August 1932
. T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
348
Only a few days ago, one of the greatest financial ex perts of the world, writing from Wall Street for The In ternational News Service, said: “ Wall Street is in the frame of mind of not knowing what to expect next. . . . The financial community has reached the point of where values just don’t exist any more.” Without presuming overmuch that our business acu men entitles us to pass judgment on the opinion of a great “ financial expert,” we cannot help wondering whether it was not in 1929 that the values did not exist. Stock values,
us something for which it is preeminently worth while to live, to suffer, to sacrifice, and even to die! They save us from the deadly miasma of cynicism. We thank God for the depression which has shaken us out of our senseless dreaming in a fool’s paradise, restored us to a world of realities, and made us conscious that there are still tasks worthy of our powers. T he P eril of C ynicism r . H arry E merson F osdick , when he lets theology U alone, frequently says something to the youth of of thing which dis turbs me in the younger generation: Prodigals often come home again, but cyn ics are essentially lost souls, and this is the gist o f their dam nation : they have been born in a sig nificant generation, and they find nothing to live for, nothing which it is their glory to believe in a n d to represent, nothing for which they think it is worth while to sac- rificially stand. . . The glory of life lies in believing in some thing e m i n e n t l y worth while, and in standing for it in our generation be fore we fall on sleep!” Dr. Fosdick is absolutely right. The cynical spirit of our younger generation, which represents nothing, be lieves in nothing, is loyal to nothing, sacrifices nothing, lives for nothing, loves nothing, accomplishes nothing, dies for nothing, is the mQst foreboding sign of the hour. And Dr. Fosdick himself admits that cynicism is the result of disbelief in God. What a pity that he has used—uncon sciously, let us hope—his splendid strength of body and mind for the destruction of a really vital, living faith in God! Young men and women, no greater thing have you been taught in this institution than that there are souls worth loving, deeds worth doing, prizes worth gaining, values worth fighting for, convictions worth dying for, and a heaven beyond worth entering! Here your faith has been strengthened immeasurably in the great eternal verities of this universe “whose builder and maker is God.” The enthusiasm which sends you forth with an intense desire to live and to love is not man-made; it is born of a living faith in the eternal worth-while-ness of this old cosmos wherein you, the sons of God, shall endlessly be workers together with God. You are saved from the paralyzing damp of cynicism by the consciousness that you are the sons of an omnipotent Father, and that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. You are buoyed with that invincible faith of the prophets before you, knowing that “ he shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set justice in the earth.” Ame r i c a which is worth repeating. Not long ago, he said: “ This is the sort
at least, are more real in 1932 than they were in 1929. In 1928 and 1929, the old Ame r i c an eagle was having a great time, far up in the aerial regions somewhere, flapping its wings in a great old financial jam boree, when, sudden ly, he flopped into a n o s e d i v e a n d brought us b a c k down with him to rock-ribbed e a r t h , and the landing has made us all a bit sore. That is the whole true story of it! However, if it is true that material “ values just don’t exist any more,” we may well ask, Why
don’t they exist ? What has destroyed them ?, The answer is not difficult. Material values in no nation, and in no age, have ever been maintained after moral and spiritual values have gone tobogganing—never! When moral and spiritual values are destroyed, faith languishes and dies. Faith is confidence. When moral and spiritual values dwindle, the confidence of man in man, and of nations in nations, also dwindles. T he R eal N eed of the H our uman experience will not allow us to place any large measure of confidence in men, or in the governments of men, whose moral or spiritual standards are low. When, as it sometimes happens, such men or governments are in the ascendancy, we are prone to bundle up whatever re sources we may possess and start for the safety deposit box. And all propaganda against our hoarding will fall upon deaf ears, until we are assured that those who would handle what little we possess have returned to the time- honored ideals of righteousness and possess some fear of God in their hearts. Bruce Barton wrote in the current issue of The American Magazine: “ The economists may continue to write long books, but the simple fact is this: Business is confidence plus activity. Depression is fear and inactivity. Today we are depressed because o f fear.” “ Depressed because we fear” ? But what do we fear? Certainly not that the sun is going to cease to shine, or that the rains shall no longer descend, or that the earth is going to stop pouring forth a superabundance for every
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