Article October 24, 1914 Issue

"Who shall deliver me"

WILLARD S. MATTOX

When Paul cried, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" he uttered the heart-cry of humanity throughout the centuries for surcease from the agony of mortal existence. From the multiplicity of tribulations which beset mankind there has been a perpetual and pitiful effort to escape, to find safety. The universal belief of that which menaces life, health, success, peace of mind, and moral integrity, has impelled men to seek everywhere for a way of deliverance. Some have taken refuge in the civil law. Business men think to protect their enterprises by legal recourse and through the various processes of offense and defense provided by man-made codes. Others insure their lives and their business from the risk of disaster and accident by putting their trust in human organization. For centuries it has been the general custom of mortal man to endeavor to protect his bodily health by the administration of drugs and material remedies. The El Dorado of the human desire for freedom from danger, from enemies, from unexplained and unknown hostile forces, has been eagerly sought in every conceivable material way, with, unhappily, no satisfying results.

Geography has played its part in this search for rest and security. Men have fled to other climes, have taken journeys to different places, in order to escape some evil or to improve their health. Those who believe that by a process of transferring matter from one place to another they may find rest or peace or security, are not acquainted with that wise observation of Epictetus to the effect that "Athens is a good place,—but happiness is much better; to be free from passions, free from disturbance." To this Goethe added a truism which is urgently making its appeal today to those who are still looking for satisfaction or safety in externals. "Every man," says the great German poet, "ought to begin with himself, and make his own happiness first, from which the happiness of the whole world would at last unquestionably follow."

Creeds have undertaken to discover the place of safety, and have outlined a theoretical heaven where suffering mortals are promised peace—after they are dead. Neither geographical journeys, however, nor a geographical heaven distant in space, have supplied an adequate remedy for the woes of the human race. The plaintive cry still goes up from unsatisfied hearts: "Where shall I find refuge? Where shall I find safety? Where may I feel secure? Is there a place or a condition or a state wherein there are no premonitions, no apprehension of an unknown future, no anxiety, no pain, no sin?" There surely must be some place where the "wicked cease from troubling" and where "the weary be at rest." Where is it?

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad"