The Timaru Herald MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1936 NEW GODS FOR OLD.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20611, 28 December 1936, Page 6

The Timaru Herald MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1936 NEW GODS FOR OLD.

Every enlightened citizen who pauses for a moment to reflect on the significance of the festive season and its close relationship to Christmas and its message to the world, will be compelled to face up to the significance of the changes that are taking place on every side. New gods are being created and worshipped by leaders and people. What a theme for a thousand sermons! Nazism, Fascism, Sovietism and subversiveness of the Christian ideal beneath the dark pall of materialism, are holding large groups of the human family in thrall. It is not a matter for surprise, therefore, that the Pope should have felt constrained, in spite of indifferent health, to give a message to the world, in which he deplored the many evils which had fallen like a scourge on the world:

"Not a few of those pretending to defend our order against subversiveness, atheism and communism, allow themselves to be dominated by false and fatal ideas in the choice of remedies. Whosoever seeks to lessen faith in Christ, and portrays Christ's Church as an enemy of national prosperity, does not build a country's future but destroys the most effective and decisive defence against the evils he claims to fight and is actually working with and not against those he boasts of attacking.”

Well might Horace repeat to-day his memorable estimate of the sum of huch human effffort: “One goes to the right and the other to the left; both are wrong, but in different directions.” The Pope in his message made pointed reference to the struggle in Spain. There, a relentless war is being waged, not by traditional and ruthless foes, but between the apostles of new gospels. The Supreme Pontiff might well have said, as lie did in effect, that the roads to the right and left lead into darkness and difficulties. Both are blazed by men with a misunderstanding of the real purpose and significance of human endeavour:

Fascism! Communism! Violent struggles between its employer and employer parts. . . . National resources wantonly depleted. Strange unbelievable lack of common sense. Regimentation of the masses under fiery, unpractical, destructive leaders. . . Individualism crushed. . . Truth throttled and perverted. . . Government by power-mad autocrats and Godless theory. . . . Greater battlers to individual freedom than under hereditary monarchs. What the individual has. to give to the world is needed to create a balance that ensures orderly and enlightened progress. Many countries, however, are seeking new gods for old. Who is right and who wrong? The most searching test that can be applied to all systems comes from the dim past. Moses was divinely inspired to give his followers the Ten Commandments which embody the fundamentals of true government; indeed, so basic and comprehensive is the spirit of the Mosaic Decalogue that all right human law has subsequently been influenced by it. Centuries later, the greatest of all teachers expounded the greatest Commandment in the law:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the flrst and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

New gods may evolve from false and fatal ideas, but the fundamental soundness of the Mosaic law still remains as a lamp into the path and guide to the feet of the human family regardless of nationality.