PROVIDENCE AND PERSONALITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 2

PROVIDENCE AND PERSONALITY

(by T. E. IVUTH.)

(Copyright.)

Nature seems guilty of almost every crime tor which society insists that the sons of men should be severely punished. That was the nasty conclusion to which we almost arrived last week.

She deserves not only what Bernard Shaw said about her, condemning her as it were from her own lies, “Go oil, kill as many people as you want to. There are plenty more where they come from.” She will supply as many as you like for gun-fodder I She treats us not only with indifference or disdain but with calculated cruelty. She lies in wait to entrap us, to destroy us—so it seems. There are lingering illnesses, foul diseases which make any kind of sudden death, not something to be prayed against but something devoutly, or even fiercely, indignantly desired.

But is Nature necessarily indifferent to suffering because she insists on the fulfilment of her Jaws V Is she not making for our larger health and happiness, our wisdom and wholeness, our complete redemption and dominion? What we call Nature is involved in human nature and taken up in divine nature. We find our way through Nature to Nature’s God. And Nature’s crucifixion cannot be adequately considered without taking creation into account and the consummation of all things. We are fearfully and wonderfully made—and being made. God and nature and tlie soul, having all the time there is, are never in a hurry, never take short cuts, always build for the endless ages—never for a week-end. To take a long look, a long range vision, to let vision become vertical as well as horizontal, to look as steadily as we look round, to see life whole is to believe that the God Who calls the stars by name lieals the broken in heart. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketli for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look. . .

Look up to the hills and find God afoot. The God of a myriad stars is mindful of the sons of men.

That, it may be said, is a matter of faith. The fact is, whatever our sorrow—

The heavens above make no disclosure The earth keeps up its terrible composure.

Nature says nothing. Not one word of sympathy with human struggle does Nature ever litter. Or God. In our deepest sorrow mail, too, is silent. It sometimes happens that there is liotlithnig that can be said. Our own deepest emotions cannot be uttered.

Words are too cumbrous. And the stars are very l'ar away. A philosopher like Carlyle, a poet like Tennyson, can find everything in silence.

Silence does not mean indifference. Nature says nothing but means everything from dust to divinity. Nature itself may be the everlasting arms. “Nature,” said Principal Cairns, Nature is a silk glove with tlie hand of God inside.”

I walked a mile with Pleasure. She chattered all tlie way, But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow. And ne’er a word said she, But oli, the tilings I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me.

After all nothing is so important in nature as personality. Nothing in nature is so influential as personality, And wliat is the most important thing any one person can do in the world to-day ?

Any one person? Or any other per-son—-the Iving, the Prime Minister, Mussolini, Hitler, Ro.osevelt? Why not the person who asks the question? Tlie person with whom you are most concerned is you. It is with you that your world is most concerned. And Christ is concerned—the contemporary Christ to-day, at this hour. The most important thing you can do is not what the other man can do, is doing, _ or neglecting to do. An artisan once said to William Janies, “After all, there is very little difference between one man and • another but wliat there is every important.’ It is that little difference that makes all the difference in the world. To deny its importance cuts the nerve of progress, destroys initiative and prevents important work being done m the world.

We are victims of many kinds of propaganda. Our ideas of personality and importance are being perverted. Money value takes the place of moral and social virtue.

Modern civilisation has inverted the real values. Importance is now a matter of publicity. It is something made by the Press, something paid for by tlie public. The income of a Hollywood star makes that of a president or prime minister look small. Amusement is more important than statesmanship or world peace. Apparently the most important thing any one person can do in the world today is not to make people think, or read or pray but to become expert in sex appeal, to make them laugh perhaps at the wrong things. To ask what is tlie most important thing any one person can do in the world to-day may call us back from the extravagant and spectacular to the simple sovereign realities of life. The most important thing any one person can do in the world to-day is wliat ho other can do for him. He must do it hiihself

There is nothing in ethics, in religion. in politicis, nothing in the world so important as personal responsibility. There is nothing that a man can do more important to any man anywhere, and nothing more divine than duty. Duty remains our greatest word. And duty is always personal. That is the assertion of reason. It, is the inner conviction, the core of personality. It is the basis of morality. It is the heart of Christianity. There is no escape from it now or ever.

That is the judgment of light. It is the first and final judgment. It is the judgment seat of Christ. It is the account man renders to liis Maker. “Lord, what shall this man do?” a disciple asked. And Christ replied. “What is that to thee?' . . Follow thou Me.”

Mind vour own business—that is the biggest business in the world to-day.

Next week we shall find ourselves in the University of Experience.