SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

Bi/ the

Rev. J.D. McL. WILSON

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

PROBLEMS OF MODERN LIFE. KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER It is not exaggeration to say, that no previous generation in all the history of mankind has ever known as much as this one. That of course is a fine tribute to the race, and not only does it flattter its perspicacity, but it suggests worthy progress in the future. When we conn over the vast realms of knowledge which have been discovered to us by observation, experiment, invention, and explora-, tion; when we remember that practically no corner of the whole round earth is unfamiliar to us; and when we contrast the knowledge possessed by the average person in the twentieth century with that possessed by him of the first or fifteenth it is truly impressive. It is perhaps almost inevitable that modem man possessing this great knowledge should have feelings of superiority rise within him, and that those who have gone before him should appear as Lilliputians in his sight. This is so, and it has unconsciously created a social difficulty and danger of alarming nature and magnitude. That might seem to be an extravagant statement, but many of our social and international complications and antagonisms are entirely due to the unsuspected fact that our knowledge and material achievements have completely outrun bur social wisdom and our moral power to control them and to use them wisely. That is why we are giving an altogether false emphasis and respect to education as we know it, and to mere knowledge. It ought to be obvious that the possession of knowledge in the brain is not necessarily of any greater worth than the same information stored in a book, or in a dictionary, or upon' a tombstone. It ought to be patent that a greater acquisition, of learning cannot in itself make a teacher, a doctor, or a politician a wiser, or more serviceable human being than a farmer or a carpenter. It ought to be factual that persons are not necessarily truer, better, happier, or more useful, because of their greater acquirement of knowledge. What is the advantage of the acute mind, the technical skill, and the facile fingers, if these things, are never used, or if they are used to rob safes, and to dynamite public and private property ? What superiority has the chemist or any one else, if knowing all the formulas of his science, he uses his knowledge merely to discover poison gas or more deadly explosives for homocide among the nations? Or what advantage have we in being able to wireless round the globe in a matter of seconds if our main items of news are commercial fraud and disaster, the sordid details of scandal and crime in public and private life, and the futilities of men and nations in the conduct of their affairs ? What has our increased knowledge done for us ? Are we any wiser, any better, any healthier, any happier, than past generations ? One of our modern writers, in a remarkable book declared that in many ways we are worse than the so-called heathen. While we unctuously congratulate ourselves upon the absence of cannibalism, infanticide, head-hunting and the like the bloodiest of tragedies are being enacted at our doors. Was there ever, he asks, “selfishness more cold-blooded and base than to-day ? Was intemperance ever more excessive, and inexcusable?. Was lust ever more fierce ? Did the sword ever'drink more greedily of the blood of the nations ?’’ One of our most brilliant graduates, whose contributions were made use of by the Government, is now a menace of God and human society. While possessing unusual mental power and potency his heart, his moral life, his character decayed within him. It is easy to think upon such men as

Seneca, Abelard, and even our own Bacon who won for their glorious intellects the reverence and admiration of succeeding generations, but who possessed in their lives ignoble qualities which nullified their knowledge, spoiled their influence and made it difficult for their own age to pardon them and to believe in them. It is with some alarm.we flunk of the modem fetish for mere knowledge and the trend of modern college and university education. This education, according to a notable observer, is utilitarian in its aim atheistical in its product, and fitter to produce selfishness and social antagonisms, that character, general serviceableness and goodwill. Well might the ancients, fear that learning was a perilous and doubtful gift of the gods. Well might Hazlitt say in that striking essay of his on The Ignorance of the Learned,” that “Learning is a foil to common sense—a substitute for wisdom.” In the Bible there is a wise differentiation of knowledge and wisdom, for the terms are by no means synonymous. Knowledge is merely the compilation of information, wisdom is the power to classify, select and use knowledge aright. Recall Dean Farrar’s noble oration upon wisdom, in which were many allusions to classical character and incident, sacred and profane, in which he declares, “Wisdom was to knowledge what the glorious sun was to the dim and flickering candle light.” , . , , . But the thought in our mind at this time is not so much knowledge without wisdom as knowledge without character —a matter still more profound and fateful. This is where the Bible puts its stress; this is where Jesus Christ lays His emphasis, upon moral Equality and worth spiritual values. With them there is no beatitude for cleverness, for intellectual brilliance, for mental subtlety, and everywhere history confirms that judgment. Take the case of Greece. Did the lustre of her philosophy and literary genius, the liberality of her arts and institutions, the glorious roll, of her elo.quence, save her from the infamy of obliteration? She perished because of the eating cancer of her favourite sins, because of a decay in her national character. Take the case of Rome.. Did her government or her letters, any more than her iron sceptre and invincible sword, save her from destruction? She perished because of her vile corruption and her moral rottenness. Why was the Renaissance, despite its greater intellectual brilliance, outshone by the Reformation? It was because character, moral worth, was the outstanding contribution of the Reformation. And yet to-day you can find a thousand brainy, clever men for the one. good man. The alarming thing, about the present age is that our intellectual knowledge and material acquisition have outrun our moral powers to control and direct them. To-day we are rich in mind and goods, and poor indeed in heart and quality of being. We are drunk with sheer knowledge and lack the stabilising influences of character, and that was what Joubert was striving to say when he declared, “We live in times when superfluous ideas abound and essential ideas are lacking.” After all, what will it matter a hundred years hence, or what does it matter now, whether we are rich or poor, a prince or a navvy, as long as our heart is right and true towards God and man.

Character is a quality of life created by a confirmed habit of moral choice and action. It is not the work of a moment. It is a high temper of soul, forged out in the conscious striving after noble idealism, through many years. And before God or man, in life, death or immortality, it is the only thing that truly counts. Let me pass on to you Sir Walter Scott’s last words to Lochart, when he lay upon his death bed. “Be virtuous, be religious, be a good man. Nothing else will be of any comfort when you come to lie here.”

And let us never forget, “He died that we might be forgiven; He died to make us good.”