TOMP /■:'/' IT i(K\ OF Till': rhwrrnfES" 



301 



piTssion aud syinptuni. With all our inter- 

 minable analyses, refined to the intense cir- 

 cumscription of microscopic areas, we fail 

 to put the noodle point of our objective upon 

 the ox(|uisite pulse of Ufi' itself. . . . 



Wo cannot certainly say what is nuittor, 

 or what is onory:y; and when we turn to 

 th(> batllinir 2)rol)lom of the conversion of 

 atomic motion into mind, we fiiul the Ari- 

 adne thread of research suddenly cut short. 



But leaving scientific or philosophical enig 

 mas aside, and looking at this great worM 

 as human beings endowed with supernatural 

 ambitions, how clear, or luminously full of 

 purpose does it seem. See this phantasma- 

 goric earth, its wars, its fan\ines, its pesti- 

 lences, and its bewildering obstructions! 

 Read its history, the unintormittont strugi^le, 

 the sacrifice of the individual, the under- 

 lying untold tragedies of millions of work- 

 ers, the subterfuges of vanity, the deceits of 

 greed, the mockery of pretension, the hurly- 

 burly of doing and undoing, of everlast- 

 ingly getting there and never getting there. 

 It may be one increasing purpose runs with 

 the process of the suns, but is its vindication 

 very clear, or is it at all merciful? 



Now is it possible that the twentieth cen- 

 tury will supersede all competition by bring- 

 ing revelation to fix and justify knowledge? 

 Can it be imagined that a voice, a touch, a 

 presence, outside of human effort, or study, 

 or sentiment, will illuminate it with a trans- 

 figuring message, shall insert the rectifying 

 key into the run-down machinery of our 

 common faith and bring to some proper 

 plane of realization the present helplessness 

 of our songs and our psalms? 



Let us be honest. The reading over of 

 impossible statistics does not constitute the 

 highest form of elation. The building up 

 of more and more unwieldy encyclopedias is 

 all right, but if there is no confirming and 

 conforming progress in the social fabric, . . . 

 they are all wrong. I do not wish to par- 

 ticularize. I would not dare to lift a sig- 



iiilicMiit tinker at the p!()l)loins you are ham- 

 mering at today here in New York. We all 

 know the woild niDM's; that sanitation and 

 cheap riotliing and department stores have 

 alle\iated the domestic burden and covered 

 the nakediu>ss of man. . . . 



But, my friends, the spiritual sense of man 

 is dying. Will the twentieth century light 

 again its consuming fires? It is not neces- 

 sary to ask for fanaticism. How often we 

 pinch (lurselves to find out whether we be- 

 lieve in aiiytliiiig at all. 



Hut our spiiitual sense will not endure a 

 prolonged famine. Behind a sentiment there 

 nuist 1)0 the overmastering touch of reality. 

 Lot me speak boldly, even at this convivial 

 feast. The message of Christ needs today 

 re-enforcement, re-establishment, re-inearna- 

 tion ! Will the twentieth century bring it? 

 Let us hail it in that hope; let us trust in it 

 with that faith, and watch with expectant 

 eyes for the light that never was on sea or 

 shore, and listen with straining ears for the 

 voice that shall revive the souls of men. 



May it not be that at the end of the twen- 

 tieth century our desolate humanity, pros- 

 trate upon the ruined throne of its high 

 hopes, prostrate upon a grave of buried as- 

 pirations, prostrate upon the broken staff 

 of an alluring but deceptive faith, shall lift 

 its tear-stricken eyes into that unriven sky, 

 that pitiless and voiceless azure, that can- 

 opy of stars, in whose obscure depths not 

 even the plummet of the inerrant telescope 

 has ever yet found the vanishing threshold 

 of any Heaven, and cry out, Eli, Eli, 

 lam a sa h acht ha n i ? 



No! No! Rather may it be that celestial 

 voices shall re-awaken the orphic vision of 

 man 's supersensual destiny, and with new 

 promises, and new premonitions, quicken the 

 recognition of the divinity within him, and 

 outside of creed or dogma, or book, or bell, 

 or candle, bring upon the earth the apoca- 

 lyptic glory of peace and righteousness and 

 life! 



