The Scheme of Things By M.M.C.

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 108, 2 November 1940, Page 15

The Scheme of Things By M.M.C.

Many isolated remarks by wellknown men come to the fore in these days when many people who never thought before are beginning to do so now. The subject of education, oi 1 course, has been oi special interest as it should be considering the vast importance of it; to the next generation of rulers of the world. It has been shown well and clearly what want of principle and truth can do in the big world; also honesty in all ranks of life and in all countries, large and small, as well as in individual towns and peoples. Dr. Blakerby, Dean of Lincoln, remarked recently in an address to educationists that "education without religion will surround us with clever devils." He ap plied the remark in a number of interesting ways, showing how cleverness without principle is such a dangerous thing for the community. He referred to racial persecution and how this had developed into the more widespread evil of war, causing the deaths of thousands of innocent women and children, the destruction of homes, and generally making havoc in a perfectly unnecessary and cruel manner

The fineness of a religious character was mentioned by the speaker. He said that a really right-thinking man or woman has the quality which prevents him or her from that fatal conceit or self-satisfaction which spoils some quite well-educated people. The fact that a man like the Duke of Wellington would not allow a humble person to be pushed aside in a church illustrated what is meant. The Duke had entered a church, and a busy official hurried up to make a place for him, and was thrusting aside people in order to do this, when the £)uke.

quietly remarked, "Not so, we are all equal here."

Dean Hole, the famous grower of exquisite roses, contrasted the soul of a person with the watered garden with that which "is as a dry land where no water is, and the lovely flowers and fruits of holiness with the cruel thorns and poisonous weeds of sin." lie instanced how every person may make the desert smile, not only in his own hearth and home, but in the abodes of ignorance, poverty, and sin. These thoughts come readily to the mind today when so much infinite suffering and misery have come upon the world. The causes of it all lie far back in the history of every nation, preparing the way for the Power of Evil when it became sufficiently strong to come out into the foreground of the whole world practically. If there is real prosperity md happiness among the peoples, properly distributed, it is to be hoped and believed possible that the' people, being sufficiently cared for, and there fore contented, will not be ready to adventure into the horrors of war again. There is very little doubt that a great deterrent will be the various histories of this war which will undoubtedly be written when it is over It is to be hoped that there will be a real religious awakening brought reasonably and attractively before the world, and also (most necessary) a reform in the teaching of the young folk (which at present is teiTibly wanting in the right spirit) and in the teaching of the histories oi' the nations. There is so much to be learned from the past, II may be that the story of the world war going on today will prove one of the most useful things ever put before the young people of the future.