THE CHANGING WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1931, Page 12

THE CHANGING WORLD

TASK OF MANKIND. BISHOP’S HIGH FAITH. “There is some talk in a big industry in America of asking the men to work two hours a day. Is that what God made'man for, or is this world upside down?” asked Bishop West-Watson in an address at the anniversary service of the Christchurch Technical College at the Christchurch Anglican Cathedral. The Bishop took as his theme “Man, the Creator,” pointing out that in making man “to His Own image,” God had endowed him with the gift of creating with the materials to his own hand. There had been a period when man, in his delight at his own ingenuity, had almost forgotten the Creator in his own creations. Then had reigned the doctrine of evolution, in which man was regarded merely as an incident, and life of no purpose. He thanked God that men of science and philosophy were discarding this doctrine of death, in favour of a belief in created evolution. Russia, he said, was trying to rear a state on a basis of realism, but already it was out of date. The outlook to-day was changing. The world was coming to think of God not so much as the Great Mechanic and the Great Artist who had given men life as the actors in a stage play, but had left them certain freedom of action. The Christian still clung to the idea of a personal God.. The Technical College was the biggest school in the city, said the Bishop, and all honour should be paid to the men who had created it with faith and courage, that those who came after them might be better craftsmen. It was a tragedy that so many through unemployment would be denied the joy of creation. Too much attention was being given to the hours away -from work, as though they were the most important part. Yet it was an honour to work. The man who created nothing lost a lot of joy in life. ‘•‘Are we going too fast, creating too much, or is it that we are creating in a lopsided way ?” asked the preacher.. . In his opinion the world lacked spiritual achievement. One faculty had been developed while the others lay dormant. Man had developed materially, but not spiritually. It had been said, “Behold I make all things new—a new heaven and * new earth.” God was making to-day a world of a new spirit. What the world wanted was not to get back to the old days with their primitive methods, but to develop its spiritual life on the same plane as its material things—a love of man for man, truth for truth’s sake, and the readiness of one race to help another as being part of God’s work. At present the world, was losing the power to drive the machinery it had created.

“Instead of assisting humanity, it is being prostituted to our destruction. Throughout the world armaments are being piled up. Every nation is preparing to surprise and cow its neighbour,” he said. The nations cared nothing who sank as. long as they swam. It was a peculiar thing that in the event of a shipwreck the man who jumped overboard ’ that others might be saved became a hero. Yet if a nation refused to assist another, people were quite satisfied, saying, “They had to do it.” The depression of fear was paralysing the world. Self-protection was becoming self-destruc-tion.

“If these trade complications were to pass away, what work there would be for millions," said the Bishop. Men would be set free to create not always for ths best

markets, or what was most profitable, but that which was of honest workmanship. The demon of selfishness would have to be vanquished. To achieve this the measures to be taken should not be material, they should be spiritual, for that was what was lacking. He commended his hearers to do their part in helping to regenerate the world.