TRUE PATRIOTISM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 244, 16 October 1939, Page 9

TRUE PATRIOTISM

FACING THE FACTS ADDRESS BY REV. E. NICHOLLS I “Patriotism is a large work, there-:, fore let me remind you that the larg-, ! est programme has its beginning, uiui i the beginning may be small," said the Rev. E. Nicholls in addressing a united youth gathering in Wanganui last week. "To rebuild citie.-, to deliver provinces, to save nations may seem to us so impossible a programme that our practical sense recoils from it as from a tissue ot fascinating impossibilities. But nations are saved by individuals ami any man who nourishes great and heroic aims and carries them out in his own sphere, is doing more than he can estimate to build up a better world and bring in a brighter day . You .an at least, say, when you are tyrannously urged to perform the deceits and dihonesties ol business, 'So will not I, because of the fear of the Lore.’ It is, at. all events, possible for you to answer lhe corrupt comrade who would initiate you into infamous pleasures, or who mocks your high ideals with the foolish cynicism which youth mistakes lor wit, or who invites you to a life as paltry and empty as his own, 'So will net I, because of the the fear of the Lord ' "The first thing that is implied m manliness is that you arc yourself—not one of a number, confused and lost in a multitude—but a separate person, owing duties to yourself and ready to fulfil them. This is precisely the meaning of tlie word ‘hero’ as the Greek used it—a hero was a man, as distinguished from mankind. The great mass of people arc undistinguished from mankind, and are afraid to be themselves. They do what other do, think what others think, and accept th.? axioms of society, without lhe smallest attempt to ascertain whether they are right or wrong. They are afraid of sinßUiat -; ity and that means that they are i afraid of sincerity. For, says Carlyle, “if hero means a sincere man, why may not every one ot us be a belo : There is no reason, except ti'.’it we are not sincere. The moment we legin to act upon our real convictions, ; to encourage within our minds the ( growth ot real thoughts; to ask, not I . what is popular, but what is right; ;' not what everybody does, but what i ( we ought to do; not how easily we , can get through life, but how righte- , oiisly in that hour we become men. ; Nay, more, we become heroes, lor wo have become distinguished from the ' cowardly and unthinking, and are consecrated to reality. It is Impos- ' sible that anyone who lives in this ■ spirit can live in vain. "If, out of the one and a-hnlf mi’, lion people in New Zealand, there were but lifty thousand who would ' thus dare to be themselves, to In t at the plain facts of life, and do their in w...nF rrvncon ii nnro fhdQ

duty in scorn of consequence, there would be a general rebirth of manhood throughout society. It. is because men do not look at the facts and <io not think for themselves, because they take it for granted that what everyone seeks must be ihe thing best, worth seeking, and the manner of life pursued by the majority must needs be a tradition which may worthily be followed, that trim patriotism is so rare amono; us. ann the civic call so often falls on unregarding ears.” ,