A THEORY OF 1 = 
 SPIRITUAL PROGRESS 
 
 By WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
 
 A Theory of Spiritual 
 Progress
 
 A Theory of Spiritual 
 Progress 
 
 An address delivered before the Phi 
 
 Beta Kappa Society of Columbia 
 
 University in the City of 
 
 New York 
 
 By WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE 
 
 The Gazette Press. Emporia, Kansas
 
 Copyright, November, 1910 
 
 by 
 W. A. WHITE
 
 This edition is limited to six hundred 
 copies, of which this copy is 
 
 No.. 
 
 and is signed by the author 
 
 2225268
 
 JHow curious it is that those 
 makers of myths who wrote the 
 story of the genesis of life upon 
 this earth set down light as the 
 first created thing. Science has 
 learned little more than this. 
 The ceaseless flow and ebb of 
 life upon the planet, is from 
 light and air and earth and water 
 and grass and animals to man, 
 there in man to glow for a time 
 as a divine light, and then to 
 pass back, broken and spent, to 
 light and earth and air and 
 water and grass, again to resume 
 the upward flow from light to 
 light. From inorganic matter to 
 
 [i]
 
 organic, from organic matter to 
 consciousness, from conscious- 
 ness to aspiration, from aspiration 
 to endeavor, from endeavor to 
 a tale that is told, "dust to dust, 
 ashes to ashes" so go the inter- 
 changing cycles. And all the 
 wise men in the world are 
 watching the journey of that 
 mysterious thing called life, as it 
 grows from chlorophyl into 
 history. They are trying to find 
 out what life is. 
 
 CfBut life has eluded micro- 
 scopes, crucibles, test tubes and 
 scales. Scientists seek to corner 
 life in chromosomes, centrosomes 
 
 [2]
 
 and cytoplasms, but life recedes 
 further into the ether. Then 
 they tell us that matter, inorganic 
 and organic, is only ether in its 
 various forms of motion, and 
 that "ether is the realest thing in 
 the world." But if we ask what 
 is this ether that moves to make 
 life, the wise men may only 
 answer with the children 
 
 Whither she goes 
 And whither she blows 
 Nobody knows. 
 
 iJTwo things only will scientists 
 vouchsafe: First that life is, and 
 second that it seems to have 
 direction. It is outward bound, 
 but to an unknown port. In
 
 closing a review of the growth 
 of the theory of evolution a 
 review which the world's scien- 
 tific press has praised with 
 enthusiasm an American scien- 
 tist, Vernon L. Kellogg,* says: 
 
 fJBut an automatic modifying 
 principle which results in de- 
 terminate or purposive change 
 that is, in the change needed as 
 an indispensable basis for the 
 upbuilding of the great fabric of 
 species diversity and descent; is 
 not that the very thing provided 
 for by the simple or mechanical 
 impossibility of perfect identity 
 between process and environ- 
 ment in the case of one indi- 
 vidual, and process and environ- 
 ment in the case of another? But 
 
 ""Darwiniim TocUy," publiihed by Henry Holt & Company. 
 
 [4]
 
 I do not know. Nor in the 
 present state of our knowledge 
 does any one know, nor will any 
 one know until we find out. We 
 are ignorant terribly, im- 
 mensely ignorant. And our 
 work is to learn. 
 
 tj The Hebrew poet came to the 
 same conclusion thousands of 
 years ago when he asked : " Who 
 by searching shall find out God?" 
 f| And yet the further we go into 
 life, whether in the laboratory or 
 in the street, the surer we are 
 of the working of what the scien- 
 tist calls the "determinate or 
 purposive change " and what the 
 psalmist calls the "way of the 
 
 [5]
 
 Lord. n Between the light where- 
 with the chlorophyl is made and 
 and the light that never was on 
 land or sea, the light of human 
 aspiration, there thrills a divine 
 purpose, moving the tide of life 
 from light to light. "Deep call- 
 eth unto deep," and the world 
 problem is to understand the 
 call. What is this puzzling 
 complexus of human relations? 
 
