The spiritual seers of old believed that, whatever the situation, God was able to control it and to protect his followers. Often divided from their people—as in the cases of Joseph and Daniel,—held captive in alien countries with institutions and religious beliefs opposed to theirs, in the serene security of spiritual understanding they demonstrated the beautiful spirit of their religion, while Truth reflected gave to their lives a marvelous dignity. Even those unable to accept the letter of their faith, acknowledged and testified to the power of their God.
The demonstration of Truth in human experience to-day, however difficult it may seem, develops the qualities of true selfhood in men and women, and unfolds God's methods as of infinitely greater value than human ways and means. As the struggle of human life is primarily a mental struggle, only the religion founded upon Christian metaphysics is of true value. Ideals and spiritual longings cannot live beneath the current of materialism, but must ever rise above it. That buoyancy of thought, based upon spiritual understanding of God, which reaches above the floodtide of human occurrences in a constant and cheerful endeavor toward righteousness, is the inspiration of human existence, discerning spiritual individuality apart from mere personality.
That good shall transcend and destroy evil is the hope of mankind. The world may not be ready to give up all its idols; and to attempt to force a position may mean a retrograde step; but men can obtain dominion over error, and they may retain this sense of spiritual supremacy by demonstration based upon absolute Truth, even while passing through human experiences. The aftermath of the war has left in its trail what appear to be new forces and new conditions, many of which seem to be of a greater degree of materiality than any before. The pendulum swings from one extreme to another. The lid of the Pandora box of the past opened wide to expose innumerable evils. To the gaze, they are apparently more obnoxious and appalling than when under the lid. Yet the universal condition is the sum total of the individual conditions, and can be dealt with only by the individual. But it is no new thing in the world to meet with a contingency so unusual and astonishing that from a merely human standpoint it may seem almost impossible to cope with. Thus did Joseph the youth, son of Israel the prince, doubtless feel when he found himself alone in the slave market of Egypt.
