Article March 28, 1942 ISSUE

Spiritual Alertness Antidotes Apathy

W. STUART BOOTH

Paul , in writing to the Christians at Ephesus, was desirous of arousing them from the apathy occasioned by animality, from the mesmerism associated with material-mindedness; and so he sounded this rousing call (Ephesians 5:14): "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." In a letter previously written to the Romans, Paul had pointed the fact that death is not a physical condition, but is a state of human or mortal consciousness. He stated explicitly that "to be carnally minded is death;" and then he added, "but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6). Thus we see that the apostle recognized the tendency of men to fall readily under the spell of material beliefs, even though these men had been touched by the Christ, Truth, and had taken the name of Christian.

Doubtless if Paul were personally with us today he would voice a similar and perhaps an even more rousing appeal to Christian believers, for the world is facing a most flagrant and far-reaching attempt at mass mesmerism, which aims to stupefy, intimidate, dominate, and enslave men and nations. In spite of repeated instances of duplicity and deceit, tyranny and terrorism, achieving temporary advantage and accomplishment, some men and nations have indicated that they are handled by the same claim of mesmerism, for they have endeavored to build around themselves a mental wall of selfish isolationism instead of recognizing that, as the Bible states (Romans 14:7), "None of us liveth to himself."

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