 A 
 
 Is there a golden thread of tangi- 
 ble workable faith running 
 through the snarled scale of 
 human existence? Doth Job fear 
 God for nought? Surely if a 
 "determinate or purposive 
 
 [61
 
 change" is needed "as an in- 
 dispensable basis for the up" 
 building of the great fabric of 
 species diversity and descent," it 
 is needed here and now to 
 explain human evolution; to 
 clarify the final form of the first 
 created light that comes down to 
 us from that mute dark age when 
 "the spirit of God moved upon 
 the face of the waters." For 
 here and now we find the divine 
 light in man. The upward 
 growth of mankind is hardly 
 disputed. Every link in the 
 chain from the savage to the 
 philanthropist is present. There 
 
 [7]
 
 are no breaks, no gaps. Chang- 
 ing habits of life have changed 
 our morals. Customs grow stale 
 and new ones replace them. 
 And with our changing habits of 
 life many cruel customs have 
 dropped away; kindly habits 
 have replaced them. Our insti- 
 tutions are continually sloughing 
 off cruelties. Human sacrifice has 
 gone; the torture chamber has 
 gone; the stake has gone; the 
 death penalty is going; child 
 imprisonment is going. Starving 
 through inequities of distribution 
 of the . common wealth of the 
 nations is ready to start on its
 
 journey to the junk pile with the 
 rack and the stake and the pil- 
 lory. Inventions make life 
 easier for man; and hardships in 
 the social system degenerate, 
 atrophy, fall lower and lower in 
 the social scale and finally dis- 
 appear. The common ways of 
 the common people in civiliza- 
 tion are thus made easier than 
 the ways of life in savagery. 
 Through inventions and their 
 use we seem to see in human- 
 ity at least one phase of 
 the "way of the Lord," the 
 "determinate or purposive 
 change" that is building up the 
 
 [9]
 
 "great fabric of species diversity 
 and descent" in humanity. 
 JBut something more than in- 
 vention has been moving 
 humanity forward. Customs 
 have indeed changed. But 
 change has had a purpose 
 that we call growth. It is fair 
 to ask how has this growth been 
 achieved? The "determinate or 
 purposive change" must have 
 some modifying principle. If 
 there is direction there must be 
 a director, who in turn must 
 have a prod. Now, what is the 
 prod that ever keeps mankind go- 
 ing in a given direction? Let us 
 
 [10]
 
 suppose that sin and evil or what- 
 ever we may call life's somber 
 forces that make for pain or un- 
 happiness or sorrow, are infrac- 
 tions of the social code. What- 
 ever else the social code may 
 be it is the sum of the customs 
 of the people; it has public sen- 
 timent behind it; it is more pow- 
 erful than any human law. Who- 
 ever violates public sentiment, 
 whether he refuse to join in the 
 cannibal feast ordained by sav- 
 agery, or whether he takes rail- 
 road rebates condemned by 
 civilization, or wears an orange 
 ribbon on a green day, he feels 
 
 Hi]
 
 the disapproval of his neighbors. 
 That disapproval is a basis for 
 the conviction of sin. It is at 
 least one of the reasons why his 
 conscience pricks him. But cus- 
 toms change; often within the 
 lifetime of one generation they 
 change so fast that a man is 
 ashamed in middle life of the 
 things he did, that were counten- 
 anced by society in his youth. 
 JAs men widen their sphere 
 of knowledge, they broaden 
 their sensibilities. As the sensi- 
 bilities of the millions broaden, 
 society redistributes its rewards, 
 changes its code; evils multiply; 
 
 [12]
 
 sin increases. But it is not the 
 number of evil deeds that 
 grows, it is the public sense of 
 evil that is widening. 
 J Let us suppose that the moral 
 sense of society grows as the 
 sensibilities of the masses in- 
 crease. These sensibilities af- 
 fect men's social habits and cus- 
 toms. As we appreciate suffer- 
 ing, we put a ban on those cus- 
 toms that cause suffering. Men 
 with smaller sensibilities than 
 the average in any social group, 
 men who cause suffering, grow 
 unhappy. They feel the grind of 
 public sentiment upon them. 
 
