the
scientist believes. He gradually ignores tradition and adheres to
those things that are shown to be true by experimentation or recorded
observation. It is true that he uses hypotheses and works the
imagination. But his whole tendency is to depart from the realm of
instinct and emotions and lay a foundation for reflective thinking.
The scientific attitude of mind influences all philosophy and all
religion. "Let us examine the facts in the case" is the attitude of
scientific thought.

The study of anthropology and sociology has, on the one hand,
discovered the natural history of man and, on the other, shown his
normal social relations. Both of these studies have co-operated with
biology to show that man has come out of the past through a process of
evolution; that all that he is individually and socially has been
attained through long ages of development. Even science, philosophy,
and religion, as well as all forms of society, have had a slow, painful
evolution. This fact causes people to re-examine their traditional
belief to see how far it corresponds to new knowledge. It has helped
men to realize on their philosophy of life and to test it out in the
light of new truth and experience. This has led the church to a
broader conception of the truth and to a more direct devotion to
service. It is becoming an agency for visualizing truth rather than an
institution of dogmatic belief. The religious traditionalists yield
slowly to the new religious liberalism. But the influence of
scientific thought has caused the church to realize on the investment
which it has been preaching these many centuries.

_The Relation of Material Comfort to Spiritual Progress_.--The material
comforts which have been multiplying in recent centuries do not insure
the highest spiritual activity. The nations that have achieved have
been forced into activity by distressing conditions. In following the
history of any nation along any line of achievement, it will be noticed
that in its darkest, most uncomfortable days, when progress seemed
least {501} in evidence, forces were in action which prepared for great
advancement. It has been so in literature, in science, in liberty, in
social order; it is so in the sum-total of the world's achievements.

Granting that the increase of material comforts, in fact, of wealth, is
a great achievement of the age, the whole story is not told until the
use of the wealth is determined. If it leads to