Alumni Oration

"Plea for Spiritual Values is Made by Rev. Dr. D.R. Sharpe" Daily Gleaner (13 May 1943). (UA Case 67a, Box 2)

Because of the special times in which we meet you must expect a different sort of address than the usual one in less momentous times.

Four or five times in human history there has been such a day as this and this is the greatest of them all. We men of the present are standing between two worlds, - the tomb of a dead world and the cradle of a new one. God has given to us the holy, exciting task of laying the foundations for the next great era of human progress.

Two Moods of History

Broadly speaking history divides itself into two moods or periods. There are the quiet, easy going, complacent moods, when everything flows along smoothly and well. Progress is the slogan and prosperity the symbol of this mood.

Then there are the great periods of upheaval, the periods of volcanic eruption and convulsion. The periods when the voice that sounds through the universe is the voice of the apocalypse, "Behold I make all things new." These are the periods when old boundaries are swept away, the old land marks removed, when the foundations of the might deeps are broken up and when the tides of an utterly new life flood every field of thought and action. We are in such a period now.

Moreover it should be noted that the easy going periods rarely every produce anything fine or noble. On the other hand the volcanic, cataclysmic periods are the great creative ones in human history. Out of storm and chaos the new things of the spirit emerges.

Danger to Civilization

The greatest single danger to civilization is civilization itself. In this discussion I distinguish between civilization and Christian culture of true democracy. By civilization I refer to the outward aspects of life, the physical and the mechanical means of life, while by culture I refer to life itself, to those inner values, those . . . character and quality. With this discussion, then, what do we mean when we say that civilization’s greatest single danger is civilization itself.

There is in the world today a vast accumulation of scientific power. The vast agglomeration of power is alike available to sinner and saint. Up to the present the sinners have had a major portion of the physical mechanical power. In the hands of sinful men this power which might have been a beneficent force, has been used in a diabolical plot to crush, oppress and enslave nation after nation. Now it does not require a vast amount of logic to convince us that if this vast scientific power which civilization has accumulated, is given over into the hands of pagan barbarians, that it will not be long before civilization will be destroyed by the very power it has created.

The automobile and the passenger air-plane are means of life. But we stopped making them and instead we manufacture tanks and bombers, both means of death, and from the Bizerte and Tunis experience we know how deadly these may become. You see that it would not take civilization long to wipe civilization from the face of the earth if the scientific power produced by modern civilization is used for destructive ends. My argument is not altered in the least by the fact that the United Nations have no alternative at the moment in their use of these weapons.

What Must We Do?

The question which the modern world situation poses is: "What must nations do to be saved?" How can these mighty mechanical powers become means of life rather than instruments of death? But before going on let us look at the same problem from the angle of Christian culture.

In this global war there are two fronts. The one I shall call the military front. This is the first front, not because of its ultimate significance, but because of its immediate paramount importance.

Military Front

On this military front the State rules. The cultural institutions, principally the liberal arts, college and the church, has nothing whatever, as such, to say or do about making or executing the war plans. They may approve or condemn but they do not formulate the plans of this war on the military front. The State does that. We know that each of us as individuals must relate ourselves to this war effort through the state, according to the laws of our land and the dictates of our consciences. On this front the United Nations are compelled to use their vast reservoirs of power to beat down the power of the Axis nations. We know that on the military side in the end the United Nations will win.

Spiritual Front

But there is a second front. It lies in the realm of ideal and is what I call the spiritual front. Hitler has not only released his armies, his air force, his submarines, to subdue and oppress the nations of the earth on the military side. He has also released his satanic philosophy of blood purity, race superiority, his diabolic Nazi ideology.

Would it not be a terrible thing if as, and when the United Nations win this war on the military front, we should lose it on the spiritual side. What if we should beat Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito on the military side – and we will – and they should win over us in the realm of ideal and Christian culture? A world dominated by the materialistic and pagan philosophy of Hitler would not be a fit world in which to live. It would be hell.

