A Prophecy for the Twentieth Century

Charles Keeler

New centuries call for new ideals. The imagination is stimulated at the commencement of a cycle; the impulse of life takes a fresh start. It is a point of vantage in the unceasing march of time, from which we look backwards and forwards, seeking light from the past and inspiration for the future. To prophesy events is to deal in the black arts, but to prophesy tendencies is to express a hope which may be realized—a faith which may be as the grain of mustard seed. It is by faith that the world advances. We assert our faith and then strive to make it vital in our lives.

The nineteenth century was an age of science. Its achievements were the most splendid in the annals of the human race. It was an age of discovery, of exploration, of colonization. Its close marked the decline of the Latin races and the ascendency of the Anglo-Saxon. Its most illuminating thought may be summed up in the word "evolution."

In the century closed materialism triumphed. The new century shall be an age of spiritualism. Upon the practical shall be builded the ideal. Men have been studying how to gain money. Now they will vie with one another in its wise distribution. They have sought for mastery over the elements of the earth and air, and have triumphed in an age of steel and electricity. Now they are to strive for mastery in the realms of the spirit. Religious faiths have crumbled before the scrutiny of science. Like the growth which springs from the mould of a ruined forest shall be the new religion of the new century, with its roots deep down in the basic truth of science, and its branches towering in the pure heaven of love.

Art, the handmaid of religion, shall come to her heritage in this new century. She, too, shall be nurtured by the glory of science, but shall rise in her own kingdom of the beautiful, the serene, and the pure. Her benign influence will spread like benediction over the works of man.

Westward the march of progress tends, and the world's centre of thought and action will shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific. May it be a progress from war to peace! May it be indeed what so many epochs have been vainly called—a Christian era! May it witness the change from a statecraft which held its own by might to that millennium in which right, truth, and justice control the policies of men!

Charles Keeler.
In "Impressions."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit