The Pulpit Speaks: September 6, 1958

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

Man’s inhumanity to man has gone a long way toward creating within man a certain concern that can only be expressed in terms of disbelief. All contacts one may have with another are colored with a certain amount of unbelief. Certain apprehensions automatically accompany all of man’s dealings with his fellow man. No one goes into an agreement without setting up the machinery whereby there will be a definite tie for security’s sake. The old day of shaking hands and solidifying agreement by such action long since has gone. The deep-seated desire on the part of some people to “beat” their way out of any obligation is foremost in many of our minds. The average person wants to beat his neighbor before his neighbor gets a chance to beat him.

If this tide were subsiding, there would be no need of concern. But as one reads the papers, or listens to the radio, or watches his television, he is brought face to face with the fact that most men are out to get all that they can for as little expenditure of their commodities as possible. To the man who is sincere in his endeavors, the way seems very dark. He is almost ready to throw up his hands and cry out, “Oh, what is the use!”

This would be truly pathetic but life goes on a little further than that. And as hard as things might seem along life’s highway, not only does one run into those individuals with minds so immature but they also run into minds that through trials, tribulations, heartaches and the like, have matured to the point whereby they have mastered themselves to the point they are willing to do right by everyone. This changes the whole picture and, because it gives hope to the entire setup, somewhere down the line, we will run into those people who will be willing to do what is right by their fellow man.

Getting back to the original: we must have faith in something or this will be a worthless world. I feel that, in spite of the discouraging relationships we might have with out fellow man, we must not give up. We must hold onto the belief that somewhere down the line, man will inevitably learn his duty to his fellow man and will set out to do that which is just and right. Life must lead us to the higher evaluations in terms of those things about us. Whereas the first impression of man may be that of a brute, as our dealings with him increase, we soon realize that in his lowest state, man has the capabilities of being brought up on a higher plane and made over into an entirely different kind of creature.

This gives hope to the whole picture. We see men in light of their deeds — thieves, crooks, robbers, murderers, and what not. But our eyes must not linger too long on these because on the other side of the picture is a picture of men who are ministers, doctors, lawyers, farmers, mechanics, scientists and great musicians. The most encouraging fact about the whole picture is that the latter group is getting larger and larges while the former group is getting slightly smaller. In the proportion that this continues, we can still hold on to the hope that we can still have faith in man and that, in spite of all of these symptoms of apparent growing pains expressed in terms of his greed powers, complexes and the like, one of these days, man is going to rise above such behavior and this world is going to be graced with a kind of man that will be a source of happiness on the part of his Maker and his fellow man.

Man is now passing through a state of growth that makes him unpredictable. In many instances, he forgets the race he is running and goes after the golden balls, much to the disgust of those who are pulling for him. But later on, he will realize the importance of the race and dedicate himself to the mission that he is designed to do. It is only in such an area of behavior that he becomes the type of man that will be the subject of being called the mature type of being that he was intended to be. The frivolous behavior that characterizes so many of them today forces one to have a shaken belief in man but ultimately after years and years and a few more generations, man will grow into the likeness of God for which he is designed and with such maturity, much of the pettiness which now characterizes man will disappear. Man will be a fulfillment of all the dreams he has had of himself down through the ages. With such growth, man will be in a position to demand the faith that should be directed toward him. Only when a man grows into the likeness of his Creator will the faith that should be expressed in him be realized.