PREFACE O lengthy preface is required for this volume. N° The four lectures are printed exactly as they were delivered, at Tufts College, Massachusetts, in May, 1915. They aim to deal candidly, searchingly and constructively with some of the ultimate problems of human life. The two "other essays" are added because the matters of which they treat are of pressing importance. The purification of Christianity through the elimination of its historic accretions of error is not more than half accomplished yet. The process must be carried much nearer completion before this exalted religion can achieve its rightful and powerful leadership of the modern world. In proportion as this cleansing, rectifying work goes on, Christianity will become more and more the effectual spiritual ally of the great democratic movement, which alone in these dark days appears to hold out the promise of preserving the priceless principle of liberty in the momentous developments impending among the nations. Together a purified Christianity and a spiritualized Democracy will establish the reign of love and freedom, alike in the individual heart and in all social relationships, and thus bring in the era of permanent peace and universal prosperity for which the weary race has waited too long. 68 Mendon Road, Cumberland Hill, R. I., WILLARD C. SELLECK. |