Beyond the Barrier…

We read of speeds that move men beyond the so-called “sonic barrier,” and of the forces and feelings encountered when super-powered planes physically fight their way through the “sound wall” almost as if they were moving through a solid substance. This is just one physical example of man’s moving into realms beyond where he has been before.

We read of light that allegedly travels faster than the acknowledged speed of light. We read of the recording of the “ultrasonic” sounds of birds⎯of songs that can be seen on the spectograph by the human eye, but which cannot be heard by the human ear. There is, no doubt, much that happens all around us that we are little aware of⎯much that is “proved,” and much that is unproved, so far as the physical senses of men are concerned.

We are far from understanding fully even ourselves; and we are infinitely far from understanding all the physical forces that are all around us; and still farther from understanding the intangible forces, the thoughts, the feelings, the intuition and impressions, the spiritual forces, that escape our coarser senses. But shall we say that because we cannot hear or see something, it doesn’t exist? Would it not be presumptuous and unprovable to say so?

Whatever is beyond the barrier, whatever is beyond our senses, whatever is yet unknown, whatever we shall yet discover, in the words of Robert Millikan, “… the Creator is still on the job”⎯and humility and an open mind to truth are still among the most becoming attitudes of men.

Sometimes we may not know what it is that moves upon us, that makes us restless for the search. Sometimes we may wonder why others do not see what we see or why others seem to see what we do not see. And then, with faith, we find the “evidence of things not seen,” the substance of what we could not find before.

The search for truth is an exceedingly important part of life⎯for all truth: for the presently reachable, tangible, and material facts, as well as for the spiritual and intangible facts that lie at present beyond the barrier⎯and to which faith at last will lead us. Faith is essential in the search.