THE COMMON GOOD.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10742, 13 November 1928, Page 8

THE COMMON GOOD.

WHAT ELECTORS SHOULD STUDY TO-MORROW.

REiV. J. AITKEN’S ADVICE TO CONGREGATION.

“MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE!.”

In the course of his, sermon at St. Andrew’s ■ Church, on Sunday night, . the Rev;. Jas. Aitkeai, ,M.A'., said:— j i .On tilie political issue I. have noth-, iiig to. say’.. . Every, one. must he guid-: ed by his o,wri wisdom and conscience,;, hi the matter.‘ .I take,.this opportuiW i ity. however, of du'ecting your attention to certain truths and prin,ciples which bear upon our. social and : political, life generally;; anij which aroi very apt ,to he forgotten or ignored’ . iii; the heat of election tinip. The! various political parties have been putting before iis their respective, programmes, and in trying , to estimate the soundness and value of the measures,. .they propose, we are very, e'asily driven, to forget what is—or, should be’,/—the ultimate end of . all; political' action and endeavor. What do parties and governments exist for? What is their place in, the. scheme of things? And that question simply leads us back to the great fundamental question which every man should consider anti find some answer'to.- What is life for? .What , are we men and women here in the world for? Now, the .end of life' as I conceive , it, is character. That, at. least, is the farthest end that we can see. Wo are here to become true men and true' women. That is the thing that matters—that is the supreme con-; cmi. Everything we do, either .as individuals or communists, as societies or as states, should he viewed in the light of. that fundamental purpoaj-.- More and more, in these; days, jdfmksrs of all classes are coming to $ recognise that the-e is meaning and purpose in the universe. Your modem evolutionist has t v nveped a long way from iWwm and his position. H'e sees in the steady*progress from . fire mist to solid earth, from protoplasm to man. net the result merely of Wind fo”m and chance variation, hut the working out of a definite progress from lower to higher forms of being and I’fe. There is a specific ; direction aiVout the whole movement. "A,* Professor James. Simpson puts it. "The evolutionary piw?Rs. at what- ’ d ever stage it. is examined.- gives an impression of deep-laid pumwsive-ne-ss.” So far as man is concerned the evolutioii of his body seems to have reached its limit long ago.. There is no evidence that his body to-dav is a better more highly organised body than it was thousands of years ago. And even his mind has phased to improve. The greatest intellects in the world to-day show no advance in mental power upon those of the Greek philosophers or the Hebrew prophets.. Rut- mams moral evolution is not yet. eoVnplete: his spiritual nature is not yet perfected. And the whole meaning of life is now centred in. that moral and spiritual development which remains as the. goal of his striving. For the individual his term in this world is his opportunity of acquiring character: and for,society the supreme end of all thought and effort should he the

righting of wrong and the achievement of justice and goodwill. Jn all the political speeches with which tlie newspapers have been flooded these past weeks, it seems .to have keen assumed that, the chief thing, if not the only thing, to he sought, is material prosperity. All parties oiler the same promise. Put

us in power and you will have an easier and better time. In one way or another each party hokls out to men the prospect of greater wealth and happiness at no cost to themselves. Now material prosperity is all very well. It has its value. But it is not the -supreme good. When we have got it we have not got everything.' We hav£,not got so very much after all. You don’t make men hr giving them better houses to. live in. more varied food to met, richer clothes, to wear, better cars to run about in. You don’t make». men by giving them more time for idleness, pleasure and .play.. And you don’t make a better society by focussing

