Searching for the right ‘ideals’
Wednesday 28 July 2010
Our authors below have all had a very different experience of life and come from vastly different contexts. They are all, however, searching for the right ‘ideals’ to guide humanity.
We are not to make the ideas of contentment and aspiration quarrel, for God made them fast friends. A man may aspire, and yet be quite content until it is time to rise, and both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment. The very fruit of the gospel is aspiration. It is to the heart what spring is to the earth, making every root, and bud, and bough desire to be more.
ROYAL TRUTHS
HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813-1887)
It will not be long before the human mass closes in upon itself and groups all its members in a definitely realised unity. Respect for one and the same law, one and the same orientation, one and the same spirit, are tending to overlay the permanent diversity of individuals and nations. Wait but a little longer, and we shall form but one solid block. The cement is setting.
Already, in the silence of the night, I can hear through this world of tumult a confused rustling as of crystalline needles forming themselves into a pattern or of birds huddling closer together in their nest – a deep murmur of distress, of discomfort, of well-being, of triumph, rising up from the Unity which is reading its fulfilment.
THE GREAT MONAD
PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN (1881-1955)
Ideals are like stars. You will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert waters, you choose them as your guides, and, following them you will reach your destiny.
SPEECH
CARL SCHURZ (1829-1906)