CHAPTER V

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
197

Human progress is due to the irresistable expansive power of the human will; undaunted by failure, it turns every defeat into a victory by striving with renewed faith to conquer and annex still more extensive fields of satisfaction. Failing to obtain the objects of present desire, it seeks to make sure of future well-being and enjoyment. Thwarted in this attempt to provide for future security and comfort, it abandons the natural world in an heroic attempt to attain an abiding supernatural good. Unable thus to take heaven by storm, it endeavors to realize an end which shall unite both natural and supernatural goods--aiming in this new venture at once to convert material acquisitions into a means of spiritual attainment, and to de-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
198

rive from spiritual sources power for the transformation of natural conditions. This final end, which may fitly be termed universal, is sought by the modern spirit.

It is easy to misunderstand the modern spirit as merely a relapse into naturalism.

For we seem to see the modern world absorbed in an attempt to secure material convenience and enjoyment through the control of physical forces and the direction of social influences. But this interpretation stops at the surface and utterly fails to understand the great underlying principles of modern civilization. The modern spirit differs from naturalism, first in the ideal which it proposes for realization, and, second, in the method by which it undertakes to realize this ideal.

The ideal of modern civilization is not limited, like that of naturalism, to the satisfactions of individual existence and community life. The good which it seeks extends in its range beyond the narrow boundaries of local community interest to the

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
199

larger national life, and the life of the modern nation presents a variety of activities almost endless and a complexity of interests well-nigh infinite. But it overleaps, also, the limits of national welfare, and embraces international comity and well-being, extending thus to the lives of all men of every race and clime. Nor does it confine itself to the humanity of the present age or generation, but has regards for man's development and satisfaction throughout the long reaches of the future. Man's effort to attain by sheer force of spiritual insight to a supernatural reality proves to be not a disorderly dream, forgotten on awakening; it leaves him with an outlook permanently altered. For the human will in the broad light of modern day still seeks a spiritual kingdom, not a Heavenly City perhaps, but a spiritual community whose life shall furnish to every man the opportunity for personal development and satisfaction. Moreover, Christian other-worldliness and asceticism have left their permanent mark upon

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
200

the moral will of the modern man; for deep-rooted in his heart the conviction abides that the highest human good has a content so comprehensive, so far-reaching, as to demand the surrender of every individual interest. The profound Christian doctrine of self-sacrifice is firmly intrenched in modern ethics. Modern humanitarianism is occasionally disparaged as visionary and sentimental, as the well-meant but absurdly impracticable proposal to make everybody materially prosperous and happy. But to treat with superior or cynical disdain this ideal, even in its cruder expressions, is to play the traitor to man's highest interest, for in its universalism it represents the noblest aspiration of the human will.

In the method of realizing its ideal, modernism returns to grapple anew with physical forces and social conditions. Here we do have a return to naturalism--but with a noteworthy difference. The natural man seeks, through observing and utilizing the

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
201

obvious sequences of nature, to reach the results at which he aims. Modern intelligence, on the contrary, proposes through study and experiment to analyze physical forces and social tendencies into their elementary components, and then to recombine them in such a way that they shall with unfailing certainty produce the results which universal human welfare requires.

Modern civilization is the vastest enterprise ever undertaken by the human will.

Supernaturalism was a bold venture, it is true; it wins our admiration through the very height of its pretensions. But since the supernatural good was exalted far above all worldly events and concerns, it took on an exclusive character, shutting out from its ken the disturbing refractory forces of nature and all such human individuals as possessed neither intellectual grasp nor spiritual insight. Its ideal was the life of a spiritual aristocracy. In contrast to this, the end sought by the moral will which is behind modern civilization appalls by its

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
202

very scope and magnitude. It proposes to utilize every natural force, every social influence, in the establishment of a social community whose life shall be large and varied enough to provide for the development and satisfaction of every human individual. Here in this final stage of human progress we behold the human will venturing to seek a life which is truly universal.

The faith which the pursuit of such a universal good calls for on the part of modern man is greater than that hitherto exercised by the human will. The faith characteristic of supernaturalism is noble, ardent, pure--surpassing in these qualities any previous aspiration of man. This noble purity, this consuming zeal, is the result of whole-souled devotion to a sublime spiritual ideal. But supernaturalism is able to continue absorbed in its lofty ideal only because it deliberately disregards a large part of human experience. Its exalted optimism is achieved only through blindness to the ills and imperfections of the actual

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
203

world. A faith stronger than that of Stoic sage or mediaeval mystic is, therefore, required of one who faces the facts of the existing world, who understands its contradictions and maladjustments, its cruel and clumsy processes, its bloodshed and carnage, its brutality and cunning; and yet dares to believe that it may be made a means to the realization of a universal spiritual ideal. To look without flinching upon the facts of existence, to maintain the possibility of converting the agencies of nature into instruments of personal development and to undertake the task of realizing the Ideal in the actual world, calls for a faith so resolute, a fortitude so unfaltering as to daunt any but the strongest will.

The postulate through which this faith gains expression is that of development or evolution--that the actual world contains potencies of adaptation and growth, of which human intelligence may avail itself in the establishment of a universal spiritual life.

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
204

This is the last and highest of the four postulates upon which human progress rests.

Primitive life depends upon belief in the existence of things which are centres and sources of characteristic qualities. The natural life owes its advance over primitive conditions to the further belief that events are determined in their occurrence by previous events, their causes. The supernatural life is made possible by the added belief to which reflection gives rise, that objects and events owe their character to the ends they subserve. The universal life rests upon a final and culminating belief in development or self-determination--a belief that objects derive actuality and significance not simply from the causes which produce them or from the ends which they subserve, but also from their own intrinsic potencies of growth and expression; that actual objects are in a real and important sense self-caused in that they are capable, under stress of inner tension or outer stimulus, of manifesting new qualities and powers.

