WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 81 



interpreted. Rationalism, on the other hand, unites men in 

 an earnest search for and allegiance to truth ; and, though 

 their notions of truth differ widely, it strongly discounts the 

 spirit of exclusiveness which treats partial conceptions as 

 universal conceptions. To the Rationalist, the brotherhood 

 of man is a greater reality than the fatherhood of God, for 

 man exists as a certain fact God as an imaginative hypo- 

 thesis. Organized religion has proved a failure ; never has 

 it elevated the life of nations. It is time we let loose the free 

 spirit of humanity and tested with confidence its resources. 



The human struggle has had to be carried on amid the 

 clash of giant forces, some friendly, some hostile. Goodwill 

 alone will not achieve the ultimate victory. The spirit of 

 love, beautiful though it be, is too feeble for the task. Intelli- 

 gence, keen and resolute, wresting from the elements their 

 eternal secrets, unfolding the hidden powers of humanity, 

 scaling the battlements of heaven, must be the guide in whom 

 we trust. On this human wisdom we must rely, unaided by 

 the will-o'-the-wisps that have for so long tempted us to thrust 

 it aside. Maeterlinck tells of the " will of earth " which has 

 been employed with so much skill and malice to defeat the 

 growth of finer impulses, of the tenderer sentiments of com- 

 passion and honour and justice which have been evolved in 

 the struggle with man's native barbarism. These sentiments 

 are the achievement of humanity alone ; it is a treachery to 

 our nature to assert that it is incapable of producing them 

 without heavenly aid. Man is conquering for himself a 

 grander destiny. His powers are equal to the task of organ- 

 izing victory. Through the very horrors of the Great War 

 shines a marvellous revelation of human courage and un- 

 dismayed will. 



And what of that sane outlook in religion which is now, 

 after centuries of struggle, the possession of so many thought- 

 ful minds? Will the war re-awaken a mean medieval faith, 

 and confirm a mental subservience and dullness in which 

 superstition cannot be distinguished from truth? Will it give 

 the death-blow to theologies that fathered strife, and made man 

 a puppet of the gods, dancing perforce on a blood-stained 

 stage? The Rationalist may cherish a lively hope. Loving 

 justice, peace, and sanity, he trusts that, when the tempest of 

 war has spent its rage, men will see more clearly than ever 

 its unprofitableness. There will be a revulsion of feeling 

 against its absurdity, its injustice, its wanton waste of resources 

 which men have been storing for generations, its huge and 



