The modern world rushes on with its work and pleasure, with its mere existence. Where is the time in all this tension for inner stillness? It suffers from spiritual malnutrition: and it is living only half a life. But an equally bad result of this is the spread of mental sickness, which is filling hospitals and institutions with patients and creating intractable social problems. A beginning must be made with providing quiet places where a change of atmosphere can be had, where the world can be let go for a few minutes, where a person can meditate on higher concerns. Churches ought, of course, be the first to offer such retreats, but other places, non-denominational in character, will still be needed.
