love for us; so then "we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our selves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edifi cation. For even Christ pleased not Himself" (Romans 15:1-3). A fifth and final mirage is the mirage which I shall call the mirage of instamatic maturity and power. No one will deny that we live in an "instamatic" society. Scientific advances have made this true. Travel is comparatively instantan eous when you can board an air liner and, according to the clock, arrive at your destination before you left. Miles can be bridged in seconds via the telephone. Or per haps you enjoyed this very morn ing a powder that you mixed with water and drank for your instant breakfast. Our affluence has made us in stamatic conscious. I can wash my car in three minutes. My instant credit consolidates my liabilities (though it does not rid me of them). And who is not anxious to have a photograph all finished in ten or 60 seconds — especially if it is a graduation picture. The increasing youthfulness of our population has become a ma jor force in making us all con scious of the immediate. "We want to right the wrongs of society, and we want to do it NOW," youth declares. "We want peace, power, freedom, justice . . . all NOW." Science, affluence, youth are not villains, and the instamatic society they have created is not all bad. But there is one questionable re sult of it, and that is impatience or frustration with anything that is not instamatic. Everything must be ac complished right now, or else it is Page 10
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