THE history of the search for truth is the history of the world's progress. Men have always been asking the why and the wherefore about existence, and these queries have formed the theme of philosophers throughout the ages. They now constitute the incentive to research along every scientific line of work, and they afford to the mass of humanity a never-ceasing stimulus to the mental activity which seeks to lay hold, not upon fleeting shadows, vain temporalities, but upon the consoling, pacifying, and benign influences of the eternal.
Different opinions have been expressed about Pilate's question, "What is truth?" Lord Bacon maintained that he threw it out in jest, disdaining to wait for a reply. But perhaps it is more correct to see in Pilate a man of his time, of our times, too, if you like, intellectual, trained to weigh evidence, capable thereby of coming to just conclusions, yet powerless to act thereupon because of his inability to trust to Principle. After the conflicting gusts of passion had beaten upon him at the mock trial, the shifting sands of expediency left him no foothold, and one is not surprised to hear the half-sarcastic, skeptical remark, "What is truth?"
It is an idle thing to put this momentous question if one is not prepared to follow it up. Had not the humble Nazarene, whom the Roman declared innocent, proclaimed, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life"? Had not his career throughout the three years of his ministry, demonstrated that his gospel was true? By it, had he not healed the sick and the sinning, and raised the dead? But Pilate may not have been able to collect sufficient evidence to prove this from among the multitudes who were healed, and we suspect that, even though a Roman, he exemplified the attitude of the high priests and their satellites when they declared, "We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." Prejudice, the child of ignorance, or worse, must always be reckoned with in every forward step. No matter whether it pertain to communities or nations, having to pass the bar of the individual, it is sure to encounter the inertia of mortal mind, the disintegrating, destructive tendencies of ignorance, fear, and selfishness.
