ASPECTS OF THE INFINITE MYSTERY CHAPTER I THE MEANING OF THE TITLE I THERE were three ways of crossing the beautiful river that flows through the Scottish county in which I was born and in which I spent my boyhood; a river whose murmur I can hear across the distance of more than five and forty years. The first way was by the bridge, and while that stood solid and sure any fool could cross the river; many did, and some wise men, too. The second way was by the ferry and the ford; I class them as one because of their similarity. One took one's place in the boat and by slightly pulling the rope which stretched from this bank to that, attached firmly to a pole on either side, one was in due time safely landed; by guiding the horse or by letting the horse guide himself the river was forded. The third way was by stepping stones; these happened to be irregular and some distance apart, and the water flowed with considerable tumult between them, and the stones were apt to be wet and slippery; here there was risk; here courage, agility, skill, self-reliance, daring were needed; here success, when it came, was an achievement; when one got over the river in this way there was a distinct glow of satisfaction. There are three ways of crossing the mysterious river of time. There is the bridge of dogmatic belief; the creeds say so, the catechism says so, Augustine and Calvin say so, Edwards and the New England theologians say so. If we are satisfied with a second-hand faith, if we forego the privilege of looking reality in the face and laying our hand upon it, if we are willing to substitute the thinking of other minds and other ages for our own, we may pass happily over this bridge. But one must not question. One must go as the unthinking cattle go over the bridge on the way to the pasture. In the second place there is the Church as a saving institution. The old Catholic said, get into the boat. You get in, you are active to that extent; and you must sit so as not to upset the boat; again you are so far active; but after you get in and when you behave properly the servant of the Church will pull you safely to the other side. The old Protestant said, get into the carriage, you must get in and you must not upset the carriage, and the minister of religion after you are in will see that you ford the river and get comfortably to the other shore. If men are satisfied with ecclesiasticism, this method is ideal. The third way is the way of insight, a succession of insights, a constellation of insights, tested by experience, put to the service of the soul, to the service of one's own time and world. These insights call upon the intellect, as it ministers to life, for courage, patience, self-reliance, the spirit of adventure; for dash and achieving power. The gain which comes from adopting this way is often consoling, and when it is not consoling it is humorous; it is like the man who skips across the river on the stones; if he comes through triumphantly the victory is exhilarating; if he tumbles into the stream, the mishap is not fatal, besides it creates clean, heroic mirth. If the reader does not want to cross the river of time by this path, I blame him not at all. We are still one in devotion to the end; we both desire to make the other side with honor, and to present ourselves there as servants of the Highest. We disagree about the means; we disagree here because the process of attaining the end signifies, in one way, and to one man, the greater life at the goal; in another way, and to another man, poorer, cowardlier life at the end. The choice is in freedom: "Choose well; your choice is Go by the mill-round or by the sun-path; the end qualifies the means, the means greaten or impoverish the end. All believers in the Eternal reality are alike in the end they wish to attain; in the pursuit, churchman, dogmatist, seer, pioneer, and great-souled adventurer, differ always, and at times their difference from one another is wide as the world. It is Kipling's song over again, "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment seat." There are, however, now and then, exceptions to this iron rule, as again in the same song, "But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed nor Birth, Where two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth." II What shall we call our stepping stones? How may we best express the final mood to which the free mind of the Christian thinker comes in the consideration of the world and the universe in which we live? When one speaks, neither out of the moment of exaltation, nor out of the hour of depression, but out of the great, steady conviction that rises in one's heart concerning |