THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 139, 9 March 1942, Page 4

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections Intercession. We pray that Thou wilt bless '• our soldiers, in danger giving them Thy protection, in reverse keeping them firm, and in victory enabling them to show mercy. Do Thou also keep and defend our sailors, protecting them in the storm and tempest of the sea, and delivering them from the hidden perils and the open attacks of the foe. Bless Thou our airmen, so that in defence of their own lands they may be successful, and ' overseas be helpful to our Allies and chivalrous to our enemies. We pray that Thou wilt give Thy blessing to all engaged in any form of national service fitting them for their duties and strengthening them for every crisis. Amen. * # * » Condemn the fault and not the actor of it. —Shakespeare. » » » “The implications of this encouragement of handicraft in the Norwegian countryside are important. There is a life of art as there is of religion. There is a kind of community democracy that is hurt by the importation of outside goods sold a penny cheaper, but without romance in their making. There is a kind of brotherhood of man and understanding of neighbourly needs in the sort of encouragement given in the village stores of Norway to the ehairmaker, the weaver, the candlestickmaker, and the iron-maker, etc. These artists put into their designs all that is common in the life around them—the colour of the autumn leaves, the prow of some old ship. . . . The good name, the respect gained by a local artist, means a sense of richness in the village, a sense' of having the source of creativeness at hand. We, who buy cheap goods, however wonderful, from halfway across the world, are letting the lives of our own people go barren of some of life’s deepest satisfactions.”—Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, who until the outbreak of war served as American Minister to Norway, in her book, “Mission to the North.”

“Aid from Great Britain involves both the supply of planes and the means to operate them. The fact that it is being done at all is an amazing tribute to British stall’ work. Fighters cannot be flown direct acrcss Germany and Poland, so they must enter either at the north, presumably through Murmansk, or in the south across the Iranian frontier. In either case they must be sent by sea, northward some 1800 miles, southward 15,000 miles round the Cape, or 7000 miles if they are flown across Africa from Bathurst. Obviously the fighters which have gone already must have travelled by the northern route or have been detached from the Middle East Command of the R.A.F. A further problem, which applies equally to bombers sent to the Russian front, is that aircraft development has been so radically different in the two countries that the operation of British types on the Eastern front must mean the laying down of complete service and repair organizations to keep them in the air. All spares must be shipped from this country, all ammunition and all the bombs, for no Russian bomb would fit our racks or Russian racks our aeroplanes.”—Mr. Peter Masefield, the “Sunday Times” air correspondent.

“If free institutions were to disappear everywhere else, it is doubtful to what extent they could endure in the United States, with a population so much less united than those of the ancient States of Europe. It is not by a deep unity of feeling such, for instance, as the English have, that the political fabric of the United States is held together. It is held together by what may be called the American idea of life, and by what has hitherto been a very widespread respect for the American Constitution and for constitutional law. But if it were clear that Hitler’s complete victory had been due to the uncertainties and procrastinations arising out of the weaknesses of democratic government, and particularly out of very glaring weaknesses resulting from the peculiar form of the American Constitution—if it were clear that an immense effort had still to be made against Germany and Japan by the American people, now alone and unaided, then very many patriotic Americans might prefer to save their country by a form of government stronger for action, rather than let the Administration continue to be thwarted from any effective course by the existing disunity between executive and legislative power, and by the endlessly obstructive tactics of a few politicians representing a very small section of the population.”—“The Round Table.”

“We are witnessing, cr rather we are all participating in, perhaps the greatest struggle ever waged for the soul of mankind. The war of armies and navies and air forces is a product and a reflection of spiritual conflict, and though the issue of the war matters beyond all telling, yet the final word lies not with the high explosives but with spiritual and moral choices. In the most literal sense it is a choice between Christ or chaos, between Christianity and hell upon earth that outdoes in ghastliness the most lurid pictures of a hell hereafter that theologians ever painted. Probably never in all her long history has the Christian Church faced such a challenge. The atheisms and anti-Christian faiths of the modern world are more menacing by far than the ancient faiths of the East in which can often be found evidences of the working of that God who has not left Himself without a witness wherever men sincerely seek Him. But these modern faiths deny God and blaspheme His temple in the human soul. They are making ruthless assaults upon all forms of organized religion. In such a situation tlie Church should be at her most virile and efficient, so organizing 'her life as to be able to bring her maximum power to bear where it is most needed.” — The Rev. Hugh Martin, in “Christian Reunion.’’

,* * » The Nettle. Tender-handed stroke a nettle. And it slings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle And it soft as silk remains. —Aaron Hill