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
205

This capacity for growth and self-development is strikingly manifested in the organic realm by the multitude of forms and the variety of activities originated by the lifeforce--forms and activities which in appearance are new and, from previous observation, unpredictable. But this capacity for self-development comes first to full expression as the power of freedom and creativity in the mind and will of man. It is the principle of progress itself, and its final adoption as a ruling belief by the human will means that the spirit of progress has finally become self-conscious. Explicitly adopted as a postulate, it means that the human will has come to conscious recognition of its power of originating new ends for pursuit and of discovering in actual objects and conditions new possibilities of service and satisfaction.

Human volition, at the present highwater mark of its development, thus aims at such adjustment of forces in nature and such organization of interests in society as

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
206

will make possible the establishment of a universal social life. This is pre-eminently a programme of action, and it is a fact that modern civilization is distinguished from mediaevalism by its abandonment of contemplation for action. In its emphasis upon accomplishment and efficiency the modern spirit harks back to the "practicality" of naturalism, and seems to the exponent of classical culture to savor not a little of the Philistinism of the natural man.

But, as we have seen, there is this important difference: the action required by the modern ideal is not a comparatively simple routine based upon empirical observation, but is experimental and constructive, because guided by systematic reflection and creative imagination. In fact, the achievements of modern civilization in the subjugation of nature and the reorganization of society are due directly to developed thought and trained imagination, a development and a training which man's intellectual and imaginative faculties received

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
207

during the classical and mediaeval periods.

For if man is to make new combinations of natural forces which shall produce results serviceable to himself, he must first be able to separate these forces, operating in a baffling complexity, into their elementary constituents. To do this he must not merely observe, he must experiment. But in order to experiment he must be able beforehand to frame in his thought the questions whose answer he is to seek from nature. Now to ask intelligent questions requires an initial conception of a subject or situation and a provisional analysis or it. Such exercise of conceptual thought and analytic understanding lies, consequently, at the very source of modern technical achievement.

Kepler's epoch-making discovery of the laws which govern planetary revolution was made possible by his initial conception of the universe as ordered by definite quantitative relations. Proceeding upon this view and with a knowledge of mathematical principles, he attempted to conceive of

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
208

every possible relation that might apply to the orbit of the planets. This provisional analysis supplied him with a set of hypotheses, each of which might constitute a question to which observed facts would return answer. An observation, thus originating in an hypothesis and returning answer to a question, is essentially experimental. When the conditions under which an event occurs are so controlled that any observer may vary them at will, thus testing every conceivable hypothesis in regard to their relation to the event in question, we have, in the complete sense of the term, an experiment.

This work of separating the forces of nature into their elementary constituents, and of determining their essential relations, is, of course, but a preliminary to the task of recombining them in such ways that they may produce results which increase the satisfaction and enlarge the scope of human life. In this field of invention, mechanical and social, the will of man has scored its

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
209

most notable triumphs in modern times.

New machinery of production and distribution, of transportation and communication, has revolutionized the economic and industrial life of man; new agencies of government and education, of relief and recreation, have reorganized his social life. There is no fitter symbol of modern progress than the machine. To assert this is, in the opinion of many people tantamount to a condemnation of modernism. The prominence of machinery in modern life they regard as an ominous indication that human society is being materialized. Such is a mistaken view, however; the invention and use of machinery means, or should mean, not that human life is being materialized, but that the material world is being spiritualized. For what does the invention of a useful machine signify? It means that physical forces, which have hitherto acted separately and without regard for human welfare, are so combined and adjusted by human intelligence as to produce a new

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
210

result, and one that is desired by man to enrich the content of his life. It means that a number of physical forces, each of which has always been and continues to be determined by other forces, quite regardless of man's needs or purposes, are bound together by a new relationship which man imposes upon them when he makes them means to one end. In this way the uncertainty, the untrustworthiness of natural processes which rendered futile man's previous attempts to avail himself of their causal sequences in providing for his own future, and finally made him despair of attaining any natural good, is overcome. For this earlier effort of man to control nature in his own interest had for its guidance only his observation of the more obvious sequences of natural events--an observation that necessarily failed to reveal all the conditions of an event, to detect those that were hidden, and to distinguish the part played by each. Hence the effect that he expected would follow, and upon

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
211

which his own plans depended, was continually failing to apper, because of the absence of some necessary condition of which he was ignorant. He knew that the growth of the seed he had planted was conditioned by a loosening of the soil and the presence of moisture and heat and light, but he did not know that the existence of certain elements in the soil was also a necessary condition. Hence his crop often failed unaccountably, and in consequence he went hungry. But modern science, by its exact analysis of all the conditions under which natural events occur is giving man certain control, and the assurance of success,in obtaining results from nature.

Now the machine represents this control in the acme of perfection. For here exact analysis is made the basis of a new synthesis or readjustment of natural forces, with the sole purpose of obtaining from them a certain result. The machine typifies, therefore, the conquest of matter by intelligence--its genuine spiritualization. It is not

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
212

merely that natural processes are subjected to a new kind of determination, however;

that certain forces which were determined before by antecedent conditions are now determined by subsequent events, by results, that is, which now they are bound to produce. That kind of teleology is already present in nature, inasmuch as every event is not merely the effect of a cause, but determined itself to produce an effect.

No, in the machine the action of natural forces is also determined by their inherent, but as yet unrealized, potencies of rendering intelligent service. The invention of machinery is a contribution to universal progress because by it the material universe is made to display capabilities hitherto unknown, of furthering the development of self-conscious personality.

The co-operation of thought with action in extending the control of man over the forces of his natural environment has produced results extremely advantageous to thought itself, and stimulating to its devel-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
213

opment. For, among other achievements, modern invention has devised appliances for experiment and investigation which have led to an enormous increase in man's intellectual power. Modern invention has given to science the laboratorY with its marvellous apparatus for discovering the hidden secrets of nature. Laboratory instruments and procedure make possible the exhaustive analysis and precise measurement of natural forces. They are enabling scientists to reduce all changes in the physical universe to terms of motion, and to measure the direction and velocity of this motion. This translation of the natural world, with its multitude of objects varying in interest and significance into mechanical terms, fills many minds with apprehension and dismay.

