[From the Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada]

Ideals are splendid things. But ideals are of no consequence unless we seek to put them into practice and so allow them to govern our lives and to influence us in every way. Ideals should not be viewed merely in the light of golden images. It is not merely the glamour but the reality of ideals which should possess us. We can only show an honest and sincere belief in ideals in making them our guidance, and so manifest in ourselves that we are not merely stirred by their glitter. In the way we ourselves live up to our ideals, the more will ideals gain in the estimation of the world. We cannot merely honor things or admire things with our mouths—this is lip service. What we need to do with our ideals is to take them to our heart.

Ideals can only grow and have their influence in the world if that influence is shown in the national and in individual life. This cannot be too strongly emphasized. Christianity is an ideal religion. That is to say, it contains splendid ideals. But our Christianity, just as our ideals, stands or falls in the estimation of men in the way we practice it. Here every sincere professor of Christianity and every sincere professor of the beauty of ideals has his or her responsibility. To profess and not to practice is a besetting sin which the individual has to be warned of.

The world will gain tremendously if ideals are put into practice. This means much in the little world in which we move. To carry out the ideals we extol is just as much a religion as carrying out the Christianity we profess. The ideals which Christ [Jesus] preached he religiously lived up to. To him they were sacred, and he made it so by in no way departing from them. Here he set the example of how we should regard ideals and allow no one to taunt us in praising ideals merely and not following them out. Practice and profession are totally different things. The first is difficult; the second is easy. In doing the difficult things we show that we are at least sincere. Sincerity itself is an ideal which we should strive to gain. It is a virtue which is well worth the pursuit. For therein we show the world the true light which is within us, and which illuminates the path we tread. Here we are a guide to others. Here we live up to our individual responsibilities.

[From the Times, London, England]

Christianity made its strongest appeal by its ability to give men a security, a freedom, in God which otherwise they missed. It made the doctrine of the divine fatherhood a sure spiritual anchorage. That doctrine is not, as some would suppose, an easy truth of natural religion. It is not a truth so crystal clear that it would survive the wreck of every other religious belief. It does not reveal its power for life most richly in circles which have abandoned many other articles of the Christian creed. So far is that from being so that we rather see a new light being cast on the saying, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." ... Where Christ by his spirit guides the thoughts of men, there do we find a living faith in the fatherhood of God. And where that faith is alive man has passed from bondage to liberty. He knows that there is no power or force, on earth or beyond, which can separete him from God unless he himself wills that separation. Fear as a dominant tyranny cannot live with the prayer of faith, "Abba, Father."

In the restlessness and fever of this present age there is not a little to remind us of the century in which the gospel was first preached to the world. That brings to Christians a special strength and comfort when they recall the assurance and freedom and joy in God which that gospel gave to men and women very like themselves in the things that matter most. In his work, "The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire," Dr. Glover writes: "It is one thing to be a monotheist, and another to be a child of 'Abba, Father,' and this is one of the notes of the early Christian. It is impossible to overemphasize the significance of Christian happiness amid the strain and doubt of the early Empire." They were happy as children are happy who know that their father is with them, and that they need not fear. They were not just resigned to whatever might happen; they were joyful in whatever did happen. It was and is one of the glories of Christian faith to bear such witness to the unfailing providence of God.

[F. C. Hoggarth, in the Adult Bible Class Monthly, Cincinnati, Ohio]

A man's attitude toward God is vital. It matters more than church activities and church finance, creeds and theologies, or the forms and ceremonies of worship. On our being rich toward God all else depends. Apart from that our lives and our activities will lack their most precious quality.

Some have thought that if they loved God they would have less love for their fellows—as if love were a matter of simple addition or subtraction, each person having a fixed amount. But love works by a process not of exhaustion but of inspiration and expansion. Men do not become greater lovers of their kind by diminishing their love of God. In that love rather has been found kindling for the noblest of human services.

