Speaker 1: The seekers the secret of life, the riddle of existence.
Sought now as ever, the wieness of things attempts to
answer the riddle. The seekers fantastic creeds and queer philosophies,
revamping old ideas, the story of the man and the stars,
the answer to be found within the soul. I laugh
at the lore and the pride of man, at the
softest schools and the learned clan, For what are they
all in their high conceit? When man in the bush
with God may meet Emerson. Man is trying to reason out,
now as in the past, the secret of life, the
riddle of existence. He seeks to know from whence he comes,
whither he goes, and what is the object of his existence.
He wants to know the whyness of things, what it
all means. He is like the squirrel in the cage,
which exhausts itself in traveling the long road of the wheel,
only to find itself at the end of its journey
just where it started, or worse still, like the newly
caged wild bird. He dashes against the bars of his
prison again and again in his efforts to regain his freedom,
until at last he lies weak and bleeding A captive.
Still it has ever been so. From the childhood of
the race until the present time. Sages, seers, prophets, and
philosophers have endeavored to reason out the problem, but their
labors have availed nothing, and the riddle remains unanswered. Man
has traveled over and over the circular road of thought,
only to discover that it has no beginning, no ending.
He thinks that he has explained things, but he has
merely given them names. All the scientific research, all the
theological and metaphysical speculation, has failed even to explain the
sprouting of the mustard seed. Life and death is a
mystery to the most brilliant man of this civilization, as
it was to the ignorant creature of the Stone Age races. Nations,
civilizations rise and fall, creeds are born, grow strong, weaken
and die, but the secret remains a secret. Still. The
present day seems to have reawakened the latent desire of
man to see behind the veil. The pendulum which carried
so many thinkers to the materialistic extreme, is beginning to
swing in the opposite direction, and is causing a strange
and wonderful revival of ancient creeds and philosophies. Those who
have long since turned their backs upon the accepted creeds
now find themselves in the company of those who still
claim allegiance to the church, but who feel themselves cramped
by the creeds fashioned for them by their fathers. The
leader of the new thought, reaching the top of the
mountain often finds himself face to face with a scientific
savant who has reached the same place by climbing up
the other side of the hill. And the scientist and
the new thought man need not be surprised to find
a leader of advanced religious thought claiming a foothold on
the top of the same hill. But the trio, after
they have congratulated themselves upon reaching the summit and ending
their journey, look around them, and lo, their mountain is
but a foothill, and far above them, towering higher and
higher rise range after range of the real mountains, the
highest peaks being hidden among the clouds. One has but
to look around him to see how strenuous has grown
the search for the answer to the riddle. New creeds, philosophies, cults,
and schools confront us at every turn. The past has
been ransacked for its discarded philosophies which have been renovated
and trimmed anew for modern use. The dust has been
brushed off many and old and almost forgotten creed, which
is pushed to the front under a new name and
with new trimmings. Plato is worked over time to furnish
the twentieth century creed. Promoters with material to be done over.
The wildest dreams of the ancients are toned down a
little and boldly offered to the eager multitude as the
long sought for solution of it. All priests and teachers
of all the religions of all lands are among us,
vying with the priests and priestesses of the new philosophies
and creeds of our own land, and bidding for public favor.
And these new home made philosophies, how frightfully and one
are they made. The old philosophies of Greece and Rome
are skillfully dovetailed with the creeds of the Orient, and
the result is a thing differing from anything ever seen
before by gods or men. Brahmins, Buddhists, Confucians, Mohammedans, and
Sun worshipers claim thousands of followers in our land, and
isis and Osiris will before long again be given a
place and duly installed in the new pantheon. Thor and
Odin will doubtless be revamped, and the rites of the
Druids revived. We are looking every day for the arrival
on our shores of the advance agent of the joss
propaganda from the celestial Kingdom, and the home product is,
if possible, more fantastic and bizarre than the imported article.