It seems to them to mean the elimination of all value and freedom from our human world and its replacement by matter and mechanism, the veritable shackling of man in the iron chains of physical necessity.

But the true idealist whose first concern is

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
214

the real spiritual progress of humanity has no cause for alarm or regret; rather should he welcome the advance of exact physical science. For the reduction of all natural change to terms of motion means that all physical processes can be formulated in mathematical terms, their fundamental laws and relations made out--can, in fact, be calculated and controlled. Modern physical science is thus preparing the way for the complete conquest of matter by rational will. The progress of laboratory science proves, if you will, that nature, as it now exists, is not spiritual--but who that esteems spiritual values would wish to admit that it is! But it does give us reason to hope that the natural world may by effort and contrivance be spiritualized--and this is all that the true idealist could desire.

Modern civilization seeks to attain its end through the instrumentality of both thought and action. These two capacities become, therefore, fully spiritualized, for they are both made means to the develop-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
215

ment of a universal personal life. It is true that supernaturalism conceived of thought as an agency for realizing an Absolute Good: the exercise of reason was believed to reveal to man the Absolute Truth and to show him his place in Universal Reality. But this truth was conceived abstractly, and the reality which it revealed was one divorced from the facts of human experience.

The exercise or reason has not been neglected by the modern spirit; devotion to pure science has heen a leading characteristic of modern civilization. But modern thought has sought to discover the facts of the actual world, and in this undertaking it has met with astonishing success. It's ultimate aim is Absolute Truth, to be sure; a completed system of ideas which shall represent every real object. The facts of the existing world do not permit of such representation, however, until they have been brought actually within the scope of personal life, and to accomplish this is the task of action. And it is man's power of action, however,

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
216

that has undergone the most remarkable expansion in modern times. This capacity was neglected and despised by supernaturalism, as we have seen. In the still lower stage, when man was interested altogether in obtaining and enjoying natural goods, it was limited to the employment of a few natural forces and the fashioning of relatively simple tools. Hence the tendency still exists to disparage this faculty as of solely utilitarian value, and as having no place in true personal development. But to take this view is to blind oneself to the most notable achievement of modern times.

For the modern world has seen technical activity raised to the level of personal achievement by being given a universal scope and significance. The aim of modern invention in both the mechanical and the social fields is to make such adjustments and adaptations of existing materials and forces as shall turn them into means of universal human development. Such are railways and steamships, which make possible whole-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
217

sale transportation; telegraph and telephone, which facilitate general communication; such are postal service, public school system, labor unions, state insurance, etc.

--all permanent instruments of human betterment. Thus the man who invents a new coupling device, a neW serum, an improved method or street-cleaning, realizes not a material but a spiritual good; for through his action his will is identified with the universal social life. Feeling, whose contribution to human progress is often forgotten, has also become in modern times an agency of universal progress. The yearning of the human will for an absolute and eternal good was a potent influence in leading men to abandon all natural interests in order to seek a universal good.

The feeling which inspires the modern servant of humanity is no less noble, if less ecstatic. Its scope is, in fact, more truly universal, because more genuinely comprehensive; it is a broad and fundamental sympathy with humanity universally, a su-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
218

preme enthusiasm for human development, and a profound interest in every action which promises to further this end.

Returning now to the end sought by the moral will which is moving in modern civilization, we have found ample reason for regarding it as spiritual. It is spiritual because it represents the complete satisfaction of the human will in the greatest possible expansion of man's personality. This life is universal because it comprehends, in the sense of making room for, the personal development of every human individual.

This ideal of modern humanitarianism was, of course, foreshadowed by the Stoic conception of a perfect society and the mediaeval ideal of a spiritual kingdom. But these former ideals are static--the perfect society, the spiritual community which they envisaged was one already realized by the will of God, and elevated in its eternal perfection far above the confused and fragmentary existence of earth. The modern ideal is, on the contrary, dynamic, is that

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
219

of an expanding spiritual system, a developing society of free persons. It exists not realized, but to be realized. It is the object not of contemplation but of action; it promises not the peace of fulfilmenL but the sword of adventure and achievement. Thus the modern moral ideal has received concrete embodiment in the aims of Democracy--aims which begin, with, much hesitation and after many discouragements, to be realized.

The aim of democracy is to give equal opportunities for self-expression and satisfaction to all its citizens. It seeks to establish a social life which shall furnish to every individual who participates in it full scope for personal development; the individual in rendering his service to society gains complete self-realization. This means that the will of each individual shall achieve the maximum of expansion in the three fields of its exercise--thought, action, and feeling. All citizens will therefore share in the attainment of the supreme personal good

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
220

in its threefold expression, as Truth and Power and Beauty. These ends are by nature universal; they can be attained only in a community of intelligence; they imply the associated activity of a community of free persons. The ideal of democracy is thus that of a "perfect society." But this ideal can be realized only under the actual conditions of human existence; it is the great achievement of the modern spirit to have recognized this fundamental fact.

The forces of nature must be so controlled and employed as to furnish all individuals with the means of health and comfort; the varied and conflicting interests of individuals must be so adjusted as to make due place for the legitimate activity of each one. Now, democracy will not permit the burden of this, the work of the world, to fall upon the shoulders of one class of its citizens, in order that another shall be given leisure and freedom for higher personal development. Such an arrangement would violate its fundamental principle of

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
221

universal and equal opportunity. No, democracy, on the contrary, insists that the weight of the world's work shall be borne by all. Its only recourse, therefore, if it is to realize its ideal under conditions of earth, is so to organize the work of economic production and social adjustment that it may yield to all participants the absolute moral values above mentioned. Truth and Power and Beauty, expressions of that universal life for which his will yearns, must be discovered and attained by man in the course of his every-day occupations, sowing and reaping, in building and carrying, in buying and selling, in teaching and healing. This task, which the hard facts of existence impose upon the will of man, modern civilization believes to be possible of attainment.

