226 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



incomplete ; for it has missed the goal of man's devel- 

 opment and the chief means of his farther advance. 

 And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse 

 than a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, 

 toward which thirsty souls run only to die unsat- 

 isfied. 



Man can never overcome in this battle with the 

 allurements of material prosperity and with the pride 

 and selfishness of intellect, except as he is interpene- 

 trated and permeated with God, any more than we 

 can move or think, unless our blood is charged with 

 the oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man 

 have God in his intellectual creed ; he must have him 

 in his heart and will, in every fibre of his personality, 

 in every thought and action of life. Otherwise his 

 defeat and ruin are sure. 



Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day : 1. Man's 

 chief end is avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one 

 word, happiness ; and God is somehow bound to sur- 

 feit man with this. And this is the chief end of a 

 mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity 

 and social position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, 

 knowledge. Each one of these three ends, while good 

 in a subordinate place, will surely ruin man if made 

 his chief end. For they leave out of account conform- 

 ity to environment. " Man's chief end is to glorify 

 God and enjoy him for ever." And just as the plant 

 glorifies the sun by turning to, and being permeated 

 and vivified and built up by, the warmth and light of 

 its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This is 

 the religion of conformity to environment : man work- 

 ing out his salvation because God works in him. 

 Thus, and thus onlv, shall man overcome the allure- 



7 %J * 



