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Speaker 1: Light on life's changes. The tendency of things to advance

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from a lower to a higher level, and from high

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to higher still is universal. The worlds exist in order

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that beings may experience, and by experiencing, acquire knowledge and

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increase in wisdom. Evolution is only another name for progress.

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It signifies perpetual change, but a purposeful change, a change

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accompanied by growth. Evolution does not mean the creation of

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a new being from a being of a different order.

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It means the modification of things by experience and change,

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and such modification is progress. The fact of change is

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ever before us. Nothing can escape it. Plants, animals, and

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human beings germinate, reach maturity and pass into decay. Even

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the lordly suns in their attendant worlds rolling through illimitable space,

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although their life is reckoned in millions of years, at

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last decay and perish, after having passed through innumerable changes.

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We cannot say of any being or object this will

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remain forever as it is, for even while we are

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saying it, the being or object would be undergoing change.

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Sadness and suffering accompany this change, and beings mourn for

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that which has departed, for the things which are lost.

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And gone. Yet in reality, change is good, for it

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is the open door to all achievement, advancement, and perfection.

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Mind as well as matter, is subject to the same change.

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Every experience, every thought, every deed changes a person. There

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is little resemblance between the elderly and their period of

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childhood and youth, and eternally fixed, unchangeable being is not known.

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Such a being may be assumed, but it is a

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postulate on all it is not within the range of

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human observation and knowledge. A being not subject to change

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would be a being outside progress. There is a teaching

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which declares that man has a spiritual soul that is

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eternally pure, eternally unchanged, eternally perfect, and that sinning, suffering,

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changing man as we see him is an illusion. That indeed,

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the spiritual soul is the man, and the other is

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on reality. There is another teaching that affirms that man

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is eternally imperfect, that stainless purity can never be reached,

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and that perfection is an impossibility, an illusion. It will

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be found that these two extremes have no relation to

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human experience. They are both of the nature of speculative metaphysics,

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which stands in opposition to the facts of life, so

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much so that the adherents of these two extremes deny

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the existence of the commonest, everyday facts of human anas experience.

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That which is assumed is regarded as real. The facts

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of life are declared to be unreal. It is well

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to avoid both these extremes and find the middle way

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of human experience. It is well to avoid opinions and

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speculation of our own or others. It is well to

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refer to the facts of life. We see that man

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passes through birth and growth and old age, that he

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experiences sin, sickness, and death, that he sorrows and suffers,

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aspires and rejoices, and that he is ever looking forward

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to greater purity and striving toward perfection. These are not opinions, speculations,

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or metaphysics. They are universal facts. If man were already perfect,

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there would be no need for him to be perfected,

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and all moral teaching would be useless and ridiculous. Moreover,

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a perfect being could not be subject to illusion and unreality.

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On the other hand, if a man could never attain

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to purity and perfection, his aspirations in striving would be useless.

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They would indeed be mockeries, and the heavenly perfection of

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saintly and divine men and women would have to be

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belittled and denied. We see around us sins, sorrow, and suffering,

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and we see before us, in the lives of the

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great teachers, the sinless, sorrowless divine state. Therefore we know

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that man is an imperfect being, yet capable of and

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destined for perfection, the divine state toward which he aspires.

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He will reach. The fact that he so ardently desires

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it means that he can reach it, even if the

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fact were not demonstrated in those great ones who have

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already attained. Man is not a compound of two beings,

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one real and perfect, the other unreal and imperfect. He

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is one and real, and his experiences are real. His

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imperfection is apparent, and his advancement and progress are also apparent.

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The realities of life claim men in spite of their metaphysics,

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and all come under the same law of change in progress.

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He who affirms the eternal sinlessness and perfection of man

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should not to be logical and consistent ever speak of

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sins and faults of disease and death. Yet he refers

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to these things as matters to be dealt with. Thus,

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in theory he denies the existence of that which he

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habitually recognizes. In practice, he also who denies the possibility

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of perfection, should not aspire or strive. Yet we find

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him practicing self denial and striving ceaselessly toward perfection. Holding

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to the theoretical does not absolve one from the inevitable.

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The teacher of the unreality of sickness, old, age, and

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death is at last caught in the toils of disease,

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succumbs to age, and disappears in death. Change is not

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only inevitable, it is the constant and unvarying law. Without it,

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everything would remain forever as it is, and they would

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be neither growth nor progress. The strenuous struggle of all

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life is a prophecy of his perfection. The looking upward

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of all beings is evidence of their ceaseless ascension. Aspirations, ideals,

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moral aims, while they denote man's imperfection, assuredly point to

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his future perfection. They are neither unnecessary nor aimless, but

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are woven into the fabric of things. They belong to

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the vital essence of the universe. Whatsoever a man believes

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or disbelieves, what theories he holds or does not hold,

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one thing is certain. He is found in the stream

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of life and must think and act. To think and

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act is to experience, and to experience is to change

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and develop. That man is conscious of sin means that

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he can become pure. That he abhors evil signifies that

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he can reach up to good. That he is a

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pilgrim in the land of error assures us without doubt

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that he will at last come to the beautiful city

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of truth.