“Man as man is conscious of the need of protection and direction, of cleansing from uncleanness, of power beyond his own strength. Through a multiplicity of forms, in different ages and races, this consciousness has sought expression, until at last it finds utterance in an insistent demand for God. Fear, ancestor worship, the personification of the objects of nature, represent the method by which man has blindly sought an answer to life’s great demand; but always, back of all, is this innate longing for higher communion. This longing disturbs the soul from the first dawn of consciousness. It is deeper rooted than any other want. It is more insistent than any other desire. Years cannot silence it. Our desires change as the years pass by. Youth loves pleasure; manhood, achievement; old age, rest. But ever present, behind all our desires is this hereditary want, an endless aspiration, a longing for something beyond, a discontent with life as it is and a reaching out toward a good that is undefined.”
– Horace Blake Williams, 1922
One Comment
Brother Williams: Amen!