Page:Path of Vision; pocket essays of East and West.djvu/14

 digression. To say that we in America are primarily materialistic is to repeat a commonplace. To say that there is a religious revival in the country,—that we are beginning again to have spiritual needs, aspiring, longing, groping for the higher things of life, is to echo what is but a vague expression of our present state of unrest and discontent.

Before we admit or question the sincerity and the soundness of this spiritual revival, let us inquire first what is meant by the spiritual. Does it consist in turning, for guidance and solace, to the Orient, or to Christianity, or to spiritism, or to the Society for Psychical Research, or to theosophy and mystic lore? There is in all these movements of the present day a common desire, to be sure, to turn from materialism, if only for a spell—and for a change. But every definition of the spiritual that they embody differs substantially from the other. The question is, Can our spiritual aspirations be realized only by turning to Christ or to Mother Church? Must they,