I hope that these short essays may help in some slight way to indicate that the ancient realities by which men live still abide, and that the invisible energies of the spirit are real, as they have always been real. We have had an impressive demonstration that a civilization built on external force and measured in terms of economic achievements cannot stand its ground and is unable to speak to the condition of persons endowed and equipped as we are. We are bound to build a higher civilization, to create a greater culture, and to form a truer kingdom of life or we must write “_Mene_” on all human undertakings. That is our task now, and it is a serious one for which we shall need all the energies that the universe puts at our disposal. I am told that when the great Hellgate bridge was being built over the East River in New York the engineers came upon an old derelict ship, lying embedded in the river mud, just where one of the central piers of the bridge was to go down through to its bedrock foundation. No tug boat could be found that was able to start the derelict from its ancient bed in the ooze. It would not move, no matter what force was applied. Finally, with a sudden inspiration one of the workers hit upon this scheme. He took a large flat-boat, which had been used to bring stone down the river, and he chained it to the old sunken ship when the tide was low. Then he waited for the great tidal energies to do their work. Slowly the rising tide, with all the forces of the ocean behind it and the moon above it, came up under the flat-boat, raising it inch by inch. And as it came up, lifted by irresistible power, the derelict came up with it, until it was entirely out of the mud that had held it. Then the boat, with its subterranean load, was towed out to sea where the old waterlogged ship was unchained and allowed to drop forever out of sight and reach. There are greater forces than those tidal energies waiting for us to use for our tasks. They have always been there. They are there now. But they do not _work_, they do not _operate_, until we lay hold of them and use them for our present purposes. We must be _co-workers with God_. Haverford, Pennsylvania. Mid Winter, 1922. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION: RELIGION AS ENERGY vii CHAPTER I THE CENTRAL PEACE I. PEACE THAT PASSES UNDERSTANDING 1 II. THE SEARCH FOR A REFUGE 5 III. WHAT WE WANT MOST 10 CHAPTER II THE GREAT ENERGIES THAT WORK I. TRYING THE BETTER WAY 15 II. HE CAME TO HIMSELF 23 III. SOME NEW REASONS FOR “LOVING ENEMIES” 29 CHAPTER III THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US I. WHERE THE BEYOND BREAKS THROUGH 35