[Rev. C. G. Dawe, as quoted in the Western Guardian, Kingsbridge, Devonshire, England]

We are learning more and more about the influence of thought, and I think that thinking and talking about war creates a very unhealthy atmosphere. The Christian church can make a great contribution to the peace of the world by determining not only to pray for peace, but to believe that those prayers will be answered.

[Dr. Robert Millikan, as quoted in the Maritime Baptist, Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada]

My own judgment is that, if the influence of the American churches in the furtherance of socially wholesome and forward-looking movements, in the spread of conscientious living of all sorts, were to be eliminated, our democracy would in a few years become so corrupt that it could not endure.

[From the Evening News, Cadillac, Michigan]

The church's largest contribution to education, like her supreme ministry to human life, is her gospel, with its interpretation of existence and its inspiration to live worthily. Where life is without meaning, education becomes futile. Where it is ignobly conceived, education is debased. Where it is viewed in the light of God's purpose in Christ, it assumes divine significance. It is not the methods by which her gospel is taught which are of first importance.... It is all-important that her gospel should supply the presuppositions of all education, by whatever agency it is given, and create the spiritual atmosphere which pervades every institution of true learning.

[Rev. A. Nevile Davidson, in the Evening News, Glasgow, Scotland]

Fewer people go to church today, even in Scotland, than once upon a time. In the old days, respectability drove them. It was the proper thing to do. Not perhaps a very laudable motive for going to worship in God's house. It often made for hypocrisy. It gave people a thin veneer of Christianity, when underneath in their hearts there was very little real religion. Today things have changed. People will only go to church if they want to go, and if they feel that the church really has something to give them.

Many different reasons are advanced by those who do not go. Many folk frankly say that they prefer a long lie in bed on Sunday morning. Others don't mind early rising for a game of golf or a tramp in the hills or a drive in their motor car, as the case may be. For them Sunday is not a holy day, but simply a holiday, an opportunity for getting into the open country, meeting friends, and enjoying recreation of all kinds.

Others again are openly critical of the church. They maintain tat its worship is formal, the preaching dull, Christians unattractive and narrow-minded.

Now very often these so-called reasons for not going to church are simply excuses which people invent as a pretext for taking the line of least resistance.

Yet in our inmost hearts I think very few of us are really prepared to dispense with religion altogether. It is a significant fact that at any time of national crisis thousands of men and women come back to church.

It is the same in hours of personal crisis: those times of sorrow, loneliness, sudden calamity or failure, which come to all of us. How often at such moments a man who has neglected all his religious duties, it may be for years, turns his footsteps once again to church, humbly bows his head and kneels upon his knees, and finds there a comfort, a peace and strength which he could find nowhere else.

We men and women know that in the great testing hours of life we need the help of religion. We feel our frailty and ignorance in the midst of this mysterious universe, and know that ultimately we are dependent, every one of us, upon God our creator, our Saviour, our unseen Father and Friend.

But if the church at such times can give us light and consolation and strength, why not also at all times? Are there not constantly in the lives of all of us problems, temptations, and trials for which we need the guidance and grace of Alimighty God? ...

It seems to [many] as though the beacon lights which guided our fathers have been rudely extinguished by the harsh winds of reality. What are we to believe? What are we to strive for? Upon what plan are we to shape our lives? they ask. A very acute observer of our time has written recently: "Many signs suggest that we are now standing on the threshold of a great revival of faith. People are hungry for a living religion, for a God to pray to, and a faith to live by, and a power to re-create the social order. Nobody who is in touch with the universities can fail to observe how the young men and women are turning back to seek almost desperately for the secrets of Christian faith and life." ...

The church is, by any reckoning, the most amazing institution in history. It is, moreover, the one institution in the world today which can break down those barriers of race, nationality, and social caste which are so fatal to the happiness and peace of mankind. It has the one gospel of hope in this age of pessimism and despair; for does it not proclaim the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the sacredness of human life in this world, and the sure promise of life in the world to come?

[R. Edis Fairbairn, in the United Church Observer, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

Since God is everywhere, so that, no matter where we may be, we can always say, God is here, we do not need to go to any special place to pray. We sometimes call the church building "the House of God." That is not because we think God lives in the church, or is only to be found there, but because that particular building is set aside for the special purpose of coming together that we may unite in worship.

Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." No special place is necessary, but a special attitude of mind is. That state of mind is humble, loving devotion to God and desire for His blessing and help, and also a spirit of friendliness to our neighbors and relatives who worship with us. When we come together in that spirit, we can feel the nearness and reality of God. He is near us and He is real all the time; but we do not always feel that. Public worship enables us to recover our sense of the nearness of God. In that sense we "meet" with God as we worship.

There was a village in a tiny valley where people lived and worked, ate and slept, year after year. On a near-by hill-top there was a place from which one could get a glorious view of the surrounding country, its woods, and lakes, and hills, and the roads that led to the rest of the world. Some of the people had never been to the hill. They did not know of the beautiful view. They lived all their lives in a narrow rut, hardly even looking up at the stars. Some others used to climb the hill occasionally and look around. They said it did them good to see how big and beautiful the world was. But they did not go very often, and in the intervals they lived just like those who had never seen the view. Others went regularly, and they went together. They exclaimed to each other over the wonder and the beauty of it all, and they talked about it afterwards. They said that what they saw from the hilltop enabled them to feel that they belonged to the larger world.

No wonder, in the ages of long ago, men chose the hilltops for their places of worship. Our weekly public worship is like the hilltop in our lives. From it we see afar off, and the pure breeze cleanses our very souls. We feel near to God, and we can take that feeling of nearness to God with us through the rest of the week.

[Dr. William Temple, as quoted in the Leeds Mercury, England]

The world is constantly turning to the church when the sin of the world is bringing upon it calamities that were directly traceable to that sin and saying, "What is your solution?" Nine times out of ten the church must answer: "I cannot solve your problem, because the problem is merely the expression of your sin, your wrong state of mind, your failure to love God and your neighbors. Do these things and the problem will be gone—not solved, but abolished."

[Oscar Thomas Olson, in the Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, Ohio]

Religion is the recognition of our responsibilities as the commands of God. Here is the ultimate fact that we must face: The challenge of life itself as it pounds in upon our consciousness through the experiences, hopes, desires, ambitions, avarices, and lusts that mark us as human, drives us to constant choices between the higher and the lower, the greater and lesser, the better and meaner.

There is no way by which we can avoid the command of choice! We must choose whether we shall serve God and follow goodness, or choose selfish paganism and follow evil. Lincoln said: "The purposes of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail accurately to perceive them in advance. I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

[From the Randolph Advance, Wisconsin]

Those who have demonstrated to their own satisfaction that a Christian viewpoint aided them in realizing the better things in life can understand how the church as a whole can aid its members.

[Rev. W. P. Gordon, as quoted in the Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky]

This question put to Peter by the Master ["Lovest thou me?"] was far removed from the sickly sentimental stuff we hear in song and conversation in our day....

Love, in the sense used in the above question, carries with it a wealth of emotion and interest in one's fellows for their best interests. The element of unselfishness is clearly defined in its application to daily use. When "love" sees a need it does not question or reason about the matter, but goes about giving what is needed to remedy the need. It is utterly unselfish! There is no calculation as to what "I get out of this deed of kindness," either of glory or material profit.... All that it asks is an opportunity to express itself.

Love does not count the cost of its undertakings.