[Rev. H. A. Fisher, as quoted in the Press-Telegram, Long Beach, California]

One of the beautiful and lovely things about the Christian religion is that it tends to make happy not only the one who accepts and espouses it, but also makes others happy. It is like the sun in the heavens. It shines for others. It gives light and warmth and sends forth its healing and life-giving rays to others. Religion and the church were founded and established and are maintained today in order to make more and more people happy and blessed, to bring sunshine and hope into their lives, to nourish men's faith and spiritual life and in the end to give them the crown of eternal life.

[Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, M. P., as quoted in the Christian World, London, England]

The church in our midst can educate the public conscience and train men for expanding moral responsibilities. Can it do more? Can it fire the imagination of the nations once again with the love of truth and freedom and brotherhood which are at the base of Christian civilization? Can it provide a vision of national purpose, so clear and commanding, and withal so Christian, that we shall find ourselves as one people obeying its summons, however various our gifts and diverse our duties? Can we do in and through freedom what others have wrought by force? I am not asking for uniformity of method but unity of purpose, made explicit and articulate, in and for the world of today. It was done in and for war. Can it be done in and for peace? . . .

England cannot stay indoors, nor can she delegate her business to a manager. Nor can the church stay indoors and delegate her work.

[Editorial in the Ashington Collieries Magazine, England]

The man whose religion makes him severe, condemnatory, and altogether unlovely is simply producing evidence that he is attempting by mere human will to maintain a rule of life which he has not reached by logical spiritual growth—by taking all the human footsteps thereto. This it was that constituted the sin of Pharisaism. And this it is which gives rise to the charge sometimes heard that the so-called friends of Christianity occasionally retard its progress more than do its enemies.

One of the outward indications of an inward and spiritual peace should, of course, be a joyful countenance. The only religion worthy of serious consideration is that which delivers the goods, that which measures up in practice to what it preaches. . . .

In 1623, George Wither wrote the very first hymnbook published in England, and it is of interest to note that evidently he considered that one's religion should enter into all one's doings, for he wrote hymns entitled: "When Washing," "On a Boat," "Sheep Shearing," "For Tailors," "Jailor," "Prisoner," "Member of Parliament," etc.

A religion, to be practical, should accompany one onto the football field to the betterment of the game; it should go into the workshop and show what it means to be about the "Father's business"; it should help the child in school; it should sweeten existence for the housewife at home; it should radiate friendly co-operation in the office; and it should lighten the burdens of all who come within its beneficent atmosphere.

Such a religion will advertise itself. It will be reflected in the thoughts and actions of those who really have it in their hearts. Being established there, it will produce signs upon their faces.

For it is undoubtedly a fact that if a man has the wherewithal that makes him happier, healthier, and more kindly to his neighbors, those same neighbors will want to know more about it, will want to know what church he goes to, and they will queue up to get there.

[From the Democrat, Fort Madison, Iowa]

It is our right to enjoy complete freedom from every phase of bondage to which mankind is heir, for bondage, obviously, is not the normal state of man. It is right for man to enjoy the full privileges of freedom. But he must bear in thought that he is largely responsible for the degree of freedom he experiences. His attitude is a big factor in determining the degree of liberty he enjoys.

One will soon find, in pondering the question of freedom, that God is the source of all liberty, and that one enjoys liberty in proportion to the Godlike qualities he manifests in his daily life. The sin-ridden individual is the bondage-held individual. Liberty is enjoyed only as sin is overcome and destroyed and one draws nigh unto God.

There is no declaration of independence that is as efficacious to an individual as the life that is patterned after the divine.

[Rev. Dr. Hugh Black, as quoted in the New York Times, New York]

What makes religion a dull drudgery for so many people? One reason is the use of ritualism and devices which emulate Chinese praying machines. We cannot please God with forms and rituals and devices.

The Christian life should not be a dull routine, but a bounding, joyous inspiration. In proportion as we are really advanced in the life of love, so do we find the Commandments easy and Christ's burden light.

