ROTARY’S TASK IN THE NEW AGE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 157, 29 March 1939, Page 8

ROTARY’S TASK IN THE NEW AGE

Guiding’ How Man Shall

Use His Powers CALL OF THE TIMES FOR LOYALTY AND TRUTH "1 believe that this movement has been called into being to meet the needs of the times in which we live,” said the Rev. A. P. Campbell. Sydney, president of the Congregational Union of Australia and New Zealand, in an address on “Rotary as I see it.” to members of the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday. We are living in a new world, a new age, one which has come upon us so suddenly that we are not yet adjusted to its shape or meaning, and almost fear that in our confusion we shall tumble, into chaos, said Mr. Campbell.

Rotary was definitely a great movement, the speaker said, a movement that was greater than any other club or association of clubs in the world. It was a great movement because of the spirit which governed and permeated it. By that he did not mean the pleasant humauitarianisms associated with it, but the spirit which set the course of Rotary. Only the other evening he had witnessed the sun set from the top of Tinakori Hill. The sight from that point revealed Wellington as a lovely city : but it was only by climbing the heights that one got a true perspective. Ami so it was with Rotary. One could not judge it al. close quarters but must climb the height and look down upon it to grasp the nature of its ethical beauty of purpose.” Power and Proximity. The war was responsible for a good deal, said Mr. Campbell, but it was not responsible for the new age. That was mankind, who would insist on putting new wine into old wineskins instead of into new wineskins, so that they burst and the wine wag spilt. The new age was marked by two outstanding characteristics—power and proximity. Power was created by the new freedom and education and was placed in the hands of men to use it either to construct or destroy. •‘That which we used to use for taking grease stains out of our clothes has been made a power, hitherto unknown in human memory and it is for men to use it. to constructive and redemptive ends or the reverse. The perils that we now face are really the gains. The issue rested with the spirit of men—how they will use those gains.

“'Those gains, in their turn, have brought about international proximity. The world is now one vast neighbourhood. It is as though there are vast arms at work, drawing us all relentlessly, inescapably together, and how this will work out depends upon man and the spirit that is in him. It cannot come by Government, nor by pacts or coven-’ ants; but it might come if the right spirit were manifested in such pacts and covenants.”

Rotary bad been brought about to encompass that need. Its membership knew no barriers, sects, nor creeds, its constitution rested on the spiritual and stood for those words of precious meaning—fellowship, friendship, goodwill and understanding. Surely such virtues were designed to meet the urgent need of the times. . . . It was the call for men to be loyal and true; not to be selfcentred nor club-centred but to live up to the essence of the spirit of Rotary, and so help to furnish the requisite manhood required to meet the problems of the new age and to pass on the torch to those who followed on.

In moving a hearty vote of thanks, Mr. J. M. A. Hott said that members bad listened to the most challenging and heart-searching address ever delivered before the club. He considered that Mr. Campbell had made a great contribution to the cause to which they belonged.