Our democratic societies give evidence that it is at least possible to realize the ideal by idealizing the actual. A wide dissemination of knowledge made possible by popular education and free discussion is found to facilitate industry and government, besides being

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
222

a permanent means of self-expression with citizens; a large increase of power over forces both physical and social, due to the co-operative use of machinery, has resulted in a great improvement of man's living conditions, besides giving to his activity that added range and scope which it ever craves; a great extension of sympathy, due to mutual understanding and co-operation, has made men more helpful as fellow laborers and more agreeable as fellow citizens, besides opening inexhaustible sources of satisfaction in the appreciation of beauty in nature and in character. The three supreme ideals, as they are concretely realized in a democratic society, appear as mutual understanding, co-operation, and sympathy.

Mutual understanding is the very cornerstone of democracy. It is possible to found a stable society which shall subserve moral ends because expressing the general will only when there is general enlightenment and understanding. Knowledge, to be morally effective, to promote personal develop-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
223

ment universally, cannot remain the exclusive possession of a few; it must become the common property of all. Hence, while the scientific expert must be employed by a democratic society, he will be compelled to explain his methods and justify his results to his fellow citizens. The only way in which a man with special knowledge can gain exceptional influence is by persuading the public of the truth of his views, or at least of his competence to decide. Free discussion and popular education are the life's breath of democracy. Modern intelligence and technical skill have been amazingly successful in the contrivance of methods and the invention of machinery for the dissemination of knowledge. The extension of the franchise, safe only where there is an equal extension of knowledge, is itself a notable educational measure; for it gives to the ignorant an occasion and incentive for the acquisition of infOrmation, and impels those who know to enlighten their less intelligent fellows. Political campaigns and

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
224

elections, awakening general interest in large national questions and leading to public discussions and debates, are effective agencies for the spread of ideas and the increase of understanding. The public-school system is the mainstay of popular government, insuring that benefits gained by society in the present shall be conserved and enlarged by future generations. Public libraries, with their stores of books and periodicals for general use, the modern newspaper, with its marvellous facilities for the gathering and publication of news, assist in this work of enlightenment. Railways and steamboats, making travel speedy and comfortable, enable people to meet, converse, and keep in personal touch with one another. Improved postal service, the telegraph, and the telephone are additional instruments of communication which aid in the great work of promoting general knowledge and mutual understanding. Merely an enumeration of methods and agencies is sufficient to show one how vast and how

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
225

successful is the work of education and enlightenment carried on by a modern democratic society. And the result attained-- general knowledge of the facts of life and the world, with an understanding of the points of view of other men--is a permanent means of self-development and satisfaction.

Co-operation is the second feature necessary to the life of a democratic society, but possessed, also, of supreme moral worth.

It is plain that the work of modern democracy in the economic and social fields can be carried on only through the co-operative effort of its citizens. It is also apparent that co-operation of hand if not of soul does prevail in modern industry and government. To the division of labor which gave to different individuals different occupations there has been added, through the introduction of machinery, a differentiation of function much more minute and thoroughgoing, organizing workers into groups within groups, and giving to the individual the

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
226

most definite and specialized of tasks. The work of government in a great democracy has also become so immensely enlarged and exceedingly intricate as to be saved from confusion only by an elaborate organization which involves at once highest specialization and completest interdependence. Modern society has secured at least the semblance of co-operation in its industrial and political organization, but it is to be feared that the co-operation is in most cases a matter of outward form and does not touch the inner soul and spirit. The division of labor required by the use of machinery along with modern factory methods too often merely condemns the individual to the monotonous repetition of an utterly insignificant task, without producing in him any realizing sense of the power and efficiency of the whole enterprise to which he contributes.

It is one of the pressing duties of democracy to remedy this condition, and so to reorganize its industries and enterprises that their working shall yield this fundamental moral

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
227

value. This end will not be gained by the abandonment of machinery and the methods of manufacture and transportation to which its employment have led. On the contrary, it is in the invention of more machinery and the further extension of its use that the hope of reaching an ultimate solution of the problem chiefly lies. For we may hope that in time all the dangerous and deadening tasks may be given over to machinery; no class of unfortunates will be compelled by circumstances to perform them. The work of men, in the sphere of industry and commerce at least, will consist almost entirely in the control of machinery, and this work they must do together. With the conditions of labor improved and the mode of living bettered, it remains to produce among the workers the spirit of co-operation. A movement in this direction seems to be developing out of the recent efficiency propaganda. For it is seen with increasing clearness that efficiency cannot be secured by attention to physical

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
228

factors alone, by the elimination of all waste of power and material. The human factor must also be considered--the personality of the workers must be taken into account.

Each individual must be given the task most congenial to his taste and fitted to his ability; then he must be encouraged to make the most of its possibilities. But most of all, industries must be so managed as to enlist the interest and arouse the loyalty of the workers. They must come to feel a sense of personal ownership in the machinery, to be thrilled by its power, to take satisfaction in its productions. To this consciousness they have a moral right, because the machinery is an invention of human intelligence, an achievement of the rational will which is striving in all men.

When the individual thus identifies the industry or enterprise with his own will his fellow workers become his partners, united not by their common antagonism to those who "own" or direct the enterprise, but by their common interest in and devotion to it.

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
229

In this way the life of the individual becomes truly universalized; his powers of action receive their rightful satisfaction through participating in the successful effort of man's intelligence to control the conditions of his existence.

Besides general enlightenment and reciprocal service, a whole-hearted sympathy among fellow citizens is implied in the very existence of democracy. With the development of a democratic society this fellow-feeling broadens and deepens, and it is manifestly to the interest of such society to encourage and foster this growth until it becomes the genuine emotion of brotherhood.