"It was the love of God that inspired the thought and that sustained me," said Lord Shaftesbury relative to his service for exploited children.

"I would love and serve the slave for his own sake," said Henry Ward Beecher, "but I would love and serve him ten times more for Christ's sake."

[Editorial in the Los Angeles Times, California]

With all our efforts to bring back good times—by economic fiat—have we not overlooked something? Can the "forgotten man" be the honest man? ... Was our breakdown material entirely or moral, too? Did our crack-up come all at once in 1929, or had something been eating at the vitals of the giant through the years? We can mend the collapse of buying power by jobs, but how shall we repair damaged character? ... The real recovery is the recovery of justice, truth, and righteousness. Honesty, then optimism! Purity, then prosperity! There is no other way out. These are old-fashioned doctrines—they are new-fangled doctrines for many. They are the eternal verities. The real recovery act is the recovery of conscience. It must come in business: in the yardstick, in the gallon can, in the bushel measure, in the berry box, in the weights and measure, in the label, in the stuff in the car, in the sales talk, in the speedometer, in the advertisement, in the box office, at the cashier's window, in the swivel chair.... Honesty in putting down pavement, honesty in the steel in the tool, honesty in the dollar, honesty in hardpan, honesty in office, honesty in political campaigns, honesty at the front door, honesty at the back door, honesty in the right of way on the highway, honesty in the collision, honesty in the Hall of Justice, honesty in the City Hall, honesty in the State House—is what we need. Relieving unemployment is highly worthy, but we cannot coax recovery back by just jobs. Charity is necessary and helpful; yet we cannot return prosperity by handouts. There is one immutable law—honesty, then prosperity. We talk of goods—but have we goodness?

This is the real recovery.

[From the Democrat, Fort Madison, Iowa]

"We do our part" is a slogan that one sees on every hand. It is evidence of one's willingness to do all he can in bringing about desired economic results.

It is probable, however, that the promise carries with it a deeper significance than some folk realize at first thought. "We do our part." What is doing one's part? A little study along that line may prove helpful and illuminating.

What brought about the conditions which we are now attempting to correct? Greed, harted, selfishness, and grossly material thinking. What will correct these conditions? The elimination of those undesirable and unlovely traits of character and thinking which caused the conditions. When we promise to "do our part," then, we are in reality promising, in addition to many things provided for in various codes, to exert our every effort and influence to eliminate, especially from our own thinking, such thoughts and ideals as greed, hatred, selfishness, and grossly material thinking. We never will fully comply with the promise to "do our part" until such devastating and trouble-making thoughts are removed from consciousness.

As a matter of self-examination, well may one, in the quietude of his own thinking, ask himself the searching question: "Am I doing my part?"

[Jane Brucke, in the Christian Advocate, New York, New York]

Life is made up of little acts. Time is made up of little moments, but as the moments make up the sum of the hour, so little acts constitude the real sum of life. Approach, then, each act with confidence and pleasure, for thus will greater deeds be accomplished with success. The knowledge that we are working as a part of the great whole should give us joy and satisfaction in each daily act of work or recreation....

Love and service are really all there is of life. To receive we must give, not meanly, or to the few, but with an eagerness, a willingness, and with the knowledge that by so doing and giving we become more fully conscious of the love of the Father. "Give to him that asketh thee." Life is made up of small duties and obligations, not of great sacrifices.

[Rev. W. G. Johnston, as quoted in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Missouri]

The peace of the world waits upon the development of the Christian spirit....

Only his being controlled by love can turn the instruments of man's inventive genius into serving, building, and glorifying ... life. When love possesses hearts and minds, our planes and ships will go forth like the armies of the angels to bless the world, singing as they go,

The capitol of every nation must become the home of that love which works peace and good will. Let us have done with all mechanical bonds, with all theological straight-jackests, and all sectarian pride; and let us recognize each other as the children of God, begotten of His great love, shepherded by His brooding spirit, and brothered in His universal family.