[The Christian Register]

There is no reason why in a religion a good deal of risk of being supposed egotistic should not be taken, so long as it is a risk and not a fact. Confidence in something one has from above himself is pretty quickly distinguishable from vain self-exploitation, and a little boldness in exposition may be pardonable in a prophet of the soul, since it is held praiseworthy in those who offer wares of less value. If a man has something he cherishes and adores, and loves to find other people have too,—something it would be a joy to him to make many people share,—then he will unavoidably seem a little presumptuous in saying so; but those who have said so are not put down among the proud and haughty who have been brought low. They have been acclaimed as redeemers and guides of the race, sages and bringers of light, saviors, and messengers of God. If they had remained, as they felt, bashful and tongue-tied, their modesty might have been admired, but it would have been admired apologetically as an excuse, never as a virtue. "The secret of the Lord," it is true, "is with them that fear him." At the same time, the blessing of the Lord—and of men—is with them who proclaim it; and if it is only the Lord they fear, and not what men will say, they will not be afraid of anything else.

[Pacific Christian Advocate]

Always a few chosen souls stand so close to the rim of the unseen that they can catch message from the invisible and by their lives translate them into great experiences for the race. Tyndale, in prison, labored to give his persecuting generation the Scriptures, though he knew he would gain neither money nor liberty thereby. Saints in your neighborhood and mine have transactions with the infinite which enable them to be in the world and yet not of it.

God gives every one the possibility of using the unseen resources of the spiritual world. To be good and to pray, to forgive and to love, to aspire and to worship, transmits power to the soul as surely as the wire transmits electricity. To be conscious of God and to obey Him, to yield in willingness to the Spirit's guidance and to rejoice, to be and instrument of the higher might, brings divine energies to a man as surely as steam in an engine generates force. It is thus that souls are saturated with righteousness.

[The Congregationalist and Christian World]

The Christian has a right to serenity of temper when other men are troubled and confused. Having asked himself the question of where his own duty lies, he leaves affairs that lie outside that sphere of duty in the hands of God. If half the world is insane with hate and fear, the world's need of his serenity is only greater. Let us not deceive ourselves! The quiet life is the normal life. We must sympathize and give and pray,—but the excited world today more than every needs the witness and the power of sane and normal living. The waste of war needs the productive works of peace. God, who has given us a place exempt from war, expects us to show how peaceful men should live in righteousness.

[American Lutheran Survey]

In the midst of the tumult and confusion of the times there are many who are engaged in sober reflection. Many are seeking for the larger significance of the great transpiring events. Men are looking out into the future and back into the past. A new impulse has been given to the study of the philosophy of history. All thoughtful, honest students of history agree that there is a philosophy of history. Great, significant events have never been detached from great, significant movements, which movements have their beginnings far in advance of the events which mark their course of development, and then finally merge themselves into other movements long after the events which mark their progress have become history.

Even those who avow unbelief in the God of the Bible are forced to admit a design and development in history which can be accounted for only through the recognition of a supreme and overruling power; and to the believer in revealed truth it is clear that this supreme and overruling power is no other than the God of the Bible. To the Christian the providence of God and the philosophy of history are identical, and he sees the hand of God just as clearly in His permissive providences, which leave men, even wicked men, free to exercise their wills, as in the direct and immediate providences through which God leads the obedient to the fulfilment of His revealed will. The same God who rules in those who acknowledge Him, overrules the wicked courses of those who deny Him.

[The Christian Work]

Our time is full of wonderful quickenings of the consoience of mankind, deep stirrings of the human heart, passionate enthusiasms for humanity, growing determinations to rid the world of some of its age-long cruelties, highly organized warfares against lingering crimes. There has been a new birth of the social consciousness, which is manifesting itself in a sense of the oneness of humanity. A new society and a new world are rising upon the vision of select souls in every nation. The preacher of today must see in this the revelation of God's will and purpose, as of old the prophets saw it in the operations of Israel's national life. He must be able to discern the secrets of the times and lead men in the building of the city of God. He must believe that the final purpose of God for this world is, as Christ declared, the founding of the kingdom of God in the earth, and he must see that these enthusiasms of our time are His methods, as well as revelations of the nature of the kingdom.

[The Methodist Times]

There is no opposition between the spiritual service of the nation and the evangelism which seeks to reach those who are outside the churches, one by one. The nation is made up of individuals, and no religious appeal will affect the whole body that does not transform the individuals who compose it. At the same time, those who would profoundly influence the personal life of men and women, especially in this age when denominational ties have been loosened, must rise altogether above a narrowly sectarian outlook. It matters little whether the sect be large or small, influential or the reverse. The people must be the objective of every great church; and the people taken not only individually, but in their whole spiritual enviromnent and in their collective aims.

[James H. Snowden, D.D., LL.D., in The Biblical World]

Faith is the opposite of fear. It stands for an undiscourageable optimism in the face of a world that is full of inexplicable pain and evil. It means the unshakable assurance that God is good, that His thoughts and plans for men are those of love, and the His resources of power and grace are such as will ultimately bring these plans to pass in spite of all our ignorance and infirmity. Fear means doubt and uncertainty and pessimism; it paralyzes the very springs of life. Faith is inseparable from joy and expectancy and service, and knits up our flagging resolution to ever new effort and determination.