presents itself to our minds at this time is
whether our modern world has not been unconsciously incorporating these
ideas into its living beliefs--that is, those beliefs which reveal
themselves in actual living and doing, in daily purpose, in the
adaptation of means to ends, in the deeds which the world honors, and in
the achievements which it crowns with glory. There are many persons who
would not have the frankness of Nietzsche to say that might makes right,
and that a moral sense is the great obstacle to progress, and that in
"vigorous eras noble civilizations see something contemptible in
sympathy, in brotherly love, in the lack of self-assertion and
self-reliance." Our modern world may not explicitly subscribe to such
doctrines in their extreme and exaggerated expression, but nevertheless
may be unconsciously influenced by them. Our real opinions, however, are
to be tested by our sense of values as revealed by the things which we
crave, which we set our hearts upon, which we strive early and late to
gain, and sacrifice all else in order to secure. Have we not offered our
prayers to the God of might rather than the God of righteousness, to the
God of power rather than the God of justice, the God of mercy and of
love?

The time has come, in my opinion, for us to take account of the things
which we really believe, and of the God Whom we really worship. If we
have been following false gods, let us honestly endeavor to re-establish
fundamental and essential values, to discover anew what is of supreme
worth and set our faces resolutely toward its realization. The need of
our modern world today is the same as that of the ancient world at the
time of the coming of Christ. His message to the world as indicated by
His teaching, and His life was an arraignment of the ancient regime as
regards three crucial points.

The Brotherhood of Man.

First, the religious and moral beliefs of that age had become purely
formal. There was the letter of conviction, but not the spirit of it.
The creed, the ritual, the ceremony were there, but the life had
departed. And so today our beliefs have lost vitality to a large extent
because we have been content to indulge in formulas oft repeated, which
have ceased to have significance for our thoughts or for our feelings.
We have allowed ourselves to be betrayed by words which are mere sounds
without substance. We have verbalized our beliefs, and have
depotentialed them of vital significance