THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 249, 18 July 1942, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections Intercession. Eternal Father, we come aside to intercede for others—in the quiet of our hearts we would remember at this time our soldiers, sailors and airmen. Give.them courage at all times fearlessly t.o do their duly, and grant that we who remain will dedicate our hearts so to the service of truth, justice and righteousness, that their sacrifice shall not be in vain. Amen. ¥ * • Cheerfulness is the principal ingredient in the composition of health.— Arthur Murphy. »}t * * “Suppose Blondin held it on a rope over Niagara Falls, woul'd you keep shouting, ‘Blondin, sta'nd up a little straighter! Stoop a little! Go a little faster! Lean more to the south! No, more to the north 1 Gentlemen, would yon rock the cable? No! You would hold your breath, every one of you, as well as your tongues. This Government, gentlemen, is carrying an immense weight. The persons managing the ship of State in this storm are doing the. best they can. Don't worry them with needless warnings and appeals, . . . " —Abraham Lincoln. * * “The number of small retail businesses, their wide variety, and the intimate character of their management raise wartime problems that are intensely human as well as economic. Many of these small businesses have been in the hands of one family for generations, and 'marriage’ with other small businesses in the street or locality involves a severe break with sentiment and tradition. When Napoleon called us contemptuously a nation of shopkeepers he unwittingly paid its a compliment. They were then and they are now men of independence and enterprise, qualities that make for greatness in a people. Their sturdy individualism therefore commands sympathetic consideration.”—"Evening News,” London.

“We know, something of our bodies; but of the way In which our minds work in connection with our physical structure we know practically nothing. The persistence from generation to generation of feeble-mind stocks is one ci dur greatest social problems; but the physical bases of mental conduct have so far baffled us. The mind of man is curiously beyond the reach of its own mental activities and, in almost every field of experimental inquiry, progress leads to new and unexpected domains where man is taught'to ask new questions. Man has been on the earth for at least a million years, and our records go back at least 25,000 years, but fhe periods of progress were few. The Dark Ages may come again as war destroys our best stock and civilization is damaged if not destroyed. I feel possessed of a haunting fear as I look on the destructive fury of modern war, which takes our best and in every land and every age seems to bar the way to civilization. If the nations are too proud or too greedy to abolish war, Jet us do all we can to preserve simple morality.”—Dr. Barnes, Bishop of Birmingham.

“There is the Pew of the Critical. It may not be very full, but it is there just the same. Nothing pleases that fellow. The minister is not a preacher; never was a preacher. What he says, he shouldn’t say; what he ought to say, he doesn’t say. If the minister preaches the Gospel, he is old-fashioned; if he io scholarly, he is a modernist.; if he is quiet, he is not sensational enough; if he caters to the young, he is neglecting the old. If he mentions money he is materialistic! And the choir? Ugh! As for the soloist —she is no Madam Patti; That pew is very unhelpful. Then there is the Irregular Pew. This is the pew of those who are not strenuously loyal to the Church. They attend when they feel like it; that is when other matters do not press. You can’t depend on that pew. It is empty when you expect it to be filled, and filled when you expect it to be empty. The occupants are, as a rule, completely out of step with the organization. Through them, and to them, comes but little blessing. If you look about you will find the Cordial Pew. How helpful that pew is to the minister and Church. If a stranger enter, he is warmly greeted and made welcome.” —“Roman Collar” in the “United Church Observer” of Canada.

“We have entered on a period in which the feeling for law is hopelessly bereft of force, of soul, and of sense or moral obligation. It is a period of lawlessness. Parliaments produce with easy readiness statutes which contradict the idea of law. States deal arbitrarily with their subjects without regard to the maintenance of any feeling for law. Those, indeed, who fall into the power of a foreign nation are outlaws. No respect is shown for their natural right to a fatherland, or freedom, or dwelling-place, or property, or industry, or food, or anything else. Belief in law is today an utter ruin. This state of things was in preparation from the moment when the search for the natural conception of law, grounded on rational thought, was given up. The only thing to be done, then, is to make a new connexion in the sphere of law also, at the point where the thread of the rational thought of the eighteenth century got broken. We must search for a conception of law that is grounded in an idea which grows directly and independently out of a world-view. We have to re-establish human rights which cannot be infringed, human rights which guarantee to each person the greatest possible freedom for his personality in his own national body, human rights which protect ills existence and his human dignity against any foreign violence to which he may be subjected.”—-Dr. Albert Schweitzer, iu “Civilization and Ethics.”

To the United States. Brothers in blood! They who this wrong began To wreck our Commonwealth, will rue the day When first they challenged freemen to the fray. And with the Briton dared the American, Now we are pledged to win the right of man; Labour aud justice now shall have their way, And in a league of peace—God grant we may— Transform the earth, not patch up the old plan. — (Robert Bridges, 1844-1930) Poet Laureate in. the Great War,