LECTURE V
THE LIFE INVISIBLE
It is interesting to note two contrary tendencies
in the current appraisal of spiritual
values in America. On the one hand there
is what has been called, not altogether happily,
the tendency of ethical materialism. In its best
form it is simply a demand for reality, the renewal
of the old words, "By their fruits ye
shall know them." "Show me thy faith by thy
works." In its less worthy forms it is the effort
to eliminate spiritual expression and formal religion
from areas of life where these have been
most familiar. Illustrations in extreme forms
abound.
We are told now that in charity love has nothing to do with the matter, that the introduction of religious sentiment is only mischievous and misleading, that the issue is one purely of proper economic principle and organization. It is a question of employment for the unemployed, or of calculating accurately the amount of need, counting the hungry mouths and fixing the quantity of bread, and then determining scientifically how much of the bread the hungry should earn, and how much society through