There is no more effective method of promoting the concord or feeling among all sorts and conditions of men than by enabling them to enjoy together the same beauties in works of nature and of art. For a distinguishing feature of the feeling of aesthetic appreciation is its disinterestedness. The sense of beauty is awakened by harmonies and proportions in objects that

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
230

appeal to the perceptive and imaginative faculties of men in an identical or similar manner. Thus by the establishment of parks and art-galleries, through the maintenance of playgrounds and the encouragement of architecture, through wise city planning and the preservation of rural scenery, we provide permanent sources of emotional concord among the members of society. And, associated thus in the same experience of aesthetic enjoyment, individuals are drawn together, are led to consider and admire characteristics perceived in one another. This appreciation of nobilities of character which is the basis of true love, is itself fostered by some of the arts, notably poetry and music. In verse and song the noble qualities and splendid achievements of national heroes are celebrated, and a multitude of individuals are made one by the responsive thrill which such poetry and music awaken. Thus the development of civic consciousness and corporate feeling among fellow citizens leads to the realization

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
231

by the human will of Beauty and Love, ends of universal scope and capable of affording abiding satisfaction.

The moral will of modern man is seeking and, we find, is beginning to attain, an end which is genuinely universal. Genuinely, because concretely, universal in the sense of being all-comprehensive, a social life which provides for the possible personal development of all individuals in a completely civilized world. This undertaking of the modern spirit depends, as we have seen, upon faith--faith that existing facts and forces can all of them be adapted to the fulfilment of man's personal needs. Such faith, we must also acknowledge, has been in a large measure justified by the achievements to which it has led, by the amazing success of modern man in readjusting natural forces and reorganizing social institutions, with a view to his own larger personal satisfaction.

Modern technical science has come to think of the natural universe not as a dead-weight of inert matter driven by equally blind

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
232

forces through endlessly repeated cycles of monotonous change, but as a great storehouse of unknown potencies, itself progressive, and containing limitless possibilities of further growth under the impulsion and control of intelligence. May we not, then, suppose that man has come within sight of the goal of his own progress? Is not the roadway at last cleared and open for the rapid advance of human volition to its own final and complete satisfaction? Have we not found the long-sought solution of the problems of human life and human destiny which have vexed man's spirit from the beginning of his career, in the modern programme of social progress through the betterment of human living conditions, both economic and social?

Before assenting to this optimistic view which is widely current in these days of evolutionary science, we must stop to consider certain facts that loom large and cast deep shadows in the path of modern progress. In the first place, we must admit that

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
233

modern man's control over nature is purchased at a staggering cost. The wonderful discoveries and inventions, the gigantic enterprises and vast undertakings of modern civilization have resulted in an incalculable amount of suffering and a countless number of premature deaths among human individuals. That such inventions and enterprises prevent suffering and loss of life--in most cases far more than they cause--is freely admitted. But neither can it he denied that they have brought with them new perils, neW possibilities of disaster.

The steamship, The steam railway, electric traction and illumination, the automobile, agencies of civilization and means of human betterment that they are, contribute each one of them to the growing number of accidental injuries and deaths that occur, particularly in our crowded centres of population. And when we turn to such enterprises as modern mining and bridge-building and tunnelling, the toll of life and limb paid by the workers is appalling. Of course it is

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
234

reasonable to hope that in the future the dangers and disasters which follow upon the employment of mechanical instruments may be lessened by further inventions.

But suppose--which seems unlikely--that, by ingenuity, man is able to eliminate entirely the accidents which follow upon the employment of machinery by human society. This risk of injury and death must still be run by the inventor, the discoverer, the explorer, through whose intelligence and inventive skill society acquires the means of betterment. One who elicits hitherto unknown potencies of nature by chancing new combinations of her forces must frequently be prepared to stake his life in the venture.

The discovery of a new serum costs the life of a devoted investigator; knowledge of a new explosive is purchased at the expense of a dozen killed and injured. The loss of the Titanic reminded civilized society that every step forward in the conquest of the sea is purchased at a considerable expense of human life; the same is true of modern railway

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
235

travel; the cost of conquering the air promises to be greatest of all. A colossal enterprise like the Panama Canal puts a premature end to hundreds if not to thousands of human careers; railways built to open rich tropical forests are flanked by the graves of the men who labored to construct them; we accept it as a matter of course that a great bridge or aqueduct or tunnel should take a life or two. Such penalty man has to pay for his success in harnessing the forces of nature to the chariot of his progress; it is inconceivable that in the future he should be able to continue his conquests except at a similar cost. Imagine, however, what seems to be impossible; that he should devise means of continuing his transformation of nature in perfect safety to himself. It is impossible to imagine him by any skill or invention doing away with physical death, and thus gaining for himself permanence of life. And as long as death remains there is conflict and antagonism between the natural conditions of man's existence and his per-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
236

sonal needs--the conflict and antagonism in which physical evil is rooted. The death of an individual may evidently be for the benefit of humanity; such is the case with many individuals whose very death is a part of their service to humanity-the heroes, the patriots, the martyrs of all ages. The death of all individuals may even be shown to be in a certain sense favorable to the progress of the race, since it makes life while it lasts more intense, more significant. But these considerations do not solve the problem for the individual. His will demands a life which shall be universal in its scope, permanent in its achievement.

When we look from the physical to the social sphere we find a similar situation.

That modern civilization is making progress with the work of reorganizing society in order to provide place for the different individualities that may claim a part in its life, is undeniable. But that this progress is made at the cost of arousing new enmities and oppositions, and without any certain

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
237

prospect of bringing about a complete reconciliation of interests, is also apparent.

Modern social reform seeks so to reconstruct institutions and revise laws as to enforce the equal rights and the common interest of all individuals. Its aim is an adjustment so thoroughgoing that each individual may find in serving society a fulfilment of his own ambition. But in many cases the measures which are successful in correcting grave injustices are themselves productive of new conflict and discord.

