THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 20, 19 October 1942, Page 4

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections Intercession. Almighty God,, give to every State the dawning spirit of human brotherhood, a new respect for man and . for woman, new loyalty in service, compunction and charity, new happiness in work and justice in rewards; that our homes may be restored in Thee, and our cities rebuilt, and. all the world may reflect the radiance of Thy grace. Amen. * * * Practice thrift or else you'll drift.— Proverb. ' « » * “ ‘The composers of our time appear bent upon stripping music of all the sweetness native to it. ...They devote themselves deliberately to the task of making their compositions difficult ana discordant.. .It cannot be doubted that this art will perish utterly if the musicians continue in their present ways.’ When do you suppose that was written? In 1735—200 years ago. It was written by a German critic, and the music he was denouncing as revolutionary and discordant was the music of John Sebastian Bach. There may be beauty which is absolutely eternal, but it is certain there are fashions in taste, and what the fathers put in the drawing-room the children may put in the attic, and the grandchildren put back in the drawing-room.” —From “Leeks and Daffodils,” by Thomas Jones, C.H.

“It has gone very hard with me to hear hon. Members on all sides quibbling in the way they have done during the past few years,” said Mr. Ellis Smith, M.P. in the House of Commons. “I saw an example myself which I shall never forget. A large works had been heavily bombed. The conditions were terrible. The roof was blown in. It was one of the coldest days we had during what was one of the coldest winters of my life; draughts were coming from all quarters. It was raining, but the men were working as hard as men could work, in order to reconstruct the building as quickly as possible. In addition, there were thousands of men and young wqineu working behind tarpaulins, giving the maximum output Having seen that, and knowing that nearly the whole of our people are prepared to do the same, one cannot but remember it and try to be worthy of it.”

“Our educational system has obviously failed in large measure to give a Christian foundation to life. It may be that while the representatives of the denominations quarrelled hotly about syllabuses and rights of entry and. other small dust of the balance, the children stole away. But now that there is a stirring of conscience and the beginning of new activity on behalf of youth, a unique opportunity is offered to the Church to have a share in the direction of this great movement, and to inspire it with the highest ideals. It may become one of the great things in our history; but it may be just another broken hope. It is surely our business both to show ourselves ready to participate jn all good plans on behalf of youth, and also to proclaim that man doth not live by bread alone, nor by recreational centres or sports grounds or occupational facilities, necessary and excellent and praiseworthy as all these are.”—The Rev. W. J. Noble, in the course of his address as President of the British Methodist Conference.

“The Government of India must and will stand firm. Even in the face of the Japanese menace the challenge of Congress must be accepted. There is indeed no alternative, since Mr. Gandhi rules out all negotiation. Good may even come out of evil for the failure of a civil disobedience movement would enable Indian politics to be placed on a new basis of reality. The parrot-cry of ‘lndia in bondage’ was never more fantastic than today. In the Viceroy’s Executive Council—in effect his Cabinet—eleven members out of fifteen are Indians. A million and a quarter Indian volunteers are fighting for India with the United Nations, and that number grows daily. So concurrently does the output of war material from Indian workshops and factories. 'The Communist Party of India, which the Government of India has decided to ban no longer, has described the attitude of Congress as ‘boiling down to cutting our own throats,’ and as weakening the defence of the country against aggressors and making the task of the Fascist invader easier. If in seven out of eleven provinces democratic government under Indian responsible to Indian legislatures has been suspended, that is only because Congress called out the Ministries on strike as a purely political manoeuvre.” —“The Spectator’’ London.

“If we were looking for a catch-word to describe our age,” said Sir Richard W. Livingstone, in a recent speech reported in Co-Partnership, “various phrases would occur to tho mind: we might call it the Age of Science, or the Age of Revolution, or the Age without standards. The life without standards exists in all epochs, but it is the peculiar danger of a riclusociety at whose feet every kind of facility distraction and pleasure are poured in indiscriminate profusion. Commercialism helps the chaos. For the aim of commerce is not to sell what is best for the people or even what they really need, but simply to sell: its final standard is successful sale. Such a society 'breeds the type which Plato calls the ‘democratic’ man, behind the lineaments of whose portrait, drawn more than 2,000 years ago, we discern a contemporary face. ‘He spends’ says Plato, ‘as much time and pains and money on superfluous pleasures as on necessary ones. He sets all on a footing of equality, denying to none its equal rights.’ His life is subject to no order or restraint, and he has no wish to change an existence which he calls pleasant, free and happy.’ But of all lives, the life without standards, without a sturdy and worthy principle to govern it, is the most ignoble and barren.” * * * Misjudgement. They said that we were weak, that we would be An easy prey for their advancing might; They could not know that free men. being free, Are sheathed in armour durable and bright I David Ray.