to strive. The
divine heights have been scaled by human feet; His footprints beckon us
on.

IX

Finding Foundations

_The Passing and Permanent_
_Facing the Facts_
_The Real Foundation_

_Things not right can never be religious._

_Bigotry puts blinders on the best of men._

_Submission is the first step to sovereignty._

_The principle of expediency expels all other principle._

_Quiet lives are often eloquent._

_The love of wealth steals wealth of love._

_It's the common virtues that make uncommon saints._

_Many a man is shouting his convictions to drown the voice of
conscience._

_A little learning is dangerous if you are planning to get to heaven by
degrees._

_When a man gets over anxious about the gnat it's time to hang on to
the camel._

IX

THE PASSING AND PERMANENT

When the walls are being rebuilt it is easy to imagine that the
foundations are being destroyed. Old creeds pass away, but truth
remains; if they were true in their day they do but give place to the
larger truth of the new day. We need to distinguish between the
turmoil attendant to the process of building and the beauty of the new
temple that arises.

The old folks hear the new truths and ask, where are the foundations
gone? The young hear the discussion between the old and the new and
ask, is there anything settled, anything worth believing? What are the
permanent elements in religion on which the life may build while the
things that are but temporary are adjusting themselves?

It would be the height of folly to assert that there is no change.
Some say that we must believe precisely the same things as our fathers
believed. To do so would be to be false to our fathers, for they
refused to accept the traditions of their elders. The landmarks we
leave behind once were far in front of the seekers after truth.

Truth never changes but our vision is ever enlarging. The road
remains, but the traveller moves on. With the living every day has
some new light. Creeds are crystallized statements of truth; truth is
vital and cannot be contained in unchanging forms. Credulity blindly
accepts yesterday's picture of truth; faith, with open eyes, seeks
to-day's truth itself.

Skepticism is much less sinful than credulity. The sloth of the man
who will not examine things, will not prove them, who prefers to buy
his garments of truth ready made, results in what is worse than
unbelief, and that is blind b