54 Evolution and Religion 



being and of common sense in Confucianism, to the 

 study of life and death in the religion of Egypt, to the 

 regard for law, order, and justice in the religious con- 

 stitution of Rome, to the adoration of beauty, strength, 

 and wisdom in the fair humanities of Greece, to the 

 worship of freedom and courage in the old Norse 

 Eddas, — then the evolutionary curtain may be said 

 to have risen indeed. Here we may see the evolutionary 

 ideals of each people portrayed so that he who runs 

 may read. 



The General Welfare 



And you will notice that the same idea which ap- 

 peared to be the basis of the primitive religions of the 

 world likewise pervades all these higher religions, i.e., 

 the duty of subordinating self to others, the supreme 

 need of personal self-sacrifice for the general good. 

 The appeal in them is ever from the individual to the 

 general, from the present to the future. Of course, 

 man's idea of the " general " will vary according to the 

 evolutionary stage of progress which he has reached. 

 At times, it may be confined, as I have already pointed 

 out, to his immediate family; at others, it will extend to 

 include his tribe; then, his nation; last of all, his race. 

 And as this idea enlarges, so will his moral ideals, his 

 sense of duty, become extended; so will his religion 

 become nobler, purer, higher. Early Judaism, Mo- 

 hammedanism, two religions, the one growing out of 

 the other, which taught a pure monotheism, insist 

 equally upon the duty of personal self-sacrifice for the 