Love is the highest discovery in the region of spiritual forces. Love is the fulfillment of the Lord. We know from experience that love for a person will lighten any burden which we bear.

[S. J. Duncan-Clark, in the Chicago Daily News, as quoted in Advance, Boston, Massachusetts]

A man who travels much among the churches, and whose name is known throughout the country as a writer on religious themes, called my attention the other day to an interesting phenomenon.

"Have you noticed," he said, "how many of our leaders in statecraft, in business, and in industry have been asserting of late that America needs a spiritual awakening? And have you noticed how many of our church groups and religious leaders are talking sociology and economics and politics?"

"What do you make of it?" I asked.

"It seems to me like a strange reversal of roles," he answered. "I wonder whether the church is not missing an opportunity. If statecraft and business feel the need of a spiritual revival, why is not the church responding to the need?"

"That is something to think about," I said.

"May it not be that thoughtful men in the realm of state and business have been shocked by the collapse of their basis for confidence in material values, and are turning to consideration of the spiritual as a better ground for their faith, a higher promise of security and happiness, and that the thoughtful men in the realm of religion have been no less shocked by the failure of the church to influence effectively the vast domains of politics and business? One might hope that each group is seeking an approach to a common understanding on the part of both. If statecraft and business really feel the need of a spiritual revival, unquestionably the church should respond. Perhaps the church is making a belated effort to fit itself for intelligent response. Perhaps it is trying to discover what would happen if the ideals of religion were applied to statecraft and business, and how the effort to apply them should begin.

"But what I wonder is how far statecraft and industry would be willing to have a genuine spiritual revival go in the work of converting their methods and policies to the ethical and spiritual ideals of religion.

"Maybe they are invoking a power without realizing the extent of its possibilities."

"And that," said my friend, "is also something to think about."

[Rev. W. H. Elliott, as quoted in the Sunday Chronicle, Manchester, England]

I am no believer in "long-faced Christians."

Something is wrong with a man's religion unless it produces in him a certain gayety of spirit, which reflects the essential joy and hopefulness of his creed.

"If your morals make you dreary," says R. L. Stevenson, "depend upon it they are wrong." We forget too often that the gospel is "good news." When that good news was preached first it thrilled the world. And no wonder! For here was news of a divine power controlling the universe, of a divine wisdom guiding those who were willing to be guided, of a divine Love that cared intensely for each as for all, and would never let any of them go.

Here was news of a life beyond death, of the continuance in the world unseen of all that really makes a man what he is in the world that we know, of a sure and certain hope that those whom we have loved and lost have never been lost to us at all.

Why, indeed, should Christian folk, who believe in all this, be long-faced? How can they believe it all without an exhilaration of spirit very obvious to all who know them and a certain gayety, as I have called it, that must prove very infectious to those who are in their company?

There is a definition of success that I often quote: "He has achieved success who has lived long, laughed often, and loved much!" Quite obviously that definition of true success in life is too short, but it will do. I like it because it emphasizes the laughter that comes so often into a life worth calling good. I need not say that to all this there is another side. Modern life, as all of us know, is full of tremendous problems, but it is not thinking that will make one mad, as some are inclined to suggest. It is much more likely that thinking, really deep thinking, will make one gay.

[C. W. Black, as quoted in the West Middlesex Gazette, London, England]

Today many are finding life hard and difficult, but the Christian religion is the religion of rejoicing. "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad," and "Be of good cheer" are examples of [Jesus] Christ's teaching. The New Testament is the most joyful book in the whole world. . . . Even at the fateful last supper Jesus said, "These things have I spoken, that your joy might be full;" and in the Acts we find the early apostles, after being beaten and in prison, went on their way rejoicing.

The principal explanation is because Jesus Christ was the most joyful man the world has ever known. . . . Our power of rejoicing is an index of our spiritual life. What the world wants more than anything else is the joy of Christ.