Signs of the Times

with contributions from W. R. Matthews, Walter Trohan

Dr. W. R. Matthews
in the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, London, England

In the Christian life the confident leader has an important function. We need more of them. But the self-confident leader is in the wrong place in the Church; his service is vitiated by self-assertion and pride. The leader who has really overcome self-confidence by God-confidence will act no less boldly than the self-confident and will have a clearer conception of the nature of the crisis and the counter-measures which are needed. The self-confident leader who has goodwill may still not appreciate properly the absence of love and compassion which is at the root of the evil. If our sufficiency is of God we shall have no enthusiasm for any plan or purpose, commercial or political, which leaves love out.

Paul used a strong expression when he writes that he could not think anything "of himself." . . . St. Paul had tried hard to think on his own account, but it was not until he had a lively faith in the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ that his thought became creative.

An item by Walter Trohan
of the Chicago Tribune reprinted In praying Hands
Winchester, Massachusetts

Brotherhood lives in the human heart, not in any government repository. There are some things no government can do for its people, even though some of its citizens expect the government to do them. The sad thing about what the people do for themselves is that our better natures are linked inseparably to our personal integrity. If we encourage or tolerate deterioration in our personal integrity, which we seem to be doing by excusing shifts in moral values, by tolerating indolence, condoning dishonesty, coddling criminals, easing spiritual values and the like, we harden our better natures against the ends we profess to seek.

Actually we don't need new laws to curb crime or promote civil rights. There are already adequate laws. . . . But the government cannot make its citizens honest by law or give them integrity like a welfare payment. These come from the family, the school and the church. These are things citizens must do for themselves or together.

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