WHY AM I LIVING?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19270, 6 September 1924, Page 4

WHY AM I LIVING?

A PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE. By Constant Reader. “Life is, in its being, the power, in its course, the opportunity, and in its results, the manifestations of growth. The purpose the individual life is healthy growth to a full grown man in body, mind, and spirit, leading to the Immortal Life. The essential requirements for this growth are thav the temporarily strong help the temporarily weak, that love, the union of feeling which results in harmony of action, rules the mutual relations, and that ‘thinking differently ' where necessary discovers the right, course. Progress in this growth, of himself and others, is tho test of the success and value of a man’s life and labour.” . This is tho summary appearing on the title page of an intricate and comprehensive thesis headed “ Life Is Growth,” described as “ Thoughts On the and Purpose of tho Individual Life,” the work of the late Charles Godfrey Bata, a brother of Mr O. E. Balk, of Dunedin. In a foreword, dated Oxford, 1922, Mr A. J. Carlylo refers to tho circumstances under which tho book- has been published : I am very glad to write a few wonts of introduction to the work of my late friend, Mr C. G. Balk, which he left completed but unpublished at the time of his dealh, and which the family have now arranged to bring out. Mr Balk was a man, as tho work will sufficiently show, of very large reading, and of a strong and resolute mind, and he had reflected carefully upon many of the aspects of the significance of life and religion. Much of what is hero written he had often said informally at the meetings of a small society of men which had met for the discussion of such questions in tho years before the war, and many of us will long remember the characteristic energy with which he spoke and also the good tempers and friendly spirit with which he discussed matters upon which men must often greatly differ. The work will be sure to keep alive the memory of his very vital and resolute personality, which compelled the respect and affection of all those who came in contact with him.

It is impossible, within the limits'of a brief notice, to give more than a sketchy outline of the intricate and comprehensive argument which Mr Balk pursues through nearly 400 closely reasoned _ pages. In attacking the important individual question, “ Why ani I living, and for what purpose?” he assumes the Christian attitude, denying in the first instance the alleged antagonism of religion and science, but interpreting religion in a much broader sense than is contained in the orthodox Church creeds. The problem of the purpose of life is approached in the beginning from the level of non-existence, and Mr Balk insists on the right of every man to try to gain a true and clear conception of the solution of the problem—an attempt which no authority should deny. Ho then enlarges on the cumulative power of thought, whether that thought bo true or false, which throws a responsibility on all man for their thinking, and especially on leaders and teachers. All men are thinking to-day, more universally than ever before, and much erroneous thinking is fostered by novelists, scientists, and journalists. The problem of life is further complicated owing to the efforts of well-meaning but misguided people to seek a solution which is in harmony with certain religions, political, and economic and personal theories. This attempt to compel harmony with side issues results in discord and confusion. It is of the utmost importance that throughout life men should learn and progress. Having thus cleared the ground. Mr Balk divides his subject into 11 sections under the following heads:—(l) Why Are We Living? (2) Personal Continuity and Progress: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual. (3) Some / Relations of the Growth of the Individual to Corporate Activity. (4) Error and Truth. (5) Words: The Limits of Language; Their Character and_ Importance. (6) The Scriptures: The Knowledge cf God. (7) Churches; The Ministry; Religious Observances. (8) Sin: Activity in Opposition to the Purpose of God. (9) Prayer; Thinking in Harmony with the Purpose of God. (10) Love: Activity in Harmony with the Purpose of God. (11) Tho Future. It will be seen that Mr Balk deos not shrink from dealing with the most tremendous issues. His method is suggestive, and his matter helpful to the more thoughtful. Only ono or two indications may here bo given. .... The physical beginning of mankind is independent of consciousness of being and of knowledge of any purpose in life. This is Mr Balk’s starting point. His ending is similarly expressed: “The purpose of life is growth to tho immortal Life, involving a conscious, individual, personal existence after physical death. . The future of a true Christian is a. continual growth to the Immortal Life in which all the experiences of the present life may be made helpful and physical death is only an incident.” Between these two points,' thus stated, Mr Balk develops his argument. Ho conceives of physical death as only a natural event, and he holds that a purpose independent of death is the only permanently satisfactory answer to the problem of life. Tin's problem has its satisfactory solution in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Mr Balk proceeds to assume a being behind and beyond the physical being—an “unseen and unseeable being which thinks, wills, feels,” and is distinct from the physical being. Ho argues that tho progress of the human race demands a purpose higher than physical existence. That purpose has been ’revealed by Jesus Christ, but it depends for its success on tho belief of men. “Men can bv deliberate choice progress to beings in harmony with the purpose of God; this is the ultimate goal of the whole sequence of organic life and its attainment, being dependent on this choice as the justification of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil.’ ” Mr Balk virtually takes up the position of Conditional Immortality when ho writes: “Immortal Life is not an attribute of human existence per se; it is a matter of individual beginning and growth; its attainment is the real object and work of life, and a matter for earnest striving and not for idle speculations.” One chapter in the book treats interestingly of the value of words in forming conceptions and as affirming the means of exhibiting and understanding the chief characteristics of thinking. Of this, Mr Balk cites the following example:—

