“The Human Quest for Truth”

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 100, 22 January 1927, Page 17

“The Human Quest for Truth”

I ynr Y own view is that in these revolutionary times we must be /i scrupulously careful about what we deny. I believe that the % / | old will be supplemented and improved rather than destroyed h and discarded. The true will remain. Science comes not to destroy but to fulfil. The universe is as it was, and as it is, in spite of our temporary and plausible discoveries,” said Sir Oliver Lodge in his fourth Halley Stewart lecture on “The Human Quest for Truth.” “The older generation had their avenues to truth just as we have;..their truth was not complete, neither is ours. Let no generation think that they are coming to an end of discovery, that their facts arc final and unassailable, that their theories arc complete. Infallibility is not for men, added Sir Oliver Lodge. “In particular, and as an example of what I. mean, if I trespass off my ground and on to the ground of the theologians, I want to say that, as far as I can judge, the progress of science is tending towards a strengthening of theology in all its really vital aspects; that certain occurrences which have been doubted—shall I say the direct voice at the Baptism, the Presence at the Transfiguration, the vision on the road to Damascus—were true happenings. True, that is, not merely because of historical evidence, about which many are better judges than I, but because things like them can happen. And I look to the time when the constant interaction of spirit and matter will be more fully recognised, when the term “spirit” will be extended to human spirit, and the Incarnation can be rationally recognised as both a Divine and a human fact. The Divine and the human arc truly inter-related; they do interact; the spiritual world is a reality. The spirit of man is but a fraction, a minute fraction, of the universe; nevertheless it is a fraction of the totality of things. And the totality of things as we apprehend it, is but a fraction, and yet a real fraction of Divine reality. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Aye, truly faith is the motive power of

humanity. By faith we make mental inferences. By faith we regulate our lives. Had we no faith in the future we should become supine. Had we no faith in goodness and love we might well despair. By faith we strive, we hope, and up to our measure we achieve. Through faith, though at times we suffer, we cling to a larger hope; we reach a hand through time to catch the far-off interest of tears. Already ,we can begin to make preparation for the ultimate unknown destiny of man, “Lord, I believe, Man is no little thing, That, like a. bird in Spring, Comes fluttering to the Light of Life, And out into the darkness of long death. The Breath of God is in him, And his agelong- strife With evil has a meaning and an end. ... Though twilight dim his vision be Yet can he see Thy Truth, And in the cool of evening, Thou his friend, Dost walk with him, and talk ' (Did not the Lord take flesh?) Of the great destiny That waits him, and his race In days that are to be By grace he can achieve great things. And, on the wings -of strong desire, Mount upward ever, higher and higher, Until above the clouds of earth he stand? And stares God in the Face.” »