CALL TO SCOTTISH PEOPLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23707, 14 January 1939, Page 8

CALL TO SCOTTISH PEOPLE

SHAPING OF THE FUTURE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL REARMAMENT “St. Andrew’s Day brings Scotsmen together- all over the world. What can be our . contribution in these anxious times to save civilisation from collapse? ’’ asks a call to the Scottish people issued by 12 prominent Scots-, men. “If we do our duty, the present uneasy respite may become the turning point in history; a new spirit may overcome the world. ... “It is evident from the way in which crisis has followed crisis that we have not yet faced the fundamental causes of world unrest,” continues the statement, “We have followed ’top long the dead-end policy of blaming other people, other classes, other nations. That we have been so close to. shipwreck is tragic evidence 9! spiritual bankruptcy. We have relied on material resources almost to the exclusion of the spiritual energies on which alone true life can be built. , “The appeal is being made by national leaders in many countries for moral and spiritual rearmament. Inner discipline, founded on absolute nonesty and unselfishness, must liberate us from, a false a so-called freedom based on moral .anarchy. Obedience to God must replace selfwill and slavery to conventions This higher loyalty will surmount .differences of class, creed and faction,- 00 armed, so united, a nation, can face the future with assurance. . ■/< “This small country of Scotland holds a unique place among the nations, for she has given leadership to the world out of all proportion to her size. A turbulent spirit combined with an unquenchable thirst for things unknown has driven her sons and daughters to every corner of the earth. But this is no time to rest on past achievement: we must bend all our energy and faith to the shaping ofthe future. The pioneers of .yesterday pitted themselves against the rugged forces of nature, and won. The PR®“ eers of to-day must conquer- the lawless forces of human nature. “In town and village the soul of Scotland is stirring again at the call of an enterprise greater by far than the crossing of continents and the launching of mighty ships Moral and spiritual rearmament calls forth that strength of character which has always been Scotland’s greatest wealth. It demands for its fulfilment a nobler effort and self-sacrifice than Scotland has yet required of her sons.’