desire and endeavor on those things. , There is a discipline not much-ini favor these days .to which there is need that attention should he directed—l mean the discipline of work. Whatever we may say of it we are all inclined to think of work as an evil. It is something wo have to do in order.' to earn a living, but the less of it we have the letter. We nut up with its. because: we cannot help ourselves: but we- do not regard it as in itself life/: it.-is in the hours that we are free from work that, we lino. It is time \re”hnd a new point of viexv. time we looked on work in a, new light. Work is not only the means by which we earn oun- bread: it is tlie means—one _of the chief means by which we achieve our character. It is not an evil to be endured, hut a good to he taken advantage of. The times cry..out for a new Carlyle to preach again the gospeLof work. Work is not an ignoble drudgery, hut a spiritual activity. Its fruit is not material wealth merely, but spiritual gain. _lt is not merely a means by which pleasure and satisfaction may be obtained; it is-itself the source and occasion of some of the keenest pleasures and deepest,, satisfactions we ave capable of enjoying. Rut. the .pleasure and satisfaction come only when work is embraced for its own sake and pursued as tbe expression of our spiritual life. It is in work more than in anything else— except worship—that the human spirit grows and develops, that we become better then and •women, tliat we attain to the fulness of the status of our true manhood and womanhood.' 1 That truth lias .many ‘hearings./ 1: content myself to-night with referring to two only—and to these very lnd.oA.V- First there is the bearing of , this view of work on the development ; cf skill. Of course I have in mind, not manual work only, hut all kinds ' of work.. This is an age when is kill , . is widely regarded as an unnecessary ; adjunct. “Tliat will do” is a mottowidely cheii-ished. ' Rough and ready methods ip craftsmanship, slipshod methods and poor organisation in business, carelessness and inadequate equipment in-professional life, are all ■ too prevalent. ' And quite, naturally j so when men. regard rfchelr day’s work 1 as simply the means of earning their i day’s wage, of, winning their day’s j profit, or securing their day’s fee. If j the money is all lie/ thinks , about, a ipa n toll; naturally make do whatever * will bring him the money.,- There ds ( ! an immense amount- of skill; and ability lying undeveloped in, the- youth ! of the present day. which ’will nevei’ , '■ lwdeveloped. unless :w-e can 1 get into : the general mind a nexv. conception of ■ ■■ tile significance of ' work. And the j leaving of young people’s 'faculties • undeveloped /means . leaving- their characters undeveloped and retarding j in an incalculable ’degree tlie pro- - grbss of society as a whole; . • : V •. And then .there- is .the blearing of , ‘ our view oE work on meii’s trustwor- '* tliihess.' Everywhere /torday' tKere.'is • astonishment and dismay at the hum* , her of Vaises 'of dishonesty.: on tfiei .] part Of- those : whohold positions,:qf \ trust. Whether fraud and ‘embezzle- j meiit are . commoner : ndxy 'than they j used to he ’l",don’t knowthey ara certainly -.common.. And ,eydn . when it stops 'far. short of aefual crime, lack of trustworthiness is an * ominous feature, in opr social life.. Men heed- i to be yatched at their Work;. ■ they 1 xvi!l scamp it and slack at it, it they i are not. Many ■ influences discourago a man frbra doing liis liest.. and it is mcouragement, ; that most of us need. I i\jany temptations hinder a man from joing liis duty, aiid-' not the Mast or

them arises from the unwholesome prejudice against work, the misunderstanding of the relation of work to life. Dr. L. P. Jacks, in a recent book, urges with the utmost emphasis the imperative need _of training what he calls “the fiduciary type cf character’’—that is to say the trustworthy type—in all classes of the community. There are of course multitudes of trustworthy men and women in the world; they have to be taught to carry their fidelity to ever wider and higher spheres: and every inducement and encouragement has to' he held out to the others to develop and cultivate this indispensable virtue. For it is character above all that counts.. What has' all this to do with . a political election. It has a great deal" to do with it if you. will, think itf out. It bears on questions of education, on questions of industrial law; on all those provisions and proposed provisions which lift the burden of responsibility from' man’s shoulders, on all those policies which promise to promote the- common: good by giving men •what they have not worked for. I don’t know that it will help you to make up your, mind whom to vote for: but, at any rate, it may serve to remind us all 1 that man does not live by bread alouC, and the getting of bread is not the sole object to 'be aimed at either by the individual or by the State. We are fat too apt to make a. division in: our lives, and to imagine that Christian' principles hold good in certain spheres hut have no application in others. We admit their relevancy in our personal life, in family and social relationships, but -we arc apt to doubt whether, they can possibly prevail' mi,- business say, { or in politics. Character may be an end to lie strive,n for in the; home and in the- school; but are we seriously to. take it into consideration in law and: tlie administration of tlie- State. Life is not to be broken into sections like that Life is a whole. Tlie same principles and the same ends govern it through * all its interests and activities. If the. chtef object: to be aimed at- in our individual lives and in our,, honies is .-the training and development" of character,':; that same, object should dominate a,ll our thinking on political* ana social problems, Tlie work of the politician-lias spiritual issues, as. indeed’.all,!liiiman labor and endeavor , have :! and the , one .truth whichthe politician as well as all the rest of (us must constantly tfenr ■ni mind is.’ that mail shall nob live,' by bread alone, .