is our chronic unbelief. Faith
enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the
result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual
things. This is the condition of vast numbers of Christians today. No
proof is necessary to support that statement. We have but to converse
with the first Christian we meet or enter the first church we find open
to acquire all the proof we need.

A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us,
altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize
it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This
eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon
its reality.

I have just now used two words which demand definition; or if definition
is impossible, I must at least make clear what I mean when I use them.
They are "reckon" and "reality."

What do I mean by _reality_? I mean that which has existence apart from
any idea any mind may have of it, and which would exist if there were no
mind anywhere to entertain a thought of it. That which is real has being
in itself. It does not depend upon the observer for its validity.

I am aware that there are those who love to poke fun at the plain man's
idea of reality. They are the idealists who spin endless proofs that
nothing is real outside of the mind. They are the relativists who like
to show that there are no fixed points in the universe from which we can
measure anything. They smile down upon us from their lofty intellectual
peaks and settle us to their own satisfaction by fastening upon us the
reproachful term "absolutist." The Christian is not put out of
countenance by this show of contempt. He can smile right back at them,
for he knows that there is only One who is Absolute, that is God. But he
knows also that the Absolute One has made this world for man's uses,
and, while there is nothing fixed or real in the last meaning of the
words (the meaning as applied to God) _for every purpose of human life
we are permitted to act as if there were_. And every man does act thus
except the mentally sick. These unfortunates also have trouble with
reality, but they are consistent; they insist upon living in accordance
with their ideas of things. They are honest, and it is their very
honesty that constitutes them a social problem.

The idealists and relativists are not mentally sick. They prove their
soundness by living their lives according to the