There have been times in the lives of all soul-grown people when the
inner consciousness has clearly perceived that some given experience
may mean an important crisis in the expression of their individual
character. But not frequently, in the ordinary lives of human beings,
do they meet up with really great events, or personal experiences that
create for them special overturnings of their ideas, or any change of
personal habits. To the mind of youth, life seems a plainly simple,
straight-forward way; but when overtaken by results of unconsidered
actions, for which there has been no preparation, there dawns upon it
the consciousness of appalling vistas, and visions of future
possibilities that are overpowering.
As we journey forward on the path of existence, life becomes ever more
and more complicated, and the need, the overwhelming demand for an
understanding of the ever-varying problems presented to the mind for
consideration, and the constantly urgent necessity for wise decisions
must call into action all our highest powers of the intellect and
reason, in order to secure to us the best results from the
opportunities given us to acquire knowledge. Every one of our
experiences are bits in the mosaic of our lives, and without them the
picture would be incomplete.
But with all, we are forced to realize how unfinished and
unsatisfactory are nearly all of our experiences of earthly existence.
It is, indeed, "a thing of shreds and patches." But we are caught in
the web of material existence from which there can be no lawful escape,
save by unpremeditated physical death. We are thrust into the seething
cauldron of formative life. The entire race of man, forced forward by
the resistless power of the law of progress, is on the everlasting
journey to the heights of perfected being. To us, enmeshed in the ties
of interest and affection, the various heredities and the worldly
Karmas which hold us fast, the slow, unnumbered processes of evolution
on this, our home world, as recorded in history seem unendurably long.
But time is naught--eternity is unending--and "ten thousand years are
but as a day with God," the great Maker and Moulder of our immortal
souls.