In seeking after friendship we do not court the beasts of the fields and the fowls of the air as the hermit does, but we seek man; not man, but men; not this little society or faction, but embrace all mankind in the issue.  If we seek for love it is not love for pelf or power, but love for man and God.  In truth we do not depend on the right conduct of individuals, but accept truth as it is written in nature’s open book, emblazoned on the sky of hope that bends over us, and speaks in all the higher attributes of life.  Time was when the inclination of men was to withdraw into clans.  Ishmael stood in the desert by himself with his hand against every man.  His true descendant, the Arabian sheik, draws his mantle about him, and surrounded by his little band withdraws within his own circle, and woe betide him who attempts to break through.  But in this came no advancement, no progress.  The Ishmaelite of old is the same today.  Wherever progress and advancement has shown itself it is found that true regard for all mankind has been the cardinal doctrine.  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Soon a broad catholicity of ideas seizes the multitude and man no more lives for himself than he lives for others.  He who lives closest to the true heart of humanity lives nearest to God.  Show me a man who lives for himself alone, and you will present almost a social outcast.  Society tolerates him no more.  In all the plans and calculations of life he is not numbered.

For two thousand years the command has come stronger and stronger for a closer unity on social lines and fraternal regard.  Not to segregate but to crystalize and raise the status.  The conditions of our social life are such that we can not live entirely to ourselves.  The monk may withdraw himself from the gaze of the world, the anchorite may seek a hiding place in caves and dens, but they ignore entirely the demands of society upon them.  If I were the only person in the world there would be no social problem.  I would commune with myself and God and nature about me, without reference to my surroundings.  There would be no social environment; no one to please, no one to whom I am indebted by nature or acquired obligation, and so I would remain.  But we do not find the conditions to so exist.  We must look squarely in the face the facts as they are.  On all sides we are surrounded by a multitude who rightly make demands of us and which we can not ignore.  If I were alone, I would do as the patriarchs of old did, erect a little altar of stone, rude and unsightly, and bow myself down before it and commune with Deity.  But here we find that different types of men have different religious views, and different spiritual aspirations, and so churches must be erected; and while all tend to the same end, each hopes to reach it by a different route.  I must respect all these views.  Only one can be my view, but my social surroundings are such that all have rights which I am bound to yield some obedience to.