Article June 16, 1928 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Raymond C. Knox

[From an editorial in the Masonic Home Journal, Louisville, Kentucky]

Viewed from one standpoint, there is much to discourage us. ... The pessimist will tell you that things are as bad as they possibly can be. He will sigh gloomily over the degeneracy of the age, and wonder how anyone can hope for anything but disaster and ruin as the inevitable result of the present condition of affairs. But to every fair-minded, right-thinking man, the world presents no such gloomy picture. The evil, the degeneracy of the times are of little weight compared with the immense influences that are at work to draw mankind in the other direction. ... We are to go onward and upward, overcoming all obstacles, developing in every individual man all that is grand, and pure, and noble in him, until at last the world shall present the happy spectacle of a kingdom, all the subjects of which are in harmony with each other, and with their Ruler, the Supreme Architect of the universe. It is just here that the men of the past failed, because they lacked right conception of God and men. Here it is that we rest our hopes of the continued progress of mankind, because we have entered upon an era in the history of the world when the light of the divine truth shines upon us from the Sacred Book of the Law, giving us clear ideas of the Deity whom we worship, and a proper appreciation of the claims of our fellow-men upon us. But the responsibility of elevating mankind must rest somewhere. We cannot shift this upon others, or turn away from suffering, ruined humanity as did Cain of old, who, after basely murdering his brother, said in insolent affrontery to the question of his Maker, "Where is Abel thy brother?" "Am I my brother's keeper?" We are, one and all, responsible for the well-being of society. If this is true of us as individuals, much more is it true when we voluntarily assume solemn obligations as members of an organization that has this object especially in view, the elevation of mankind.

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