orate and degenerate. No, we must go on....

Luther's movement, in religion, had been the logical forerunner of
democracy, of universal suffrage in government, the death-knell of
that misinterpretation of Christianity as the bulwark of monarchy and
hierarchy had been sounded when he said, "Ich kann nicht anders!" The
new Republic founded on the western continent had announced to the world
the initiation of the transfer of Authority to the individual soul.
God, the counterpart of the King, the ruler in a high heaven of a flat
terrestrial expanse, outside of the world, was now become the Spirit
of a million spheres, the indwelling spirit in man. Democracy and the
religion of Jesus Christ both consisted in trusting the man--yes, and
the woman--whom God trusts. Christianity was individualism carried
beyond philosophy into religion, and the Christian, the ideal citizen
of the democracy, was free since he served not because he had to, but
because he desired to of his own will, which, paradoxically, is God's
will. God was in politics, to the confusion of politicians; God in
government. And in some greater and higher sense than we had yet
perceived, the saying 'vox populi vox dei' was eternally true. He
entered into the hearts of people and moved them, and so the world
progressed. It was the function of the Church to make Christians,
until--when the Kingdom of God should come--the blending should be
complete. Then Church and State would be identical, since all the
members of the one would be the citizens of the other....

"I will arise and go to my father." Rebirth! A sense of responsibility,
of consecration. So we had come painfully through our materialistic
individualism, through our selfish Protestantism, to a glimpse of the
true Protestantism--Democracy.

Our spiritual vision was glowing clearer. We were beginning to perceive
that charity did not consist in dispensing largesse after making a
fortune at the expense of one's fellow-men; that there was something
still wrong in a government that permits it. It was gradually becoming
plain to us, after two thousand years, that human bodies and souls
rotting in tenements were more valuable than all the forests on all the
hills; that government, Christian government, had something to do with
these.

We should embody, in government, those sublime words of the Master,
"Suffer little children to come unto me." And the government of the
future would care for the little children. W