 [13]
 
 And, following the course of 
 least resistance, such men 
 gradually conform to the ways 
 of society, and thus slowly the 
 prod in the hands of the direc- 
 tor of humanity, drives human- 
 ity forward. This then, is our 
 theory: 
 
 tj Consciousness is sensibility; in 
 the human creature, either in the 
 mass or in the individual, as 
 time operates upon sensibility, 
 it is increased. As human sen- 
 sibilities widen, imagination 
 broadens. Suffering cries for 
 help. He that hath ears, hears; 
 cruelty becomes intolerable, as 
 
 [14]
 
 men become conscious that it 
 exists. Through the sensibilities of 
 humanity, kindness grows. Thus 
 the race moves from the mate- 
 rial world into the spiritual. At 
 least we may take this as a 
 theory of spiritual growth. 
 t][ Whether the inheritance of 
 progress comes to humanity 
 through variation of the social 
 body or through modification of 
 the individual is not important. 
 Indeed, it is not important to 
 question whether or not the in- 
 heritance is passed to the indi- 
 vidual at all. For it is certain 
 that the inheritance is seen in 
 
 115]
 
 the modification of the vast so- 
 cial body of civilization. Prog- 
 ress to some upward ideal of 
 living among men is the surest 
 fact of history. It is more defi- 
 nite than dates or battles or 
 epochs or eras or forms of gov- 
 ernment. Everything else but 
 the growth of human habits 
 through the widening of human 
 sensibilities toward a more per- 
 fect art of living is of secondary 
 importance in history. For men 
 were strong when they held 
 slaves; they wrote wise saws 
 when they made human sacri- 
 fices. There was culture even
 
 in Corinth and Sodom, and men 
 were orderly under the govern- 
 ment of Rome. They were in- 
 dustrious in the days of the in- 
 quisition, and were pious when 
 they burned witches. Yet until 
 men began to be kind, civiliza- 
 tion was shifting and uncertain. 
 And only as brotherhood and 
 good will are in the foundation 
 of modern civilization will it en- 
 dure. Just now the civilized 
 world is trying to establish de- 
 mocracy. It seems to express 
 the yearnings of the race for the 
 elusive ideal of the art of life. 
 Democracy's exponents say that 
 
 [17]
 
 it is altruism trying to state it- 
 self in the social equation. If 
 they are right, democracy will 
 endure. Otherwise men will 
 make short shift of democracy 
 as they have made short shift of 
 theocracy, autocracy and an- 
 archy. 
 
 J For if there is a golden thread 
 of faith shot through the maze 
 of life, it is faith that the "de- 
 terminate or purposive change" 
 moving in men "the way of 
 the Lord," is moving toward a 
 social order wherein men may 
 express their good will toward 
 one another at less material sac- 
 
 [18]
 
 rifice than they expend in ex- 
 pressing good will as things are 
 now. For only one thing has 
 persisted through the changing 
 of political forms during the 
 passing centuries. That is the 
 tendency of men to be kind to 
 one another in their primary re- 
 lations. The "determinate or 
 purposive change" needed as 
 "an indispensable basis for up- 
 building the great fabric" of hu- 
 man society, is the gradually 
 widening good will among men 
 as their sensibilities broaden 
 from the good will of the family 
 to that of the tribe, from that to 
 
 [19]
 
 the clan, from that to the state, 
 from that to the nation. 
 fl Thus it may be reasonably as- 
 serted that the impelling current 
 in the tide of human customs 
 and habits now moving human 
 affairs is kindness of men to men. 
 Our modern civilization is not 
 measured by its commerce, not 
 by its politics, not by its religion, 
 not by its literature. These are 
 by-products of our habits of 
 good will. Modern commerce 
 is vast, because on the whole it 
 is honest. Governments are 
 strong, because they are based 
 so largely upon common con- 
 
 [20]
 
 sent and so little upon force. 
 Religion is useful only as it 
 teaches habits of kindness, and 
 modern literature is permanent 
 only as it impresses altruistic 
 ideas definitely upon the masses. 
 If the realest thing in the mate- 
 rial world is ether, perhaps the 
 realest thing in the spiritual 
 world is the habit of kindness. 
 It may be that the simile will go 
 further. They say that all the 
 material manifestations of the 
 world, the earth, the waters of 
 the earth, the sky above, the 
 lightning, the whirlwind, the 
 trees, the grass, these bodies of 
 
 [21]
 
 ours and the "many inventions" 
 of men, are merely forms of mo- 
 tion in the ether. May it not be 
 true that all that is worthy and 
 permanent in our human rela- 
 tions, whether in the home or 
 in the state, is but the spirit of 
 kindness, urging us forward to 
 some perfection in the art of 
 life, to an undreamed of ideal in 
 our human relations? The physi- 
 cal cycle from light and water 
 and earth and air through or- 
 ganized vegetable masses re- 
 duced for combustion in ani- 
 mals to be returned to light and 
 water and earth and air again
 
 that is a narrow cycle. May 
 there not be a broader cycle? 
 Where light and water and earth 
 and air in their ceaseless round 
 upon this globe become trans- 
 muted into human aspirations, 
 when this corruption puts on in- 
 corruption,hasnota larger cycle 
 begun? May not the cycle of the 
 ether widen as it joins the cycle 
 of the spirit? The one may be said 
 to resemble the revolutions of the 
 earth upon its axis, moving 
 forward in a cycle of material evo- 
 lution . Is there not also an ellipse 
 beyond the narrow material cycle 
 whose first curves men are just 
 
