On Religion Rules of the Road

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 99, 29 April 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

On Religion Rules of the Road

NO department of public administration is fraught with greater possibilities for those whose business it is to advance the cause of religion than the Department which deals with our highways. The volume of traffic upon our roads is continually on the increase, and the dangers to life and limb increase in corresponding ratio. After every holiday week-end we are appalled by the striking list of fatalities.

It is indeed terrifying to contemplate the slender thread which holds most of us to life. City dwellers are at every moment within inches of the possibility of sudden death. Nor are the dangers appreciably less for country dwellers along our main arterial roads. The propaganda which is being published through every medium of public expression is making us increasingly aware of these dangers, in a most efficient manner.

With only one of these clever slogans would we quarrel —that which states that "Death is so permanent." It isn't.

The very cross which is used to emphasise this statement which, from a Christian point of view, is entirely false, is the basis upon which the Christian grounds his hope of immortality.

Upon the registration of every car. the |>crson registering is given a small handbook about the rules of the road and failure to peruse this booklet provides no excuse in the eyes of the law for those who would plead ignorance upon becoming involved in a fatality.

Not only are there these rules, which can be kept in one's pocket, but the roads are thoroughly placarded with signs of every description. All possible contingencies are provided for, and yet these accidents occur. Why? Because far too many people are insufficiently concerned about the other fellow. I must jret 1o my destination in record time, therefore I overtake on bends and exceed the speed limit in restricted areas.

In the li.aht, of our faith let us consider a few of these rules of the road

ByThe Reo. C. W. Chandler

What a good thing it is that Pome check is placed upon our desire to there too quickly. Undue acceleration of any prosess which is calculated to bring "us to a desirable end is almost certain to end in disaster.

If the Children of Israel, when crossing the wilderness, had "stepped on the gas" and turned a 40 years' journey at lees than cruising speed into a flight of days, or even of months. tlu'V would after their arrival in the Promised Land, have squandered their inheritance. Anything in the nature of meteoric success for any venture, is likely to spoil the adventurer. A sense of having 'arrived 'at least 20 years ahead of time has turned many a gallant youth into a conceited puppy. Never was there a truer slogf.n than "Speed thrills but Kills," and those w bo advocate "a short life hut a gay one entirely forget that in this copiplex network of life, of which they comprise a part, the snapping of one slender thread throws the rest of the delicate structure out of balance. ''Don the selfish," as a saft'ty-first slogan, might also help to deter those who are out to beat the clock.

"Keep to the left" is another of these rules for the road of lite. Last night, at less than 20 miles an hour, I followed a man who was driving his car from one side <>t' the road to the otlier. Never did a druuken pedestrian stagger along a pathway more uncertainly.

Offensive odours compelled me to overtake him at the abattoirs. Casting a hurried jilance as T passed, I saw quite plainly that the driver was bleary-eyed and sleepy-drunk. If lie reads these lines, may he take caution and realise that when driving in that condition he was nothing less than a "potential murderer," in the words which the Hon. It. Semple is wont to use when dealing with this sort of individual.

Of course, keeping to the left is capable of a much wider application. It means keeping out of the other fellow's way. It means being courteous to those whose thoughts are entirely contrary to ours. As fast as we build our little house of cards, there is always somebody ready to blow it down with one puff of destructive criticism. How many other people's palaces of dreams have we not demolished while laying plans for our own structure? While showing every consideration for those whom we meet, we must also be prepared to give way to those who followafter, and who. because they are younger and can travel faster, and drive with greater confidence, have every right to be given the road.