An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.
Do you ever stop to notice the signs of the times?
Everyone should stop sometimes and take notice of what is taking place about him. This time of year, trees are taking on a new hue, the leaves are beginning to fall back upon Mother Earth from whence they came. Men are beginning to think in terms of the winter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, snow, cold, and the like.
But that is not all. As one looks at the current issues of the newspapers, he sees “BABY STOLEN FROM CARRIAGE,” “MAN SLAIN BY WIFE,” “JOHN ARRESTED-DRIVING DRUNK,” etc., etc. From all outward appearances, something is drastically wrong.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
I find myself stopping and wondering just what is taking place? Apparently, men are getting weary of the things as God would have them be.
Maybe some men are trying to escape from some inner voice that speaks to them day and night, reminding them of their shortcomings. In the midst of it all, they, like Jacob of old, are trying to run away from the real issues of life.
Take the first case, for instance. Here you find a woman, motivated by the motherly instinct, finding herself finally in the grasp of this desire so strongly until she just can’t escape and now, when she can run no longer, she reaches in someone’s carriage and takes out the baby. All her life, she has subdued the ever-present desire to become a mother because there were “things” that she deemed important that had to be done so she never got around to having a child because she never had time. Now, in desperation, she grabs someone else’s child.
A SICK WORLD
We could go on and on and make a long list of things many people are doing daily out of desperation. The man who gets in a car and drives down the street under the influence of whiskey by all standards of measurement must be missing in the sounder standards of value. All of the aforementioned things force me to believe that we are living in a sick world. In the final analysis, we live in a world where power, social prestige, materialism and education have become the criteria of goodness and evil of our day and time. The very fact that there are those who have come to the place of reason where they have no real significance of what life has to offer in terms of virtue, in terms of honesty, and the like, makes this world a pretty bad place in which to live.
STUMBLED TOO LONG
All in all, there must be a reawakening in our thinking, our behavior, and our outlook as far as things moral and spiritual are concerned. Too long we hone stumbled about in a moral and spiritual mist that has led as to believe that there’s no such thing as reality as far as the real things in life are concerned.
In each heart there must grow something that will disturb it to the extent that when hours of temptation arrive, it might be able to reach back on added strength and hold on to those things that are wholesome. There are times in each life when we have to reach back within ourselves and find something with a deep significance that will lead us to a finer and nobler way of life.
Too many – far too many – of us are concerning ourselves with the frills of life while the major things in life are being left untouched.
During world War II we saw many people turn back to those things that are vital. The church, the lodges, the civic organizations – all took on a new significance as far as they were concerned. I hope that it will not be necessary for such to come about again before many of of us can find our bearings and get back on the right paths. with all that is going on now, those of us who have developed a sense of moral and spiritual responsibility must now rise to a new sense of duty that those who are coming behind us might have a gleaming light to guide them to higher and nobler heights.
There must be a sign post in the life of every person. That sign post must remind him of the dangerous curves, the pitfalls, and the like in human endeavors.
MY CONTRIBUTION?
Today, in the midst of all the confusion, each one of us must assume our places of responsibility and lead people to higher and nobler heights where the real will of God will be realized.
As one looks at the world today in its decaying condition, each should as himself the question: what contribution am I making to make the world the type of world we have today?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 