THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 228, 23 June 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections Intercession.

Almighty God, in the day when clouds shut out the light ot heaven from our eyes, we will remember Thy faithfulness and Thy mercy in the days that have passed. In Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to give strength to those who seek it. O God, give us the might and the pqwer and the wisdom to discharge., all that our love for Thee and our fellow men require this day. Amen.

Any life that is worth living for must be a struggle, a swimming, not with, but against the stream. —Dean Stanley.

“England has always learned her lessons from her past mistakes. That is why in the last resort—on the Dunkirk beaches of her history—she is so great. ... An island fortress, England is fighting a war of redemption not only of Europe but for her own soul. Facing dangers greater than any in her history, she has fallen back on the rock of her national character. Her future and that of the world depend not only on her victory but on her ability to restate in a new form the ancient laws of her own moral purpose and unity. By so doing she may discover a common denominator for human reconstruction more glorious than anything in her long past.”—Mr. Arthur Bryant, in his book “English Saga.”

"As a result of Nazi-Fascist victories in the Balkans, all Dalmatia seems once more to be within the Italian reach. So it seemed also in World War days, when Italy fought on the Allied side. Italians fully expected the Dalmatian coast as a reward for their participation in the World War. Historians say they lost it because of an unforeseen development, namely, the participation of the United States in the peace conference. Italy’s disappointment was one of those longnursed ‘grievances’ that the Fascists have exploited. Dalmatia seemed so near, and yet proved so far away. Now it seems near again. But would it be Italian even in the event of a Nazi victory? More likely it would be a Nazi province, administered perhaps from a Nazi branch office in Rome. But there is room for many unforeseen developments between the Battle of the Balkans and the end of the Battle of the Atlantic.”—“Christian Science Monitor.”

“It is very doubtful whether food shortage in Europe will play as important a part in this war as it did in the last The building up of a food reserve was part of the Nazi ‘military economy,’ established in 1934. Control of food can be used as a means of keeping conquered people in subjection. Although a sudden shortage of food among a previously well-fed people might cause revolt, a gradual deterioration in the diet is more likely to be accompanied by physical weakness, loss of courage and will-power and general apathy. People suffering from malnutrition and under-nutrition are easily kept in subjection. It would be foolish to hope for a collapse of the Nazis in the near future owing to food shortage alone. But every means should be taken to let the people in Nazi-occupied Europe know that the free countries are making elaborate preparations to bring food and other forms of assistance as soon as the Nazis are defeated.”'—“Nature.”

“The collapse of world affairs is certainly due in part to grave errors of character. We are reaping the results of allowing strong-minded wickedness to be confronted with nothing but weak-minded goodness, and in the world as it is in fact constituted the advantage lies with the former. Now one of the differences between strongmindedness and weak-mindedness consists in amount and quality of thinking. Human thinking always has been and doubtless always will be, fallible, but some of its ills are curable. One of its recent ills is paralysis: the thinking of millions has stood stockstill, overwhelmed and affrighted and immobilized by the vast awfulness of events. True, this war has at last loosened our limbs and galvanised us into action. Of so much of our baleful paralysis it has rid us. Has it rid us also of our paralysis of thought? I doubt it. My evidence is the number of people who are confessing themselves despondent abont the future, even when they are quite confident of our winning the war.”—Mr. T. E. Jessop in “The Guild.”

“What is the ultimate source of British parliamentary liberty, and what is the ultimate inspiration of that broad belief in liberty which has carried its spirit and its principles wherever British stock or influence has gone—into the Dominions; into India and Ceylon; into Africa and Asiatic colonies; among native populations everywhere? It is a bold answer to give—and yet it: is an answer which can be given—that tbe ultimate source and inspiration is to be found in religion. It was the religious life and the religious faith of the people of this island which shaped their own liberty, and made them carry that liberty abroad with them when they went outside their own shores. Parliament became the rock foundation of our political life in the Puritan age of the seventeenth century, and it acquired its basic strength from flic temper of I hat age. It, was the Lord Acton himself, in his inaugural lecture in Cambridge, who said that ‘the progress of the world towards self-government would have been arrested but for the strength afforded by the religious motive in the seventeenth century.’” The Archbishop of York.

The Great “I”. Shun selfishness In every form; yea even In good things; In otlice, station, notoriety; The sect, the creed, the sermon and the pew Remember in the alphabet of things. There's many a letter more important fa r Than tbe great “I” man 'thinks so much. —W,, Fswtotfea,