The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-02

SIGNS OF PROGRESS TOWARD OUR
HlGHEST slDEALs.-Two very signifi-
cant articles are to be found in The At
lantlc Monthly for October. They are
signs OF tendency older than human his
tory, but increasing in force with each
succeeding age. One, is by William Allen
White, and foreshadows an approach to-
ward the ideal of the golden rule in hui
man intercourse; the other is by Samuel
McChord Crothers, and points to wider
and more confident recognition Of certain
qualities In human nature as evidence Of
mans Immortality
Mr.. White, under the heading "The
Golden Rule, " supports the thesis: 1.-THE
Christian spirit is in it's essence an en-
tirely attainable ideal of kindness and of
Justice and only as men live the Chris
tan spirit consistently, in their simple,
first hand relations with one another, will
the public morals Of the nation improves
and will the political and economic prob
lens which reflect the condition Of public
morals pc nearer solution" He then
Calls attention to patent evidences Of an
approach to this ''attainable IDEAL thus
The people are ceasing to envy riches,
and are beginning to ask rich men embar-
RAISING questions. In America the strong
man is not necessarily the man Of wealth,
nor is he the political boss, More and
more Is the strong man becoming the man
OF Ideals, the man Of culture, the man
who appeals to the spiritual side Of the
people,"
Following this Mr.. White with clear
provision. points the way which individ-
uals and nations may go with least re-
sistance toward the same ideal. He says:
Governments and problems and crises
and battles and changing dynasties and
passing systems Of doing the worlds
work are but bubbles and eddies in the
onward flowing current of human life go
ing toward its Inevitable goal And all
we know Of life is that Christ's teaching
tallies with some great force that is NOV
ing the current and that he who follows
that teaching moves with the current and
not against it. This inspires the faith
that the government that follows the
law and the prophets shall live"
Progress toward this ideal is progress
toward faith in that of which Mr.. Croth-
ers writes in an article on 1.-THE Endless
Life" The ideal Of which Mr.. White
writes Is the ideal of the voice which Mr..
Crothers quotes: IT love. + hope, wor-
ship eternal beauty, offer myself in obe-
dience to law of perfect righteousness,
I gladly suffer that others may be saved,
I resist the threatened evil that see, l
choose not the easy way, but the difficult
way, my will shall not yield to circum-
stances, but only to a higher will" But
the emergence Of creature, who so de-
clares himself, from the material world
lis nothing short Of a miracle Out Of
universe Of purposeless force there
comes purposeful will devoted to abso-
lutte good. Can that be. true? - Our, in
stinct for orderly causation does not al
low the statement to pass unchallenged.
A universe out Of which there energies a
living will cannot be purposeless.'
And in all this is ground for faith in the
endlessness Of life. From the ideal in
human relationship, the approach toward
which Mr.: White points out, to the high
est ideal Of human existence, of which
Mr.. Crothers writes is, after all but a
step. The qualities in human nature which
make the highest human relationships
possible are one of the. best grounds for
faith In future existence The develop
mentof the human ideal means the wider
recognition Of the "unconquerable will'
as one Of the best evidences ofshuman i'm
mortality.
Mr.. Whites and Mr.. Crothers' articles,
then, are significant .,of substantial prog
sress toward the Ideal sf a Universal recog=ss
milton of human brotherhood and "a uni
versal faith In human immortality.