hy do we find among the individuals of to-day in our
country less aspirations toward what is fine and right and honorable
than were felt a hundred years ago? Why, when these feelings reached so
high a standard in the classic days of Greece, did they decline and
shrivel and give way to barbarism? Why did the same thing happen in
Rome? If the divine intention is toward progress and betterment and an
ideal of right, why has the intention failed so miserably and repeatedly
to be carried out? Why haven't I just as much reason to assume that the
divine intention, if there be any, is the gradual corruption, decay and
disintegration of the human being? Were the motives and behavior of the
average man ever more corrupt, immoral and baser than they are
to-day--all over the world? If we consider the results, where is the
evidence of a constant betterment in man's spiritual nature? My
observations and judgment tell me there are no grounds for any such
assumption and there probably never was any such divine intention."

The answer to such objections is fairly simple:

"You are attempting to pass judgment, by means of the reasoning
processes of the intellect, on questions which man's intellect is
incapable of understanding. As we found to be the case when considering
the affections, the result of such an endeavor is a misconception and
distortion.

"Although you are well aware that neither reason nor science can offer
the faintest glimmer of an explanation as to how, or why, the first
essence of life came into existence, or the first elemental matter, or
as to what is the ultimate intention or end of a single thing in this
world, or any other, yet you have the presumption to criticize the means
and methods being employed for the attainment of those ends by an
all-wise Creator, who presumably did know, and does know, what they are.

"Underlying your questions and comments is a complete misunderstanding.
In considering man's purpose in life, I had no thought of determining
God's purpose in creating man, or in creating life, or in creating the
world in which the life of man is to be found. That surpasses my
understanding. That there is an all-wise design and purpose of some
sort, behind and above it all, I have no doubt. This conviction comes
principally from a feeling of my innermost nature, which has been found
among mankind, in all ages--faith. It is confirmed and strengthened by
the evidence of my perceptions and intellect--the b