A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self Culture and CharacterHillis, Newell Dwight
Philosophy
A Man's Value to Society: Studies in Self Culture and Character
Hillis, Newell Dwight
Character; Self-culture
Into our nation also has come the disturbing vision. Ours is called an
age of unrest. We hear much about social discontent. Beneath all the
outer activity and bustle there is an undertone of profound sadness.
Neither wealth, pleasure, nor politics has availed to conceal the
world's weariness. Strangely enough, just at a time when prosperity is
greatly increased, when our homes are full of comforts and
conveniences, when all the forces of land and sea and sky have lent
themselves to man as willing servants, to carry his messages, run his
errands, reap his harvests, pull his trains, and push his ships; in an
age when a thousand instruments that make for refinement and culture
have been invented, just at this time, strangely enough, unrest and
disquietude have fallen upon our people. Why is our age so sad? Has
Schopenhauer carried the judgment of mankind by his favorite motto,
"It is safer to trust fear than faith?" Is it because our age has lost
faith in God? Have doubt and skepticism burned the divine dew off the
grass, and left it sere and brown? Nay, a thousand times nay!
The world is sad because it has found God, not lost him. Man is weary
in the midst of his wealth and pleasures for the same reason that the
young ruler was grieved and sad in the midst of his great possessions.
Our age has seen the vision splendid, but halts undecided, being yet
unwilling to go on and fulfill its new ideals. For those who have eyes
to see, Jesus Christ stands again in the market and the street. He has
given society a new vision of the earth as a possible paradise, filled
with the fruits of peace and plenty where none know surfeit, and none
know want. He has given a vision of the brotherhood of man and the
fatherhood of God, and that vision has destroyed the old contentment.
Our fathers were happy because what they did kept pace with what they
saw. And we are unhappy because we are unwilling to do what we see.
This vision of possible excellence will continue to haunt our
generation until performance shall have overtaken the ideal promise.
All the processes of buying and selling without must be carried up to
meet the requirements of the vision within. Just as in Luther's day
the vision divine disturbed Germany and filled the land with unrest
until the people achieved spiritual freedom; just as in Cromwell's day
the vision of freedom in political relations came to England and gave
disturbance until the doctrine of the divine right of kings was
overthrown; just as in our own day the vision of liberty for all,
without regard to race or color, disturbed our land and filled our
council chambers with conflict and strife, and turned the South into
one immense battle-field, until the laws of the Nation matched the
ideals of God--so to-day, the vision of the brotherhood of man in
Jesus Christ has fallen upon the home, the market, and the forum, and
brought restlessness and discontent to our people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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