Article February 26, 1903 Issue

The Possibilities of Life

E. G. Spencer with contributions from W. C. Gannett

Christian Register

The possibilities of life are inestimable just because life never has been and never can be accurately gauged. One knows little more of what is within himself than of what is within his fellows. Both the strength and the weakness of his character are incalculable except from such data as can be gathered in the collisions of persons and events. The unexpected in events is always happening, and it is always calling forth the unexpected trait or fostering the unsuspected tendency of personal life. Thus one becomes acquainted with himself upon the same terms and in the same manner as with his fellows, surprising himself as often as others surprise him, and finding cause for both elation and depression in the knowledge thus thrust across his path. We are continually appearing as we did not expect to appear, continually doing what we had purposed to do, continually saying what we did not intend to say; and these modes of self-manifestation would have been less surprising if we had known as much of the content and quality of our lives and characters as we have so confidently assumed that we knew. We do not know, and because we do not know, we cannot anticipate what we shall do or say, or how we shall appear. It is what we actually are that declares itself under the stimulus of the unexpected, not what we think we are nor what we mean to be. We are led out of ourselves in the encounter with persons and events; and we appear in such shape and power as we must, and not as we have wished or willed.

Rev. E. G. Spencer.
In Christian Register.

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