TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21037, 13 February 1940, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Inspiration Of History “The choice of standpoint and standards has become urgent if history : s not to be brought into disrepute by being thus openly exploited in the interests of political propaganda. It is useless to declaim against the ideologists if the only alternative to their schematisings is a return to story-telling. History properly appreciated has a profound importance for mankind; of that we are all nowadays convinced. jt supplies, if we use it rightly, the data by which individuals and society can interpret their experience, understand their past and estimate their future. It reveals, to the believer, the ways of God with His children. As such its study should not be determined by the personal preferences and prejudices of the historian, nor in the interests of social, national or ecclesiastical advantage. Nor it is enough for him k record what is objectively true; he must select his material by a true standard of values, and estimate its significance in relation to a true concept of man’s welfare. The historian is surely abusing his vocation if he does not constantly strive to sift and interpret his material in the light of the eternal: otherwise he drops to the level of a propagandist."—Canon C. E. Raven.