Page:Freeman v6.djvu/19

Rh His thought is always on the future. He wants to play a better game, to improve both his individual skill and his team-play, which he finds inseparable. Thus his life has an absorbing object, and it is a matter of observation that youths put forth enormous effort in pursuit of this object.

Now let this object be broadened from the merely physical to the intellectual and spiritual spheres. Let the youth take upon himself, making it his central aim of life, to improve himself in all respects-physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual-to the utmost of his capacity. Let him become a truly all-round "athlete," and for life.

In short, let the answer to the religious question be simply this: We are here to grow, to develop, to live more worthily day by day, according to our best lights and insofar as our knowledge and ability make this possible.

Assuming that there is behind the universe a Creator with a plan, could it be the Creator's intent that men deteriorate and that human character retrogress? If so, the plan has gone awry. Not only the biological evolution of man but reason itself refutes the suggestion, for what object could even the inscrutable mind of the Creator have in making a being only to have him unmake himself?

On the other hand, could it be the Creator's intent