CHAPTER IV

Self in the Social Group

DAILY READINGS

Fourth Week, First Day

Praise ye Jehovah.

Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good;
For his lovingkindness endureth for ever.
Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah,
Or show forth all his praise?

Blessed are they that keep justice,

And he that doeth righteousness at all times.
Remember me, O Jehovah, with the favor that thou bear-

est unto thy people;

Oh visit me with thy salvation,

That I may see the prosperity of thy chosen,
That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation,
That I may glory with thine inheritance.

-Psalm 106: 1-5.

Here is the solid foundation for an abiding social order —men who keep justice and do righteousness at all times. Nothing could break down an order whose people lived by that. Think over the things that imperil society today and see if they do not all run back to some form of injustice. For a long time, as our social literature shows, it was felt that the strong had all the rights, but they ought to be generous and favor the weak at certain points. A manufacturer had a right to run his business to suit himself, and his employes could stay with it or leave it, and yet he ought to have charity enough to think of their welfare. We have found that the situation demands much more than that. It is not charity in this cheap sense that society needs; it is justice between man and man, justice which is not stern

but fraternal. The labor problem, taxation, graft, exploitation, and all the rest, will be cleared when we come on a basis of justice in the social order. And it is to help that kind of an order that every man whose heart is right ought to pledge himself. The experiences of such an order he may hope to share-no prosperity for himself that cannot be shared with the chosen of the God of justice and righteousness; no gladness for himself in which the nation does not rejoice; no glory for himself which cannot shine on the inheritance of God. Men with this ambition are needed in every social group.

Fourth Week, Second Day

Men of short views are the bane of the social group. Little businesses can reckon their profits every night; big ones cannot. Men who persist in living by short lengths sneer at pleas for longer ones. They talk about birds in hand versus birds in bushes. Esau took the short view in his famous colloquy with Jacob (Genesis 25:29-34), when he sold his birthright which had only a far value for a mess of pottage which he could eat at once. He also sneered at the long view, saying after a day's hunting that he was about to die, as of course he was not. A bird in the hand is better for today's meal, but two birds in the bush may be worth a vast deal more for one's longer life. Living by the day will do for dire emergencies, but it is poor policy for life as a whole.

Fret not thyself because of evil-doers,

Neither be thou envious against them that work unrighteousness.

For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,

And wither as the green herb.

Trust in Jehovah, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness.

Delight thyself also in Jehovah;

And he will give thee the desires of thy heart.
Commit thy way unto Jehovah;

Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass.

-Psalm 37: 1-5.

Evil-doers are proverbially shortlived. They have no deep roots. The second commandment speaks of visiting iniquities

unto the third and fourth generation with good reason; evil runs generations out at about that length. Bad men would soon destroy the social order. Over against the impermanence of evil a thoughtful man must seek to set his own life by connecting himself with God's larger plan. Letting mushrooms shame oaks by their rapid growth would be folly. It is the part of wise men to find the abiding value and press that. Politicians differ from statesmen, the saying goes, in that a politician guides his way by a candle which he carries in his own hand while a statesman guides his way by the stars. Politicians sneer at statesmen as being visionaries, but history is for the statesmen. So is God.

Fourth Week, Third Day

And he will make thy righteousness to go forth as the light,

And thy justice as the noonday.

Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him:

Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way,

Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath:

Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing.

For evil-doers shall be cut off;

But those that wait for Jehovah, they shall inherit the land. -Psalm 37:6-9.

This is beyond most of us. Yet every social group needs men as steady as this calls us to be. College groups need men who will not stand for dishonest winning of victories because such victories are only pretenses. They may win medals, but they beat the college and they beat the men who take part in them and who know themselves for frauds all the while and are morally unsettled so far that they try to pretend that fraud is the way of the world if you can only get away with it-the excuse of cheap men. The situation calls for sun-clear honesty, of course. Evil does prosper in its way; bad men do bring wicked devices to pass; economic, financial, social frauds do get on. mere nonsense or ignorance. returns badness pays about as because moral forces work more slowly than economic ones

Saying that they do not is In immediate and external well as goodness. That is

do. But it is nothing to worry about. The moral forces are the ones that make the final result. If we realize that a man is more important than his business, that what happens to the man is the first thing to look for, then evil has no argument in its favor. Lying, for example, may sell goods today, but it makes a liar out of a man, which is the big thing; and it does not sell goods very long, which is a smaller but valuable thing. God, in the nature of things, cuts off a liar after a while. He begins doing it at once, we see afterwards, but his mills grind more slowly than American financial methods. Only they are also more reliable than those methods. The social group needs men who love the group enough to want it to last and who have sense enough to know that it can last only on a righteous basis.

Fourth Week, Fourth Day

Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,
When the glory of his house is increased:

For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away;

His glory shall not descend after him.

Though while he lived he blessed his soul,

(And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself,)

He shall go to the generation of his fathers;

They shall never see the light.

Man that is in honor, and understandeth not,
Is like the beasts that perish.

-Psalm 49: 16-20.

Here are two influences which a man's social group can have on him which he has to watch against. For one thing, it can make him selfish. Men praise thee when thou doest well to thyself. Several cynical sayings involve that: "Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost"; "if a man does not care for Number One, no one will care for it"; "the meek inherit the earth-six feet of it to be buried in." One of our most serious moral problems is to strike the line between commonsense care for ourselves and our own interests, without which we shall not be able to do our share of the world's work, and that selfishness which is so often praised. Think it out with reference to a student remaining in college when he is needed at home for immediate support -when is he justified and when not? For another thing, the

tendency of the social group is to make the immediate day the important one. What is the explanation of the American saying of its requiring only three generations to pass from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves? How do you explain the exceptions? Is there not something in the methods of life adopted by the generations at just this point that explains it? If the future is allowed to take care of itself, it is quite sure to protect itself against foolish men. College men who talk of letting the future care for itself while they live in college for the college years alone are the same men who afterwards talk of having to unlearn so much they learned in college before they could make a success of life. We must learn to play the long game even though the short one is easier and more attractive.

Fourth Week, Fifth Day

I said, I will take heed to my ways,
That I sin not with my tongue:

I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
While the wicked is before me.

I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good;
And my sorrow was stirred.

My heart was hot within me;

While I was musing the fire burned;

Then spake I with my tongue:

Jehovah, make me to know mine end,

And the measure of my days, what it is;

Let me know how frail I am.

Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths;

And my life-time is as nothing before thee:

Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. -Psalm 39: 1-5.

This suggests a salutary element for a man who wants to take his place in the social group. He must recognize the presence in it of adverse elements before which he ought to be cautious. Sometimes men look about a group to see if they dare say a certain thing. That is both bad and good. If they are anxious lest some man too good to hear dirty stories may be about and they want to tell such stories, then they are poor instances. But if they are seeing whether what they are going to say will be understood as they mean it, they are wise. When certain types of men are around, wise men