The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1923-12-05
STRICKEN CONSCIENCE

A stricken conscience characterizes
Christendom. A searching of the
conscience is going on. Everywhere
in Europe and America there is an ex-
animation of the heart to find where
the fault is. This manifestation nat
urally,takes a morbid turn with many.
But it is found with the best intel
lects and most enlightened con-
sciences. And the business Is not
only salutary, but also essential.
A revaluation is the process we are
all, consciously or unconsciously, en-
gagged upon: This is an intellectual
as we'll as spiritual and moral ef-
fort. Perhaps in the business we are
in danger of divorcing the intellect
from the moral nature. The latter,
experiencing shock and suffering re-
pentance, would repudiate the former.
If suffered to do so, the consequence
might be disastrous certainly would
be detrimental, because mankind has
use and need Ear intellect now as per-
haps never before in the history Of
the race. Intelligence, morally orien-
ted, is what is required. Moral in
spiration, unintelligently directed,
scarcely can suffice.
DR.. G. Stanley Hall, one time Presi-
dent Of Clark University, a foremost
American psychologist, in his Life
and Confessions, recently published,
envisages this problem of the age,
sees it both through intellectual and
spiritual media. He writes: "The
waste Of incompetency and the curse
Of mediocrity are upon US. We have
utterly lost all power to discriminate
between the best men, things, ideas,
books. and the second or even the
tenth BEST"
There, we believe, DR.. Hall puts his
finger upon what is the matter with
US, especially US Americans, just now.
Our valuations are jumbled, effaced.
When worthy Chicago great mer-
chant can compare himself to the
great statesman, artist, inventor,
scientist, and claim fame as his pre-
rogative, there is revealed the char
acter Of our times-the inability to
discriminate between what is noble
and what is trivial, what is essential
and what is accidental. Our sense
of value has been effaced or seriously
impaired, and this is not only an in
tellectual error but spiritual astig-
matism. '.
Dr.. Hall, however, is hopeful. Our
today's characteristic is a phase.
Promise in the future is justified. He
is not the blatant optimist that Wells
is. He is rather the conditional OPP
timist. But the conditions can be
fulfilled by those nations that are
properly resolved. He writes:
Education has thus now become the
chief Of problem of the world, tn
one holy cause. The nations that
see this will survive, and those that
fail to do so will slowly perish.
knowledge must henceforth be the
light and guide Of mankind. More
Of it must be quarried from the origi-
nal sources, nature and man. This,
together with the choicest lessons Of
our past experience, must be even
more widely diffused, and there must
be absolute freedom Of both research
and teaching. There must be re-edu-
cation Of the soul and Of the heart
as well as Of the intellect, and the
ideals Of service must supplant those
Of selfishness and greed. Nothing
else can save us, and shall live and
hope to die when my time comes,
convinced that this goal is not only
attainable, but that we are, on the
whole, with however many and wide
spread retrogressions, making prog
ress surely IL slowly and IN the right
direction.
These are words Of wisdom from
one Of the wisest living Americans.
We commend them to all thoughtfu>
persons, to all responsible ones
Minneapolis Journal.