Our present economic system of free contract and free competition among individuals was effective in maintaining the rights of individuality as against the injustice of feudalism, but, as we all know, it has been productive of ruthless greed and unscrupulous rapacity. Free speech and a free press were valuable instruments in freeing the individual citizen from the oppression of the tyrant and in developing a public opinion which is favorable to the recognition of many larger social interests--but they have

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
238

given an unparalleled power to demagogues and demagoguery. The social innovator or reformer, like the inventor in the mechanical realm, must be willing to take his life in his hands. For he, through his experiments and reconstructions, runs the risk, if not of physical death, at least of loss of reputation and property and peace of mind. For human beings are uncertain quantities, social influences are elusive and incalculable, and one who attempts to establish new relations or make new adjustments is liable to reach unexpected and disconcerting results. If his attempt is successful he is given an honored place among the leaders of society; if unsuccessful, his own natural regret over his failure and wasted effort is made more bitter by the reproaches and ridicule of his fellows. Finally, experience gives us no reason to expect that by a social adjustment, no matter how complete, we can eliminate the necessity for self-sacrifice. When, in its simpler and more obvious expressions, it is rendered unnecessary by social prog-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
239

ress, it reappears in subtler and more poignant forms. Progress, economic and social, may well secure such a plentiful production and equitable distribution of the means of subsistence that no individual need surrender his own possessions in order to relieve the distress of his fellows. But the claims of individuality will then assert themselves in the higher sphere of personal achievement. The individual will be confronted with the hard duty of giving up his opportunity for personal culture and achievement in order to perform his share of the labor required for the material support of mankind. The problem of self-sacrifice, the conflict of egoism and altruism, appears in the most acute and difficult form when the individual is obliged to give up not material possessions--for such surrender is frequently a blessing in disguise--but all opportunity for personal development and self-realization in order to support and care for others.

In such cases the conditions of human existence seem to compel the individual to con-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
240

sent to his own personal degradation in order to save and succor his needy fellows.

Such conflicts between the claims of individual culture and social service promise to be the bitterest struggles of our future morality; for democratic society provides for the support of no special class privileged to enjoy the fruits of personal culture, but inspires in the heart of every individual the yearning for the larger personal development. Self-sacrifice cannot be removed from human life, therefore; because it is rooted in the private and exclusive character of individuality, and thus cannot be destroyed without destroying human nature itself.

Finally, we have to admit that the extension of human interests to cover the entire world, which is a distinguishing mark of modern civilization, has made possible evils of whose magnitude men have had until now only a dim foreboding, but which we in these years can realize in their dread actuality. The modern will, when true to

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
241

its professed universality, seeks world betterment. Hence, when citizens of a modern state devote themselves to national welfare, it should be with the understanding that the nation which they serve is a member of the family of nations, with a service to render to the international community. But world influence which is thus the rightful privilege of a nation, is easily confounded with a world power which is gained at the expense of other nations and maintained to their detriment. ThuS the way is opened to a rivalry among nations for world power and a struggle to obtain the coveted mastery by diplomatic strategy and force of arms. And when nations, carried away by this ambition for world power, press into service all the discoveries of modern science and the products of modern invention to improve the enginery of war, and utilize all the costly triumphs of the modern mind in terrestrial, naval, and aerial locomotion for purposes of military expedition and attack, the result is slaughter so stupendous, de-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
242

struction so colossal, as to exceed our powers of comprehension. The European war or 1914 has shown not merely that evil of gigantic proportions persists in modern society; it has also proved that there are forces still lurking in human nature which will, unless controlled, annihilate the whole fabric of modern civilization.

It turns out that democracy, the perfectly organized society of free persons, is a task and not a triumph of the modern will.

Evil, that fatal presence, has not been overcome and eliminated from modern life; man has taken only the first few steps in its conquest, and is consequently able to count the cost of completing the enterprise. The great undertakings of the modern spirit, control of the forces of nature and adjustment of individualities in society, can be advanced only through the sacrifices of individuals. This tragic fact that the universal ideal which the moral will of man now proposes to realize, demands constant and real sacrifices from human individuals, is fre-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
243

quently overlooked by optimistic meliorists. Man can subdue nature to his uses only through the sacrifice or his own comfort and safety; he can secure co-operation in society only through the sacrifice or his interests and private ambitions. The one part of his task involves peril and hardship, the other discipline and denial, and both entail struggle and suffering. Now such sacrifices are not easily made, nor should they be lightly dismissed. The natural will which strives to provide man with comfort and enjoYment during his physical lifetime, stoutly opposes such sacrifice. Moreover, this natural will revives and reasserts itself with renewed strength in modern times.

For the modern spirit, which has sought to realize a "universal" end through a readjustment of actual conditions, has succeeded measurably well in attaining the "natural" good which man strove in vain to secure by depending directly upon the sequences of nature. Hence intelligent individuals whose situation is at all favorable may be

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
244

tolerably certain today of a life of profitable and pleasant activity and an old age of security and ease. Modern science and invention have multiplied a thousandfold the conveniences, the comforts, the safeguards of man's natural existence. Naturalism has thus taken fresh hold; it threatens to become the controlling influence in human life. The influence of such modern naturalism, of course, runs squarely counter to the devotion to a universal ideal which demands sacrifice of natural interest and individual ambition. Its prudential, calculating spirit once uppermost makes altogether impossible that willingness to sacrifice self required for pursuit of the universal good. If further progress is to be made, therefore, in attaining the end of universal human development, man must have the courage to resist the call of natural pleasures and to persevere in the path of struggle and of sacrifice.

One thing, and one thing only, can give to the modern man courage to make the sac-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
245

rifices required in the realization of the universal life. That is faith--belief in the essential permanence, the fundamental reality, of personality. The personality which is here believed in is personality in its universal aspect, that personality which embraces and includes the lives of others in intimate and organic union. If such universal personality and not the narrower and more restricted character of the individual or the group is the real thing, then the man who furthers its development through the use of physical forces or of social agencies increases his own reality. He does so even if his work in the mechanical and social fields is done at the sacrifice of his own individual comfort or health or ambition or existence itself. Through his very sacrifice he will, under such assumption, identify himself most effectually with universal reality; he will raise himself to a higher plane of existence, he will thereby participate in the universal life for which his soul yearns.

