SDemocraci? an& "IReligion.

95

occur and some difficult objection remain, themeeting disperses without coming to any con-clusion. For Quakers do not coerce a minorityby means of a majority. Chatterers are privatelywarned, though not without patient love andsympathy for human failings and peculiarities.In many cases minorities do not press theiropinion but submit voluntarily to the majoritywhich in time they hope will be ripe for what theyfeel to be progress.

In this way the Quakers try to pave the wayfor the better Democracy of the future which shallproduce " collective wisdom " and embody it ina strong and enlightened public opinion. At thesame time they try to prepare the way for a newsocial order where by the conception of service menand women shall be free and equal members of thenation, where the nation shall be an organisedworking community and where the nations shall befree and equal members of an organised mankind.

Life is what we make it. The age becomeswhat it believes. It becomes chaos when itbelieves in the self seeking and rottenness of menand thus lets loose the war of all against all. Itbecomes cosmos if it believes in the powers offreedom and fellowship and calls men to theservice of the whole. This seems to be Utopianwhen seen in the large, but it is very practicalin the narrow circles of daily life, of friends, family,and colleagues. Let us build up such circles ofpeace, joy and goodwill from which the spirit ofGod may radiate into the peaceless and battlingworld. The kingdom of God is coming, it even