The Ebbing Tide

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. I am a student of history, and I know that history is repetitive. Like causes produce like results. This is the basis for sober contemplation of the fate which awaits our civilization unless there is a startling reversal of attitude and behavior. By "our" civilization, I refer to the culture developed in the western hemisphere. It is not the only state of civilization in existence, but it is of particular interest to me, because by the circumstances of birth I am a white man, and by locality I live in a nation which is a part of, and a contributor to this culture. It is likewise of interest that this is the only civilization extant predicated upon the belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and His way of life is the only satisfactory code of conduct, and the source of happiness beyond the grave. I subscribe to that belief.

     Every symptom which preceded the downfall of other great previous civilizations is apparent in the western world. We are relying for our continued existence on the very things which proved to be "broken reeds" when others leaned upon them. Like the Macedonian, Roman, and prior world powers, we place our hopes upon our abundance of natural resources and the power of armed might. But the experience of all ages teaches that without single exception, those who placed their hope of survival upon these factors were destroyed. Other peoples who were regarded as savage and uncultured, as uncouth and ignorant, have surged forward and overwhelmed those who had become soft and effeminate.

     It is evident that the western world has long believed it was invulnerable because of a fancied superiority in technical skill and scientific acumen. That very thing may prove to be the Achilles' heel which will provide the avenue of death for all we have cherished. Certainly the adage of Paul, "If a man think that he stands, let him take heed lest be fall", can be projected to a national level, for a nation is but a collection of individuals. No other poison is so toxic as the idea of racial superiority, and the graveyard of nations is filled with the tombstones of those who regarded themselves as a super race. Many of them were engulfed by the very ones they despised.

     A short time ago we received a severe jolt when Russia placed a satellite in orbit around the earth. Most Americans had lulled themselves into believing that this vast sprawling area of the earth's surface was peopled by dull, plodding peasants and semi-barbarous kulaks. Had we not read that they lived huddled together in small apartments, that they had few private automobiles, and no tiled baths. It was unthinkable that people who dressed in baggy clothes and walked to their destinations, could out-distance our brilliant scientists working in their gleaming, well-equipped laboratories. So

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shocking was the revelation of the Russian accomplishment, that our people were temporarily in a state of fear bordering on frenzy. But when our own geniuses hurled a couple of baby moons into space, we relaxed, and resumed our pleasurable existence. We could do it too! Despite the fact that our little satellites compared in size with those of Russia like an apple placed beside a sack of potatoes, we were content. It does not take much to satisfy the ego of those already full of it.

     We stand today on the brink of disaster. We are like children toying with a loaded revolver or tossing a live grenade. We are flirting with death, and gambling with extinction. This is the measured conviction of many serious modern philosophers. It is altogether possible their warnings will fall upon deaf ears. Belshazzar was throwing a drunken party the night the Medes entered mighty Babylon through the channel of the Euphrates. The citizens of Rome still believed it was the "Eternal City" when Alaric and the Visigoths knocked at the gates. Jeremiah urged his people to train women in the art of weeping, so they could take up a wailing, "that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush with waters." He assigned as the reason, "For death is come into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets." But the king, sitting in his palace of luxury, took a penknife and cut the message to bits and fed it into the fire on the hearth, and Jeremiah was arrested and thrown into a dungeon filled with muck and mire.

     'The situation confronting our civilization is serious. We are in the critical ward. Is it hopeless? My reply is that it need not be. In what direction does hope lie? It cannot come from material wealth or expenditure of money. In the United States today we have piled up a national debt of such staggering proportions as to defy all ability to describe. The mind of man is incapable of grasping a picture of the amount of the earth's surface which would be blanketed if this colossal obligation were reduced to ten dollar bills and these were spread out like a quilt. Only recently the chief executive signed into law a bill raising the ceiling on the debt, and it is now predicted that it must be jacked up again by new billions. Much of this mammoth expenditure has gone to underprivileged areas, and many of these people have taken our money and become our bitter enemies. We have saddled our children's children for centuries to come with a yoke of taxation, and have spent money we did not have, but have borrowed from unborn posterity to protect our way of life, although in doing so we may have destroyed theirs. We have gone into debt in a time of greatest prosperity. If we do this in a green tree, what shall we do in the dry?

     But does not God bless those who share their bounties with others who are in need? Is it not more blessed to give than to receive? That depends upon the motive for the giving. Our national budget for foreign aid is not an exemplification of Christian charity, nor an altruistic expression of love for the down-trodden. It is born of political necessity, and is a diplomatic expedient engaged in all too often as a policy of appeasement. God has not promised to bless the sacrifice one makes when he flings his purse to a robber to keep him from ransacking his house. We would not imply that no good has been done in filling the starving bellies of the victims of famine, but it must be admitted that all too frequently we have sent shiploads of grain only when we have learned Russia was going to do so. As a people, we are prone to rationalize and to assign ourselves the highest motives for our conduct, like the criminal who feels he is helping to solve the unemployment problem by keeping so many policemen at work.

