OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1939, Page 8

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

MORAL REARMAMENT (To the Editor.) Si r _R e moral rearmament—No doubt there is' plenty of room for improvement in the standard of morality, both in international and private relations; and I think we will all agree with Lord Baldwin that if international relations were conducted on the principles of honesty, faithfulness and love, it would promote peace and goodwill among all nations. How is that to be attained in a world such as ours? Here is what St Paul wrote of the world of his day: “Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they use deceit. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in all their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.” (Rom., 3rd chapter). But the world has been Christianised since then? Yes, and did it improve the morals of the Romans to walk up to the baptismal font dressed in robes of white in order to earn the 25 pieces of gold that the Emperor Constantine offered to all who would allow themselves to be baptised? That changed their names, but did it change their hearts? And. if it did not, what was the use of it? The first condition for a change in a man’s life is a changed heart. And without that it is impossible to change men’s lives. And today, ■ after 1900 years, have the outward forms of Christianity raised the moral standard of the world? - When was vice more rampant? When were treaties more like scraps of paper than they are today? What then? Launch a moral rearmament campaign! Tell the world that greed and dishonesty will only make things worse and ultimately lead to mutual destruction? Don’t they know that already? So what is the use of telling them? Didn’t the world always stone its prophets and go on as badly as ever? What then? The old old story of Christ’s love to perishing sinners, told, not by forms and ceremonies,, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, always was and always will be God’s remedy for sin. And' if men will not accept God’s message of forgiveness and peace what is there for it but the righteous judgment of the Creator? That is what is looming ahead of the world today. There- is one ray of hope and that is that when men find’ themselves in such trouble as never before that they will seek God and find Him then. And if they don’t seek God then, will they ever seek him? —I am, etc., HANS C. thomsen: Masterton, April 15. .. A SUGGESTION (To the Editor.! Sir,—What a splendid thing for the people of Masterton if an Observatory, of however humble kind, were erected —for preference within the magnificent confines of the Wairarapa - College ground —at some near future date, thus not only adding lustre to its already high cultural prestige, but bringing this institution into universal close touch with parents of students and others as well. Seeing that Wairarapa College represents, in its numerical ranks, students from every part of the district —centre, north and south —its future influence upon its townships, large and small, is yet to be felt as time goes on; and among its students there may be even embryo world celebrities in science such as the late Lord Rutherford, and geologists and astronomers as well, were the right implements of study more ready |o hand. The old school under the big bluegum trees of Havelock South is a case in point where, among its once unknown world celebritiess a humbleparented but intellectually-gifted scholar, by his own volition, as it were, rises from obscurity to such exalted scientific rank. I am, etc, “OLD CENTRAL.” Masterton, April 15.