Article December 30, 1933 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Donald C. MacGuire, Willsie Martin

[From the Times, London, England]

When we desire a "happy" year for ourselves and our friends, what precisely do we mean by happiness? To identify it with peace and prosperity is, after all, to touch but the surface of life, so far as those terms are limited to our external circumstances. A year bringing unexpected wealth and concord might yet, in the deeper sense, be a most unhappy year if material growth were to mean the growth of materialism. Equally a year thick with troubles and disappointments might yet in truth be a signally happy year if it should bring to us and our neighbors a clearer vision of God, a mind more resolved to place His will first, a brotherhood transferred from the region of sentimentality into a vivid consciousness of our relationships in God's family. When, following this line of approach, we again try to estimate what the near future is likely to hold for us, the grounds of encouragement are definitely stronger. There are distinct signs today of a religious revival, a revival the more likely to be lasting because it is unspectacular and is developing slowly from within. Already its influence is perceptible in many fields. . . . Frivolity of the imbecile type is no longer fashionable among the young; they are studying religious and social problems with keener attention, and are rediscovering the supreme interest of the Bible. No doubt there is still much to be set on the other side of the account; self-indulgent folly and indifference to the deeper aspects of life remain too common, and more pernicious even than these is the poisonous spirit that would foment class hatred and pour scorn on sacred things. Yet, when every allowance has been made for the uglier symptoms, it does seem true that a widespread return to religion can in fact be discerned today. A year which witnessed a definite advance of this movement would be a year not lacking the best kind of happiness.

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