[Dr. W. Tudor Jones in Christian Commonwealth.]

We are so much in the midst of wars and rumors of wars that the meaning and value of religion seem for the movement to have receded into the background, or indeed to have disappeared altogether. The attention of the world is drawn to objects outside the religious aspect, but the religious aspect, in so far as it is a reality at all, will make its contribution in the settlement of all these disputes. It is our own fault if religion is not strong enough to prevent conflicts, and it is a sign of weakness that the ethical and religious elements have taken such a secondary place. When the disputes of nations are investigated, they are found to rest upon certain imaginary or real rights which each nation holds it is entitled to possess. The consciousness of the rights of individuals and nations has developed more rapidly than the consciousness of duties.

The new presentation of religion is concerned with this all-important fact. In Germany today the advocates of the need of a better understanding between their own country and England are leaders of religion who have worked their way out of traditional theology to the conception of an international ethic. These leaders believe that no peace and good will can ever come about between nations until religion is something infinitely more than a number of theological propositions, whether such propositions belong to the past or the present. Their work is no other than a deepening of the meaning of religion to include spiritual experience and overpersonal ideals which include the good of all. We have been spending too much time in talking about our religion, and too little time in attempting to realize and live it out in the individual life and in the community. There is no power besides an international, spiritual ethic that will overcome race prejudice, hatred, and selfishness. Many men—indeed, strong armies of them—are conscious of this fact today. [James I. Vance, D.D., in Christian Intelligencer.]

Our real concern should be, not what is the value of the church, nor yet what is its true mission, but is it fulfilling its mission? Is it doing the thing it was built to do? Is it a spiritual force today, or just a homeopathic church? Is it doing a lot of little things, but falling short in the one supreme thing? It may nurse all sorts of sick reforms that cry for milk, and say mean things about the church when it fails to give them cream, but if it fails to lead men to know God in the pardon of their sins, it fails. If the church fails, it fails largely because the people who compose it are themselves not spiritual. Here is where we are weak. The trouble with the church is not that it is behind the times, that it preaches dead doctrines, that it is not interested in present-day movements, that it does not tie up to prohibition or progressive legislation, that it does not preach the initiative and referendum or espouse an employer's liability act, but that its membership is composed, not entirely, thank God, but entirely too largely, of people who have no religious experience, and no personal acquaintance with God. Religion does not grip them; it merely sugar-coats them. They go through the forms, perhaps, but they know nothing of that power of God in their lives which rides down expediency, popularity, and gain, and all baser motives. They probably conform to the forms of religion, but the forms are not enough. Putty has form; dough has form; sawdust may have form, but no power.

[Christian Register.]

The persistent use of language representing heaven as a place or state of being which qualified people die into by mere operation of time, is false to common opinion and common sense. To suppose that the mere ending of this life precipitates the issue between bliss and torment for all time afterward, is to forget the fundamental fact of character. A man carries what he is wherever he goes, and having a ticket of admission given on other grounds will not help him feel at home when he gets into the wrong place. There are people who might dwell in a heaven a thousand years and never know they were there; and what Father Taylor said of Emerson, that if he went to hell he would change the climate and the tide of immigration would set that way, is true of many persons. Montaigne's wisdom as to this world's goods applies well for any world: "Whatsoever the goods of fortune are, a man must have a proper sense to savor them. It is enjoying and not the possessing of them that makes us happy."

[Dallas (Tex.) News.]

There is little doubt that creeds and dogmas as often enslave as they liberate. Religion itself has never harmed any one, but many of its misguided and thoughtless adherents have. Zeal is too often exercised more for inducing others to think our way than for the purpose of awakening one to his responsibility in the matter of life and future destiny. How infinitely more desirable it is to induce one to manifest faith and prayerfulness rather than bigotry and prejudice; to realize his condition and say with psalmist, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me;" to heed the admonition of him who said, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." It is such a one who will recall this indispensable commandment and try to comply with it: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

[British Congregationalist.]

Spiritual forces can never be reckoned by count of heads. The most elementary knowledge of church history would convince any man of common intelligence that, again and again, when by the numerical test the church has been weakest, by the real test of spiritual vitality and moral force it had been strongest, and, not less truly, the days of its greatest popularity have not been the days of its truest strength. The ultimate and only reliable test of a Christian church is how far Christ is taught, lived, trusted, obeyed in that church: how can the count of heads determine that? Any man who knows the life of the churches knows that there are individuals who would only count one in a statistical census who count for scores in that spiritual census which God alone can take, and that others may be reckoned by tens or scores in mere census of figures who would not—all grouped count for more than one in the estimate of spiritual forces.

[Universalist Leader.]

When we complain that the people are impatient and desert the churches, suppose we try again the simple messages and lessons of life which Christ preached, and see if in this day, as in the olden time, they do not hear gladly; coming again and again, with eager desire, because there is something they want, something they must have. Without cant, without superstition, make the Christ of yesterday the Christ of today, entering into all the life of today as he entered into all the life of the past; entering in to serve and not to get, and the whole world will hear him gladly!

[Advance.]

He is in each one of us, the person whom we may become. How shall we define him; how shall we dare to believe in him; how shall we achieve him? This question lies back of all our moral and spiritual problems and strivings. The answer is in Christ. In him is seen the possible man. Triumphant over every threatening circumstance, supreme above every temptation stood Jesus. Master of death and every fear appeared the Redeemer. It was his triumph, and it was ours also. What he was we are to become.