Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-26
SARAH y. LOWRLE,S
SATURDAY EVENING TALK
For Those Who Are " Worried about the Souls OF the
Younger Generation

n HAD letter this week from
i woman who said that she was
troubled about her your- nephews ana
nieces, Of whom she was very fond and
10 whom she was very near in point OF
interests and of everyday life. She was
troubled because they were frankly NOT
Religious-or, as she put IT, not inter
ested In the things of the spirit through
religion. or course. she IL not alone
In feeling this about the younger gen
Grafton. Her mother and her grand
mother felt it before her, Most mothers
and aunts and grAnhmOthcrs have cX-
pressed the same feelin: in one way or
smother about the lack of seriousness
along spiritual lines of the generation
coming on.
am quite sure from my own ey.
perience that she and that they ar"
right. Only yesterday evening a girl.
Of whom | am very fond and whom
know pretty well, snid coolly that II
was her belief that youth did not need
religion. either as Il help or rs a con-
solation.
She confessed 10 being often un-
happy and restless, but not In ways
that needed religion, that Is, If by re-
ligion one meant anything more than
a philosophy Of life. She know every
one needed n philosophy Of life. ..
what TO expect from life and what was
your share in If" both for enjoyment
and giving. but although she also knew
that there were some persons who took
to the obvious and easy way Of making
their relationship with-wcll. with God
the chief end of life, there were she
felt sure, more persons who could not
follow that way out. 1t just was not
natural to them. and on tho whole they
got along very well without pretending
that It was, but just being simple
about It.
WE WERE sitting under cloulINsN
'" night sky on n terrace overlooking
q wide. silent valley. Every now and
then n falling star made wide arch of
transient light across the heavens and
fell somewhere in star dust into space.
Except for the little mountain river
bent on It's distant journey to the sea
and the crickets in the grass there was
no appreciablc sound anywhere. The
whole of what surrounded us meant
Just God and nothing else to me to her
II meant another lovely night in a
whole summer Of lovely nights. But n
biz lifetime, crowded with experiences,
Ia. back of me, and she was barely
twenty and had only begun 70 feel tie
~
most two Of the big elemental expert
ences that come with just living.
Why expect her to feel her soul life
~ something quite apart from h"r body
life when she was in the midst of
coming into her own rs Il woman Why,
after all. expect anything 50 prrcorious
a. recognizable attitud" toward m
unseen God. when you are Just waking
up to understand what it j. to see and
hear your fellow men
7 THINK somehow the hurry and the
L forcing process that We have had tc
take on as part of life because Of the
elimination Of time and space 10y new
inventions that tread on our heels nnC
make us GO faster, faster 10 or goals
think wo have cotton lately - hurry
Ing the youngsters into having souls
as though that was our affair and nor
Gods
We act ms though We wor" afraid rho
God who made them w0ull let them iii,
on our hands without full hodgcd souls
or. at all events without Nh" means 0
transportation ont OF the seen into III
eternal. We have done away with
hell where every one went who was no
saved sinner" whatever that waS
but we have not done away with ih
belief that being born again" impli"
rcciting the APOSTLES Creed withou