Tárogató, 1950 (13. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1950-07-01 / 1-2. szám
TÁROGATÓ 15 banished there is widespread disapproval. It would be much more difficult today than a lifetime ago for a drunken politician to secure his election, or for a drunken doctor to hold his patients. While there is still much profane language, it is not so unblushing as it used to be. As a habit it is regarded more indefensible and unnecessary; if it once added weight to utterance, it now seems to detract from weight of character. The writer does not fail to declare that in the moral sphere the influence of the Christian Church has been powerful. If things are growing better it is because the spirit of Christ as a hidden leaven is changing them; the air is growing sweeter and balmier because the Sun of Righteousness is rising higher in our sky. B.C. and A.D. By Archer Wallace Nowhere is the line which divides the world B.C. from the world A.D. more clearly seen than in the teaching about human values. Before Christ came no one dared to say— for no one believed —that the soul of every man, woman and child, was equally precious in the sight of God. But that truth is most emphatic in all the teaching of Jesus. The late Dr. George Jackson wrote: “Before Christ came, men honoured the rich, and the great, and the wise, as we honour them now, but man as man was of little or no account. If one had, or could get, a pedestal by which to lift himself above the common crowd, he might count for something; but if he had nothing save his own feet to stand upon, he was a mere nobody for whom nobody cared. We turn to the teaching of Jesus, and what a contrast! ‘Of how much more value,’ he said, ‘are ye than the birds!’ ‘How much then is a man’ —not a rich man, not a wise man, not a Pharisee, but a man—‘of more value than a sheep!’ ‘What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ It was by thought-provoking questions such as these that Jesus revealed his course, when he spoke in this way about the soul, when he said that a man might gain the whole world, but that if the price he paid for it were his soul, he was the loser, he was not speaking of the souls of a select few, but of the souls of all. Every man, every woman, every little child—all were precious in his sight. It is man as man, Christ taught, that is of worth to God.” Read—Micah 1:1; 2:1, 2; 3:5-12; 6:5-8. AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH An address by the Hon. J. Lester Pearson, Minister for External Affairs in the Canadian Cabinet, delivered on Tuesday, May 16th, must have brought hope and encouragement to people in all democratic countries. They have been waiting for some such word as this from a responsible public servant. In a dispatch from London, Mr. Pearson is reported to have said: “The intellectual and moral threat (of Communism) cannot be ignored or simply repressed. It can only be met by a fresh affirmation of our faith in our own ideals and of our intention to apply them in practice.” The Christian Church, which is founded on faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, can never make terms with a godless philosophy. Neither can she turn a blind eye to a movement that is attracting millions of people. Mr. Pearson says: “It (Communism) has captured some of the best minds of our generation.” It cannot, therefore, be lightly brushed aside or ignored, nor can it be defeated by force of arms. The only way to defeat an idea is by a better idea. If the democratic idea it to win out in the present struggle with Communism, it must be proven in actual practice to be the better of the two. There must be produced in democratic countries a better way of life than Communism promises. In material things the Western democracies have been able to do that. However, man does not live by bread alone. He has other needs.. If this is our faith as a democratic people, Mr. Pearson insists this faith must be reaffirmed. The Church must do her share of the re-affirming. It is not
