Glimpses of truth along the boundaries of thought concerning certain knowledge

Front matter

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Cliap,_....„ Copyright No.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Introduction

THOUGHT AND deed are intertwined. Good reflection leads to good affection and good action. As a man really thinks so is he. And thought in order to perpetuate its vigor and renew its youth must ever lift a seeking eye afresh unto the living light. The author of this work does not pretend to be a discoverer of fresh facts nor the propounder of many new theories, but simply the humble presenter in a small compass, of truth, which has in the main, become the common property of thinking men, that it may thus be helpful to those who have not time nor opportunity for the study of larger and more technical works. Our aim has been to present the principal results of what we deem the best thinking of to-day in the departments of knowledge included within the scope of this volume. Every sincere and systematic seeker after truth desires a rational and scientific co-ordination of the facts of the world and of human life. Such a reader, we hope, will not be wholly disappointed in this work. Into it has been admitted as much 1 Psychology and 2 Metaphysics as to the author seemed indispensable to correct and comprehensive religious thought. In it are set forth how we know the soul, how reason and affection thread their way to the presence and vision of God, and how the mind reaches the restful conviction

i The Science of the Soul.

2 The science of necessary conceptions and fundamental relations.

that the universe is energized by the All-Perfect, the All- Knowing, and the All-Loving. The process of evolution, which pervades the whole universe ,and constitutes a large portion of all science, and whose tide of recognition by the thinking public knows no ebb, is, in these pages, treated in its relation to the origin of things, or as the Divine method of Creation. Herein is indicated the career of a world or system of worlds from evolution to dissolution, and of our humanity upon this orb. Moreover, the marvellous discoveries of the last few years have thrown a flood of light upon the ancient oriental world. ' The 1 monuments of Babylonia and Assyria have been rescued from their hiding places, and the writing upon them has been made to speak once more in living words. A dead world has been called again to life by the spade of the excavator and the patient labour of the decipherer. Discovery after discovery has been pouring in upon us from oriental lands. ' A part of this fresh light from the monuments has been reflected on the Book of Genesis and is permitted to illumine the pages of this volume. Again, in our age the Bible is going though the fire of criticism as never before. What is the outcome to which the critics conduct us ? We offer our readers the chief results reached in this field of scholarship. Furthermore, we compare the teachings of the world's great masters, with the words of Him at whose feet we sit as learners. Also, we point out a few stepping stones in the waters of the stream of death, and give some reasons for the belief that the Christ will one day lay at the foot of the throne of the Highest the spoils of a world captured from ignorance and sin. i Prof. A. H. Sayce.