have an overwhelming desire to be up to
the times. Nothing but the latest news on any subject will completely
satisfy. We are more anxious for late information than for accurate
information. We have an almost unconquerable feeling that if it is
late it must be accurate. All of us are sensitive to being thought
behind the times. We feel that no stigma can be more invidious in the
intellectual world than the stigma of being out of date. This pervades
the masses quite as strongly as it does the more cultured classes.
Under these conditions everybody wants to know the latest theory that
science has to offer concerning anything that can be brought within
the range of their interests. As a result everybody would like to know
about evolution, were it not for the fact that a great mass of people
have been brought to believe that there is something inherently
irreligious in the idea. Our people have a saving sense of the value
of religion. Denominational control may set lightly upon them.
Certain long revered doctrines may have little practical influence
upon them. Yet inherently they all believe in religion, and most of
them believe themselves to be religious, as indeed they really are.

It is a most wholesome tendency which leads us to esteem religion as
the main interest in life. We must feel a sense of shame when we
consciously permit the influences, which most favorably mold our
character, to weaken their hold upon our lives. Certainly in our time
religion is the essential agent by which character is molded. Any of
us would be foolishly short-sighted were he willing to weaken the hold
of religion upon his life for the sake of a scientific theory, the
truth or falsity of which could have but little practical bearing upon
his conduct. We must hold to religion at all hazards. We may, when
circumstances so suggest, change our denominational allegiance. We may
and often do interpret our faith quite at variance with the
ecclesiastical body with which we are connected. We may constantly
modify and develop our beliefs. But it is a pitiful life which has
lost the staying and strengthening influence of religion. I believe
this conviction is deep-rooted in the minds of our people and that it
deserves the place it holds.

To a mind thus essentially religious the announcements of science
often come as a shock. They seem to run counter to our deepest
convictions. It seems impossible to us that both can be true.
Sometimes the more we d