The Washington herald., 1908-02-16
The New life Of the Spirit.


During one of the meetings Of the Re
Hgious Education Association in this city
applause greeted the statement of "A
speaker that the old scholastic theology
had no place in the religious education
of our youth. Instead of pointing out to
them the way of individual salvation
from the terrors of the life beyond, he
pleaded, we should implant in their minds
the ideals Of social service and Of the
social salvation of the race. This WAS
the dominant theme of the meetings and
the ruling idea of the addresses. Per-
haIs it was most admirably expressed by
the Rev. Francis q. Peabody, OF Har-
ward, in these words:
The most characteristic and significant discovery
Of the present age is the discovery Of the social
conscienoe-the recognition, IN degree unprecc-
dented in history. Of social responsibility; tbe de-
msnd with an unprecedented imperatireness for
social Justice the substitution on an unprecedented
scale. Of social morality for the creed Of individual
ism. Never in human history were So many people.
wise and mwise. rich and poor. learned and iguo-
rant, concerning themselves with social amtoutjon.
dedcating themselves to philanthropy Organizing for
industrial change OF applying the motives Of religion
90 tie problems os modern life The economies os
laissezfaire is displaced by the economies Of COM
hnation the ethics Of self-cuture Is succeeded uy
the ethics Of social service; and religion instead Of
setting itself 10 the person cut Of the wreck o..
lost world, summons the person to bring the
world itself safe TO port.
The social conscience. indeed, appears
the highest product of Christianity. With
the decay of the old theological ideas. re-
hgious forces seem to be taking a new
direction, and instead of exhausting them
selves in theological contention or in de-
veloping arid types OF personal piety,
they concern themselves with the practi-
cal problems OF everyday life, inspiring
fresher ideals OF social morality and car
ryng them out in practice. The religious
zeal which in former times vented itself
in the propagation Of dogma aud the .ag-
grandizement Of ecclesiastical organiza-
tion now manifests itself in the puridca-
ton Of the social order and in the eleva-
ton Of the ethical standard of corporate
human life. The religious motive is not
perishing; it has simply struck 0ut into
new channels of energy. It's influence is
extending beyond the individual life to
that cooperative life which is so vital a
fact in modern times.
If this be a correct appraisement of the
religious movement, it explains the ORR
gin and indicates the abiding force Of the
moral awakening in the political and in
dustrial life of the American people We
are, and have always been. an essentially
religious nation. In no country has the
ethical content of the Christian religion
exercised so wide and constant an infiu-
ence over the course Of events The old
Hebrew ideal righteousness exalteth "a
nation, tTansplanted into the New World.
has truly become and American ideal Il
has infused our foreign relations from
the beginning, it animated the uprising
against slavery. and now it inspires hopes
.of a nation freed from political corrup-
tion and industrial and social wrongs.
Our people have always thought, with
Young, that
Religion crowns the statesman and tbe man
Sole source Of public and oi private peace"
i is not strange, then, that Mr.. Roose-
welt and Mr.. Bryan, our two great p0pu-
lar leaders. should be essentially preach
ers of civic and Industrial Righteousness.
nor that their appeals 70 the national con-
science should find deep response in the
hearts of the people. And it ought to be
a matter Of graduation that in this coun-
try, az least. religious education is COM
ing more and mere 10 mean the training
of youth to higher ideals OF social moral
ity, to "a truer appreciation Of mans rela-
tion TO God and his fellow-man, instead
of fixing the mind in dogmatic prejudices
having no real connection with life and
character.