the police that she would have
deserved to be whipped had she really been a witch, but a mistake had
been made--it was another woman who was the witch. And again in the
Los Angeles "Times" I read a perfectly serious news item, telling how
a certain man awakened one morning, and found on his pillow where his
head had lain a perfect reproduction of the head of Christ with its
crown of thorns. He called in his neighbors to witness the miracle,
and declared that while he was not superstitious, he knew that such a
thing could not have happened by chance, and he knew what it was
intended to signify--he would buy more Liberty Bonds and be more
ardent in his support of the war!

And this is the world in which our scientists and men of culture think
that the battle of the intellect is won, and that it is no longer
necessary to spend our energies in fighting "Religion!"

* * * * *

#BOOK TWO#

#The Church of Good Society#

Within the House of Mammon his priesthood stands alert
By mysteries attended, by dusk and splendors girt,
Knowing, for faiths departed, his own shall still endure,
And they be found his chosen, untroubled, solemn, sure.

Within the House of Mammon the golden altar lifts
Where dragon-lamps are shrouded as costly incense drifts--
A dust of old ideals, now fragrant from the coals,
To tell of hopes long-ended, to tell the death of souls.

Sterling.

* * * * *

#The Rain Makers#

I begin with the Church of Good Society, because it happens to be the
Church in which I was brought up. Heading this statement, some of my
readers suspected me of snobbish pride. I search my heart; yes, it
brings a hidden thrill that as far back as I can remember I knew this
atmosphere of urbanity, that twice every Sunday those melodious and
hypnotizing incantations were chanted in my childish ears! I take up
the book of ritual, done in aristocratic black leather with gold
lettering, and the old worn volume brings me strange stirrings of
recollected awe. But I endeavor to repress these vestigial emotions
and to see the volume--not as a message from God to Good Society, but
as a landmark of man's age-long struggle against myth and dogma used
as a source of income and a shield to privilege.

In the beginning, of course, the priest and the magician ruled the
field. But today, as I examine this "Book of Common Prayer", I
discover that th