The wildest claims and statements are made with an air
of authority, and are accepted as gospel by the adherents
of the several second One does not know whether to
sigh or weep as he watches some of the modern
prophets and prophetesses strutting their little stage and cutting fantastic
capers before high Heaven, thus adding to the gaiety of
the nations. The demand for these things has been created,
and nothing seems too highly spiced for the devotees of
the latter day creeds and the followers of those strange prophets.
What of them? Many of them are mere excitement hunters,
Others that class of people possessed of a consuming thirst
for something new. Some are honest seekers for the truth,
and others are those who have cut away from their
old moorings and are drifting about rudderless and without an anchor,
at the mercy of any stray current which may sweep
them along. There are thousands of people who never heard
of the philosophies and creeds of the ancients, who are
now dazzled by the revamp doctrines expounded by the modern prophets,
and who, being impressed with the strangeness and novelty of
the to them new truths, accept them as inspired and
emanating from the absolute. New gods have arisen, and also
new devils. The malicious mental magnetism of the Christian scientists
is as much a devil to them as was the
Orthodox devil of one hundred years ago to our forefathers.
The new cults usually begin by performing cures by means
of the power of the mind and other natural laws,
which they attribute to the principles and teachings of their
particular sex. Many of them, now, however, frankly admit that
they are past the healing stage, and look down upon
the mere healing of disease as a thing too nearly
allied to the detested material plane to be seriously considered.
The time of the leaders is now principally occupied in
announcing and elucidating wonderful, high spiritual truths for the seekers
soaring away up in the clouds of transcendentalism, leaving their
followers behind, gaping upwards like a crowd at a country
balloon ascension. Once upon a time there was a reformer
who attended a public meeting and took part in an
exciting debate on an important question of the day. At last, heated,
wearied and disgusted by the fruitless struggle, he left the
hall and started for home. It was a beautiful, cold
winter's night, and the heavens were studded with stars shining
bright through the clear, frosty atmosphere. Pausing for a moment
in his rapid walk, he glanced upward. The stars were
twinkling away merrily. They did not seem to be at
all disturbed by what had been going on in the meeting.
They appeared just the same as when in years past,
as a boy he had looked at them with wondering eyes.
As he gazed, a peaceful calm came over him, and
his worry, doubts, and fears seemed very petty. At last,
one little star appeared to notice him, and he thought
he could see it, cast a good natured glance downward,
saying in a cheerful voice, why so hot, little man?
When we feel cast down with doubt, torn with anxiety,
weak from loss of faith, faint with fear, let us
look aloft at the stars when we see those distant
points of light, knowing them to be centers of solar systems,
knowing that beyond, beyond and beyond are countless other suns
and world. Let us pluck up a little courage and
realize that we a are a part of a mighty law,
a stupendous plan. Let us know that the power which
called these things into life, and which is able to
manage them and even greater things, has us in charge
and will not allow us to be destroyed. Let us
know that we are but in the kindergarten stage of existence,
and that we shall go on and on and on
from plain to plaine, ever onward and upward in the scale,
until at last we shall be able to spell out
the lines of the primmer of life and learn the
multiplication table of the universe. Let Us, in the meanwhile,
live on in trust and hope. One day at a time,
living our own lives, doing our best work, getting the
joy which comes from the simple human life, lending a
helping hand. Let us abolish fear and hate and replace
them with courage, confidence, and love. Let us look for
good rather than evil. Let us know failure as merely
a lesson in success. Let us look upon death as birth.
Let us do the best we can with this world,
knowing that the next world will find us prepared for
its task. Let us know that we are in eternity
right now. Let us know that God is not so
far away as we have been taught. For is it
not true that in Him we live and move and
have our being. Let us preserve our sense of humor,
for it will guard us against many a fear, many
a folly, many a delusion. And finally, let us keep
out of the throng which is rushing wildly hither and
thither after leaders, prophets, sages, seers. Let us look within
our self bells, and see the little flame which burns
steadily there. Let us know that we have within us
the light of the spirit, which naught can extinguish. And
let us say, with good old Newman. Lead kindly light
amid the encircling gloom. Lead thou me on. The night
is dark and I am far from home. Lead thou
me on, keep thou my feet. I do not ask
to see the distant scene. One step enough for me.
Lead thou me on.