and formula and
phrase, we have overlooked the essential goodness and quickness of the
earth and the immanence of God.

This feeling that we are pilgrims in a vale of tears has been enhanced
by the wide-spread belief in the sudden ending of the world, by
collision or some other impending disaster, and in the common
apprehension of doom; and lately by speculations as to the aridation and
death of the planet, to which all of us have given more or less
credence. But most of these notions are now considered to be fantastic,
and we are increasingly confident that the earth is not growing old in a
human sense, that its atmosphere and its water are held by the
attraction of its mass, and that the sphere is at all events so
permanent as to make little difference in our philosophy and no
difference in our good behavior.

I am again impressed with the first record in Genesis in which some
mighty prophet-poet began his account with the creation of the physical
universe.

So do we forget the old-time importance given to mere personal
salvation, which was permission to live in heaven, and we think more of
our present situation, which is the situation of obligation and of
service; and he who loses his life shall save it.

We begin to foresee the vast religion of a better social order.

_The earth is holy_

Verily, then, the earth is divine, because man did not make it. We are
here, part in the creation. We cannot escape. We are under obligation to
take part and to do our best, living with each other and with all the
creatures. We may not know the full plan, but that does not alter the
relation. When once we set ourselves to the pleasure of our dominion,
reverently and hopefully, and assume all its responsibilities, we shall
have a new hold on life.

We shall put our dominion into the realm of morals. It is now in the
realm of trade. This will be very personal morals, but it will also be
national and racial morals. More iniquity follows the improper and
greedy division of the resources and privileges of the earth than any
other form of sinfulness.

If God created the earth, so is the earth hallowed; and if it is
hallowed, so must we deal with it devotedly and with care that we do not
despoil it, and mindful of our relations to all beings that live on it.
We are to consider it religiously: Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

The sacredness to us of the earth is i