The word God stands as the verbal representative of all answers which are and can be given to the question: “Is there a being or are there beings which is or are superior to men in faculties and abilities, which has or have more control over the forces of inorganic nature and the existence and progress of organic nature than men possess and lias or have power over men individually and collectively ?” For what a host of ideas does this simple combination of sounds stprul! Ideas, the correctness or incorrectness, reality or unreality, depth or shallowness of which is tho most important factor for the whole course of our development and its ultimate outcome. What does tho word God stand for with me? is for each of us tho question, an honest answer to which includes tho answer to tho allimportant question: “Have wo a reasonable conception of why wo are living ami to what wo go forward in death?” We do not in any way justly incur the charge of irreverence, blasphemy, or whatever other hard -term mav be used to frighten people from thinking clearly about these matters, when w© assert that without the word God. or its equivalent in the respective native language, not one of the thousand million adults living at the present moment would or could hare any real or fancied knowledge about a Supreme Being, the possibility or reality of His being, His character, or His relations to men.

With regard to the teaching of evolution and tho story of Creation, Mr Balk writes: “The evolutionist sees and will only poo results. Tho power which produced and continues to produce (he,so results must bo for him as much beyond the physically observable as it did' for the writers of the first throe chapters of Genesis, who. however, do not hesitate to acknowledge the nature of the power. Tho relative position is so easily lost sight of. Men are all afiercomors, and what did take place took place as much without the help of Wallace. Darwin, Huxley, their minds more or less (rue or erroneous ideas of what did take place. Viewed in such a manner ths poetical, allegorical conception of tho progress of organic life and 'of the earlier stages in the development of men given in the first section of Genesis is one which in sublimity is still unsurpassed.” Mr Balk admits that prayer is the most recondite matter with which men have to concern themselves. He. defines it as thinking in harmony with tho purpose of God, just as Lovo is described as activity

* “ r.ito is Growth: Thoughts on the Problem nntl Purpose of tho Individual Life.” By Charles Godfrey Balk. London: Robert Scott. Dunedin: Wbttcombe and Tombs. (7s fid.)

in harmony ■with the purpose of God. Under the latter head Mr Balk remarks: The manifestation of the faculty of “love” in the intercourse between men is a subject on which erroneous thinking and unwholesome feeling, resulting in evil action, is and must remain a. permanent possibility which is co-oxtensivo with its rightful application. Definite attention may bo drawn to throe aspects which recent developments in the relations and opinions of men are making more prominent and important, and which have special bearing on our main subject—that is the purpose of the individual life. One aspect is that in most important and extensive domains of human activity it has been, in the last three or four generations, the deliberate and acknowledged aim of a large school of leaders of thought, to banish absolutely any idea of there being opportunities for the exercise of love m the deliberate realisation of the paramount importance of desire for union of feeling and harmony of action in all that men do. The teaching has been extremely successful in all the relations of producer and consumer, employer and employed, master and servant, buyer and seller, relations which, with the majority of men and women, comprise by far the greater portion of their deliberate activity. The major part on both sides ignore and even scout the idea that these relations can end should bo used as opportunities for the exercise of love.

To any and all who have a liking for a philosophical treatise which, while impinging on the domain of religion, has applica tion to everyday affairs and, moreover, abounds in suggestive thoughts and ideas, Mr Balk’s book may be strongly recommended.