252 RELIGION 



ideal, for she expresses so deep a faith in the universe as fairly to 

 rival the old Calvinistic test of willingness to be damned for the glory 

 of God. But her intellectual perception of the real implications of 

 her " faith-state/' I confess, does not seem to me all that is to be 

 desired. That a successful business man should even report to 

 Professor Leuba, " I have no religious need; I am devoid of 

 religious feeling," - this is entirely conceivable. But the fact by 

 no means proves that there is no such need, if the man is to be 

 thoroughly and consistently rational in his thinking and living. 

 There are great temperamental differences here, doubtless, and the 

 very force of life in us may carry us over many thin places in our 

 reasoning, without misgiving; but the fact remains that hopeful, 

 courageous, moral endeavor logically requires the faith that we are 

 not here at war with the ultimate purpose of things. 



(4) And, once more, a faith essentially religious logically underlies, 

 in like manner, all earnest social service. I do not forget that, in the 

 inconsistency of our natures, men may often go on in forgetfulness of 

 the real significance of their actions, and in the strength of motives 

 which they have at least formally denied. Nor do I forget that it is 

 possible for social service itself to become, for the time being, even 

 a kind of fad, and for the phrases of the new social consciousness 

 of our time to become only a new cant. Nor do I forget that men 

 in such unselfish service may honestly think of themselves, for a time, 

 as not needing in any degree either the convictions or the consolations 

 of religion. 



Nevertheless, when I try really to think the situation through, I 

 am not able to doubt that Nash is right when he says: " Nothing 

 save a settled and fervid conviction that the universe is on the side 

 of the will . . . can give the will the force and edge suitable." 

 For here, also, we shall not throw ourselves with all abandon into 

 a task that we think either hopeless or worthless. And that means 

 that we must have back of our social service the great religious con- 

 victions of the love of God and the worth of men. We shall not 

 attempt to dip out the ocean with a cup, and we shall not enter on a 

 boundless social task in which there is no hope of accomplishing any 

 permanent and large result. We must believe here that we work 

 with God, in line with his own purpose, and that the mighty will of 

 the living God is pledged to our attempt. 



So, too, must we believe that we ourselves and those for whom we 

 work have a personality great enough to make the sacrifice rational. 

 Let religious faith in the immortality of men be once thoroughly 

 sapped, let men be once fully persuaded that man is not a creature of 

 the endless life, that he is not capable of an absolutely endless de- 

 velopment, and that there is in his constitution no pledge of the 

 eternal years, and the immortal hope dies down not only in us, but the 



