174 EIGHT EEV. THE BISHOP OF DOWN, D.J)., ON 



from time to time, there comes an epoch when the need of the 

 spiritual awakens m the human heart. Such is every great 

 revival of religion. And is it not possible that the more 

 complete man's victory over the forces of nature proves to be 

 and the more he finds it possible to satisfy his material 

 cravings, the more decisive will be his disappointment and 

 his reaction towards the spiritual when that disappointment 

 awakens his spiritual faculties ? 



The present materializing of human life with the carelessness 

 of religion which it has brought ought not then to sink us in 

 despair. AYe believe in God : we believe in the human soul : 

 we believe that the soul of man cannot be permanently satisfied 

 with material things. " 0 God, thou hast made us for Thy- 

 self and our souls can have no rest until they find their rest 

 in Thee." There has never been an age when the truth 

 expressed by those words has remained without witness. Is it 

 not true that the questionings of the present day, the eager 

 striving after everything novel and exciting connected with the 

 borderland of our experience, the interest in the theosophies of 

 the East and the pseudo-philosophies of the West, indicate a 

 deep dissatisfaction of the soul with the material joys of the 

 modern world ? They express in their own imperfect way the 

 cry of the soul after God : " 0 that I knew where I might find 

 Him, that I might come even to His seat." They are the 

 groping of man in his blindness for that which all the wdrile is 

 near him, though he knows it not : " Behold I go forward, but 

 he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him : on 

 the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him, 

 he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see lum." 



In considering the unbelief of the more thoughtful minds of 

 our day we saw that there has already taken place a re- 

 discovery of the human soul. May it not be that this is the 

 beginning of a great spiritual awakening which will affect the 

 great unthinking masses as well as the more select soids ? 



The re-discovery of the human soul must mean also the re- 

 discovery of God. Practically the two go together. When 

 man knows himself as a spirit, he cannot recognize any cause 

 of an inferior kind as the source of the universal order. And 

 here we come to the last great difficulty of belief which 

 demands our consideration. If the order of the universe is 

 the manifestation of supreme and beneficent intelligence and 

 will, how is it that nature and human life are so full of pain 

 and suffering in various forms ? What about the awful 

 tragedies and disasters which overwhelm men — even good and 



