fellowship and good will. The long drawn call of the paper boy had in
it a hint of the joy of living. And the rumble of an occasional
passing cab came like a deep undertone of peace.

The streets were nearly empty. The stores and offices, with closed
doors, were deserted and still. A solitary policeman on the corner
appeared to be meditating, indifferent to his surroundings. The few
pedestrians to be seen moved leisurely and appeared as though in a
mood for reflective thought and quiet interest in the welfare of their
fellows. The hurrying, scrambling, jostling, rushing crowd; the
clanging, crashing, roaring turmoil; the racking madness, the fierce
confusion, the cruel selfishness of the week day world was as a
dreadful dream in the night. In the hard fought battle of life, the
world had called a truce, testifying thus to the place and power of
Religion.

This is not to say that the world professes Religion; but it _is_
to say that Religion possesses the world. In a thousand, thousand,
forms, Religion possesses the world. In thoughts, in deeds, in
words--in song and picture and story--in customs and laws and
industries--in society, state, and school--in all of the Thirteen
Truly Great Things of Life, Religion makes itself manifest and
declares its power over men. If one proclaim himself without Religion
then is its power made known in that one's peculiarity. If Religion
did not possess the world, to scorn it would mark no one as different
from his fellows, And this, too, is true: so imperial is the fact of
Religion, that he who would deny it is forced to believe so firmly in
his disbelief that he accepts the very thing he rejects, disguised in
a dress of his own making, and thus bows down in worship before a God
of his own creation.