ould be our glad privilege,
to present ourselves a reasonable sacrifice, that we may do our part in
bringing in God's Kingdom.

THE CHURCH AND PROGRESS

Reforms depend upon reformed men. Perhaps the greater need is _formed_
men. As we survey the majority of men around us, they seem largely
unconscious of what they really are and of the privileges and
responsibilities that appertain to manhood. It must be that men are
better, and more, than they seem. Visit a baseball game or a movie. The
crowds seem wholly irresponsible, and, except in the pleasure or
excitement sought, utterly uninterested--apparently without principle or
purpose. And yet, when called upon to serve their country, men will go
to the ends of the world, and place no limit on the sacrifice freely
made for the general good. They are better than they seem, and in ways
we know not of possess a sense of justice and a love of right which they
found we know not where.

This is encouraging, but must not relieve us from doing our utmost to
inform more fully every son of man of his great opportunity and
responsibility, and also of inspiring him to use his life to his and our
best advantage.

It is so evident that world-welfare rests upon individual well-being
that we cannot escape the conviction that the best thing any one of us
can do is to help to make our fellow-men better and happier. And the
part of wisdom is to organize for the power we gain.

It would seem that the church should be the most effective agency for
promoting individual worth and consequent happiness. Is it?--and if not,
why not? We are apt to say we live in a new age, forgetting how little
change of form matters. Human nature, with its instincts and desires,
love of self, and the general enjoyment of, and through, possessions, is
so little changed that differences in condition and circumstance have
only a modifying influence. It is man, the man within, that counts--not
his clothing.

But it is true that human institutions do undergo great changes, and
nothing intimate and important has suffered greater changes than the
church. Religion itself, vastly more important than the church, has
changed and is changing. Martineau's illuminating classification helps
us to realize this. The first expression, the pagan, was based on fear
and the idea of winning favor by purchase, giving something to God--it
might be burnt-offerings--for his good-will. Then came the Jewish, the
ethical, the thought