But how can such faith be gained or, rather,

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
246

regained after it has been lost in a grilling and benumbing warfare with refractory and unyielding conditions, both physical and social? Where else than from religion--man's never-failing resource when faith wavers and ideals lose their power? The human will can attain its ultimate end of a universal personal life only through persistent struggle and continued sacrifice. The courage required for such struggle and sacrifice comes only from faith, faith in the all-conquering power of personal will. Such faith is produced and sustained only by religion. The conclusion to which we are led, nay driven, is that the moral will of man can realize the universal good to which it aspires only if it is assisted and inspired by religious belief.

Let us set this conclusion clearly before us. The modern spirit can realize its ideal of a universal personal life only if it is strengthened and impelled by religious faith. The hope of progress, of democracy itself, lies in religion. Only if there is a

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
247

revival of religious faith can the human will prove equal to the high task it has undertaken. But the need is not for any religion whatsoever; not every religion would fulfil the requirements of the situation. No, in the present crisis of modern civilization, the supreme need is for a religion which shall give power and reality to the ideal of universal personal development and justify any sacrifices, no matter how great, made in its behalf. Is such a religion to be found?

Fortunately for human progress, such a religion has been in existence for twenty centuries, awaiting the time when man should awake to an appreciation of its significance and avail himself of its power.

The fundamental principles of Christianity, misconceived and misapplied as they have been, yet in spite of their misinterpretations proving the most potent influences that have ever worked for human betterment, constitute a religion such as we seek.

At the heart of the teachings of Jesus is a revelation of the character and will of God.

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
248

In the Christian gospels God is revealed not as a being whose holiness raises him far above the human world and whose will is chiefly absorbed in increasing his own glory. This is the God of mediaeval asceticism, not of Christianity. The teachings of the New Testament reveal to us a God who is actively engaged in the work of universal betterment. He is indeed the leader of the forces of righteousness and, like all true leaders, he shares the struggles and privations of the enterprise. He strives in the cause of universal progress, himself bearing the heaviest burden of toil and responsibility. His omnipotence is not conceived abstractly as the absence of every limitation in case of every power, an omnipotence which would make it impossible for him really to want, to desire, to seek after an object, because such purpose and pursuit would indicate a lack and an incompleteness in himself. Rather is his omnipotence shown positively and concretely in his moral perfection. And this moral perfec-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
249

tion does not consist in a passionless purity, an exalted holiness. On the contrary, God's moral perfection finds expression according to the truly Christian view, in the personal quality to which we human beings attach highest moral value, benevolence--in benevolence, developed to the highest degree.

Now benevolence, as we know it, is always directed upon persons and reaches its fullest development, its supreme manifestation, in suffering and sacrifice, for its personal object. In harmony with what is deepest and most profound in our moral experience, therefore, Christianity represents the benevolence of God as expressing itself in suffering and self-sacrifice for cherished creatures. It is the unique merit of Christianity that it dares to attribute these most searching and significant human experiences of suffering and sacrifice to God himself. God is revealed as a Father who loves his human children with the only perfect love.

Here, then, is the religious faith needed

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
250

to nerve man for the tremendous undertaking of modern civilization. This noble mission it can fulfil because it is of such character as first to arouse men to vigorous, persistent effort in the realization of universal ideals, and, second, to give them the hope and confidence which they must have if they are to undergo without discouragement or despair the pain and privation which this effort must cost them. Let us then consider a little further these two services which true religion promises to render man at this critical point in his moral development.

Belief in a God who is striving to realize all the possibilities for good in the universe is bound to inspire man with a zealous determination to do what he can to advance the cause of universal progress. "My Father worketh even until now, and I work," said Jesus, and man is encouraged by this conception of God to become a fellow-worker in the great task of evolution. If we wish to appreciate the superior mo-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
251

tive power of such a religion, we have only to compare it with the types of religious belief dominant in the earlier stages of human progress. The God of the natural man, the God of power and of justice, had plans of His own to carry out which did not concern man, except to requie his obedience in certain specific points. Man had also plans of his own to realize, and he had no interest in the purposess of Deity beyond rendering the specified services required to escape punishment and gain reward. Hence no real co-operation between man and God was possible; only a kind or compromise or working agreement in which each made a certain allowance for the interest of the other. Neither has the God of supernaturalism any possible need for assistance from man; He is engaged in no real undertaking. All that He purposes is already completely and finally realized in the perfection of his nature. Such a religion furnishes man with no incentive to spend himself in the work of world betterment. No

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
252

reason exists, in fact, why he should exert himself or show any particular zeal in improving worldly conditions. Every event in universal history is already foreordained, every emergency is provided for, down to the last detail; if evil seems to triumph or failure to threaten the divine plan, the danger is only apparent, and its appearance is due to our human short-sightedness. In such circumstances man is surely justified in turning his attention away from the earthly scene and in losing himself in visions of spiritual perfection. In complete contrast to these views stands the Christian conception which represents God as really working for that ideal of a universal life which the human will yearns to realize. Such belief imparts an added worth to that ideal of complete personal development which man in rare moments of spiritual vision has projected; it stamps the loftiest aim of modern civilization with the seal of divine authority and approval. Moreover, the belief that even God is striving and battling to over-

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
253

come adverse conditions implies the further belief that the unfinished task offers vast opportunities to men of doing real work, of performing real service. Men may expect by their efforts to make real contributions to universal progress, and since personal capacities differ, each individual may hope to accomplish results which no one else could achieve. To each human individual,

therefore, the high privilege is given of becoming a fellow-worker with God, and of accomplishing a work which but for his effort must remain forever undone. Surely no nobler opportunity for service could be offered to man!

