A Desire to understand what has been thought of as the divine plan for the human race, dwells continually in the heart of man. He who is striving for the highest ideal, longs to see beyond the range of finite vision, —to know God's intent toward man and the universe. Among Christian and un-Christian peoples there are innumerable variations of belief as to the nature, laws, and purposes of Deity, but all men, whether actuated by a heart hunger for better things, or by mere intellectual curiosity, unite in the one common desire to know more than the five senses reveal concerning that which creates and governs the universe.
The fact that man and the universe exist, is in itself proof that there is a sustaining relationship between the Creator and the thing created, but simple access to the Creator upon the part of the thing created, has been unattained through theories. Paul says, "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. . . Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Men have struggled in vain for an intellectual solution of the question, and failing this, must awaken to find the simple steps toward knowledge which they may now take. Jesus defined the mental situation existing between each man and his Maker, when he said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." And furthermore, Jesus' life defined and exemplified this relationship, in that he did the will of the Father, faithfully and persistently. Had he failed to obey what he knew to be God's will, he could not well have continued in the way of knowledge.
The man and woman of to-day may say, "Our lives are so far from perfection, our standards so variable, our influences so complex: we are so involved in selfish methods, so bound to worldly considerations, that really to know the divine will seems impossible." This may be true, but is there any man who does not know, in his own affairs for to-day, which of two possible steps is the more nearly right? He may not comprehend the whole will of God as related to the whole of humanity, but he can tell why a certain action of his own for to-day is morally better than some other line of conduct; he knows the difference between honesty and dishonesty, between selfishness and unselfishness, in his business relations and in his home life. Discerning this, he can choose the better way, and in this doing of the will he rises to the perception of a still higher good. Even if he be living in the midst of sin and degradation, he can at least select the lesser evils in the detail of the day's experience, and in this he is taking a direct step toward ultimate perfection. Daily, hourly obedience to the highest good he knows, brings a man into a better knowledge of the demands of righteousness. Saying each instant, "Get thee behind me, Satan," to every suggestion of compromise with lower standards, lifts the thought and life into closer relationship with all that is good and pure. Men may call it conscience, character, moral intuition, anything they please, but the fact stands that the pressure which compels a man to abandon the greater evil in every instance, if he would find peace,—is the offspring of the eternal demand for righteousness, and, however dimly discerned, is nothing less than actual divine guidance.
