Whiskey, wines, and intoxicants once had their useful phase in arousing the sluggish brains of our half-civilized ancestors to higher realms of thought and perception. So, what now seem the most absurd superstitions once had their usefulness in deterring men from crime and causing them to lead better lives. The dread of physical punishment hereafter, and the fear of a hell and a devil that never existed, had a salutary effect on countless millions of the past which no moral persuasion or scientific arguments could have reached. But all intoxicants with their blighting curse, and all superstitions with their blinding ignorance have had their day of usefulness and should be relegated to the dark tomb of oblivion. The solemn cathedral, the soft-toned organ, the mellow light from colored windows, the awe and anxious faith, have added soul development and psychic power to human life. The mother who bowed in prayer, the father who assembled his children around the family altar, have added spiritual power to themselves and their posterity for all generations. And it is the honest, home-loving, God-fearing and praying mothers and fathers of the past three centuries that have made the Anglo-Saxon race and the civilization of to-day what it is. The Bible says truly, "to be spiritually minded is life," and to be worldly minded is to lead us back to pagan selfishness, when cruelty was a pastime, and poisoning and assassination were fine arts. This book of God we call man is bound in imperishable atoms that dissolve into-viewless ether, and are tied together with electric bands as pliable as silk and as invisible as thought, and the spirit they enwrap is as strong and enduring as omnipotence. The statement is often made to the prejudice of religion that religion has been the cause of most of the wars and cruelties that have desolated the earth since the commencement of human history. This is unjust and misleading. Until the formation of our government, church and state were united among all nations and politics and religion were blended, and a purely religious war was impossible. As to the miracles of the New Testament, if they were all discredited the immaculate teachings of the gospel would remain. The peculiar glory of Christianity is the regeneration it brings to man, putting him under the law of love; and without miracles we would still have vital, uplifting, heaven-inspiring Christianity.