NUGGETS OF THE NEW THOUGHT/PART 20
THE SEEKERS.
The secret of life—The riddle of existence—Sought now as ever—The
whyness of things—Attempts to answer the riddle—The Seekers—Fantastic creeds
and queer philosophies—Revamping old ideas—The story of the man and the
stars—The answer to be found within the soul.
"I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,
At the sophist schools and the learned clan,
For what are they all, in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?"
—Emerson.
Man is
trying to reason out now as in the past, the secret of Life—the riddle of
Existence. He seeks to know from whence he comes, whither he goes, and what is
the object of his existence. He wants to know the whyness of
things—what it all means. He is like the squirrel in the cage, which exhausts
itself in traveling the long road of the wheel, only to find itself at the end
of its journey just where it started. Or worse still, like the newly-caged wild
bird, he dashes against the bars of his prison, again and again, in his efforts
to regain his freedom, until at last he lies weak and bleeding, a captive
still.
It has
ever been so, from the childhood of the race until the present time. Sages,
seers, prophets and philosophers have endeavored to reason out the problem, but
their labors have availed nothing, and the riddle remains unanswered. Man has
traveled over and over the circular road of thought, only to discover that it
has no beginning—no ending. He thinks that he has explained things, but he has
merely given them names. All the scientific research, all the theological and
metaphysical speculation, has failed even to explain the sprouting of the
mustard seed. Life and Death is a mystery to the most brilliant man of this
civilization, as it was to the ignorant creature of the stone age. Races,
nations, civilizations rise and fall; creeds are born, grow strong, weaken and
die, but the secret remains a secret still.
The
present day seems to have reawakened the latent desire of man to see behind the
veil. The pendulum which carried so many thinkers to the materialistic extreme
is beginning to swing in the opposite direction, and is causing a strange and
wonderful revival of ancient creeds and philosophies. Those who have long since
turned their backs upon the accepted creeds now find themselves in the company
of those who still claim allegiance to the church, but who feel themselves
cramped by the creeds fashioned for them by their fathers.
The leader
of the New Thought, reaching the top of the mountain, often finds himself
face-to-face with a scientific savant who has reached the same
place by climbing up the other side of the hill. And the scientist and the New
Thought man need not be surprised to find a leader of advanced religious
thought claiming a foothold on the top of the same hill. But the trio, after
they have congratulated themselves upon reaching the summit and ending their
journey look around them, and lo! their mountain is but a foothill, and far
above them, towering higher and higher, rise range after range of the real
mountains, the highest peaks being hidden among the clouds!
One has
but to look around him to see how strenuous has grown the search for the answer
to the riddle. New creeds, philosophies, cults and schools confront us at every
turn. The past has been ransacked for its discarded philosophies, which have
been renovated and trimmed anew for modern use. The dust has been brushed off
many an old and almost forgotten creed, which is pushed to the front under a
new name and with new trimmings. Plato is worked overtime to furnish the
twentieth century creed promoters with material to be done over. The wildest
dreams of the ancients are toned down a little, and boldly offered to the eager
multitude as the long sought for solution of it all. Priests and teachers of
all the religions of all lands are among us vying with the priests and
priestesses of the new philosophies and creeds of our own land, and bidding for
public favor. And these new home-made philosophies, how frightfully and
wonderfully are they made! The old philosophies of Greece and Rome are
skilfully dovetailed with the creeds of the Orient, and the result is a thing
differing from anything ever seen before by gods or men.
Brahmins,
Buddhists, Confucians, Mahommedans and Sun Worshippers claim thousands of
followers in our land, and Isis and Osiris will before long again be given a
place and duly installed in the new Pantheon. Thor and Odin will doubtless be
revamped, and the rites of the Druids revived. We are looking every day for the
arrival on our shores of the advance agent of the Joss propaganda from the Celestial
kingdom.
And the
home product is, if possible, more fantastic and bizarre than
the imported article. The wildest claims and statements are made with an air of
authority, and are accepted as "gospel" by the adherents of the
several sects. One does not know whether to sigh or weep as he watches some of
the modern prophets and prophetesses strutting their little stage and cutting
fantastic capers before high heaven, thus adding to the gayety of the nations.
