The Common Faith of Common Men (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 Excerpt: ...Twenty Christian centuries have corrected the Christian perspective and now we see that this ideal is no mere mirage of a spiritual fellowship in a future life, but is an ideal which is to be achieved in this world as soon as the response of the hearts of men to it shall become sincere and earnest and universal. All service rendered in behalf of this ideal is Christian service. It were a shame for us to give the name Christian to those misdirected efforts of the medieval world to extend the formal dominion of so-called Christian kingdoms by the weapon of the sword, and to refuse the name Christian to the service of modern statesmanship which seeks by the weapons of the spirit, by right reason and the persuasions of justice and mercy and truth, to extend the real dominion of the Christian ideal until it shall include the modern peoples of the world. The third idea that is characteristic of the political life of our generation is the idea of the conservation of the individual life. Through manifold voluntary associations, in the organization of municipal government, in the legislation and administration of states, and in the policies of the nation, this idea has been increasingly prevalent and is coming to be increasingly dom inant. There is a new sense in the world of our time of the worth of the individual, of the preciousness of the treasure of his life. Attention is being directed to the rate of infant mortality, to the prevalence of contagious or industrial or occupational disease, to the sanitation of homes and streets and cities and districts, to the conditions of the common life which lower human efficiency, of mind or heart or will, to the possibilities of those conditions and environments which will heighten efficiency by giving chance for bodily he...