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Page 6
"Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. It
is not necessary that the entire universe arm itself to crush him. A
breath of air, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But were the
universe to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which
kills him, because he knows that he dies; and the universe knows nothing
of the advantage it has over him."
We can as yet hardly begin to comprehend that for which we were
created;--now we see through a glass darkly. A caterpillar on the earth
cannot appreciate a butterfly in the air. Jesus was the typical man, as
well as the revelation of God. St. Paul has set our thoughts moving
toward the "fullness of Christ" as the final goal of humanity. We may
not, for many milleniums, know all that is contained in that phrase "the
fullness of Christ;" but no one ever attentively listened to the voices
which speak in his own soul, no one has even asked himself the meaning
of the fact that nothing earthly ever completely satisfies, no one ever
saw another in the ripeness of splendid powers growing more intelligent,
loving, and spiritually beautiful, without feeling that if death were
really the end no being is so much to be pitied as man, and no fate so
much to be coveted as a short life in which the mockery may go on.
Our souls themselves assure us that they have come from a fountain of
spiritual being--that is, from God; and they are also prophecies of a
perfection which has never yet been realized on the earth and which will
require eternity to complete. But all are not conscious of themselves as
spiritual beings and children of eternity, and many come slowly to that
consciousness. Our next inquiry, therefore, will concern the Soul's
Awakening.
THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL
There's a palace in Florence, the world knows well,
And a statue watches it from the square,
And this story of both do our townsmen tell.
Ages ago, a lady there,
At the farthest window facing the East
Asked, Who rides by with the royal air?
* * * * *
That selfsame instant, underneath,
The Duke rode past in his idle way
Empty and fine like a swordless sheath.
* * * * *
He looked at her, as a lover can;
She looked at him as one who awakes:
The past was a sleep, and her life began.
--_The Statue and the Bust._ Browning
II
_THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL_
The process of physical awakening is not always sudden or swift. The
passage from sleep to consciousness is sometimes slow and difficult. The
soul's realization of itself is often equally long delayed. The effect
of eloquence on an audience has often been observed when one by one the
dormant souls wake up and begin to look out of their windows, the eyes,
at the speaker who is addressing them. In something the same way the
souls of men come to a consciousness of their powers and, with
clearness, begin to look out on their possibilities and their destiny.
The prodigal son in the parable of Jesus lived his earlier years without
an appreciation either of his powers or possibilities. When he came to
himself this appreciation flashed upon his will and he turned toward his
father.
Two chapters of this book will have to do with thoughts suggested by
this "pearl of parables," viz., the Soul's Awakening and its
Re-awakening. Before this young man decided to return to his father he
knew himself as an intelligent and as a responsible being; the power of
choice was not given him then for the first time. Long ere this he had
decided how he would use his wealth. He knew the difference between
right and wrong. He was intellectually and morally awake before he saw
things in their true relations. "The wine of the senses" intoxicated
him; the delights of the flesh seemed the only pleasures to be desired.
At first he did not discover the essential excellence of virtue or the
sure results of vice. Later, when he saw things in a clearer light,
their proper proportions and relations appeared, and he came to himself
and made the wise choice.
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