SEEKING THE INFINITE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 12

SEEKING THE INFINITE.

By HENRY F. COPE. "O God, rhou art my God; early -will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee." Psalms ixiii. 1. Nc two men worship the same God, Rud vet for all beings everywhere there may be but one great source of love an! light, and one infinite life to which all their aspirations turn. There ever is the temptation to set up our vision as tf.e full and final light and our conception of the divine as the only correct BliP. The true lovers of the truth are not those who are valiantly defending the definitions at which they have arrived; they are those who recognize that in seeking out the infinite they have before them that which never will be final —that truth must ever grow from more to more. The true worshippers of God ;till and ever are seekers after God. You can take a house and set up a inscription of it that may be considered is absolute, finally accurate, and to be accepted by all save those who refuse the truth. But you cannot describe your fellow-man in that absolute and final manner. There are possibilities, characteristics, reaches, depths, and heights to the life of the bast man that lie ever beyond our most minute analyris. How much more must this be true of that life which embraces all life, of him '.n whom we live and move and have our being. If no person can be precisely the same in appearance, character, and qualities to any two others, how absurd it is for ■some poor little spark of humanity, flashing for a moment in the universe, to hold up his impression of the infinite and tell us that it is the sum and finality of truth. Why should we quarrel over terms and definitions? Of what use is ail our attempt at classification, analysis, and description of that which, if it be indeed the source of all things high, ideal, and spiritual, must defy our definitions, must surpass our measurements? Our speculations abw»ut any divine being do not for a moment answer that universal cry which Job echoed: "O that I knew where I might find him." The need of this world is not agreement about theology; it is not theology at all: it is not what men have thought v.'C ought to think of some supernatural being. The need is for the touch of such a life as that upon our lives. Whether there be a God or not, whether my picture of such a God be nearest right or youris, the great thing is that we all should live as if there were some such high ideal, some life beyond our lives, some heights yet to be attained, and some great and worthy source and goal of all our being. To the primeval man there was a nighty being who ruled his little domain : to the warrior there was a grea,t captain; to the statesman a glorious king: to every man there has been be-ir-re him his own ideal, the highest of which he could conceive, a light that went before and led him on. That hght has been the life of the inner being the spiritual father and mother of men. Each new age either must think its ligher thoughts of God or turn its face Irom the light before to the darkness behind. The race goes on the ascending road as it follows this light of the ideal. Looking up in days of sorrow to a friend, looking forward to a hero, looking on to ideals becomnig less personal but not less potent, men come to the new day and ever to the higher nobler race. We cannot put into the language of our limited life any satisfactory or adequate picture of that which transcends ail our experience in the way that this thought of a great common source and susUiiner of life does. But we can order onr lives about this as their centre; we em live as if the universe was held together by the golden bands of love and law In any true and comprehensive thinking our thoughts of God are simply our thoughts of the univtrse. And here it does make a vast difference whether to us the order of life be governed by blind chance or by the working out eternally of right and truth, justice and love; whether the life that seeks these good ends is wasting itself or is working in harmony with the source and goal of all beings.

"O God, rliou art my God; early -will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee." Psalms ixiii. 1. Nc two men worship the same God, and yet for all beings everywhere there may be but one great source of love an! light, and one infinite life to which all their aspirations turn. There ever is the temptation to set up our vision as tf.e full and final light and our conception of the divine as the only correct BliP. The true lovers of the truth are not those who are valiantly defending the definitions at which they have arrived; they are those who recognize that in seeking out the infinite they have before them that which never will be final —that truth must ever grow from more to more. The true worshippers of God it ill and ever are seekers after God. You can take a house and set up a it rcription of it that may be considered is absolute, finally accurate, and to be accepted by all save those who refuse the truth. But you cannot describe your fellow-man in that absolute and final manner. There are possibilities, characteristics, reaches, depths, and heights to the life of the last man that lie ever beyond our most minute analysis. How much more must this be true of that life which embraces all life, of him '.n whom we live and move and have our being. If no person can be precisely the same in appearance, character, and qualities to any two others, how absurd it is for •some poor little spark of humanity, flashing for a moment in the universe, to hold up his impression of the infinite and tell us that it is the sum and finality of truth. Why should we quarrel over terms and definitions? Of what use is ail our attempt at classification, analysis, and description of that which, if it be indeed the source of all things high, ideal, and spiritual, must defy our definitions, must surpass our measurements? Our speculations abw»ut any divine being do not for a moment answer that universal cry which Job echoed: "O tnat I knew where I might find him." The need of this world is not agreement about theology; it is not theology at all; it is not what men have thought we ought to think of some supernatural being. The need is for the touch of such a life as that upon our lives. Whether there be a God or not, whether my picture of such a God be nearest right or your's, the great thing is that we all should live as if there were some such high ideal, some life beyond our lives, some heights yet to be attained, and some great and worthy source and goal of all our being. To the primeval man there was a nighty being who ruled his little domain : to the warrior there was a grea,t captain; to the statesman a glorious king; to every man there has been before him his own ideal, the highest of which he could conceive, a light that wt-nt before and led him on. That light has been the life of the inner being the spiritual father and mother of men. Each new age either must think its ligher thoughts of God or turn its face irom the light before to the darkness behind. The race goes on the ascending road as it follows this light of the ideal. Looking up in days of sorrow to a iriend, looking forward to a hero, looking on to ideals becomnig less personal but not less potent, men come to the new day and ever to the higher nobler race. We cannot put into the language of our limited life any satisfactory or adequate picture of that which transcends all our experience in the way that this thought of a great common source and susto-iner of life does. But we can order our lives about this as their centre; we cw live as if the universe was held together by the golden bands of love and law In any true and comprehensive thinking our thoughts of God are simply our thoughts of the univtrse. And here it does make a vast difference whether to us the order of life be governed by blind chance or by the working out eternally of right and truth, justice and love; whether the life that seeks these good ends is wasting itself or is working in harmony with the source and goal of all beings.