Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-08-24
SPIRES OF THE SPIRIT
Nine TnirnS
BY DIR. FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS
Chaplain Of the United States Senate
ithollt an aIleoiance ID


spiritual verities, Of which
spires are the symbols, the
handwriting is on the wall
for democracy. Spires are
mans emblems lifted from
the sod to climb their straight
and certain way to God. A
spireless economy will in
evitably be trampled under
by a ruthless totalitarianism.
We are witnessing a massive
assault by demonic forces
which deride the fundamen-
tai assumptions which rise
above the ground like spires
Of the spirit in the teachings
Of the Prophets Of Israel and
supremacy in the truth re-
vealed in Christ. The global
struggle. the ominous clamor
Of which no lullaby Of "busi-
ness and pleasure as usual"
can keep from dominating
the consciousness of any
truly informed and intelli-
gent person, is for the biggest
stakes that history has ever
seen.
This battle of the ages
cannot be understood without
a keen realization that the
supreme values, which have
been accepted and expressed
in the upward climb Of the
race, are mirrored in such
mighty words as God, Truth,
Honor. Sympathy. Co-opera-
ton, Integrity, Fairness and
Goodness. All these are now
cynically stricken out as fac
tors of destiny by those who
now dominate half the earth.
This is the time from the
houSetops to proclaim and
practice the creed of the
spire under which Jesus was
standing as he declared, re-
garding the crying needs of
human society, Seek We first
the Kingdom Of God and His
Righteousness and these
other things for which men
crave, and which they must
have. will be added" No
wonder that Norman Thomas.
the Socialist leader, says the
more he gazes at that tall
spire the more literally true
it seems. Jesus is the most
relevant personality and the
greatest social realist in this
twentieth = century world.
Every social system, whether
it is labeled capitalism, So
cialism or Marxism, is
headed for the rocks if that
fundamental law is dis
carded.
It is the voice of spires to
which perplexed and anxious
statesmen need to listen as
baked and baffled they tinker
with Utopian schemes which
somehow do not seem to click.
Nothing needs to be said with
more solemn emphasis to the
social architects and engi-
neers, budding together at
the United Nations, or has
tening from capital to CAPT.
tai of the fear-jittery world,
'endeavoring to draw blue
prints for a safer and hap
pier habitation for humanity
than this Warrington can
not build the kingdom of
human welfare without God.
From the dim past until now
at least IA civilizations have
had their day and ceased to
be. The stern verdict of his
tory is that with all their
snowy splendor they disin-
tegrated because of pride,
love of luxury, and self suf-
ficiency. They simply be-
came clogged and perverted
channels God could not use.
Will this history repeat it
self?
The beacons Of history
have not been systems or
schemes but dedicated indi-
vidualS whose own lives have
been as spires of the spirit,
on whose pointed pinnacles
have been hung the lanterns
Of ethical excellence and of
faith and hope and love.
Such a one was Gordon Dean,
former chairman of the
Atomic Energy Commission,
whose mortal life was snuffed
out in a recent air catastrophe
at Nantucket. 1t was in re-
lation to the control of the
dread power, unleashed by
the split atom, its fashion
ing for national defense and
its channeling for peaceful
advances in human better
ment, that this gifted and
highly trained public servant
was to have a vital role. His
answering conviction and
steadfast faith was that there