Along the Road

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19899, 30 May 1936, Page 15 (Supplement)

Along the Road

An Occasional Column

(By the Swagger.)

FRIEND HAS sent me a little journal consisting mostly of extracts from the latest books and Speeches. and l have had a splendid lime browsing through it. You probably will understand the pleasure one gets in coming across statements that coincide with nur‘s own thoughts. and I have had that pleasure this week. I keep no record of what I write but have a vleur recollection of stdiiml that faith was Fl life that had to he lived in spite of the Consequences. not a heliet‘ that had to he held in spite of doubt. in a vague sort or way that thought had formed in my mind, and later 1 Come arross it in an article written by a distinguished theologian. And it was here in the journal: "i know that Rellglon Is a Life. not a. mere collection of doctrines, and in life there is no going back." Truth is ever unfolding. and in different ways to different people, so that we must be tolerant, and that is by no means an easy thing. As one writer put it. the test is to be tolerant with the intolerant. Then. on another page I came across this (the statement: "Science is the lamp which man has himself kindled; it has built. him lighthouses on the dark shores of the unknown; but his dreams, his quesls of truth. load him beyond the waters which his little lam-p 01' knowledge illunilnes; and if he would venture on the farther ocean he must set his course by a star." Now that appeals to me. it seems to be right. It says briefly and beautifully what. some little time ago, I tried to express. There is a great world be. yond the senses. beyond the limitations that the senses impose—the farther ocean—and someday our barque, as the preachers used to put it. will break into that vast sea. and sail on. i should like to read that book. Here is another extract: "If we are to imagine a continued evolution of life, it must he in the lnlugomom of the Indlvldunl, through finer sympathies and greater selfcontrol, to a truer self-realisation, a wider freedom. Not in the absorption of the individual into the Spiritual V\'hole, not in dissolution of the House of Life, but in its strengthening and beautifying does the Dl- - Soul enter the human." I have me; people. on this stage of the journey. who seemed to possess the finer sympathies, to have come into wider freedom. The things ”1"” “is“ US, as the Scots say. never troubled them. They had made their lives beautiful,

possessed a serenity that I never knew, and i am sure had an appreciation of beauty and truth that was far above mine. I always classified them as being “Further Along the Road." - ’l‘hev had surmounted the little things ‘Ol life "and added to the daily round a dignity that deeply impressed me. . They would not need to be told \vhattlns writer, for my benefit, told me. “The indi— Vidual possesses the glorious power of giving and of forgiving; he may even sacrifice himself or herself (perhaps more often) for the good of another. Through the ‘separateness of independent personalities comes the bond of, comradeship, and the most beautiful of all life‘s manifestations. love.” Now I have often been impressed by the wonderful power of the love of a good man and good woman for each other, but somehow had missed the thought. or the fact, that it was so wonderful because they were separate personalities. They were thus alble to give, and with great happiness to pour each into the life of the other the best that they were able to give. And, unlike many other things. the happy process goes on year after year until, although independent personalities. there seems to come a blending, a unity, an understanding that they possess jointly. Perhaps I have not expressed that at all clearly, but I shall turn the thought over in my mind and maybe return to it at some later date. I realise that I should not attempt. in this column, to give just hazy ideas; should not write without due thought, but my excuse, it‘ I must make one, is that I like the idea of suggesting a line of thought that may be of interest to others. “The Ibond of comradeship" is possible because we are separate, and those who love can give. Well. I have seen some great gifts, simply poured out, the best that pure hearts and beautiful natures could give. Sometimes the gifts were not appreciated as they should have been, but the Lou was Not the leorl‘. Yes, I delight to see this strong affection that can defy years and circumstances and grow stronger as it grows older, until it seems, and really is, the one thing that counts. And those people. lbound by these has, may have little of this world‘s goods. be unknown outside their district or beyond their street, but they live; in some way transcending the ordinary things of life, they two. They can say with the poet “Dear, of all happy in the hour. most blest those who have found our hid security."