[From a Correspondent, in the Times, London, England]

"Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." ... Jesus became supremely good—such is the comfort of the truth emphasized by St. Luke—through traveling the road which is open to us all; he did not stumble as we do, yet the road was the same. He became good by resisting wrong, by drawing help from the Father, by repeated effort, by gradual improvement. Only thus could he increase "in favour with God."

No less pertinent is the remembrance that he "increased in wisdom." That thought too has a special value for children, but it is also of continuing significance for all, at every stage of life. Church tradition has often tried to accentuate the marvelous and supernatural claims of Jesus by representing his human equipment as that of an uneducated peasant. Such a view is flatly at variance with the gospel records. As Professor Peabody has remarked, "On almost every page of the first three Gospels there is disclosed in him the student of the Scriptures, the master in dialectic, familiar with the scholar's method of logic and rejoinder, with a mind which was disciplined, self-confident, and keen." To his contemporaries he must have seemed not merely a spiritual seer, but an intellectual master. He was welcomed as a teacher in the synagogues; unlike the great majority of his time he could read Hebrew as well as Aramaic; he could meet the skilled interpreters of rabbinic tradition on their own ground.

[From the Age, Melbourne, Australia]

It seems certain that nothing will save civilization but the presence and influence of good men. No quantity of ingeniously devised legislation or of efficient administrative machinery will ever prove a satisfactory substitute for that human factor. ...

Present-day civilization requires the saintship that is social and altruistic rather than the saintship that is solitary and introspective. One consequence is that today in the market place, workshop, office, and factory there are going round many good men undistinguished by any halo. Their lot is in many cases humble, their toil hard. But those who live and work most closely to them are foremost in bearing spontaneous tribute to their worth. Many elements go into a good man's make-up, but the greatest of these is character. He is constant in his pursuit of lofty ideals, being convinced of the truth embodied in the ancient aphorism, "Character is destiny." In an address delivered some sixteen years ago the late Sir Henry Jones, one of Britain's most eminent philosophers, subjected to analysis the permanent qualities of the good man. "The good man," he said, "is he who wrings from the common facts of a common life their purest essence and most lasting values. Character," he continued, "is not independent of circumstance; but circumstance is only raw material after all, and what shall be made of it depends on character." Character, however, is elusive; it conforms to no single type; its forms are protean. Self-discipline and the spirit of renunciation are the price of it; and no religious or ethical system can give character to the man who will sacrifice no part of his lower nature in order to win it. ...

The good man cultivates the extended vision; in making his livelihood he does not lose sight of the larger life. His occupation is the means by which he subsists, but it may also be the medium through which he greatly serves. ... The good man recognizes that there is a world of wider causes, and every cause that is worthy he makes his. As husband, parent, neighbor, citizen, he is good, because in each relationship he seeks to effect the highest good. As citizen of his suburb or his state he acknowledges the welfare of each to be his responsibility, even as the progress and reputation of each are his pride. His citizenship ceases to be a merely secular thing because of the sincere and unselfish spirit he dedicates to the discharge of its duties. So comprehensive is the good man's parish, so diversified are his works, that it is vain to seek to sum him up in maxim or epigram. But on General Gordon's tomb there are inscribed the words: "Always and everywhere he gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, and his heart to God." As a definition of a good man that may safely be allowed to stand.

[From the News-Press, Santa Barbara, California]

What a different world this would be if those who kneel at Christian altars were all whole-heartedly striving to obey the commands of their Master! If all were striving to be pure in thought, word, and deed as he commanded, immorality and all its evils would soon be banished from the earth. If they all coveted not the things belonging to their neighbors, strifes and warrings among Christians at least would cease. ... And future wars, if they come, and they will come until Christ really rules the hearts of men, will come because men are so far from being Christians that as individuals and nations they will go forth like ordinary highwaymen to rob their neighbors of their goods, lands, and homes, to oppress and enslave them.