 [23]
 
 beginning to discern a spiritual 
 ellipse that will have its turning 
 in some unknown eternity that 
 we may not fathom even in our 
 dreams? 
 
 JSuch questions must remain 
 purely speculative. For after all, 
 the world is not a chocolate 
 eclair; there is meanness in it; 
 there is injustice in it and inhu- 
 manity in it. The training that 
 comes to the race as it combats 
 meanness, goes through injustice 
 and encounters inhumanity, is 
 necessary training. The selfish 
 forces of life have their place in 
 life. War has played its part in 
 
 [24]
 
 evolution; it has taught us much; 
 so has pestilence, so has famine, 
 so has lust, so has hunger. 
 "There must needs be offense: 
 but woe to him through whom 
 offenses come." And millions 
 of men and women in this part 
 of the world that we call civ- 
 ilized, are bound so closely to 
 the rack of harsh experience 
 that they cannot see the essential 
 nobility of their own lives lives 
 that in dull anguish and misery 
 still find room for a thousand 
 daily kindnesses; lives that still 
 are filled, even the most sordid 
 of these lives, with sacrifices 
 
 [25]
 
 and with loyalty to unworthy 
 causes. And this sacrificial loy- 
 alty is the fruit of a greater faith 
 than their lips or hearts could 
 confess. God knows these lives 
 are hard and bitter. God knows 
 that the world is full of such 
 lives. Yet God knows also that 
 from the grimy, sodden-witted 
 lives of the millions helping their 
 kind in instinctive folk charity 
 born from the common sensi- 
 bility of civilized men, springs 
 the seed of human progress. 
 Therein lies much of our ulti- 
 mate hope of whatever millen- 
 nium may come. 
 
 [26]
 
 fl There is a practical side to 
 whatever spiritual truth we may 
 find. For as modern civilized 
 society is organized, at least two 
 fundamental spiritual facts are 
 obvious: First, that the current 
 of modern progress in the va- 
 rious organized activities of men 
 is impelled more largely than 
 ever before by good will; and, 
 secondly, that so far as the indi- 
 vidual man is kind he is happy, 
 even if he is not materially pros- 
 perous. Consider the first prop- 
 osition, that in public activities 
 men are largely impelled by mo- 
 tives of good will. Is not the 
 
 [27]
 
 whole tendency of modern poli- 
 tics toward helping the man up 
 from below? What are public 
 schools but aids to the prostrate 
 to rise? What is universal suf- 
 frage but an endeavor to arm the 
 weak against the aggressions of 
 the strong? What are all these 
 attempts to purify our modern 
 politics, to purge the parties by 
 direct nominations, to establish 
 the referendum in cities, to abol- 
 ish corporate campaign contri- 
 butions, to give to the people 
 the right of recall upon public 
 officers and the right to initiate 
 legislation? To be sure they are 
 
 128]
 
 the weapons of modern democ- 
 racy. Certainly they are found 
 not merely in America, but all 
 over civilization. But funda- 
 mentally and chiefly they are 
 instruments which the advocates 
 of democracy believe will lift 
 the weak man into a better herit- 
 age than he enjoys. What is 
 this movement for old age pen- 
 sions, for workingmen's com- 
 pensation laws, for employers' 
 liability laws, for welfare work 
 in the great industries, profit 
 sharing, workingmen's clubs, la- 
 bor unions, institutional churches, 
 parks and playgrounds, free li- 
 
 [291
 
 braries and factory sanitation, 
 but a part of the large tendency 
 of the world's strong men to make 
 brothers of the weak so they may 
 grow strong and wise. These ame- 
 liorating influences have come 
 into the world because men's 
 sensibilities have so widened that 
 a righteous man is ashamed to 
 ignore his neighbor's suffering 
 or his neighbor's wrongs. 
 JThe public activities of men 
 along altruistic lines cover or- 
 ders, lodges, associations, cove- 
 nants, organizations are as many 
 as the sands of the sea. And so 
 generally has good will monop- 
 
