1923]

Some people will tell you that happiness is not for sale, that it is given away, and you get it or you don't according as to whether you are fortunate or unfortunate. But that is a great mistake. ... In order to be happy, we sometimes are obliged to make great sacrifices. ... The cost of happiness is the cost of right doing. When we have our heart so full of love that we are ready to put others before ourselves, we shall find the peace that passeth understanding. The price of this happiness may call for the surrender of some things we possess, but it is this happiness that makes life worth while.