Out of the depths of fettered lives struggling with human problems constantly comes the cry, "What is the way out?" Yearningly the Psalmist exclaimed, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest;" and he adds further, "I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest." What earth-bound heart has not felt the same inner urge, this impulse to fly away, to rise above materiality, to transcend the monotony of everyday existence with its fears, deceptions, and tragedies?
This insatiable longing to fly upward—it is not strange, for has the world ever fulfilled our hopes and our dreams? Are we confident that if we had everything the world could give us we should be content? No! So long as our vision and our interests do not extend beyond the realm of sense-testimony, we are confined like birds in a cage, to limitations that would restrict the singing, soaring nature of spiritual individuality. No wonder, then, we have longed for the wings of a dove, for the wings of upliftment and understanding wherewith to rise above earth's discontent and restlessness!
But just where shall we go to escape? Mortals have sought countless means to find a way out of limitation. Some have endeavored to escape through intellectual research, human philosophy, or frivolous pastimes; and some in desperate circumstances have even taken their own mortal lives. Yet, however low or high we may go in the realm of the human mind, there is no material way out of our troubles. The only way is a spiritual way, an ascending, praying, thinking, demonstrating way— Christ's way. Before the Red Sea, when hemmed in on all sides, Moses, as we are told by Josephus, turned wholly to God, saying in effect: We are in a helpless place, but the sea, if thou commandest it, will become dry land. Nay, we might escape by a flight through the air, if thou should'st determine that we should have that way of salvation.