 [30]
 
 olized the parliamentary form, 
 that men meeting for purely self- 
 ish ends today have to make 
 their meetings secret and hide 
 their purposes. 
 
 fl Consider the second proposi- 
 tion, that man as an individual 
 is happy only as he is kind. Of 
 course it is impossible to say 
 just what man is happy and 
 what man is unhappy. But ap- 
 proval of one's kind probably 
 is one of the things that makes 
 for happiness. Who is surer of 
 public approval than the gener- 
 ous adversary, the chivalrous 
 foe, the kindly competitor? Is 
 
 131]
 
 the rich man always praised? 
 Does he not often drain a bit- 
 ter cup? Is the powerful man 
 sure of public acclaim in his 
 mean use of power? Is the 
 proud man encouraged in his 
 pride? It pays to be decent, is 
 a proverb of the people. That 
 means only that the spiritual is 
 dominant in a material world. 
 The man who is ever looking 
 for the main chance is the final 
 loser of the game. Greed pois- 
 ons itself and dies. The pluto- 
 crat is pulling against the cur- 
 rent. Great wealth in and of it- 
 self today often is regarded by 
 
 [32]
 
 society as a handicap to a man 
 or an institution. The good that 
 money will do is limited. The 
 good that a man may do is lim- 
 ited only by his talents. Per- 
 haps Mr. Roosevelt is wrong in 
 some of his tenets. But right or 
 wrong, he has inspired more 
 men to righteousness in public 
 life than a millionaire could call 
 forth with the millions of 
 Wall street. And all the king's 
 horses and all the king's men 
 cannot put America back to the 
 lower ideals of the past cen- 
 tury. The gain is permanent 
 because our sensibilities have in- 
 
 133]
 
 creased in matters political. 
 And Mr. Roosevelt, who 
 has promoted the progress of 
 his country, manifestly is exult- 
 ant and happy, while those who 
 have devoted their lives to 
 games of greed before all the 
 world are seeking happiness in 
 mere pleasure and "dig for it 
 more than for hid treasures." 
 Wherever we look in this world 
 with clear eyes, whether we see 
 great movements or great men, 
 we find the cycle of the spirit- 
 ual enfolding the cycle of the 
 material. 
 J We may as well make up our 
 
 134]
 
 minds that to all good intents 
 and for all high purposes this is 
 not a material world. Whoever 
 would achieve any worthy thing 
 must found it upon the com- 
 mon law of kindness known as 
 righteousness. The world's 
 greatest goods are not set in the 
 ether. Its most permanent re- 
 wards are not material. We are 
 all working in clay and it is our 
 duty to work well, but our pay 
 should be such stuff as dreams 
 are made of. The fool is he 
 who works in clay and takes 
 his pay in clay, for "the fool 
 said in his heart, there is no 
 
 [35]
 
 God." The material cycle from 
 light and earth and air and water 
 through grass and beasts back 
 to the elements, is a vain un- 
 meaning repetition. The greater 
 cycle is an eternal journey. In 
 life, man has his choice between 
 the treadmill of the eternal 
 grind, or the path of the eternal 
 journey. It is his only choice 
 in all the scheme of things. For 
 on his choice he builds his 
 character; from his character 
 and not from his environment 
 will come his happiness. In the 
 eternal grind man may pile dol- 
 lars on dollars by the million. 
 
 F36]
 
 He may generate great material 
 power; he may have glory, or 
 in the same grind he may work 
 long, lonesome hours for poor 
 pay. It is all the same. The 
 pleasures that come as rewards 
 for material success the pleas- 
 ures that come for cash are 
 apples of Sodom. The poor 
 selfish man is as well paid with- 
 out them as the rich selfish man 
 is paid with them. Pleasure is 
 not happiness. Nor is poverty 
 misery. Happiness is useful- 
 ness; meanness is waste, and mis- 
 ery is more the result of charac- 
 ter than of environment. A man 
 
 [37]
 
 never succeeds in a large sense 
 in working for himself. Only 
 until a man has got out of him- 
 self, until his effort is for others, 
 until, in short, he is out of the 
 eternal grind and in the wider 
 spiritual cycle, may a man 
 really achieve. For it is folly to 
 pull against the current spend- 
 ing strength to no end. Either 
 the fool is right or he is wrong. 
 Either there is a God or there is 
 not. If there is not, whence 
 this "determinate or purposive 
 change" toward higher things 
 in nature and in man; if there is 
 a God, we cannot fool him. So 
 