Besides kindling in the human heart a zeal to contribute something to universal progress, The Christian conception of God, if believed in with the whole heart, produces in the mind of man a serene confidence in his own personal destiny which enables him to undergo without flinching repeated suffering and painful death, if encountered in the path of duty. Such religious faith re-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
254

vives man's faith in the permanence of his personality, in the indestructibility of the selfhood which he has by the exercise of his own will built up. Belief in personal immortality has been waning in the modern world, owing to man's increasing knowledge of the vastness of the physical universe and the might of its forces in comparison with which his own strength is so slight, his own efforts so feeble, his own life so evanescent, as to appear altogether negligible. This growing disbelief in immortality is one of the most ominous signs of the times; it means that the human will is losing confidence in its own powers. But without confidence in itself human volition is bound to prove entirely unequal to the task which confronts it. Let volition lose faith in its own ability to enlarge still further the scope of personal life and all hope of further progress is gone. The descent to naturalism and even to animalism will be precipitous and final. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, that man preserve unshaken his belief

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
255

in the permanence of personality, in the inconquerable potency of his own rational will. Such a religion as that founded on the Christian revelation of God seems to be the only one that will meet the present need. The immortality which it promises is not one projected into another world nor postponed to a future life. It is a life which the human will achieves in the present world through its efforts and its struggles to convert existing conditions into means of universal good. If the God of the Christian gospels is supremely real, then reality is measurcd not in physical but in moral terms, not according to amount of physical energy but according to degree of moral excellence.

Now the moral excellence to which supreme reality is attributed has its source in the expansive power of personality. This expansive power, identical, of course, with personal will, involves as a necessary feature in its working, suffering and self-sacrifice; for new objects can be sought only at the cost of abandoning old satisfactions,

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
256

new fields of activity can be discovered only by breaking down the barriers which have secured and protected hard-won sources of certain satisfaction. Suppose that God himself is not exempt from the suffering and self-sacrifice essential to personal development; suppose that he, as the guiding spirit in the work of universal progress, makes the greatest sacrifices, suffers the most intense pain. Then the man who endures suffering, who sacrifices his most cherished interests in his efforts to realize the Universal Ideal, does not have his reality lessened or destroyed thereby, even if his suffering diminish the amount of his physical strength or cut short the term of his natural existence. Rather does he increase his personal reality, since his very suffering and sacrifice gain him entrance to the fuller and more comprehensive life lived by God; his very pain and privation admit him into fellowship with God, into permanent union with the Supreme Reality.

The efforts of the human will to extend

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
257

the range of its activity have, as we have seen, been continually frustrated by unfavorable conditions. In this, of course, consists evil--in the conflict of individual interests and of human welfare with the natural order. The result of this maladjustment is that the good of the whole can be attained only by the sacrifice of the parts. For this problem of evil the Christian faith proposes the only possible solution, by maintaining that the good of the parts is in its turn secured by the sacrifice of the whole. In the human individual, then, isolated fragment of reality as he may seem to be, the Universal Will, the principle of supreme reality, is struggling and striving to gain expression.

And in so far as such individual, in obedience to the promptings of the larger will within him, sacrifices his narrower actual interest to the universal good, to just that degree is he claiming his birthright and winning permanent reality. Intelligence and will first appear in organic evolution as functions of the individual organism; their

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
258

office is to aid in adjusting this organism to the conditions of its environment and thus of prolonging its existence. But in man will has so far developed as to turn the tables on nature, and to utilize the living organism as an instrument by which to transform existing conditions, physical and social, so as to enlarge the scope of personal life. Suppose, now, that the will of a human individual succeeds in achieving this service, in thus contributing something to the personal development of humanity.

Such an individual will is no longer the servant of a bodily organism, dependent upon it for very existence and bound to perish when it is dissolved into its elements. It has freed itself from bondage to the flesh; it has claimed its birthright of permanent reality; it has realized its potential universality. It has, in fact, become an expression of the Universal Will, manifesting itself through the multitude of individuals, and is destined to participate in the realization of the universal good.

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
259

Thus we reach our final conception of human progress. We see it as the work of volition, the effort of Universal Will to expand the sphere of its activity by availing itself of all the opportunities for further expression offered by the nature of things.

But actual conditions prove refractory and unyielding. Volition is frequently checked and frustrated in its endeavor to bring them under control;it is confronted by the problem of natural evil. In overcoming these difficulties universal volition gains great advantage by dividing itself into a vast number of individual wills. Each of these individuals is able to concentrate its effort upon the exploitation of that particular one out of the many possibilities of nature with which it is in a position most effectively to deal. The achievements of individuals in the mastery of natural conditions are made permanent possessions of the Universal Will through communication and cooperation. But the individuals frequently prove obstinate and self-centred. They re-

FAITH JUSTIFIED BY PROGRESS
260

fuse to make the results they have gained means to enlarging the scope of others' activity; they prefer a transient independence of action to a permanent participation in the universal achievement. The very conditions of individuation thus constitute another source of evil; the problem of moral evil is added to that of natural. This difficulty can be met only by imparting to individuals added personal power from the Universal Source, in order that the intrinsic universality belonging to all volition may serve to counteract the exclusive tendency of individuality. If this effect is not secured, the result of making individuals more powerful will of necessity be to make them more potent and mischievous in their independence. Thus universal progress is essentially a venture; as an enterprise of will its outcome is uncertain and fraught with possibilities of disaster and failure.

But much ground has already been gained.

Volition is constantly annexing new territory and thus enlarging the theatre of its

THE UNIVERSAL LIFE
261

activity; it is successfully liberating itself from hampering conditions that circumscribe its activity, thus enlarging the scope of the free personal life for which in fulness it yearns. We are justified in hoping, therefore, that the will which is striving in universal evolution will not fail in its endeavor; that universal progress will not come short of its goal. We have found reason to believe, moreover, that the course of progress is not like the passing of a torch onward from one generation to the next, each generation falling into oblivion when its task is done, but rather like a rising tide, a tide of personal life constantly being augmented by the contributions of individuals who, having had a share in its labors, have won a right to participate in the satisfaction of final fulfilment, of complete self-realization.