The author is an optimist, and contends that the present age is one of faith, rather than doubt. He holds that the questioning of today arises from an underlying faith in religious truths that may indeed question existing doctrinal statements and demand their more liberal formulation, but believes as firmly as ever in the fundamental principles of religion. The work is really a practical interpretation of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Most interesting are the chapters on "The Basis of Optimism," "Brotherhood," "Punishment or Discipline," "The Immortal Life" and "The Teacher for all Ages." The tone of the book is clear, reasonable and hopeful; it deals fairly and wisely with an important group of ever-pressing religious and social problems and is written in a most agreeable style. The author says in the preface, "This is an age of faith. This book is an effort to state some of the truths which most need emphasis in such an age. The days of authority are gone. No one any longer believes anything simply because it was formerly believed. Is it reasonable? Even revelation is brought to this test. The truth for an age of faith above all things must be reasonable. Whatever contradicts reason and the moral sense cannot be of God. Whatever harmonizes with reason and the moral sense, presumptively is true. Among the subjects which need emphasis in a time of enquiry, moral earnestness and eagerness to believe whatever is approved by the intelligence and conscience, I venture to give a prominent place to the following: 'The Personality of God,' 'The Fatherhood of God,' and the fact that all theories about God, man, and the universe should be interpreted in the light of the Fatherhood."
–The Hamilton Review, Vol. 13 [1899]
