Article February 18, 1911 Issue

THE UNFOLDMENT OF TRUTH

WILLIAM HART SPENCER.

The problems which confront humanity in the inner realm of consciousness seem to have a single root-thought. Confidential confession inevitably shows that that which interferes with spiritual growth is easily traceable to a few generals. The coloring and minor movement of thoughts, with their false estimates, may be as changing as the figures in a kaleidoscope, but they are only indications of sporadic impulse, the main drift of mortal mind remaining unchanged. While each one assumes that his troubles are specific and unusual, analysis shows that false belief, the assumption of something apart from the true concept of God as All-in-all, is the starting-point of the difficulty with which he contends.

Mortal man has always had only a blurred mental image or sense of God, but since time was there has been a reaching out by awakening thought for a clear, concise, and withal reasonable concept of the Supreme Being. The human family as a whole lack mental concentration, and through deficiency of mental grasp men have ever been too ready to adopt the opinions of self-constituted leaders. Sometimes in a paroxysm of fear, often in a moment of ecstasy, humanity has built its hopes on this belief or that, with varying success as to the lasting quality of its interpretation, as is shown in the creedal statements of the many sects which have sprung up, and which in many cases emphasize some isolated feature of an imaginative man-made God. There are many today who have followed some special thought in theology and seem to be content in it, without perhaps realizing that their adherence to said doctrine is a fetish-like belief in a theological speculation.

While many have grown dissatisfied with their environment, and practically ceased from further agitation of the question of religion, there are still a larger number who might be designated as unsatisfied; and largely on account of thes so-called hereditary beliefs. Many of them have a sense of discouragement, owing to their lack of success in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion, even after having, as they suppose, earnestly and carefully considered all aspects of the question. To have attempted the investigation of first one point of view and then another, as their attention has been called to them, does not necessarily imply that the investigators are changeable in character. Such efforts, intelligently made, show rather an honest desire to gain the basis of truth; but while, as is often the case, something helpful has been found in each line of thought, they have reached nothing which could logically be called basic. Thus, unsettled, and with a consciousness of an utter lack of trust in conventional thought, they are ever inquiring for a tangible exposition of the truth. Their desire is for a distinct thought which is discernibly based on Truth, and such desire evidences a purpose to go to rock foundation, if so be they may find it.

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