 [38]
 
 why treat him as a confederate 
 in our crimes? Why should we 
 expect material rewards for spir- 
 itual service? Why envy mate- 
 rial success? Why lose faith be- 
 cause the wicked seem to pros- 
 per? Why should not those 
 who seek material rewards by 
 selfish methods get them? There 
 is nothing to hinder them. It is 
 none of God's business. They 
 are out of his world. WTiy do 
 the wicked prosper, asked Job 
 in rebellion. They do not. 
 CJThey get things and things 
 oppress them. Things curse 
 them. Things corrupt their 
 
 [39]
 
 children. Things drive away 
 their friends. Things keep them 
 awake nights. Things make 
 men cowards and cheats, and 
 bend them to unholy tasks. It 
 is the crown of follies to believe 
 that those insensible persons 
 whom we choose to call "the 
 wicked" prosper. For the world 
 of the spirit has its own laws. 
 And these laws do not run 
 counter to gravitation and cohe- 
 sion and the centripetal forces. 
 f Men of flabby faith are jeal- 
 ous of others with goods and 
 chattels. These jealous men de- 
 sire material rewards for spir- 
 
 [40]
 
 itual services, and curse God, 
 longing for fleshpots. Then is 
 not their covetousness their pun- 
 ishment? Indeed, is not all sin 
 its own penalty? Does not greed 
 and lust and meanness shrivel 
 the soul so that it may not en- 
 joy the marvelous spectacle of 
 life passing before us? Thus the 
 greedy man may gain the world 
 and lose his own soul. He must 
 lose his own soul if he gains the 
 world, for he moves in the cycle 
 of the ether, and cannot travel 
 in the larger cycle. But never- 
 theless he may gain the world. 
 There is no law, physical or spir- 
 
 Hl]
 
 itual, against that. He may ex- 
 cite his senses. He may have 
 pleasure. There is no law 
 against that. He may dodge 
 the penalties of the physical 
 world. That is not impossible. 
 CJ All thieves are not caught; but 
 all are punished. The senses 
 grow dull. Even pleasure van- 
 ishes. Pleasure is at best a 
 counterfeit of happiness. It buys 
 nothing in the end, and those 
 who traffic in counterfeits are 
 outlawed from the higher law. 
 That is their penalty. And who- 
 ever would add more fire to 
 hell for them, than they have, 
 
 I ---' 
 
 [42]
 
 needs the fire for himself. 
 fJBut in the outer cycle the 
 world's work goes on. Mothers 
 bear and rear their young; men 
 help their brothers. In the great 
 workshops and offices, in the 
 streets, on the farms, in grand 
 houses and in humble dwell- 
 ings men are working for the 
 joy of achievement, working be- 
 cause the day's work must be 
 done, working in pain and in 
 anguish and still in the joy of 
 service. Theirs is not the ma- 
 terial world; theirs is not the ma- 
 terial reward. For them, what 
 though the scales do not bal- 
 
 [43]
 
 ance, and their social service find 
 an inadequate material return. 
 What though they are under- 
 paid in money the certificate 
 of title for social service. God 
 is paying them in the joy of 
 service and society may keep 
 the change and choke on it. Is 
 the mother's rocker on a meter, 
 that society must pay her? 
 Neither is the brother's hand to 
 be weighed in the market bask- 
 et. The clock watcher is paid 
 in terms of time; the worker for 
 good will is paid in terms of 
 eternity. And yet, through some 
 inexorable law whose workings 
 
 [44]
 
 we may not understand, there 
 seems to be a reckoning for 
 society. The social organiza- 
 tion so insensible to human 
 rights that it cheats the individ- 
 ual pays toll on its journeys or 
 perishes. 
 
