sought through the ordinary Sunday-school, no one who has
had any practical experience has ever found it easy, or kept free from
doubt as to its being sufficiently efficacious to make it worth while.
But the problem is to recognize the difficulty, face all doubts, and
stand by. Perfect teachers are impossible, satisfactory ones are not
always to be had. If they are not dissatisfied with themselves, they are
almost always unfit. But as between doing the best you can and doing
nothing at all, it would seem that self-respect and a sense of deep
responsibility would leave no recourse. There is no place for a shirker
or a quitter in a real Unitarian church.

HAVE WE DONE OUR WORK?

Now and then some indifferent Unitarian expresses doubt as to the future
value of our particular church. There are those who say, "Why should we
keep it up? Have we not done our work?" We have seen our original
protests largely effective, and rejoice that more liberal and generous,
and, we believe, more just and true, religious convictions prevail; but
have we been constructive and strengthening? And until we have made our
own churches fully free and fruitful in spiritual life are we absolved
from the call to service?

Have we earned our discharge from the army of life? Shall we be
deserters or slackers! We ask no man to fight with us if his loyalty to
any other corps is stronger, but to fight _somewhere_--to do his part
for God and his fellow-men wherever he can do the most effective
service.

We are not Unitarians first. We are not even Christians first. We are
human first, seeking the best in humanity, in our appointed place in a
civilization that finds its greatest inspiration in the leadership of
Jesus of Nazareth, we are next Christians, and we are finally Unitarians
because for us their point of view embodies most truly the spirit that
animated his teachings and his life.

And so we appeal to those who really, not nominally, are of our
household of faith to feel that it is best worth while to stand by the
nearest church and to support it generously, that it may do its part in
soul service and world welfare, and also to encourage it and give it
more abundant life through attendance and participation in its
activities.

OF FIRST IMPORTANCE

It is well for each soul, in the multiplicity of questions besetting
him, to deliberately face them and determine what is of first
importance. Aspects are so diverse and bewildering that if we