Neither leagues of nations nor any other physical device will bring a very near approach to the millennium until more of the men and women who make up the nations live under the Golden Rule and have enthroned in their hearts the spirit of Christ to direct, to dominate, their thoughts, their motives, their deeds, their lives.

[Norma M. McGarry, in the New Outlook, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

An educated man is not necessarily a man of great learning, but he is one who has by some process acquired the faculty of arriving at sound conclusions after calm consideration of all the facts. You may say this is easy. It is easy in some cases, but it becomes tremendously difficult in regard to any subject on which we have permitted ourselves to hold a prejudiced opinion. And are we not all addicted to this weakness to a greater or lesser degree? The dictionary meaning of the word "prejudice" is "prejudgment without due consideration." ... The worst of it is that, based upon these prejudices, we act. I have always contended that the vote in the hands of an ignorant man or woman is as dangerous as a gun. We do not know what he is going to do with it. Oftentimes our destiny as nations depends upon our decisions at the polls. Thither we rush armed with the right to vote upon this and that vital question, our minds as empty of consideration as though we were children buying "grab bags" at the corner candy store.

Any reasoned opinion a man has he is usually ready to do battle for; a prejudice he is quite as likely to do battle for as well. And, too, usually he imposes his dogmatic belief upon his children, and thus it becomes a part of the family tradition, embedded in the minds of his sons and daughters, where it is seldom dislodged even after they have reached years of maturity, unless education plays its tremendously important part in uprooting the evil. ...

We have already awakened to the knowledge that our political and social institutions require overhauling, and that in our international relationships we need a vastly broader and more sympathetic viewpoint. We have suddenly discovered that we are not selfishly able to live merely to ourselves, but that the welfare of all depends upon the welfare of the individual. We have slowly and painfully come to realize that we are indeed our "brother's keeper" and that only by an almost complete process of reëducation of the public mind can a fuller, more useful, and more satisfying standard of living be attained for all.

Old standards of education must be remodeled to new conditions. It is not merely the children who must attend school. We adults must bestir ourselves in this new and disturbingly changing world. Prejudices must be discarded. Old cut and dried theories had better be scrapped where it is found that they do not adhere to the new ideal of usefulness for the many instead of advantage for the individual. Today a man or woman who is known to have low standards of opinion on public questions is as dangerous as an out-and-out ignoramus.

["Spectator," in the Bucks Standard, Wolverton, England]

We are told of the greatest man on earth, Christ [Jesus] himself, he "went about doing good." With that example to help us we can go about our task of making others happy, and do a lot of good in this way.

It stands to reason, if we are bright and happy ourselves, others must follow our example. Some people radiate happiness, and it is impossible to feel sad or downcast in their presence. ...

I know that hard times come along, when the breadwinner is without work, and little money is coming in, and one wonders where the next lot of food is coming from. But even at times like this, if you have assimilated all the serenity of true happiness, even adversity cannot damp your spirits. A laugh and a smile at all times is the motto for everybody and makes life worth while.

Here then is my philosophy—

First of all set your house in order, and having instilled the seeds of happiness into yourself, proceed to scatter them abroad to other people. Try to do good to others. ... Your reward will come later.

[From the New Egypt Press, New Jersey]

We are concerned about the gold standard. Some question the advisability of departing from it. Our real concern, however, should lie deeper. We can in a very real sense take as our standard of living and thinking either gold or God. To worship the god of money and make a religion of a selfish and materialistic way of living is a departure from standards which is indeed serious, and the root cause of much of our trouble today. It is simply impossible to live very long under such standards without getting either one's self or somebody else into trouble. Jesus said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Of how many of our kings of finance and barons of industry could it be said as the Scriptures say of Balaam, that he "loved the wages of unrighteousness"? And of how many of us ordinary folk could God say, as St. Paul said of Demas, that he "hath forsaken me, having loved this present world"? Shall we not honestly ask ourselves this question, "What is my standard?" And may the answer of our lives and not merely of our lips be, "God, and not gold!"