Man-Supreme Product of Civilisation.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 35, Issue 4, 1 June 1944, Page 7

Man-Supreme Product of Civilisation.

There are other things in life besides kilowatts and horsepowers. Qur^ moral idealism must be kept alive. We must not allow, our technique to outstrip our morals. We must not permit .our machines to develop faster than our manhood. The humanising aspect of life must be developed along with the -machine itself. We need and must have modern inventions and products of the research laboratories. We need and must have the most highly improved processes of manufacture, yet it is vitai;. indeed that we build the inanhood of our country in equal proportions so as to direct this machinery and properly use these instruments. Progress in science makes progress in morals necessary; and when we increase the power of man we .must at the same time increase the strength of the check rein.: The materialistic emphasis alone spells disaster. Do you think, America, that you are going to live because of the sense of security which you have in the money that is in your vaults? . Do you think, American, that you are going to survive because of the length of your railroads and because of the great physical sense of security which you possess? If you do, then you don't know history. - r Gall the roll of the nations: Assyria,. Phoenicia, Chaldea, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece arid Rome;"' Let civilisation pass by in its unimpeachable verdict, And what is that verdiGt? No nation has ever -lived* and no, nation can live in the future of civilisation: that does not use its physical and material power as the opportunity for conserving and maintaining spiritual and moral ideality. Just .what does live in civilisation? Tell me, if you will, the name of a " single banking house of Ancient Rome. -Give me'wthe name of -a single ship that carried the commerce of - Greece. Their ribs are bleaching white to-day, buried under the sands of : the sea these many centuries, and no one knows their names and no one cares. ' ■■■■';';"'.[ ' ' V ':■•' ; .... '■■' .... . . ■; But Plato lives; Aristotle lives, Socrates lives, Livy lives, ' Tacitus lives, Hippocrates ;liveSj--and why? Because they touched humanity With a spiritual-and an intellectual inspiration that permanently maintains itself in the ceaseless struggle of the human heart to lift upward and to love life; As tested through the experiences of the nations of old, the supreme product of civilisation is man himself. . „,.:"■/■ ■.■ ■;■:=■' ■■■:-■ ■-■ .■■:■.-■ . ■■• - Rev. Byrl F. Babcock. ' California.