On Settling Down

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

On Settling Down

ByRev. C..W. Chandler

Thoughts On Religion.

WHEN folk begin to "settle down," it is- time for them to hand in their time and settle up, for life demands of us all an undiminishing interest in things. Indeed, it is life interest whicl makes for longevity. Thousand* have gone to an early grav< through settling down too soon. B. R. . . . greatly disliked frcsli iir, at least during the later years of life retirement in Australia. Every creviec 3f the windows and doors in his home at Mosinan was covered with those elongated sausage-like arrangements made of iaize and filled wifcli sawdust. Keyholes svero stuffed up, for all draughts were mathema. Ho lived to the ripe age of 53, and although by that time he was stooped and wizened, lie was as interisted in lifo as any man of half his ige. All sorts of odd subjects, from fraetarianism to escatologv and prayer look revision claimed his attention. His leard and moustache were stained with licotine. He would smoke his cigars nd cigarettes to the last quarter of an lieli of their existence, and then by the .id of a pin would gain a few extra uifis. He was a. picturesque figure as le sat in his velvet smoking cap amidst . heap of books littered about his- study loor, as he followed some theme through ustv volume after dusty volume. ITe ras learning to the day lie died,, and cath itself he looked upon as a further romotion. He confidently expected to ursue all his studies in another world, 'erhaps he is now consulting the uthorities whose books lie so greatly :>vcd while he was down hero in >wer school.. I once heard him say that he believed hat the devil would be converted yet. Ce published a little, book during the ear of his death. He never settled own. + + + + I have a new friend wlio, like all the ?st of us, is a mass of very pleasing ontradictions. He is deeply immersed 11 business, and he is making a great iiiccess of it. He hates the present social system with all the vehemence with ivhicli the devil must hate prayer -books. Nevertheless the very system which he bates provides him with the means of earning more than a reasonably good

livelihood. He lives In extreme comfort Like Browning's "Bishop Blougram," ; who promised his atheist friend that he would sit with him. through the night and discuss all manner of weighty matters' until perhaps with the morning they might see truth dawn together o'er tlio glasses' edge, so we sat the other evening discussing the social problem until the small hours of the morning. Ho visualised a state of society wherein every incentive to ordinary theft and immorality had been removed Ho spoke of a classless society wherein the eternal struggle for existence had ceased, and men were free to pursue tlis studj r of philosophy and religion unfettered,' as now, by the haunting consciousness of bread and butter and unemployment. Men, he contends, are far toe deeply involved in the business of getting a living to soar into the.realms of higher thought, or to lose themselves Sr the fastnesses of God. Under the ideal conditions of a classless society, with nc spcctre of want to goad him on, man would be free to sit on the verandah of his S.tatc-owned house, and watch his communal cows chewing their cud on the collective farm. What a picture. No religionist ever pictures a heaven more complete. 'With all his economic problems solved he would be free to pursue those higher studies which he did not pursue when the struggle was keen and when his horizon was narrower. + + + + At this point in the conversation ] referred to the words of Jesus, "thoi: hast been . faithful in few things. J will make thee master over °miiny things." Have we any right to expect anybody who did not play the game .when the struggle was keenest to b< transformed into an honest citizen whei; all his burdens have been, lifted? Foi what purpose were the children of Israel kept wandering in the wilderness for 4C years, if not to prepare, tliciu through , a long and severe process oJ moral discipline, for the richer inheritance which was to be theirs when the\ entered the Promised Land. A belly

full of milk and honey is not any more conducive to right behaviour than a holly full of husks. Can the moral quality wliich was lacking under Capitalism suddenly develop under Socialism? Have we to wait until the whole social fabric has been rcwoven before we can expect to 6GO our homo sapiens developing into something of a spiritual being'? Can we conceive of a state of absolute contentment being conducive to anything in the nature of constructive thinking? Bernard Shaw, in one of his many prefaces, refers to the soldier in the regular army as being one who becomes unfitted for civilian life bccausc, havins had all his economic needs supplied with" out any personal struggle, lie become; unfitted for the struggle when his period of army life has expired. Francis Thompson, in his "Hound uf Heaven," tried many ways of attaining peace. He "drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies." He found betrayal and inconstancy in everything. He found that nothing would shelter him until he had come to grips with God—until he had wrestled with his angel. Eight where ho stood, with the grime of his wasted manhood thick upon him, in a state of physical dejection, lie turned about and faced the Christ. That personal reckoning could not be postponed until he had fled the drug habit, and gained a mastery over his baser; self. That reckoning was an essential prelude to the self-mastery. +++ + - "And so my friend," I said, just as the clock struck 2 a.m., "my solution tc the hen and egg problem of human hap. piness is,,change the man here and now, and lie will, if lie lias anything of a social conscience, set to work (with a measure of uneontnmimition that was impossible for him in his unregeueratc state) to amend- the flaws that lurk in the body politic. "Postpone the spiritual reckoniiij until the social problem is solved, and you will behold a. man who rises to clasj an inheritance which he cannot fail tc squander bccausc lie has not learned ir the 'rough' how to behave on the 'fairway.' He has not learned to appreciate the relative importance of material as against moral and spiritual values. "Happiness-is unattainable along the line of the satisfaction of merely worldly needs. To all that you have said I must, add my plus in the shape of religion. To me the life of a man is as meaningless as the life of a wellfed pig in a sty, unless you allow foi the plus of spiritual endeavour." "I see,'' my friend replied, "von contend that a man dare not think si settling down until he has settled ut with God." Day, if not truth, had dawned.