STATE OF WORLD.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 406, 13 April 1937, Page 7

STATE OF WORLD.

DR. SCROGGIE’S VIEW. Indictment of Nations. Los Angeles, March 13. When a journalist asked a world traveller a simple question and was answered by silence and tears, he felt as uncomfortable as the man he was interviewing, yet that was what happened when a newspaperman encountered Dr W. Graham Scroggie, of Edinburgh, Scotland, who has been preaching a series of rousing sermons at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. “What is your opinion of the present moral and spiritual status of the world?” Dr Scroggie was asked at his Wilshire Boulevard apartment. Tears came to the eyes of the minister, who bowed his head and remained silent for a minute before he replied: “Unless the churches stop their quarrelling and unite in an effort to inspire the hearts of men with the gospel of love, unless war for conquest is outlawed by nations that call themselves Christian, unless officers of the law dare to enforce the laws that the people and their leaders make, unless the drink evil Is curbed, and unless youth is taught respect for their parents and reverence for God, I see little hope for humanity.” “You are pessimistic, Dr Scroggie,” said the interviewer. “Better to be an open-eyed pessimist than a blind optimist,” replied Dr Scroggie. “Faith in God and conviction of the final triumph of right saves me, as it saves many others, from despair. Faith is the one unfailing anchor of the Christian. However, we must face facts as they are before we can hope to remedy conditions. The Millennium is not at hand. The nations are spending* billions of dollars for armaments. The world faces bankruptcy. There will be no more borrowing. Nations are l neither able nor willing to lend.”