The demand for these things has been created, and nothing seems too highly
spiced for the devotees of the latter day creeds.
And the
followers of those strange prophets, what of them? Many of them are mere
excitement hunters; others that class of people possessed of a consuming thirst
for something new; some are honest seekers for the Truth; and others are those
who have cut away from their old moorings and are drifting about, rudderless
and without an anchor, at the mercy of any stray current which may sweep them
along. There are thousands of people who never heard of the philosophies and
creeds of the ancients, who are now dazzled by the revamped doctrines expounded
by the modern prophets, and who, being impressed with the strangeness and
novelty of the (to them) new truths, accept them as inspired and emanating from
the Absolute.
New gods have arisen and also new devils. The "Malicious Mental
Magnetism" of the Christian Scientists is as much a devil to them as was
the orthodox devil of one hundred years ago to our forefathers.
The new
cults usually begin by performing cures by means of the power of the mind and
other natural laws, which they attribute to the principles and teachings of
their particular sects. Many of them now, however, frankly admit that they are
past the healing stage, and look down upon the mere healing of disease as a
thing too nearly allied to the detested "material" plane to be
seriously considered. The time of the leaders is now principally occupied in
announcing and elucidating wonderful, high, spiritual truths for the seekers,
soaring away up in the clouds of transcendentalism, leaving their followers
behind, gaping upwards like a crowd at a country balloon ascension.
Once upon
a time there was a reformer who attended a public meeting, and took part in an
exciting debate on an important question of the day. At last, heated, wearied
and disgusted by the fruitless struggle, he left the hall and started for home.
It was a beautiful, cold winter's night, and the heavens were studded with
stars shining bright through the clear frosty atmosphere. Pausing for a moment
in his rapid walk, he glanced upward. The stars were twinkling away merrily.
They did not seem to be at all disturbed by what had been going on in the
meeting. They appeared just the same as when, in years past, as a boy he had
looked at them with wondering eyes. As he gazed, a peaceful calm came over him,
and his worry, doubts and fears seemed very petty. At last one little star
appeared to notice him, and he thought he could see it cast a good-natured
glance downward, saying, in a cheerful voice, "Why so hot,
little man?"
When we
feel cast down with doubt, torn with anxiety, weak from loss of faith, faint
with fear, let us look aloft at the stars. When we see those distant points of
light, knowing them to be centers of solar systems, knowing that beyond, beyond
and beyond are countless other suns and world, let us pluck up a little courage
and realize that we are a part of a mighty Law, a stupendous plan. Let us know
that the Power which called these things into life, and which is able to manage
them, and even greater things, has us in charge and will not allow us to be
destroyed. Let us know that we are but in the kindergarten stage of existence
and that we shall go on and on and on, from plane to plane, ever onward and
upward in the scale, until at last we shall be able to spell out the lines of
the primer of Life, and learn the multiplication table of the Universe.
Let us in
the meanwhile live on in trust and hope; one day at a time; living our own
lives; doing our best work; getting the joy which comes from the simple, human
life; lending a helping hand. Let us abolish Fear and Hate, and replace them
with Courage, Confidence and Love. Let us look for Good rather than Evil. Let
us know failure as merely a lesson in Success. Let us look upon Death as Birth.
Let us do the best we can with this world, knowing that the next world will
find us prepared for its task. Let us know that we are in Eternity right NOW.
Let us know that God is not so far away as we have been taught, for is it not
true that in Him "we live and move and have our being!"
Let us
preserve our sense of humor—for it will guard us against many a fear, many a
folly, many a delusion.
And,
finally, let us keep out of the throng which is rushing wildly hither and
thither, after leaders, prophets, sages, seers. Let us look within ourselves
and see the little flame which burns steadily there. Let us know that we have
within us the Light of the Spirit which naught can extinguish. And let us say
with good old Newman:
"Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom
Lead thou me on.
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on.
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
Lead thou me on."
Comments
Post a Comment