Every human action has a consequence which affects the future ; and since the past is comprised mostly of misdeeds and injustices the prevailing result is that the world’s troubles are too deeply set in past wrongs to be easily remediable.
Every community as it has developed has faced strife and opposition, the wrongs and rights of which have entered into their traditions and policies and have been perpetuated long after the occasion which gave rise to them has been forgotten. Inter-racial hatreds thus tend to be more traditional than rational, but they are not softened on that account. Civil laws sometimes fall into disuse because they are anachronistic, but to change them is difficult although the evils that prompted them have been forgotten: And even in our own small fraternity, of recent establishment, sufficient time has elapsed for us to have collected in our Statement of Faith clauses which bear evidence of past difficulties, and the traditional expression of them remains a vital matter and any alteration would be strongly opposed.
In this way does cause and effect impress its cycle upon our minds. The recurrence of racial riots in this modern enlightened world with its democratic principles has shocked the world into the realisation that all is not well. Who can apply a remedy that will satisfy all parties ? America’s colour problem has much in common with Africa’s. The roots lie centuries back in oppression and suppression of unorganised tribal groups, in the cruelty and savagery of slave traffic, in the exploitation of indentured labour enticed away from socially and politically backward areas. And these causes all relatively modern in themselves, are rendered more tractible still by the long centuries of tribal conflict which laid the foundation for oppression and preceded the white invasion of the dark continent. The complexity of the problem is illustrated by the variety of world-wide comment recently expressed. The new violence not only leaves a stain on the conscience of the world, but creates fresh complications, which most surely will not be lived down in the present generations. The world might well ask where it all leads, and when the golden age of peace might ensue.
It is our belief that Jesus Christ was sent by God to achieve the world’s peace. He came to his own with the message of peace, “but his own received him not.” Yet the effect of his coming was to set in train a set of factors that were to bring light to men and prepare the way for healthy sequences. Men have sought for the light from out of their darkness, but have comprehended it only in part ; they have striven for the healthy sequences, but have been forestalled by the dominance of evil. The Lord, in the days of his ministry, gave a practical demonstration of the manner in which his way would work for the common good, yet he realised early that he must himself be the victim of opposition from the darkness of this world, but he pursued his way in the full assurance of faith that only by that way could the reign of God be achieved. He brought light to his followers, and to those who believed in him “he gave power to become the sons of God,” and this power was conveyed to them not by the extension of the human will to overcome evil, but by the operation of a divine power to transform them by the renewing of their minds ; it was to be not of their working but of God’s.
The human will tends always toward the law of the jungle. Men in power hold their position only so long as they can hold down aspiring rivals. The jungle of the human will is no place for the meek who would inevitably be the victims of worldly aggressiveness were it not that civil law conferred upon them civil rights which civilized men have come to respect. But in spite of this apparent progress, the traditions of men and their inbred hatreds would make interminable a natural transition from the kingdom of darkness to the reign of truth and light. It is beyond the power of men to attain to it, and for this reason God has inspired his saints with hope in the coming again from the right hand of the Majesty on High of their Lord, who set the standard of right for men to observe and follow.
What a stupendous task it will be to check proud conquerors and to appease aggrieved rebels ! Who could attempt it, but Christ Jesus descended with power from God ? He has been a long time in coming, yet can it be said that the delay has been protracted beyond the need for the recruitment of the task-force ? This force will include his own immediate disciples, who are destined to occupy the highest authority in his kingdom, with men of faith from even the most ancient times down to the impending future —men called from every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation to give glory to him by being practical exponents of the true and living way. “This honour have all his saints.” And who are the saints but those who have known and lived in the spirit of their Lord ?
Meantime, our sympathies will reach out to our brethren in troubled spots, who must be greatly disturbed by the trends in their midst, but doubtless they will be fortified by the recollection that it was in the midst of social and political turmoil that the preaching of Christ crucified flourished and laid the foundation of a new beginning for the world.
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay