Article April 14, 1962 Issue

Signs of the Times

Charles H. Malik

The Rotarian

Dr. Charles H. Malik, Former President of the UN General Assembly in The Rotarian Evanston, Illinois

I include many things under ... materialism. Besides softness and the life of ease, besides the quest after money and material gain, besides the all-consuming passion after economic security— besides these things I include the ... attitude which ... obliterates the dimension of rank, excellence, quality, depth, and which therefore knows no rest, no grace, and no ultimate peace.

Nothing is more needed today than a mighty spiritual offensive which will put the material in its place and restore to the spiritual its original primacy and preeminence. The mind that understands and creates, the spirit that suffers and sacrifices and loves and is at peace with itself, the fellowship of the pure and free and transparent, the joy of conversation and reason and sharing, the soul that rejoices in beauty and grace and being, the goodwill that is full of light and positive intent, God, the absolute mind, absolute spirit, absolute love, absolute reason, absolute grace, absolute goodness, absolute being— these things come first, and everything else second.... Man, it seems, can never learn this lesson; he must always invert the right order of values and put the lower things first.

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