Evening star., 1954-08-20

SGcdu1ly IIlCtCdSSS. LII b nun.
dred years. that percentage has
multiplied more than three
times.
Recently great Bible So
ciety announced that it had
doubled the distribution of the
Scriptures in the United States
since 1913. Bible distribution in
this country last year rose to
almost 10 million volumes pub
lished in 81 languages. Now,
these two facts are not in them
selves proof, either of piety or
Of an approaching millennium, in
religion as serious and genuine,
not merely theoretical.
Religion in Congress.
A score of religious faiths,
large and small, are represented
in the membership of our present
Congress. and it will interest
you to know that a good many
members of our Congress peri
odically meet together outside of
legislative hours to consider how
religious principles can be ap-
piled to the practical affairs of
our Government.
I think that you ought to feel
at home here and to know that
you are among people who feel
in harmony with your purposes.
Believing, as we do in the i'm
portance Of religion, we shall
expect much Of the convocation,
imagination, remind us again
and again of the vision without
which the people perish. Give us
criticism in the light of religious
ideals. Kindle anew in us a
desire to strive for moral great
ness and to show us where we
fall short. We shall listen if
you speak to us as the Prophet
spoke in the days Of old. We
look to you for another thing,
and that is for a practical DEM
onStration of the Christian
ethics. We hope you may show
us additional and better ways
in which it can be applied to all
sorts of problems. That is what
you might call the 1ogistics of
faith.
We as people have sought,
however, imperfectly, to carry
out in spirit programs that have
been regional and even global ilN
scope.
The war was scarcely over,
may remind you, until Ameri-
can hearts were digging cash out
OF American pockets to help re-
store devasted regions, to re-
lieve suffering.
There was finally established
the great system of CARE. CARE
packages going everywhere in
the world, to feed the hungry.
to bring a moment of cheer and
OF good feeling to millions who
were in despair.
Other Air Programs.
The Marshall Plan, and its
effort to restore to other ma
tions something of the ability
they had to earn their own living
before the cataclysms Of war
struck them. The technical as
sistance that spread around the
world, from Peru to Pakistan,
from everywhere that people
want to get technical help to
help themselves. And aside from
all these. we have q great record |
OF Red Cross and churches and
other groups, doing their might-
est all OF the time to help their |
brethren who are less fortunate.
Now, admittedly, my friends, |
these programs always reject our
one enlightened self Interest as
we'll as humanitarian purposes.
We know that no nation may
live by itself alone. To preserve
the individual freedoms we prize
SO highly, we must not only pro-
tect ourselves as a nation, but
we must make certain that 9TH
ers with like devotion to liberty
may also survive and prosper.
We have wanted a world in which
we might live in peace and con-
f1dence, and in striving toward
that goal we have understood
that to help others was often
the best way ourselves to ad-
vance.
But underlying all of these
practical considerations has been
belief in the dignity of man and
in the right conferred upon him
by his Creator, so well stated
in our Declaration of Independ-
ence, which I hope, by the way,
your grace, you have read.
Now, my friends of the con-
vocation, there is another thing
we can hope to learn from your
being with us. I illustrate it by
quoting the statement of a for
mer college president, and I can
understand the reason for his
speaking as he did. am sure
President Miller can.
This president said: "I have
two kinds of problems-the
urgent and the important. The
urgent are not important and
the important are never urgent"
Modern Dilemma.
Now. this, I think, represents
dilemma of modern man.
Your being here can help place
the important before us, and
perhaps even give the important
a touch of urgency. And you
can strengthen our faith that
men Of good will, working to-
gether, can solve the problems
confronting us.
Because these men, these
people, these devoted people
meeting here believe first of all.
always in faith, faith Is the
mightiest force that man has at
his command. It impels human
! action to greatness in Thought