Amerikai Magyar Reformátusok Lapja, 1934 (35. évfolyam, 1-36. szám)

1934-02-17 / 7. szám

6

AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

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C. E. Topic for Feb. 25.

GREAT RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF TO-DAY.

Lesson: Gal. 1:11-24.

Every age and every country had its great religious leaders. This age and this country are no exceptions. To-day, too, there are men and women who are the life and soul in the realm of religion. They are the bright stars, the true examples who stand out in times of plenty and peace as well as in times of dire need and hardship. As long as religion has such devoted leaders — it shall not fail!

Let’s look at a number of these outstanding religious leaders, taking some in view who would best represent a cross-section of them.

In America we have Dr. Fos- dick, Dr. Poling and others whom we call religious leaders. They merit this appellation because of their copious and unstinted service in behalf of the religious welfare of the people. We have a large number among our own people, layman and ministers, who have done great things for the flourishing of our faith in adversity. They are the backbone of our religious life.

In England Dean Inge, the gloomy Dean, as he is sometimes facetiously called, is a moving force in religion. Hungary could justifiably boast of the beloved Bishop Ravasz. We might call him the embodiment of religion in the land of our fathers and mothers. India has Ghandi, a little puny man physically. What he has done — and I emphasize DONE — for religion in India and elsewhere, for that matter, makes us professing Christians feel a bit ashamed of ourselves.

All these men are great religious leaders of to-day. We should not only admire them, but try to emulate them in rendering as much service as they do in whatever capacity we can. Rev. Fr. Nagy.

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THE CHALLENGE ON THE MISSIONARY FRONTIÉ !R

“Oh, East is East and West is West,

And never the twain shall meet.”

■ So spake a son of man — and erred.

Oh, man is man and man with man shall meet,

■So taught the Son of man, and at his feet,

Bade us there learn the worth of human worth;

To see the man apart from race and birth.

With harsh notes of Nationalism beating discordantly on our ear drums and innumerable rotogravure pictures of feverish militaristic drills and preparations blinding our eyes — we are being daily threatened with the possibility of another war (Even tho’ the hideous human scar of the last one has not yet been effaced.) A war that to some minds seems the sole panacea for

universal economic stress — in an allegedly civilized world. Youth — everywhere dissatisfied with discouraging years of unemployment — is rising to sacrifice, with carefree abandon, all of life in an enthusiastic passion for the good of the state — unfortunately expressed in martial spirit. If Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler and others are finding success for their causes in the strength of youth, why cannot the church do well to profit by their example? It is only that can prove the inefficacy of war (that tragic, pagan expression of a pseudo-“my country-right or wrong”-fervor) by substituting for it a spirit of international love and friendliness. If we could but muster up sufficient courage to follow Jesus in whose life there were no barriers of jeolousy, hatred and greed. It is youth’s peculiar task to grow in the understanding of other nations. It is hard to fight someone whom we have discovered to be quite as human as we-much to our unveiled chargrin — who laughs and weeps over joys and sorrows just as real as ours — and whose customs and habits we are acquainted with.

The purpose of the Missionary Committee then is, twofold. We want to offer to our societies (To whom Missionary study is comparatively novel.) workable programs which will contain both the spiritual and cultural values derived from the Mission field —• that we may learn more of real religion and, simultaneously, acquire a more sympathetic acquaintance with those myriad young people who are distant from us in race and birth. Let’s peer over our own back-fences and widen our hemispheric horizons — let’s contribute to this-“our age”-by entering into a youth movement for peace and understanding, which, in turn, will requite us with the contentment that the worth while things of life afford.

We are soon sending these copies to each society — with the hope that, if you like them, you can set aside, at least, a meeting every other month for these spiritual-cultural-social programs, which we are earnestly trying to compile in as interesting form as possible. If they please you, we’ll send more, and, if not, they aren’t infallible and we will gladly welcome suggestions, criticisms, or what-have-you. More of this later.

I’d like to take a few lines more to recommend a splendid study book that I can’t refrain from mentioning, tho’ it is not a mission book. If this is the slack season in enthusiasm for your Y. P., read “Today’s Youth and Tomorrow’s World” by Stanley High. This is the story of a live Y. P. group (and could easily be one of ours), who found that they were being criticized by their church elders for “rowdyism” in a “jazz-age”.