"Of the residue
he maketh a god."

It is by insidious degrees that materialism invades a nation's life. At
first it attacks the externals, appearing mainly in the region of work,
wealth, and comfort. But, unless some check is put upon its progress, it
steadily works its way to the central depths, attacking love and sorrow,
and changing them to sensuality and cynicism. Then the nation's day is
over, and its men and women are lost souls. Many instances might be
quoted in which this progress has actually been made in the literature
of England. At present we are only pointing to the undoubted fact that
the forces of materialism have been at work among us. If proof of this
were needed, nothing could afford it more clearly than our loss of peace
and dignity in modern society. Many costly luxuries have become
necessities, and they have increased the pace of life to a rush and fury
which makes business a turmoil and social life a fever. A symbolic
embodiment of this spirit may be seen in the motor car and the aeroplane
as they are often used. These indeed need not be ministers of paganism.
The glory of swift motion and the mounting up on wings as eagles reach
very near to the spiritual, if not indeed across its borderland, as
exhilarating and splendid stimuli to the human spirit. But, on the other
hand, they may be merely instruments for gratifying that insane human
restlessness which is but the craving for new sensations. Along the
whole line of our commercial and industrial prosperity there runs one
great division. There are some who, in the midst of all change, have
preserved their old spiritual loyalties, and there are others who have
substituted novelty for loyalty. These are the idealists and the pagans
of the twentieth century.

Another potent factor in the making of the new times was the scientific
advance which has made so remarkable a difference to the whole outlook
of man upon the earth. Darwin's great discovery is perhaps the most
epoch-making fact in science that has yet appeared upon the earth. The
first apparent trend of evolution seemed to be an entirely materialistic
reaction. This was due to the fact that believers in the spiritual had
identified with their spirituality a great deal that was unnecessary and
merely casual. If the balloon on which people mount up above the earth
is any such theory as that of the six days' creation, it is easy to see
how when that balloon is pricked the spiritual flight of the t