olled man is the man of
personal worth, but self-control is not easy to secure. Defendants of
the first two theories may admit that self-control is an ideal, but
they claim that in the progress of society it must follow, not
antedate, external authority and the cultivation of public opinion,
and that time is not yet come. Only the few can be trusted yet to
follow their best judgment on all occasions, to be on the alert to
maintain in themselves and others highest efficiency. Human nature is
slowly in the making. One by one men and women rise to higher levels;
social regeneration must therefore wait on individual regeneration.
Seeing the need of a dynamic that will create personal worth, the
individualist has turned to religion and preached a doctrine of
personal salvation. He has seen what religion has done to transform
character, and he believes with confidence that it and it alone can
create social salvation if we give it time.

At the present time there is an increasing number of social thinkers
who regard each of these three theories as containing elements of
value, but believe that there is something beyond them that is
necessary to the highest efficiency. They consider that external
authority has been necessary, and look upon a strong centralized
government with power to create social efficiency as essential, but
they expect that an increasing social consciousness will make the
exercise of authority gradually less necessary. They have great
confidence in trained public opinion, but do not forget that opinion
must be vitalized by a strong motive, and mere education does not
readily supply the motive. They look for a time when individual worth
will be greater than now, and they recognize religion as a powerful
dynamic in the building of character, but they regard religion as
turned inward too much upon the individual. They would develop
individual character for the sake of society, and make a socialized
religion the motive power to vitalize public opinion so that it shall
function with increasing efficiency. A socialized religion supplies a
principle, a method, and a power. The Hebrew prophets and Jesus laid
down the principle that there is a solidarity of interests to which
the claims of the individual must be subordinate and must be
sacrificed on occasion. The prophets and Jesus taught a method of
experimentation, calling upon the people whom they addressed to test
the principle and see if it worked. The prophets