     We cannot trust in armed might for survival. The cracking of the atom marked the end of the myth that any one can win in a future war. All that can be expected is, that like the blind Samson of old, we will pull down the house and perish with our enemies. The few survivors who sought refuge in dens and caves deep

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enough to escape the fall-out would grope their way back to a blackened, desolated surface covered with the pitiable remains of men, women and children reduced to seared cracklings. Mighty cities would disappear in a blinding flash, rivers would be dried up, and mountains of debris would cover once fertile plains. Our only hope lies in a power greater and mightier than atomic energy. That superior power is the moral power of the universe, proceeding from the Creator of the universe. Atomic energy is created force. The Creator is greater than the created. So the moral strength of God is greater than any force which is neutral in moral relationships, such as atomic energy.

     Any power to be utilized as a constructive or protective force must be properly channeled. For generations, rivers ran wild and turbulent, until men flung huge dams across their courses, and directed the flow through water courses which enabled turbines to capture, tame, and harness the horsepower to light our homes and operate our factories. The power was there through the ages, but it was unused. The mere existence of moral power in the world is not enough. It is of such a nature that it must operate through human hearts, transforming them and using them as transforming agents. Those of us who believe that we are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, as Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, also believe that God is able to do abundantly above all we ask or think, according to that power which works in us. This is the power of faith!

     Why is it, then, that the only civilization based on the Christian concept, is tottering on the brink of the abyss which has swallowed so many previous civilizations? Has Christianity been weighed and found wanting? Is it outworn, outmoded, and helpless to compete with a complex secular modern world? There are those who affirm that this is the case. Certainly, after two thousand years, the majority of the world's population is not even nominally Christian. Millions have never learned the ethical principles of Jesus of Nazareth; millions more are unaffected by what they have heard. Has Christianity by virtue of its contact with the material sphere, and through friction thus engendered, lost its transforming power? If not, why is that power so ineffective?

     In a series of articles, of which this is the first, addressed to all who believe that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, in the days of Herod, was the Word made flesh, and the only begotten Son of the living God, I want to attempt to establish certain principles which may help to arouse thought and spur action, leading to our survival. These lessons will, it is hoped, commend themselves to the earnest thinkers of all denominations. This writer has long been associated with a non-sectarian fellowship based upon a sincere attempt to restore the primitive community of saints, and it is but natural that much of what is said will have specific bearing upon the problems confronting those with whom he is affiliated. But recognizing that there are many others who believe in the Messiahship and Sonship of the Nazarene, and are sincerely seeking to understand and implement His will, it is hoped that there will be a sufficient degree of universality in the essays to encourage reading by all who love God and tremble over our impending fate.

     Since our contact with our fellowmen depends upon the willingness and activity of others who are serious and sober thinkers, and who are concerned about the conditions outlined, we trust that our readers will share their papers with neighbors and friends who have a passion for truth, regardless of their religious affiliation. If each article could be passed to many hands and its suggestions become the grist for many minds, the resultant accumulative effort might be surprising. It is in the spirit of love that we urge you to read our article next month, entitled, "The Running Sands."

     We are convinced that our greatest enemy is the indifference born of smug complacency. We refuse to believe the signs of the times. We are like the condemned man who awaits his fate at the gallows, but allows no thought of im-

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pending death to mar his last meal. Not one great world power of the past believed its own prophets. It is a characteristic of all great civilizations that the generation which inherits the blessings carved out of a rude and cruel wilderness by the toil of dedicated ancestors, accepts those blessings as its due, and loses the sense of consecration and renounces the labor essential to perpetuate them. Thus, men grow soft and effeminate as wealth becomes the end to be sought, and not the means to an end. Goldsmith has aptly said

     "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey;
     Where wealth accumulates and men decay."

     The tide is ebbing out for us. The pull and tug of unseen forces is slowly and relentlessly drawing it out toward the deep, leaving great stretches of naked shore covered with the flotsam and jetsam once buried deeply, but now exposed to the gaze of all. Can that tide be stayed? Only a divine hand can hold it back. He who drew a line in the sands and said, "This far, and no further shalt thou come," can restrain the waves. But the reversal of the tide depends upon the reformation of our lives. Our civilization is not so much endangered by nuclear fission as by spiritual deficiency. Our greatest threat is not atomic power in the control of others, but lack of moral power as the controlling factor in our lives. Will you be one of God's "Minute Men" to help warn of the dangers that are clawing at our door?