MAN'S VALUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 100, 1 May 1939, Page 11

MAN'S VALUE

WHAT SHOULD COUNT

Preaching on "Judging by Externals" at the morning service at St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Kelburn, yesterday, the vicar, the Rev. Gordon McKenzie, said that in the Apostolic band there were two disciples with the name James.' One was commonly known to us as St. James the Less, or, perhaps, we might say "Wee Jimmy"; not less in importance, but only smaller in stature. Jesus was indifferent to inches; His concern was character, the inner worth of a man.

It was not difficult to understand how, in the more primitive stages of civilisation, physical size was attractive. And if modern advertisements were reliable, physical size was still attractive. Thousands of pounds were spent every year advertising the charms of physical development, urging men and women to become Samsons.

If we looked at the wider aspects of this affair, we realised that externals were still given far too large a place in our judgment of a man's value. One's supposed bank balance, clothes, houses, cars, and so on were the basis of valuation. And from a still wider aspect, the simple fact was that, but for the poor and the invalids, those who had less than the average in goods or health, the world would be centuries behind in mechanical invention, art, and science, in our magnificent triumphs" over disease, in all that made life worth living. The story of great lives of little men is endless in its variety.

Christ was right in His indifference to externals. The only thing that really mattered to the Christian in his relationship with his fellows was that all alike were sons of the Most High God, and therefore of equal value in God's sight. The only real human worth was character; and the only thing that would.create a true sense of brotherhood was a true conception of the Fatherhood of God.