I therefore contend that while our armed forces are winning the war on the military front and while each one of us will relate ourselves to that gigantic task through the State, according to the laws of our land and the dictates of conscience, the cultural forces – such as the liberal arts, colleges and universities, the Christian Church, the Synagogue, and the other cultural forces, must win the war on the spiritual and idealistic side. In the accomplishment of this the cultural forces have the more difficult task.

As we pointed out, Hitler has released his tanks, his bombers, his machine-guns. He has also released a diabolical pagan philosophy. Now the United Nations can and will blow up Hitler’s tanks; they will blast his bombers from the sky; they will silence his machine-guns with more and better tanks, bombers, and machine guns. The State will provide these, enlist and train the men to use them.

Call to Cultural Force

At the same time the cultural force must defeat Hitler’s pagan philosophy. I say this is the more difficult for the simple reason that while a bomber may be shot down, an ideal cannot be. The only way to destroy, root and branch, a bad ideal is by supplanting it with a good and noble ideal, just as it requires better planes, better tanks, and better all around equipment – and these we are making – on the part of the United Nations to win over the Axis on the military side, so it requires a better, more virile spiritual and cultural life on our part to win on the idealistic side.

Other Paganism

Let it be said with the distinctness that the picture is not all black and white. There is a good deal of paganism in the world of the United Nations, but there is a great difference, while the United Nations are not determined that paganism shall be the ruling philosophy of life, Hitler is. The United Nations are somewhat ashamed of and repentant of their paganism. Hitler is proud and boastful of his. The prayer of the United Nations is, "Lord be merciful to us, sinners." The cry of Hitler is "Lord we thank thee that we are not as other men are."

Because there can be no political or economic democracy unless and until there is a spiritual democracy, it is the unmistakable business of those of us on the home base to strengthen, safeguard, and perpetuate a spiritual democracy which will give meaning and power to a political and economic democracy once these are defended by the State.

Opportunity Provided

Two things we should remember. First, winning the war will not guarantee the four freedoms, not give the world the principles of true democracy. Wars do not settle such questions. Winning the war by the United Nations will provide the opportunity for securing these things. Will we be courageous and creative enough to build the new order of society upon the foundation of a just and durable peoples’ peace? Or will we muff the opportunity as we did in 1918? God forbid!

We Must Pay Price

The second thing to remember is that we cannot possibly have the fruits of democracy without paying the price of democracy. Most of us desire the full fruits of democracy but we do not want to apply the methods by which democracy works. If after the war we really want the blessings and privileges of a Christian democracy, we must, like our heroic forebears, pay the price.

Make no mistake about it, this is a gigantic task. It is a task for Christian democracy at home, equally important with that of the State in its military efforts, and a task which must be undertaken now. For if the spiritual forces in the world do not now envision a programme that is sufficiently dynamic, contemporary and relevant to keep alive religious liberty, the four freedoms, good will, and brotherhood, all may be lost. If democracy loses its spirituality, it is no longer democracy, it is atheistic materialism. In other words it will be of little value for future generations for the State to win the war on the military side if at the same time the spiritual forces fail to win a definite moral and spiritual victory.

Spiritual Values

In a world gone mad with hate and lust for power our Navies, Armies, Air Forces. Are fighting a global war to defend our political and economic democracy and the four freedoms; in a world gone made with materialism and paganism, the cultural forces fight on every front in the world to keep alive spiritual values, - love, honor, justice, equality, freedom, and brotherhood. If these perish the world’s lights go out and civilization and culture perish from the earth.

This then is our task, a great fight is ahead. The lines of battle are being clearly drawn. The issues are becoming vivid. Just when we thought the battle for freedom, for democracy, for religious liberty, already won by our heroic forebears, we find it is not won at all. If we would preserve this priceless heritage and send it on to our children enriched and ennobled, we must fight democracy’s battle over again on the home front.

