[From an editorial in the Williamson Sun, New York]

The Golden Rule, that is, the doing to your neighbors and people generally what you would like to have them do to you, is considered by many in these advanced times as too impractical to apply in ordinary everyday affairs. And yet if it had been applied to world affairs during the last dozen years, it would have added infinitely to human happiness and saved incalculable misery. For just one item of its effect: it would have saved the World War and all the terrible losses and suffering caused by that struggle. No war would ever have occurred if those nations had shown even a moderate desire to follow the Golden Rule. If that spirit had prevailed, those nations would not for many years have been grasping to see which should get the most territory and trade advantages, regardless of right and justice. There might have been strenuous competition under the Golden Rule, for that rule should not be stretched to forbid people from emulation and doing the best they can to render superior service. But it does insist that we should give our neighbors, and all with whom we have relations, just as fair a deal as we expect or consider reasonable for ourselves. With a little of that spirit, those difficulties over boundaries and colonies and armies and navies that caused all that disaster would easily have been smoothed out and settled peaceably. The business-man who sneers at the Golden Rule is sneering at something that would improve his own business and make every one happier if it could be applied universally.

[From an editorial in the Christian Leader, Boston, Massachusetts]

We reiterate the faith which we would have expressed in every editorial and contribution in the Christian Leader, that the supreme need of this hour, almost as crucial for us as for Great Britain, is for men of insight and good will. We must study economics. We must cultivate the spirit of love. These are generalities, but they are practical generalities on which more depends than we realize until we find them lacking in an emergency. The contribution of Christians must be a contribution of faith in men, faith in knowledge, faith in the conquering power of love. In other words—we must go on propagating a vital faith in God, the Father of all.

[From the Express, Denver, Colorado]

"Business is a test of character, a process of interchange between man and man of the necessities of existence," Charles E. White, of Belfast, president of the Rotary International of the British Isles, said in an address before the Rotary convention. "Business was formerly looked down on by the profession," Mr. White asserted, "because dishonesty and trickery often entered into it; but since the application of the Golden Rule to business, things have changed. Worthwhile business is the result of worth-while living, and this in turn is the result of worth-shile thinking. If you ask me what is the most important word in the English language, I would say that the most important word is 'think.' Every misunderstanding, every calamity brought to the home, every war, has been caused either by the people not thinking at all or thinking wrongly. The greatest word in English is 'love.' Another great need is the connecting link between thinking and loving—confidence, a necessity in every transaction between human beings. These, with fellowship, are intangible. We have no standard of measurement for them. They cannot be seen except in their effects, but they go to make the character of the worth-while man and are the basis of worth-while business. ... Once the desire to serve our fellow-man becomes the motive of human life, we shall go a long way to bring about the realization of the earth as a paradise. It is a remarkable thing that we can take stock of a man's business, but we seldom try to take stock of the man himself. While we have a standard of measurement for length and capacity of all kinds of things that go to make up a man's possessions, we have no standard of measurement for those important things in human life which make its joys and which contribute to its sorrows and which go to make the man himself, namely, love, kindness, gentleness, generosity, and influence."

[Rev. R. F. Stanton, in the Parish News, Ellerslie, New Zealand]

We should regard our vote as a sacred trust; and we who have a vote should use it after calm, deliberate consultation with our consciences. It should be our concern to send representatives to Parliament who are men of sound character, ... men who are likely to honor God and raise the moral standard of the nation. Oliver Wendell Holmes described the type when he wrote:—

In recording our vote we have need to pray that God will give us a "right judgment."

[From the Journal, Bay Shore, New York]

Patriotism and religion can go together. The old idea that churches must frown upon anything so worldly as love of country has gone, and we find instead a happy combination of two kinds of devotion—to God and nation. There is no reason why ministers may not teach the Bible along with patriotism. It is less a question of "mixing" than keeping the great loves in their rightful sphere. ... Churches have before them an opportunity to introduce into American hearts the desire for strength like that possessed by our forefathers. If they had to fight for right, we too must struggle against forces whose aim is to undermine the ideals we hold sacred. God represents our highest ambition. It matters not whether we think as individuals or as a group. Our flag, on the other hand, can be loved only in its relation to millions of other men and women. If we love God, we also love our neighbors. Such patriotism will prove a blessing to the United States. Sometimes our patriotism goes farther. Because we love our own nation it does not necessarily follow that we must hate all other races. Let every church emphasize devotion to country. May all of them teach the great ideals laid down by our ancestors, always remembering that real patriotism carries with it kindness toward other races, other nations, and other beliefs.

[From the Golders Green Gazette, London, England]

An interesting address on "Democracy and Christianity" was given by Mr. H. B. Lees-Smith, M. P., at the Free Church fellowship service. In order to make clear the connection between democracy and Christianity, Mr. Lees-Smith first explained the fundamental argument, as the result of which the British community had adopted a democratic system of government. In order to be able to choose that which was good in public affairs the people required a combination of intellectual and moral qualities, but, Mr. Lees-Smith said, he had for some time been convinced that of the two, moral qualities were the more fundamental. People might be stupid or slow, they might not be quick-witted, but if they had a moral outlook, then, in spite of all mistakes, their institutions would go right; but if they had an immoral outlook, then no amount of intellectual acuteness would secure the good government of the country. Government was sometimes spoken of as something mysterious that came from above; but it was simply and solely, in the last resort, a series of acts which were done by human beings. One might have the most perfect institutions, but one would never succeed in getting the right kind of acts out of the wrong kind of human beings. The politician in a democratic state realized that he could not move faster than the rate of devlopment of the people who were the material through which he worked; therefore every religious organization, every church which was attempting to develop, to mold, and to improve the character of the people was working for the success of democratic government, and for that public and political progress which depended on the character of the people. The churches and religious organizations should not be pessimistic about the effect they could have upon the character of the people. It was sometimes said that human nature could not be changed. The man who believed that had no business inside a Christian church. If that were true, there was no reason whatever for any Christian church to exist, because the very thing for which it was established was declared impossible. If all citizens from youth upward were influenced for good by the churches, the Sunday schools, by the press and by public men, there would be produced in the community the spirit which democracy and world brotherhood required, just as easily as a few years ago we produced a spirit of belligerency and warfare when it was thought that the nation needed it. That, then, was the connection between democracy and Christianity. Democracy depended in the last resort upon the character of the people, and Christianity was the most potent influence in our land by which the development of that character could be secured.

[From the Boston Daily Globe, Massachusetts]

Bishop Freeman of Washington urged the women to take their places as the spiritual leaders of the nation. The problem of youth he laid squarely upon the shoulders of the elders, offering as the solution better example of adult conduct and better religious training. "The youth of to-day is not unresponsive to the appeal of religion," he said. "But they are refusing milk for babes and calling for strong meat. It is for us to give them religion in the form in which it will make its strongest appeal."

[From the National Humane Review, Albany, New York]

Community work will always be much more effective when allied with religion—not a religion that is narrow, sectarian, but big, broad, persuasive—that can lure people to their eternal good. Social service with some people becomes a substitute for religious faith instead of an expression of faith. True religion and undefiled is "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep [one's self] unspotted from the world."

[Dr. Carnegie Simpson, in the Presbyterian Messenger, London, England]

Hardly any type of Christian man is more to be appreciated than the man who, in the very difficult and often dusty world of business or of politics—in the world of any of those things which must be carried on by somebody—honestly strives to be and to stand for what is worthy and Christian.