SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY SUSTAIN RELIGION 187 



beam awoke it to consciousness and life. At last 

 it reached the crevice whence came the light, and, 

 lifting itself as a prisoner escaping from death, it 

 springs forth into the sunshine and opens its blos- 

 soms of beauty and perfume to greet and gladden 

 the world of light and life. 



Thus has humanity struggled for light, and toiled 

 for hope and joy and sunshine through a thousand 

 ages of gloom and chilling mildew of ignorance and 

 darkness. And wherever a gleam of light and truth 

 has pierced the shadows of life's struggles and trage- 

 dies, like the tiniest seed or fragile vine, the aspi- 

 rations of his nature and his longing soul have 

 reached up toward it. 



What the ray of light is to the flower seed in the 

 dungeon, religion is to man. Wherever man has 

 crept, like the vine, in the darkness, towards the 

 light it was his religious spiritual nature and 

 aspirations which led him. Truth, which comes 

 from the bosom of the eternal Good, streams down 

 into the darkness and lifts man's soul up into the 

 light by the same law that the flower and the vine 

 seek the sunshine, and all true science and philoso- 

 phy sustain the religious concept. 



Life seems of little value when men of every na- 

 tion are armed to the teeth to slay each other like 

 madmen, as the best way in which they can show 

 their gratitude to nature for the useless gift of life. 

 But they are not so anxious for war and bloodshed 

 as their preparations would indicate. And the 

 World's Peace Conference at The Hague, and recent 

 arbitration of national questions, mark a new era 

 in the world's history, and indicate a disarmament 

 of the nations in a few decades, The fear of death 



