Very early in human history, as recorded in Genesis, we are told of a people who, with clay for bricks and slime for mortar, proceeded to build a tower, the top of which, as they said, might "reach unto heaven." We may have smiled a little as we read this account, and thought to ourselves what an inconsistent, impossible, and interminable undertaking; yet we may no doubt still find to-day a much greater number of people attempting practically the same thing,—striving to attain harmony, contentment, and happiness by assuming that matter is a perfectly safe and satisfactory foundation upon which to build, and by rearing thereon an entirely material structure. As a result they are encountering the same inevitable condition of confusion, disappointment, and failure.
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun," saith the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. As we read and study human history, we find that it has ever been a repetition of virtually the same things,—human passions asserting themselves in varying degrees of intensity, with confusion, conflict, and indecision constituting human experience. The reason for this is quite palpable when we consider that humanity is supposed to be made up of persons who cannot dwell together in unity, and that the human mind is believed to be composed of conflicting good and evil impulses, each striving to gain the ascendancy.
It is quite generally admitted that God is omnipotent and that good must eventually predominate; yet, for the present at least, evil is accorded as much if not more power than good, God. It is equally as readily acknowledged that God is Spirit and everywhere present, and yet it is claimed that the flesh or matter is much more real and tangible than Spirit; and we thus start to build our tower even as one who "sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost."
