CHAPTER XX 



GETTING ACQUAINTED 



In whatever direction we turn, we are con- 

 fronted with certain visible or invisible barriers 

 that have to be surmounted before any progress 

 can be made. Indeed we are strangers and pil- 

 grims here and will so remain unless we become 

 acquainted with our environment and make friends 

 with other forms of life. In the oldest Poem in 

 the language is this imperative command: "Ac- 

 quaint now thyself with Him and be at peace; 

 thereby good shall come unto thee." The thought 

 is self-evident. Immediate acquaintance, imme- 

 diate peace, and both followed by unqualified good. 

 Taking the old commandment to pieces, in an- 

 other way it may be justly inferred that acquaint- 

 ance has been procrastinated and there has been 

 no realization that there is a benediction of peace 

 following knowledge. The ancients located truth 

 at the bottom of a well and we are just learning 

 that good flows only in certain fixed channels, 

 knowledge finds the channels. 



Knowledge is that quality that enables us to 

 246 



