80 WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 



The conception of the Fatherhood of God is beautiful and 

 beneficent, but essentially a reflection of the idea of human 

 fatherhood. It satisfies us only so long as we believe it to 

 correspond faithfully to the facts the total facts of life. 

 When it appears to be irreconcilable with facts which are 

 beyond dispute we must, unless we are content to hold our 

 judgment in suspense, abandon either the facts or the 

 doctrine. Man's highest duty is to be true to the knowledge 

 he possesses. 



The religious mind is slow to appreciate the majesty of 

 fact. It prefers the paths of pleasantness to the rugged way 

 of truth. It hugs its ill-digested creeds and pitiful notions of 

 a supreme being because it is comforting to dream of a mighty 

 one taking concern for our welfare and preparing for us a 

 home of abiding joy. If these things are not true, they must 

 be given up. The war has so helped to shatter the conception 

 of a benevolent Father that some pious persons are now pro- 

 claiming that man must hope for no interference whatever by 

 almighty power with the iron laws which it has established. 

 Will not this drive men to seek consolation in the duties 

 and the progress of the race in this life? 



Will our general outlook on life be altered after the war? 

 If its bearing on religious faith is unperceived, religious faith 

 will remain as it is. Thoughtful persons will feel constrained 

 to reconsider the foundations of their belief and their theories 

 of the universe. An increasing number will centre their 

 hopes and ideas on the known life of man, and will discover 

 in this life sources of comfort hitherto unsuspected. The 

 diffusion of the material means to a healthy and happy exist- 

 ence, the pursuit of knowledge, the pleasures of literature, 

 art, and music, the love of and devotion to righteousness, 

 the joys of social converse, will afford a wide scope for all 

 human activities and aspirations. 



It is precisely in these humanistic developments that the 

 hope of the race lies. Too long has the world reverenced 

 the vain dreams and the arrogant pretensions of priest and 

 theologian. They have no substance in them ; they do not 

 correspond with the things we know. In spite of its large 

 claims, religion has in the past been mainly a dividing force. 

 The spirit of the bitter sectary, burning to convert the world 

 to his own partial views, has crushed the humble, misled the 

 wise, and almost killed the vitality of the enlarging soul. 

 One reason why religion retains and cherishes this sec- 

 tarian tendency is that its title-deeds can be so variously 



