ought forth through immense labour
and toil. It becomes necessary to replace that which must pass away, and
to reconsolidate the essentials which are threatened. All this cannot
come about save through an energetic concentration and deepening of the
spiritual life, save through a struggle against the superficiality of
Time regardless of all consequences, and save through a vivification and
integration of all that points in the right direction."[81]

[p.225] This passage illustrates well Eucken's whole attitude regarding
Christianity. It is evident that much remains to be done within and
without the Church. Within, radical changes are to take place; but
always in the light and with the preservation of the spiritual
substance. Without, the indifference of a vast portion of the civilised
nations of the world has to be reckoned with. It is an immense problem,
often enough to dishearten good men and women. How can men be moved from
their inertia and their resentment against the deeper demands which
spiritual life makes upon every human being? That is the problem of
problems and the task of tasks to-day. No clear solution of it is yet
perceptible. But in the meantime, those who care for Divine things and
who have experienced some of their power within their own souls must
hold fast to all they possess, and labour unceasingly to increase the
spiritual value of their possession. Probably catastrophes have to
happen in order to bring the world home to religion and God.

Rudolf Eucken's gospel is a proclamation of the necessity of religion
and the possibility of its possession. This, according to him, is the
final goal of all knowledge and life. If religion is not this, it is the
most tragic deception conceivable. "Religion is either merely a
sanctioned product of human wishes and pictorial ideas brought about by
tradition and [p.226] the historical ordinance--and, if so, no art,
power, or cunning can prevent the destruction of such a bungling work by
the advance of the mental and spiritual movement of the world; or
religion is founded upon a superhuman fact--and, if so, the hardest
assaults cannot shatter it, but rather, it must finally prove of service
in all the troubles and toils of man; it must reach the point of its
true strength and develop purer and purer its Eternal Truth."[82]

The fact that the influence of Rudolf Eucken's personality and teaching
is spreading with such rapidity and power from west to east and from
n