The question may be asked, Wherein lies the difference between man the
unit, and the race which is an aggregation of these units? What
philosophical difference is possible? In answer, I would say that while
the individual and the race alike possess body and soul, the individual
at times manifests a power of becoming greater in every respect than the
influence of heredity or surroundings can at all account for. Such
individuals tell us of some powerful influence descending upon them, as
it were, from a higher sphere, and to this they attribute the changes in
their life and powers which make all their friends to marvel. No such
stimulating and transforming influence has ever manifested itself on so
broad a scale as to affect our entire race at once, and we must conclude
that the time has not come for such an event. As a race, our eyes are
not lifted above the earth. We care little about our origin, and still
less about our destiny. The love of war and bloodshed, delight in the
flowing bowl and all its attendant revelry, are still characteristic of
our race, and the heavy clouds that are gathering in our sky are not yet
black enough with impending evil to arrest us in our downward course.
Ah! well for us it is that we are not to be left alone to rush headlong
to destruction in our blind folly. Terrible as are the forces we have
invoked against ourselves, those which shall save us from death by all
manner of intoxication are infinitely greater.
The wasting fever of war undoubtedly must come, such war as the world
has never seen before, but when the coveted excitement, changed to agony
untold, is at last over, when our physical forces are entirely
exhausted, the loving Parent whose outstretched hand we have always
refused, will show a pitying face. A draught of infinite peace will be
imparted to our spirit, and we shall rise in newness of life to enjoy
the forgotten delights of obedient childhood, and make this old world
over into one entirely new.