Article April 15, 1939 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from John E. Marvin, L. B. Ashby, Manning

[From the Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada]

What men are groping for, and often so blindly, is peace of mind. Why there is, indeed, growing mental unrest is due to lack of realization that what makes for happiness depends infinitely less on the circumstances of life than on what a man is himself. If there is to be a true and clear apprehension of life's values, there must be faith that is dominant and constant, faith that interprets experience and character and conduct, that sets standards sought to be reached, a faith which enables its possessor to see life steadily and as a whole. It is this that inspires the belief that true satisfactions are to be found within, in that peace of mind which recognizes the divine goodness, which gives freedom from most of the sources of unhappiness. ... It is not material advantages, not the pursuit of pleasure, not any of the things which a bountiful earth has to bestow, that make for equanimity in outlook. It is the sense of duty well done, of moral values sustained, of radiant confidence in the everlasting resurrections of the divine Love that are the sources of a satisfaction that nothing else can give. ...

Whoever would have peace of mind must cultivate self-discipline. Where lack of this is shown is not only in the great crises that sometimes confront the individual, but also in the habit of reacting violently to small things. The latter habit is an evidence of being nervously undisciplined, and is an unhappy condition. It is self-discipline that protects against any undue strain of conflicts without and irritations within. ...

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