The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-02-27
THE LENTEN SEASON.

L
treated religion as a sort of abnormal
excrescence, and kind of lues theological,
must be much bewidered by the signs
they see around them. While their own
works lie covered with dust on upper
shelves, books which deal with the relig-
ious idea from the positive side,
and especially from the point OF
view of social reconstruction, find a
reader sale than at any previous period
of modern history. 1t was not so very
long ago that we were told religion was
an eccentric phenomenon, the outcome
of diseased mind, which would soon
disappear in the blazing light of science.
We Were tod, indeed, that science itself
was to be the substitute for religion.
We do not hear that so often now; we
shall hear it less and less in the future.
50 far from science perceptibly bright
ening human life, science is largely re-
sponsible for the evils of the time.
The inventions which have made Of
Europe an armed camp, and
which have forced upon continental
nations as upon our own the
great problem of the unemployed, were,
indeed, inevitable, and may, if wisely
controlled, prove ultimately to be bene-
fetal to mankind? But to accept these
disturbing and purely non-human forces
as substitute for the ideals of almost
vol tarin hn. Tod
with superstition, is to write oneself
down as being utterly ignorant of the
needs and aspirations OF man. So far
from religion dying out it seems clear to
us that the twentieth century will be
mainly taken up with the religions
| question. When one calmly reviews
the utter failure of the various attempts
made. from the French Revolution on
ward, to provide a substitute for Chris
| tianity; when one admits, as every
| honest and competent observer must do,
no matter what his own opinions may
be, the immense vitality of all branches
| of the Christian church, the Roman,
Greek and Protestant bodies in English
! speaking countries-how can it be
doubted that the religi ious question will
dominate the fife of Chrstendom in
the next century?
We may be told that it is the social
and labor problems, matters of simple
material adjustment, that are upper
most now and will continue to be so till
they are solved. But there is no one So
luton 10 these problems, and the time
will never come when they will be
solved once for all. The material con-
ditions of life will perpetually be need
ing readjustment, just as now mechani-
cal forces on the one hand and new
ideals of life on the other enter as
disturbing elements in society. There
| will never come some one epoch when
mankind will, so to speak, be able to
fold its hands and take TO enjoying itself
and having universal good time. "
| BY wise reforms, it is true, mems ma
terial conditions may be chauged-let us
hope, for the better-and the spectacle
of undeserved poverty and squalid deg
relation which meets our ewes today
will have become dismal story of the
past But sane men will keep their heads,
and will distrust promises of "A millen-
mum of sensuous enjoyment predicted
by callow youths and unteachabe
fanatics. The conditions of human life
on this planet are likely to be always
pretty stern, although we make them
sterner than need be by the widespread
desire to grasp without giving, to con-
sumo without producing, to live off
other people if we can. Wha. mankind
needs, above all. is such inspiration as
shall furnish Us with an impetus to
raising of the general level Of mank nd,
and which shall yet convince us that
life is more than meat and the body than
rament. How shall we derive such
inspiration, save from the religious
conception of life as furnishing,
not theater for enjoyment, but
op ortunities for service? 1t is
not without significance that nearly all
the important books of the time deal
with the social problem. 1t is even
more significant that the writers of
these books are compelled to address
themselves TO the religious and the ethical
problems. They find that the one inevi-
tably leads to the other, and that it is
fruitless to attempt to solve the surface
questions without probing underneath
10 the remoter but even more real and
imperative elements in mans complex
nature. Man is not a mere patent digestive
machine, or even mere social animal |;
and therefore the next century will find
us with many of our cruder notions
about human happiness and progress
dying out, but with an inextinguishab o
longing to be assured that the spiritual
life is no dream, but rather the solid
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