THE BROTHERLY WAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 45, 22 February 1936, Page 7

THE BROTHERLY WAY

DESPISED AND REJECTED.

A'

"Silent Peter.”

Dear IVvple, \»e ail nave an earne-t admiration and esteem lor the scientific views upon j vMLit ii you base year tu.nn.ing. wmes' • trained Nui.-u? "But mere are; many question:. upon which we tiiur-1 vu-u.v ui?agt\e v..th you. Years oi ex-, peucnce u. a-• --.g »»umeu aad children | Aave cvin... • i that ail women _....juld ua>. . Jtlwue work m the solid ill a. a lo home inteiests. ine.r brains au-J iiieir general development uee'l it- and lue wond needs tueir .-.alas and laer devi.uj.mtat—and »O nd . e of a higu. . standard alloget Bui as I >r t> a king caild- - 1 .-a re.tgiou' io uiy mind it is au im- ' iart.iieii..-e lo do so. Deeds, not words; t example and r.gut environment, these, are conditio. - . .. maae line eii:;- j men. | Practical Religion: Human* Indubitably - I'rained Nurse” ex i presses views which ate he.u vy iuuum-1 viable thiUK ng ptup.t in ail parts ut | .sew Zealand auu in the wi»r,u. in re-« gaid tv inc need that ex.sis for womans brain and wvaiau s experience in public and semi public Hie, tnerc | - opiu.un, either 1r0..« the point oi view I vE tae interest of tuc individual' woman, from tain ot the unso.vcd proo-1 lems oi suffering humanity, or yet irum , that of the need that exists tor en-1 haacing ait hereditary and environ-; mentai inttuvnees teuuiug tu the prw : durtivn ui more highly waived genera-j lions of children than the woild has! vet known. In her anti religious com | piex. a.sv, *'Trained Nurse marches m line with a large and well ordered company. Su-.-h an attitude of mind. J uuwevei, is oast-1 in the fii.-t instance | upou an intellectual misconception oil the nature and the mission of religion. One takes it ior granted, of course, | that the age-, d error is not still being! |H>rpetuated of rent using the truths of religion with the dialetic technicalities of theology. Religion is a science. It is the science of Lving. It is the science of thought and action combined. "Trained Nurse” herself, in company with ad workers for the bettern ent of the race, is actually living the highest form of religious life that is possibcl to man or woman. Truth Can Never be Out of Date. The conclusion is inevitable, therefore, that it is not so much the science of religion to which objection is taken as tiiat the teachings of the Bible are ca..ed into question. Now the fact that the human race in general is slowly evolving to the incorporation of scientific thought into the basic everyday lite does nut carry with it J any implication that the leachings of the Bib.e must necessarily be discarded. Granted, it is an ancient document; but however ancient in its original expression. truth cannot ever be but modern; truth tanriot ever be but scientific; for truth is universal both in time and in -pacis i'he truths enunciated by scien-; litir and philosophical pioneers whose' names a r e not included within the pages 7 i**ie Bible are revered by anti-relil gionists (socalled) the world over. Twentieth-century phi.o*ophers and scientists continue lo hold in reverence the name of Pythagoras, albeit it is now some 25 centuries since he promulgated his eternally modern views in regard to the universe in general, including the teaching that the shape of the earth is globular. Plato shares with Aristotle the first plate among the scientists and philosophers of ancient days. Twenty-three centuries ago ke taught a scientific philosophy which included the spiritual origin of all created things and which is still de-

voully studied by the greatest of modern minds—and this despite the blots upon his teachings of the nature of <hild-niurder being an indispensable factor in ’he development of civilisaComparisons Are Not Always Odious. Without comparison there is no—ap preciation! The nobility of Horace » dictum that it is but fair that he who I begs to be forgiven should in his own 1 turn forgive, receives the unqualified ! compensation of anti-religionists (selfstyled;. Yet the cry that arose from ’ the immeasurably greater Soul that fol- | towed in the next generation after Horace —"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us/’ U discounted! Is then the scientific philosophy of a Pythagoras, a Plato or a Horace greater than the I scientific philosophy of a Christ? The •scientists and philosophers of all peritods, both ancient and modern, voiced > and taught and lived the sincerity and i the depth of their knowledge of life. ' Christ not only voiced and taught and • lived his scientific philosophy; he died ' for it. When the vested interests of i his day saw to it that the menace of ' his teachings was killed (as they I hoped» along with the man himself, alI most the last words that issued from his lips in the agonies of his political I martyrdom were a triumphant vindication of the knowledge that lay at the , roots of his scientific religion,—the • knowledge that Love is greater than the attitude of mind that despises and rejects it:—"Father, forgive them, for | they know not what they do!” AX hat .a mind! What a man! One bows one's i head at the very remembrance of him. | Deeds, Not Words. \ Twenty centuries ago the apparently ; great ones of the earth put Christ out I i of their way and out of their minds, i As a reward for the seeds of scientific , religion sown by a life of unremitting | ' service, he went to the despised and- ’ rejected mode of execution decreed for j him by his ‘‘betters,” whose material (interests were endangered by the ■ threatened spread of humanitarian i principle. To-day humanitarians themI selves continue to deny the historical fact that the despised and rejected Christ lived ami died for the very principles upon which they now base their lives and their work from day to day, the very principel which he introduced into the world of men and women and children. Deeds, not words! cries the twentieth-century reformer. Deeds, not words! lived the founder of numanitarlanism. He was a scientist and he lived scientifically. ‘‘He went about healing all manner of sickness.” He was a man of action. 4 ' He went about doing good.” He believed in the sanctity of the child-soul. “Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” He was a man of courage. When given th choice of death or of defying the ' rights of his brother-man, he chose death. “Trained Nurse,” it is difficult to realise that this man. the highest type our race has evolved, is not exactly the tvpe of man you personally can take as an example. ’ You are certainly living I his teachings from day to day. Whether I or not vou acknowledge them can make no difference to the actual fact. Will vou write again? -*)ne cannot but hope that the real cause has not yet been ascertained in regard to your attitude that it is an impertinence to teach little children to try to walk — however afar otf —in the footsteps of sueh a man, and to try to fol'ow —however feebly—the divinity of thought of such a Mind! Yours as ever,