ON FAITH 97 



hope that confidence in its beneficent reign and the out- 

 come of its inspiring operation will increase with the 

 passage of time until the dawn of that period when 

 humanity must vacate this planet, and find another region 

 in infinite space, where room will be afforded it to pursue 

 its great destiny, freed from the trammels of earth, and 

 assured in the exercise of its more and more glorious 

 attributes ''throughout the endless ages of eternity." 



Hope, here, may be said to ' ' take up the wondrous 

 tale," and "proclaim" that its sustaining and inspiring 

 influence flows from a font of justification, fed by the 

 visible, tangible, and sentient stream of faith trickling 

 from the wide universe of nature, and the records left 

 by all of "light and leading" who have left their records 

 behind and entered on that phase of being, the existence 

 of which is at once the "finding" of science and the 



O 



innermost and most deep-rooted belief of humanity. 

 Hope may be said, therefore, to at once feed upon and 

 to inspire faith, and it will be found, wherever these two 

 great attributes predominate in the nation or the indi- 

 vidual, that there man is to be seen in his fullest develop- 

 ment of the best characteristics of his race, in the enjoyment 

 of the highest blessings of civilisation at its best, con- 

 forming without a murmur to the requirements of his 

 environment, and giving an impetus and impulse to the 

 powers * ' that make for righteousness," which are felt to 

 the remotest corners and confines of the earth. 



Faith, founded on the broad plane of universal know- 

 ledge and truth, inspired by hope emanating from the 

 same sources, aided and strengthened by the universal 

 assent of man, which union will ensure a strength past 

 the power of the prophet to conceive, is surely likely to 

 be a lever by which the race can, and will be, raised to 

 that level on which, at last, the day of true brotherhood 

 of man will dawn and brighten into the full sunshine of 

 universal peace, sympathy, and love, never to be darkened 

 by the gloom of oppression, self-seeking, or unbrotherly 

 action. 



In thus speculatively forecasting the probable outcome 

 of the fraternisation and combined working of all sections 

 of the great army of searchers after the truth and workers 



III G 



