mankind, a fighter
for things worth while.

When old ideas become enfeebled, they clog the spiritual system.
Conventionality, routine and sentimentalism take the place of the fresh
vigor which always accompanies profound conviction. A gospel cannot be
{213} a heritage enjoyed: it must be a portion earned. And to-day,
especially, there is pressing need for a brave criticism of past
standards, succeeded by an act of intelligent will which presses
fearlessly on to a reformulation and reaffirmation of values. Because
the old religions did not have this power to exalt significant human
ideals, relevant to the changing crisis of the times, the nations
drifted into the materialism of commercialism and militarism. And a
religion insistent upon a rational and wise interpretation of the ways
of life will, alone, be able to rescue them. Watchwords by themselves,
if they remain vague generalities untranslatable into new directions of
effort, will fail. What is necessary is a new goal, or else a
pragmatic development of past dreams into programs which awaken loyalty
and hope. But the center of gravity and endeavor of such a religion
will lie within society. It will be, to all intents and purposes, a
humanist's religion. It will save men's souls by making them worth
saving. For it, salvation will be no magical hocus-pocus external to
the reach and timbre of man's personality: it will be his loyal and
intelligent union with those values and possibilities of life which
have come within his ken. To convert will be to educate and redirect
the energies of the soul. And society will need conversion as
pressingly as scattered individuals in slums and tenements. Does it
to-day stress the most important things? The State has been the
servant of things as they are, not of things as they might be. A
humanist's religion can admit no cunning division into the things which
are God's and the things which are Caesar's. Human values are as
jealous as the Yahweh of Moses. To sin against them is to die
spiritually.

{214}

The common opinion that critical work is ever merely negative is a
great error. It is the willing error of a dogmatism which feels itself
insecure. It is the error of a spiritual plane which has settled into
ease and hates to be disturbed. Sooner or later, criticism leads to
something positive, to a new vision and a new goal. All that is needed
is the patience which is founded upon faith and is willing to try