46 EDUCATION 



liberty and opportunity they will see the fuller manifestation of the 

 divine purpose. But as the life of the individual would be empty and 

 meaningless if this world were all, so the race itself becomes insig- 

 nificant, if beginning on a cooling spall it is to be extinguished 

 utterly on a frozen rock. It is in the power of individuals, and of 

 classes of people even, to smother the soul in sensual indulgence, or 

 to stifle the voice of conscience in the mad struggle for gain, but the 

 summit on which Christ lived and died and re-lived, once having been 

 attained, mankind can never again in contentment and tranquillity 

 satisfy themselves with lower things. This faith lies at the root of 

 modern civilization. It is the vital principle of the Christian home 

 and the Christian church; and if the state and the school organize 

 themselves on a purely secular or utilitarian basis, our social and 

 political life will undergo a radical change. We may increase our 

 commercial efficiency; may so manipulate the natural resources of 

 our continent that the markets of the world shall pay tribute to us; 

 we may heighten the level of intelligence and raise the standard of 

 living for the multitude, but little by little we shall lose the power to 

 believe in the absolute worth of truth and goodness and beauty, of 

 justice and purity and love. We shall become the richest of nations, 

 but shall have no supreme men and women. The poet's vision, the 

 saint's rapture, and the patriot's lofty mind shall be made impossible. 

 Existence will cease for us to have a spiritual content, and we shall 

 come to hold that a man's life consists in the abundance of the things 

 he possesses, and not in the faith, hope, and righteousness which 

 make him a child of God and a dweller in eternal worlds. 



