The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1951-09-20

MssaM "a that box up and tip
u 81 y &&8 it over into the
d., Forenoon Grand Canyon.
With the human
race no bigger than that. isn't 1t
stupid Of us not to get together? II
you ever read Mark Twain's fas-
cinating tale. Captain Stormfield's
Visit to Heaven" you will remem-
Der how that mariner got lost on
his way to heaven and arrived at
the wrong gate. Since no one at that
gate had ever heard of the EARTH"
the captain finally identified himself
as from the Solar System.
Still no one had heard Of 1t. Final
ly some one discovered It, tiny
dot on an enormous map. The Cap
tain was considerably taken down
when he learned how small the
earth is in the immense starry uni
verse; and SO might we all be.
Passengers on the Same Planet
TN THE EYES of God and his
= angels, this earth and the people
on it do not fill up the big place
they fill in the eyes of us mortals.
This does not mean that we are
unimportant to ourselves. or of no
concern to God.
Saint Paul gave us the Chris
tan reas0n-always the best Of
reasons - why human beings
ought to realize how close to-
gether we really are. Speaking
to the university crowd at
Athens, he quoted from Greek
poet to prove his point: 1--WE be-
long to His race" tActs I7:28,
MOffatt's translation.)
God made all peoples from q
common origin" In him we live
and move and have our being. Re-
member that Paul was not speaking
in Christian church. OF course
Christians are brothers in an even
| warmer and more living sense. but
Paul could say, even to men who
were not Christians as he was, that
he and they were alike offspring OF
God, that they all had their being
in the same Creator and Father.
The Importance of Being Human
IF WE would only just stop pinning
: our little tags on people! We call
them foreigners" or farmers" or
Canadians" or college boys" or
Chinese" So they are; but the
most important fact about Chinese,
or fishermen. or farmers or any
other class of mankind, Is that they
/ are human beings.
What we have in common, as
human beings. is infinitely more i'm.
portant than tie variations which
set us off into different races, class.
es and groups. The Christian will
be loyal citizen of his own land:
but he will also remember that he
is a world-citizen too And as q
world-citizen. he will always re.
member certain truths about all his
! fellow human beings.
One is that since we all have
common humanity, we all
stand in need of God. It is not
much exaggeration, II any, to
say that ia. be human is to be
helpless.
Scholars write books with titles
like 1.-THE Human Predicament,"
which is short way of saying that
II you are human you are in q
mess. You need God, whoever you
are. But if you know that. then also
remember that all other member,
Of the human race need him too
quite as much as you do.
Our Lost Brothers
REMEMBER. too. that while III
- are summoned to the same
destiny (as Paul said: God com
mands all men to repent NJ. jus,
/ some Of themD. many and many :
man Unjust We say, alas. mos
menD misses that destiny.
There Is broad road leading
to destruction, Jesus said, and
many are travelling that road.
How can a Christian be indiffer.
ent about = thing like that?
Every man on the dark road In
man who might be .
Christian.
/ From the dead-end road of self
ishness. hatred and pride he nigh
come over to the highway of Coo
! !. II some one took the trouble Il
60 after him. But we shall no
bother ourselves much, We shat
not bother ourselves enough, abou
our lost brothers. unless we hav,
the World-citizens eye and tht
world-Christians heart.
| Copyright 1881 by the Division a
Christian Education, National Counej
| Of the Churches of Christ of the Unite,
| States of America. Released by WN,
! Features