{"product_id":"2940015934687","title":"A Test of the Truth","description":"An excerpt from the beginning:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eALL who share to any extent in the intellectual life of the present day, must come more or less under the portentous shadow by which modern Scepticism has darkened the whole world of thought; but there is a hidden subtle element in the scientific Materialism of this fin-de-siècle which has not been fully acknowledged or recognised, and that is the curse of secret intolerable pain which it has the power to inflict on minds of a certain stamp. There are many for whom the entire negation of belief in a self-existent Power behind the material universe—in the survival of human consciousness after death—and in any possible solution, here or hereafter, of the mysteries of earthly existence, becomes nothing less than the very blackness of despair; since it extinguishes for them the last gleam of light that could illumine the ocean of suffering and evil in every form, that floods the earth from pole to pole.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo one at the present time can escape the obtruding influence of rationalistic Agnosticism. Its voice is borne to us through every channel that can reach our consciousness; it pervades the literature of the day in endless variety of expression—from the strong utterances of those who maintain that to destroy the ancient faiths is to uphold the truth, down to the shallow supercilious Atheism which mingles with novel-writers' visions of romance. Often it speaks to us from the lips of those whom we have held to be best and wisest of their kind, or in the tones that have been dearest to us all our days; but everywhere it penetrates, alike in the palaces of the cultured and refined and in the lowest dens of poverty and ignorance, while to thousands upon thousands in this land alone, it is even now sounding as the knell of all immortal hope. It seems almost to be the reversal of the ancient legend which affirms that at the dawn of Christianity, a voice was heard to wail over the Eastern seas proclaiming that the great Pan was dead—for now, from shore to shore, the voice of modern unbelief peals forth the Requiem of the living Christ. To that inexorable fiat, may well be attributed the epidemic of suicide which of late has swept over the civilized world. It has become an invisible Juggernaut—the very god of the self-destroyer, to whom human lives are daily offered up in senseless, fruitless sacrifice; but it passes the power of thought to gauge the depth and extent of the widespread, unseen anguish it has engendered.","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146427875568,"sku":"2940015934687","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015934687_p0.jpg?v=1763626359","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015934687","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}