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Democracy and religion : a study in Quakerism / by G. von Schulze-Gaevernitz
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Swartbmore Xecture.

" original sin. " For him life is not a chain ofcontinuous defeats, but a purposeful advance.Efforts to progress are not fruitless, even thoughthe final goal may only be reached in anotherworld. " He who strives on without ceasing,him we can save."

Three spheres are set before man to conquerand to set in order : his own soul, his own body,his social environment. The social environmentoffers us tough resistance. The despair of despairmight creep over us in face of the social sin whichentangles us all, from which none escapes whohandles money. " Pecunia olet " one might sayreversing a well known proverb. We do notknow, but we guess at the sweat and blood thatclings to the money which we accept and spend.Has it passed in its course through banks orbrothels ? Has it through pressure of taxationsevered natives from their ancestral soil or as wartribute enslaved generations who were unbornwhen the war broke out ? In face of the so-calledpeace treaties upon which the order of present-dayEurope rests, in face of nationalism, which pilesup the customs barriers and armaments, in face ofmammonism and class-war, of unbelief andprofiteering, as the moving forces of this age, weconfess only too easily our impotence, and fallinto useless accusations.

We have started at the wrong end. There isone sphere, which with God 's help stands com-pletely within our power, our own soulandthrough a changed attitude in our soul oar ownbody, the " self " of the psycho-physical world.