The world is certainly growing in wisdom. Mortal mind is seeking something higher than that which has hitherto satisfied it. New ideas, which a generation or so ago would be accounted heretical if not blasphemous, are now advanced, examined, and if demonstrable, accepted. There seems to be a general dissatisfaction with the old order of beliefs, a restless yearning for a higher sense of Truth; and the old saying, "These things are not for us to know," no longer holds us as it did former generations. The old system of things is rapidly giving way to the new. Opinion is yielding to understanding.
It is high time that people were waking up to question and discover the great verities of Being, to begin to solve the problem of Life, for they have been asleep too long. The admonition of the Apostle, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand," is very applicable to these closing years of the nineteenth century. Who can tell what the next few years will bring to pass? The heretofore speculative theories of dogmatic theology, the seemingly incontrovertible arguments of the natural scientist, and the skeptical sneers of the infidel, are yielding to the demonstrable Truth of the Science of Being.
And why not? The Christian world should not fear the advent of scientific research and discovery, for it only verifies and corroborates its faith. But it should hesitate to be content with the formal, dogmatic ecclesiasticism of the middle ages, even as a man should be unwilling to continue to be bound with the swaddling clothes of his infancy.
