INTRODUCTION

ALBERT C. GRIER

It is agreed by all thinkers that we are entering upon a new period of human history. We are approaching it not without observation; but it is not the things observed that are the real elements of the transformation. The statesmen, the scholars, the reformers, having their eyes on the changes in material or purely intellectual things of life, believe that in the forms of government or economic adjustment or educational qualities they see the goal of these momentous changes.

The crux of the revolution, however, lies far deeper and in another realm. The surface changes are in themselves insignificant, having their values only as indications of more pregnant events. These forces, these lines of direction, are never seen by any but the idealists. Only the school of the prophets can study or be acutely aware of these hidden lines.

Souls of this

Never before in human history have there been so many souls with prophetic vision. Seership of a high order is a heritage of this hour. type discern what it is that is taking "chambers of imagery" of mankind. awe before the rebirth of a race.

place in the They stand in

If to stand and watch a race being born into a world life would have been great beyond thinking, how transcendently greater is it to be witness of the second birth of man-the birth into his divine heritage of being, the conscious co-operator with God in his own destiny? It is this change that we are witnessing-yes, forwarding.

Though this transformation is indeed the "supreme event in nature," still it is a perilous period in human history. As in the life of man the age of puberty is accompanied with perils, so in this period of race-maturing there are dangers and pitfalls that would almost call a Saviour from heaven. If ever guidance were needed, it is needed now. All the scholarship, all the revelation, all the sanctification, all the consecration that can be commanded by those who see must be called into service. This is a crucial period in human history. While the Truth must inevitably triumph, a false step may delay its reign of peace for another thousand years.

Any man who claims the right to lead in so momentous and so crucial a time, does so at the peril of being thought an egotist. There was in Jesus something unnamable-so fine is its essence,

that caused Him simply to ignore the matter of egotism, though the form of His words convicted Him of the charge. In somewhat, I trust, of His Spirit, I dare give forth the revelation the Father has made to me for the guidance of man as he steps into the new fields of divine adventure.

A famous English scientist has recently said that we may look any day for a discovery, from some obscure laboratory, by an unknown scientist, that

will bisect human history. This discovery has been made, and its natural and contagious extension is the subtle and underlying cause of that cracking in the surface of life which men, not yet wise in the deeper things, are trying to interpret.

That which will bisect one life has in it the potency to bisect human history. Some years ago, this old, new discovery was made by me for myself. It bisected my whole existence. Mine had been a ruined life, although I had education, ancestry and opportunity. And on every side I greet others who have made the same transforming discovery.

The Test of a Soul.-It is obvious that only that which will bisect an individual's history can bisect. humanity's history. Humanity is the aggregate of its members; no new factor is added to it. The history of the race is but the history of the individual's experience written large. If, then, we can find that which will transform the individual, and that which alone will do it, we have found the secret of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Every soul that has come into a living knowledge of the Truth will bear glad testimony that the knowledge has transformed his life. It is the common experience of such that they reckon their age from the day when the light of Truth broke into their souls.

The Nature of the Universe.-Abstract as this question is, there is no more vital one which presents itself to the mind of man. This is the case because man must erect every plan of his life upon his understanding of the nature of the universe in which he lives. It is obvious, then, that any structure which he may build will be untenable if it is

erected upon a false foundation. And when it is found that all the structures which humanity has built have proved untenable under test conditions, it is conclusive that it is because they are resting upon false foundations. When, added to this proof, we have the experience that by a change from a certain basis to another our structures become stable and harmonious, we are driven to the conclusion that the old foundation was wrong and the new one is right.

In practically all of the past, man has taken a material basis for his foundation of thought in the realms of economics, of government, of sociology, of healing, of education, and of religion. Upon this, he has built all of his individual and social structures. Today every one of them is falling upon his head. And though he may change the form of any of these structures, it will meet with a similar fate if he does not change the foundation upon which it is built. The material concept of life is doomed. It is passing to its destruction. It has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

The Basis of Spirit.-There is only one other possible foundation for the superstructures of thought and activity. It is the basis of Spirit. To this man is being driven, not alone by the failure of the old, but by the success of the new. Added to this is the compelling fact that the spiritual nature of the universe is the truth revealed to the soul of man.

We are living in an age in which a multitude of people are emerging from the mist of matter and are being made divinely aware of the true nature of Being the nature of Man, of the universe, and of