d ever eager in their efforts to explore the
unseen. The history of human thought, if it could be written, would show
that the mind has never been satisfied with what it has possessed, and
that each new glimpse of truth has stimulated still more ardent inquiry.
The more it is pondered the more impressive this fact becomes. The soul
seems to have had just before it, in all the stages of its development,
a spiritual forerunner opening a way into larger and fairer realms. This
consciousness is not akin to a passion for wealth. A man with enormous
riches often ceases to acquire, and devotes himself to the enjoyment of
what he possesses; but who ever heard of a thoughtful man who felt that
he might cease investigating and devote himself to the pleasures of
knowledge? Such instances there may have been, but they are not numerous
and have never been recorded.

Of course there are many, who in no true sense can be called seekers
after truth, who do not trouble themselves with questions about the
Unseen. They chew the cud of custom with all the placidity of
good-natured oxen. They do not live,--they simply exist. It is possible
for any man to shut his eyes to the light, but that does not banish the
light. It envelops him, and pours its splendors around him, regardless
of his wilful blindness. Millions are so engrossed with selfishness, or
animalism, that they catch the accents of no spiritual message, but
those appeals are never hushed. The deafness of the multitudes who will
not hear does not prove that no voices are calling.

In some way men have been kept dissatisfied with their ignorance and
persistent in their search for truth. I make no distinction between
sacred and secular here because all truth is sacred. Scientist and
theologian alike have to do with reality. Whether we examine the tracks
of an extinct animal on ancient rocks, or bow our heads in prayer, we
are facing a real world which is steadily enlarging. For centuries men
have sought the causes of things; they have been made to feel that they
ought to do right, and then have been inspired with a passion to
discover the right. This is very wonderful. The being who has almost
limitless powers of physical enjoyment, whose senses are exquisitely
fitted for pleasure, is not satisfied with pleasure, but, in obedience
to unseen attractions, ever seeks for higher things. Whence does this
eagerness come? Is it from man himself? Then our problem is great
indeed, for, at on