POST-WAR ERA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 78, 23 October 1939, Page 2

POST-WAR ERA

NERVES OVERSTRAINED RESULTS OF ACTION PROHIBITED PLEASURES "When the terrible strains of the Great War ended multitudes sought relief in going direct to Nature without moral, control, .lust as sailors, after months of cor.Hncmciu aboard ship, will, upon reaching porf,, go on a spree, so the postwar era sought a vivid sense of life in emotional and sensational experiences," said Dr. If. Kirk, of Baltimore., United States ol America, in a sermon delivered in Westminster Chapel, London. "This led to a break with moral tradition, to an unrestricted exploration of forbidden paths, a savouring 'of prohibited pleasures, till today the world is cursed with a sick fatigue, boredom,, and satiety with life on a material plane. "The whole world is suffering from an exhausted and overstrained emotionalism, and the backslider is filled with nis own Avays. Self-in-dulgence has lost its appeal, and man is bitterly conscious of the fact that the way of the transgressor is hard. No one has more trenchantly expressed this mood than Richard Aldington:— "I like the men and women of my age, f like their hardness, For though we arc a battered and rather bitter set Still we have faced the facts—we have been pretty honest. But, sitting here brooding over the hard faces, I wonder if we have not rejected too much, If we have not hardened ourselves too much Making it impossible to break out of our self-prisons?" "This profound sense of satiny often turns sour and cynical. Th,e years are stale and unprofitable, and many have little energy left to seek relief in proper directions and less desire to think of the possibil-

ity of moral recovery

"This soreness of mind, this 'sadness of spirit, is a common cause of the ineffectiveness of proposed remedies; and it al*;o accounts for the disinclination tc think deeply about present conditions, as well as justifies the impulse to ignore the formidable aspects, which must frankly be faced if a man is to work out his moral regeneration. A mind that has suffered disappointment in its fondest hopes, and feels that it has been betrayed by the very things in which it trusted, will find it difficult to take interest in any suggestion for improvement.

"It is a common complaint of the young that all the great things have been accomplished. The poles have been discovered, the jungles explored, and few, if any, high mountains remain unsealed. How can Ave find fresh adventures when we are the

prisoners of mechanical contrivances and regimented modes of living, in the uninspiring regions of an organised life?

"What greater problem exists than the creation of an ordered and stable society? What age more thoroughly exhibits the evil effect of ignorance, prejudice, and moral blindness than ours? So far from being master of his world, man is its slave. Each stage of material pro gress is another link in the chain of bondage.

"Our age is characterised by irrational impulses yet it is still an age of immense suggestibility ancl capable of responding to the right sort of leadership. -As F. S. Oliver observes; 'The fabric of a vision thai; worketh great marvels is the experience of common men.' If the masses are to cease stressing their rights, to assume their responsibilities, they must be led by men who know how to teach dim eyes to see clearly and stammering tongues to sj>ealt plainly.

' Only when we feci intensely oili 4 responsibility for our world can we say to ourselves for their sakes we consecrate ourselves! By such means life becomes a Divine vocation, and even amid trials and stress it is led by visions of a new world lying out there on time's horizon, a world worth striving for and, if need be, dying for. The acceptance of such a vocation is in the last stage in the surrender of the soul to the Divine purpose, and carries with it the certainty of victory."