The name is absent

Religion, the Sole Solution 165
by the cradle, it puts the Sister of Charity by the cot of
pestilence, it chastens wealth by the service of the poor, it
refines and uplifts ignorance by the touch of culture, it dries
the tears “wet on heaven’s grey cheek.” The Church
accepts the challenge of to-day as she has met every prob-
lem of the centuries past. She teaches men to find their
happiness in the intangible compensations of life. The in-
stincts of men must be controlled. She must convince the
world of the social as well as the spiritual value of renun-
ciation and sacrifice. She must continue to teach that the
pathway to peace leads away from selfishness toward the
ways of service, sympathy, understanding, and love.

The Christian Church must continue to teach, though
men heed it not. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations,”
is her divine commission. She can afford to be patient.
After all, the Prussian perversion of history was only a
selfish adaptation to its national ambitions, to the narrow
materialistic teachings which flowered in consummate pur-
suit of power rather than in “passion for perfection” in
the development of character. They ignored or ridiculed
Christian belief in the unity of human origin and destiny,
the brotherhood of mankind in our Redeemer, the glorious
civilizing function of God in human affairs. Materialism
is an intellectual error, a social plague, an economic menace,
and a political abyss. It has never been overcome except
by true religion.

Substitutes for genuine Christian faith are offered, all of
them prescinding from any external religious authority, de-
nying positive revelation, and smiling contemptuously at
the known and feasible will of God. Most of them are
vague emotionalism evolved either from the helpless, wordy
pantheism of static India or the dead stoicism of ancient
Rome.

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