MATERIALISM IN PRACTICE.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14668, 17 May 1913, Page 16

MATERIALISM IN PRACTICE.

REV. R. J. CAMPBELL ON MISDIRECTED ENERGY.

Preaching on "The Steadying Power of Faith," at the City Tomple, tho Rev. Pi. J. Campbell evoked applause when ho protested against tho tendency of our present civilisation to devote excessive caro to material interests. All life, he said, should bo interpreted from tho standpoint of the eternal, or t-lso wo aro missing life , ; if it is so interpreted, material interests can safely bo left to take care of themselves; they will not suffer, but will bo relegated to their proper place. Ho might perhaps be told that this was a dangerous doctrine, leading to tho death of all progress and enterprise. He did not believe it for a moment. What had tho opposite principle dono for us! J "Look," he continued, "at tho slums of East London, look at our sweated industries, our under-fed children, and tho dreary, sombro aspect of our large manufacturing towns, before you discuss what may or may not conduco to progress and enterprise in the future. I ask you to take stock-of tho benefits of progress and enterprise up to date in thi:> land of ours. * I deliberately 'challenge- tho assumption that England is to the rest of tho world an example of the way to livo and the ideals at which to aim. The very social problems we are engaged in solving aro problems which never need have existed but for our materialism in practice. Wo have sold our souls to Mammon, and wo are having to pay tho penalty. I ask you to conceive it possible that wo may bo all wrong, that wo have developed our resources mistakenly, that we have got into a cul-de-sac, and will have to find our way out again somehow. Eucken is right; we are pouring forth our energies lavishly in ways that bring no adequate return; 'we are tearing along at an everaccelerating pace without allowing ourselves time to consider whether this is what life is for, or whether we might do better with it."