Signs of the Times

with contributions from Ralph W. Sockman, Alan Walker, Herschell H. Richmond

Ralph W. Sockman in a sermon as reported in the New York Herald Tribune New York

"Love needs a more intelligent and realistic treatment from the pulpit," Dr. Sockman declared.

"The Biblical command, 'Love thy neighbour as thyself,' does not mean that you have to agree with what he thinks," the pastor said, "or like what he does or even that you like his personal qualities. But it does mean that you are to have an attitude of good will toward him, and that you are to seek his highest good."

He added: "It takes imagination to keep the gold in the Golden Rule. We must try to use enough imagination to see what we would want done to us if we were in the other fellow's place."

Alan Walker in an article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph New South Wales, Australia

No man can be truly great until he finds a cause greater than himself. The noblest cause that has ever broken upon human consciousness is the vision of the kingdom of God. ... In the service of the kingdom of God life finds its purpose. The kingdom of God enfolds life with meaning.

Life in this world is without meaning and purpose if it does not receive its meaning from eternity. ... It is the Christian faith in immortality which invests our lives with significance and purpose.

Life has a purpose. Only God can show us that purpose. If we accept His truth and obey [the teachings of] Christ Jesus, life can become a wonderfully new and satisfying experience.

Herschell H. Richmond in Front Rank St. Louis, Missouri

Those who discover prayer to be the basic medium of communication between God and man know that its practice is essential to Christian living.

A ... condition necessary for effective praying is humility. The Pharisee who trusted in himself that he was righteous and despised others is a perennial figure among all people in any age. Even Christians can sometimes regard themselves as self-righteous and display a pseudo piety and arrogance.

Piety requires more than a mere formal recognition of God, and righteousness consists in more; than abstaining from sins of the flesh. A person is hardly virtuous when he is arrogant toward others, condemning and despising anyone who does not conform to his pharisaical standards of conduct. Humility always subjects us to a righteous God.

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June 9, 1956

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