Are The Meek The Earth's Inheritors?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 88, 14 April 1945, Page 4

Are The Meek The Earth's Inheritors?

By REV. CANON C. W. CHANDLER whatever one says someone * * is bound to disagree. In a sense that is one of the hallmarks of our distinctiveness in creation and of our inherent love of freedom. When a man ceases to think and speak as he likes, then he is either a coward or a sychophant. "The world has climbed on protest, and had not voices been raised against injustice, ignorance and lust, the Inquisition yet would serve the law, and guillotines decide our least disputes. The few who dare must speak and speak again to right the wrongs of many." Of all human virtues, courage has ever been held in the highest esteem. "If you think what you say and say what you think," my' father once said to me, "you will make enemies, but you'll also make friends, and even those who disagree with you and oppose you to-day will more than likely be on your side to-morrow. One thing is certain," he concluded, "if ever you trim your convictions to suit the temper of the crowd, those who have disagreed with you and yet have respected you will straightway despise you." I think my father knew what he was talking about. Courage and Progress '■ I think, too, that the progress of civilisation depends far more on tho courage and integrity of unimportant people than it does upon the studied phrases of statesmen, politicians or even of parsons.

In that very charming book "The Letters of an Indian Judge to an English Gentlewoman" (which has just been reprinted in New Zealand) much is made of the small men in the villages who are exercising a greater influence upon the destiny of India than all the maharajas and foreign diplomats put together. The common man is a peculiar entity. He is taxed, fooled, cajoled and conscripted, but he has, methinks, a wealth of unspoken wisdom which in the ultimate turn of events invariably asserts itself. "God keepeth watch above His own," and injustice to the poor is always avenged on its perpetrators.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." History seems to give the lie to that Divine assertion, and yet in the long run (which is the only run worth considering) these words are magnificently true. The political face of Europe has been changed almost beyond recognition since the days of the French ,Revolution, and most of those changes have been wrought by the meek and despised of the earth. Before the surge of this tide all our Neros and Diocletians, ancient and modern, are utterly helpless. The law of justice is as inexorable as it is Divine. In its balances all the thoughts and deeds of men are weighed with a blind impartiality, and no matter what men think or say, or to what lengths they may go to defeat it, its strength prevails and its judgments remain secure. God Speaking It is as though God said, "Amuse yourselves with making speeches, strut to your hearts' content, bedeck yourselves with power and glory and move amidst your costly equipages. Meanwhile My mills are grinding and all your schemes will . come to nought if they are not founded on justice and righteousness."

All human problems arise from attempts to defeat the ends of justice, but "he who lifts the beggar from the dunghill" and "who exalts those of low degree" gives no rest or enjoyment of ease to those "who grind the faces of the poor" or pervert the ways of judgment.,

Of course to time-thinkers it appears that the mighty and not the; meek are the earth's inheritors, but not to those whose thinking is unbounded by temporal considerations. Although, here and now, I fancy that gains ill-gotten canker the souls of the getters. On this account I have for long thought that the rich deserve our sympathy as much if not more than the poor, I don't t know about you, but I'd hate to be rich and thus be bound with golden fetters to that which moth and rust edrrUpts. I pity the man who feels insecure amid all his securities and whose health cannot keep pace with his fortune. To be buried alive beneath some commercial enterprise that will not stop growing must be really terrible. To be hedged about with possessions must be tantalising to the point of madness. Tantalus was the son of Zeus who was condemned to stand up to his chin in water without being able to drink, and I fancy that this matched the condition of the rich young man who came to Jesus and who "went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." More often than not we are possessed by our possessions. Look how hard it is, too, for rich men to have friends, for friendship thrives, if not on penury, at least on varying degrees of want. I cannot give my wealthy associate anything. He's gone beyond being delighted with such simple gifts as I can afford, and yet to be bathed in the effulgence of his generosity without being able to make some return is to be placed at a great disadvantage. It robs me of my independence, which is but another word for freedom.

The richest man I've known always slept with a revolver under his pillow. He had no friends save a little terrier dog that slept in his bedroom and made the place smell like a kennel. He was knighted for something or other; and then he died.

Yes, I am sure that the meek will inherit the earth, if they have not already inherited it. There's such a lot of enjoyment to be got from the things we don't possess, and so little from thos n that we do.