is due to reason and how much is due to passion or to selfish interest.  Passion can dethrone the reason—­we recognize this in our criminal laws.  We also recognize the bias of self-interest when we exclude from the jury every man, no matter how reasonable or upright he may be, who has a pecuniary interest in the result of the trial.  And, fourth, one whose morality rests upon a nice calculation of benefits to be secured spends time figuring that he should spend in action.  Those who keep a book account of their good deeds seldom do enough good to justify keeping books.  A noble life cannot be built upon an arithmetic; it must be rather like the spring that pours forth constantly of that which refreshes and invigorates.

Morality is the power of endurance in man; and a religion which teaches personal responsibility to God gives strength to morality.  There is a powerful restraining influence in the belief that an all-seeing eye scrutinizes every thought and word and act of the individual.

There is wide difference between the man who is trying to conform his life to a standard of morality about him and the man who seeks to make his life approximate to a divine standard.  The former attempts to live up to the standard, if it is above him, and down to it, if it is below him—­and if he is doing right only when others are looking he is sure to find a time when he thinks he is unobserved, and then he takes a vacation and falls.  One needs the inner strength which comes with the conscious presence of a personal God.  If those who are thus fortified sometimes yield to temptation, how helpless and hopeless must those be who rely upon their own strength alone!

There are difficulties to be encountered in religion, but there are difficulties to be encountered everywhere.  If Christians sometimes have doubts and fears, unbelievers have more doubts and greater fears.  I passed through a period of skepticism when I was in college and I have been glad ever since that I became a member of the church before I left home for college, for it helped me during those trying days.  And the college days cover the dangerous period in the young man’s life; he is just coming into possession of his powers, and feels stronger than he ever feels afterward—­and he thinks he knows more than he ever does know.

It was at this period that I became confused by the different theories of creation.  But I examined these theories and found that they all assumed something to begin with.  You can test this for yourselves.  The nebular hypothesis, for instance, assumes that matter and force existed—­matter in particles infinitely fine and each particle separated from every other particle by space infinitely great.  Beginning with this assumption, force working on matter—­according to this hypothesis—­created a universe.  Well, I have a right to assume, and I prefer to assume, a Designer back of the design—­a Creator back of the creation; and no matter how long you draw