From our Exchanges

with contributions from H. A. Bridgman

The remarkable religious revival in Wales and the awakening in London has turned attention sharply to similar possibilities in other parts of the world. The distinguished English editor, W. T. Stead, and the eminent American clergyman, Newell Dwight Hillis, unite in the prediction that the movement is to become world-wide.

Certainly the time is ripe. Mankind has been moving at a rapid pace. It is a hard, materialistic age. The rich have become more and more lavish and oppressive of the poor, and the poor have given themselves up very largely to the thought of how to keep up with the procession.

It might seem to the unthinking that this is the hardest of conditions for religious enthusiasm to break in upon. But the truth is that human nature swings, like the pendulum, from the extreme of idealism to that of materialism and from materialism back to idealism. Its attitude today is no indication that it will be the same to-morrow.

World-wide materialism works its own cure. The whole thing eventually breaks down of its own weight. Men's minds become surfeited and susceptible to other and very different considerations. It is then remembered and pro claimed that man does not live by bread alone. We may have so much of the now and here as to sicken of it and turn to thought of the beyond for rest and inspiration.

The Atlanta (Ga.) Journal.

The highest life means the deepest delight. But one must not wait until he attains the highest before he is satisfied to rejoice in the gifts of God. All right pleasure in external things is a means of grace, helping on to the day when one shall be satisfied when he awakes in the divine likeness. One needs to be educated to rejoice with the gladness of the angels; and the cultivation of the art of seeing the good things of life, of counting the divine mercies, is a most important factor in the regeneration of the soul. The habit of being happy in the simple relationships of to-day is the best of preparation for the joys that are eternal. Moreover, joyfulness is the truest altruism. The unhappy, discontented, fretful nature absorbs life, depletes others of what makes life worth living; but the glad spirit by its inherent, diffusive beneficence helps those around to blossom and hear fruit as in a fertile garden.

New-Church Messenger.

How any one who believes in God can believe that the world is growing worse, I cannot see. Of course, if you never read anything but the daily newspaper with its burden of crimes and scandals, if you have no idea of the magnificent Christian work going on all over the world, you are more likely to be pessimist. To such I suggest two sure cures for doubt and fearfulness. First, keep in touch somehow with aggressive Christianity. Second, keep working constantly at the problem of the betterment of your own life, the elimination of its defects, the establishment of it in ways of decency and honor. Either of these cures is likely to produce the desired result. Both taken together will prove irresistible.

Rev. H. A. Bridgman.
The Congregationalists.

Jesus never argued the existence of God. He knew Him in the recesses of his own soul, where he had uninterrupted communion with Him, talking face to face as a man with his friend. He did not believe in God because of any logic about the First Cause of the universe or the manifestations of design in creation. He was not dependent upon any external revelation, and this direct vision of the Father is the privilege of all the sons of God. God is the answer to the imperatively felt need of every soul, crying out in longing after Him. If this longing is stifled, if a man is no longer conscious of it, nothing can be done until it is awakened afresh. —Western Christian Advocate.

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