Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/384

 366 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

true and growing and permanent expression is the struggle to realize equality of opportunity for all and the complete unification of the interests of all. Evidently this spirit could not have a large growth among men until social de velopment had reached a stage which accustomed men to regard the conditions of life as largely determined by man.

The aspiring ambition of the lowly is answered in the modern world by an equally significant change of attitude on the part of those more fortunately situated. The social- democratic spirit has strangely infected &quot; the upper classes.&quot; Men and women of those classes feel that the real meaning of life is to be found in this struggle to equalize human op portunities and unify human interests to build about men an environment which will assure to all the fundamental con ditions of a truly human existence and stimulate every one to realize in the service of all the best and highest of which he is capable. This conception of the true mission of the fortunately situated could not have become so dominant until after men had come to realize that the environment in which they lived was in its most significant factors man- made. But neither could the social spirit have attained the proportions of a popular enthusiasm, influencing all classes, if the souls of men had not been touched by Christian in spiration. This spirit exactly answers the genius of Chris tianity; and neither can attain a triumph without a triumph of the other. It is a great task of the pulpit to inculcate those principles which, while emphasizing the right to free individual self-expression, point men to service as the true road to self-realization.

(8) If we ask more specifically as to the influence of all these conditions upon the idea of God, we shall find that conception undergoing modification in two general direc tions.

First, as to the idea of God in the minds of those whose mental attitudes have been profoundly influenced by science, as well as by the humanly controlled environment. They form a comparatively small group, to be sure; but even in

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