Join In Mighty Effort

Society has a right to expect that the Universities, the Church, the Press, Business, and labor groups, the farmers, the professional class, and Government itself, shall join hands in the mighty effort to win the battle for true democracy. Unjust economic and social conditions must be corrected. Political and economic democracy under girded by Spiritual democracy must be evoked. Evils must be eradicated; principles of equity and justice for all enthroned. War itself must be abolished and consigned to the museum of the past as a relic of a barbarous age. The fight for a just, orderly and righteous world must go on. The weapons of death must become instruments of life. The many must share in the good things of life which now belong only to the few. A new world order must be shaped after a Christian pattern. A just and durable peace which will guarantee to all people everywhere, economic, political, spiritual freedom, - freedom from want and fear must be secured. Each nation must take its place and share its life in a world order. Humanity must receive prior consideration to any single nation; a world Parliament set up, world justice and order provided. Raw materials and equal opportunities for trade and commerce granted to all. These all belong to the spiritual front and must be secured by the spiritual forces working co-operatively for man’s good.

Lack of Social Faith

The time and the task is calling us to advance fearlessly in the ways of God and man. This spiritual advance on the home base must be undertaken by men and women of faith. Not the individual faith that creates martyrs, but social faith which creates Statesmen and is the prerequisite of all human progress. That faith that combats and prays, that faith which has a spark of the omnipotence in it, that enables man to overleap every barrier and win humanity’s fight. We need faith in the power of a spiritual democracy, faith in the people to bring it about, faith in God as guarantor of freedom’s fight.

It is often said that tyranny is the worst thing that can happen to us. I deny it. Men have a way of rising above tyranny and smiting the tyrants. Loss of faith in God and the people is the worst that can happen to us.

We can and we must win on the spiritual side. For be assured if we do not end injustice and underprivilege, then injustice and underprivilege will end us. If we do no establish in the earth the Kingdom of God, then the kingdom of evil will rule the world with a rod of iron. If we do not build a sound order of society, someone else will build an unsound one.

Can Democracy Survive

This fight must be carried on by men and women who are disciplined from within. If we cannot discipline ourselves from within someone will discipline us from without. This raises the greatest question for democracy. Can democracy survive on the basis of voluntariness or must it be coerced by a dictator into the totalitarian State?

We cannot go back. We must go forward, but we will fail unless we take forward into the new day disciplined wills, pure hearts, a sense of honor, deep convictions of truth and righteousness, a knowledge of God’s book, a reverence for all human personality, a genuine love for all mankind, a hatred of wrong and oppression, prayer, forgiveness, and brotherliness.

We on the home front, especially those of us who have been privileged to drink from the fountain of knowledge at dear old UNB cannot evade our responsibility in securing a new and better world – a world patterned after the principles of Jesus of Nazareth, and hope for a final victory on the military front if our soldiers, airmen and sailors evade their duty in this stern and . . . . [article is cut off.]

My final word is one of warning. Hitler knows the truth of what I am saying to you. For this reason he has suppressed the college of liberal arts, he has muzzled the free press, he has killed and imprisoned the liberal statesmen, he is now engaged in destroying a free church. He knows these cultural agencies must be destroyed before democracy can be uprooted. I am proud as a churchman that the church has stood up resolutely against the Quislings of Norway and better than any other against Hitler himself. The educational institutions made a rather poor showing. There are fearful signs upon the horizon in my country, and yours too perhaps, that education in liberal arts may be pushed aside, - indeed is being aside. If our educators allow this process to go on our democracy will pay a fearful price in the years ahead.

Alumni of old UNB I challenge you to stand up to the attack that is being made upon the ideals that are represented in the old college on the hill and make you leadership count in this war against a Christian democratic order of society. If we lose a free press, a free radio, a free church, a free university, we cannot hope to win the four freedoms or preserve our Christian heritage. God and humanity are counting upon you!