 CJThe trash-heaps of his- 
 tory are piled high with nations 
 that were cruel and unfair to 
 those who did the rough work 
 of their times without fair re- 
 turn. The land that cheats the 
 workers, cheats itself. Indeed 
 and in truth does righteousness 
 exalt a nation. 
 fl It may be men will say 
 
 [45]
 
 that we do not live in primitive 
 times; we have great things to 
 do. But no great achievement 
 ever came without great vision, 
 and great vision does not come 
 for money or power or fame. 
 No work is so great that it needs 
 be done in meanness. Would 
 you dig your isthmian ditch, 
 build your college, lay your 
 railroad, proclaim your God, 
 put up your sky-scraper, frame 
 your law, promote your admin- 
 istration? Then keep it in the 
 outer cycle in the world of the 
 spirit. Have faith in it; conse- 
 crate it with love of humanity 
 
 [46]
 
 and men will come to help from 
 the ends of the earth with ma- 
 terial things to make your 
 dream come true. Nothing is 
 so cheap as stone and iron and 
 leg service. Reformers often 
 lack faith. They repine for 
 money. If Christ had waited 
 until he could earn money by 
 miracles to hire missionaries, 
 where would Christianity be? 
 The plan of salvation needed 
 no financial basis to establish it. 
 It needed a crucifixion. Most 
 reform needs something like 
 that more than money. The 
 reformer must be a crusader for 
 
 f47]
 
 
 the spiritual world is no place 
 for the dabbler. Louis XVI 
 without heart or bowels lived 
 at Versailles in the material 
 world; and when his head 
 rolled into the basket it was an 
 addled, towsled old head in the 
 basket nothing more. But John 
 Brown's body paid the mort- 
 gage on two million souls. The 
 spiritual world offers its heroes 
 little loot and much righting. It 
 promises long marches, hard 
 bivouacs, keen suffering and, in 
 the end, lonely and perhaps 
 shameful death. Faith has few 
 crowns for her champions. For 
 
 [48]
 
 one John Brown ten thousand 
 died at Cold Harbor. Yet who 
 would recall them? Who would 
 not trade a storied urn and ani- 
 mated bust for a place in the 
 trenches with the nameless dead 
 of that battlefield? 
 fl But the doubter will ask, how 
 does kindness grow? How is 
 good will cultivated among men? 
 Why have we moved up from 
 barbarism? Through what or- 
 gan has the "determinate or pur- 
 posive change" worked the way 
 of the Most High? Humanity 
 is a bundle of contradictions. 
 Yet spiritually there is a law of 
 
 [49]
 
 regression. We tend to spirit- 
 ual averages. No one is all good 
 nor all bad. There is no race 
 of moral giants, any more than 
 a race of physical giants. Nor 
 are there races of moral dwarfs 
 and moral starvelings. The di- 
 vine spark is in every soul. In 
 a crisis the meanest man may 
 become a hero. Indeed there 
 is no profession of heroes. The 
 charlatan, the oppressor of the 
 poor, the courtesan, or the thief, 
 has seen the spark of divin- 
 ity flare up within him in 
 some great crisis, and as it 
 burned it has shown a hero. It 
 
 [50]
 
 is doubtful whether any human 
 being falls so low that he will 
 not give up even his life upon 
 a grand impulse to save a fel- 
 low sufferer in agony. This 
 holy spirit is in every heart. 
 The inheritance of the divine 
 spark is an universal endowment. 
 It is the fundamental claim men 
 have upon one another as 
 brothers. We are equals in the 
 democracy of the holy spirit 
 in the potential spark of hero- 
 ship. Great souls are they 
 whose enlightened sensibilities 
 make each day a grand crisis, 
 every neighbor an object of sac- 
 
 [51]
 
 rifical love. But the fire that 
 burned in Christ's heart, and 
 the fire that burned in the thief's 
 heart who gave his life for a 
 child in the street, are one fire. 
 Christ knew this. He accepted 
 the scarlet woman as sister, and 
 the publican as brother. Over 
 and over the spark is planted in 
 untold billions of hearts as the 
 ages pass; and slowly as our 
 sensibilities widen, our customs 
 change. So comes progress, 
 and the fire glows larger in our 
 common lives. That divine 
 spark is the realest thing we 
 know in the universe more 
 
 [52]
 
 real even than the ether. For 
 while we have the mighty round 
 of things upon this globe, from 
 light and air and water and 
 earth up through vegetation to 
 animal life; there comes a place 
 where the narrow material cycle 
 touches a segment of the wider 
 round where the ether thrills 
 with a human vision. There in 
 that holy of holies, the human 
 consciousness, creation's plan 
 begins anew, and God says, let 
 there be light, and lo, there is 
 light. 
 
 153]
 
 BOOKS BY 
 
 William Allen White 
 
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 The Old Order Changeth" 
 
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