In my experience, judging from the men I have met in life and the men whose lives I have read about, the really strong men of the world have been men of strong belief—and mostly men with a strong belief in a personal God.

Faith is a very wonderful thing, call it what you please. There is in Faith an enormous dynamic energy the origin of which, analyse it as much as I will, leaves me utterly baffled and bewildered.

One might say that it is an orientation of the mind, a pointing of all the thoughts in one definite direction by which the mind, as a machine, gains harmony which is expressed in power of action, and I believe the co-ordination of the functions of the mind under a common governing belief does, in part, explain the miraculous power conferred on men by Faith.

Also one might say that the mind capable of great faith is essentially a positive mind, a direct mind, and a constructive mind.

Also one might say a great many things, and yet leave the foundation of the question as deeply involved in darkness as ever, and the mind of a Newman, a Gladstone, or a Cromwell the same towering mystery.

But the fact remains clear that the man without belief in something above and beyond this world, or in something in this world, some tide, or core, or essence of which his own little life is a part, loses the alliance of that power which we indicate in the word Faith.

There is no doubt at all that the western world has lost power, and that England is losing power daily by the steady loss of Faith.

The crude, hard faith in a personal God which is vanishing from among us is a dynamic force that is passing away, and it is being replaced by what?

It is being replaced by a good many excellent things: by an increase of tolerance and sympathy; an increased consideration for the oppressed, and a re-valuation of all the considerations that come under the title Justice; but all these and many more good things that have sprung to growth in the universal mind leave the individual mind still lacking Faith.

Darwinism it was that struck the first real blow at a personal God, and men, in their minds at least, have nearly extinguished the chemical hell.

And Darwinism, destroying the old rigid, childlike faith, handed the world not Atheism, but a new Faith, which the world never seems to have grasped.

The Faith in a world ever progressing toward the good.

Once you have grasped the great truth that your life is a part of this miracle of growth, as long as you conform as far as in you lies to the growth of good in yourself, you will have a Faith that will fill you with new force.

And it is a faith that no one can refuse, for its teaching is written across the rocks and the stars, and so plainly that a child can read it, once it is pointed out to him.