Today and Tomorrow

On Being ''Youngered''
THE WORD

"elder"-whether noun or ver.b -is an authentic Quaker term. Elfrida Vipont Foulds in her History of Quakerism writes that elders were originally chosen "not for their gifts in the ministry but for wisdom, discretion, and judgment." Although being "eldered" came to be "synonymous with being criticized adversely by a person who tended to be repressive rather than encouraging and forward-looking," it was assumed nevertheless that such a person spoke with authority on matters of faith and practice. The word has largely disappeared from use, but the attitude remains; and we adults- Friends or nonFriends-are frequently self-appointed elders, busily engaged in eldering-in telling it as we choose to think it is or as we wish it might be. In youth the absence of such highly regarded virtues as wisdom, discretion, and judgment is compensated for by the simple ability to see clearly. To young people life is fresh and new, its outlines bold and definite. Peculiar to our day is not the ability of our young people to see clearly but their unpleasant compulsion to tell us frankly what they see and what they think about it-sometimes quietly, sometimes violently. If, instead of agonizing over the disruptive actions of our youth, we could join forces with these seekers, before it is too late, what an exciting frontier might be established at a growing edge of our society! Perhaps we eldering elders should submit more gracefully to being "youngered." Perhaps we should put on our bifocals and look more intently; it may be that our middle-aged vision is faulty and that the emperor's clothes are at best shamefully threadbare.

the service of God has to be vitalized by the supernatural power of His grace. But grace is granted us in proportion as we dispose ourselves to receive it by the interior activity of the theological virtues: faith, hope, charity. These virtues demand the full and constant exercise of our intelligence and will. But this exercise is frequently obstructed by exterior influences which blind us with passion and draw us away from our supernatural objective. This cannot be avoided, but it must be fought against by a constant discipline of recollection, meditation, prayer, study, mortification of the desires, and at least some measure of solitude and retirement."-The Ascent to Truth.

Karl Barth 1886-1968

AT BOTTOM, knowledge of God in faith is always this indirect knowledge of God, knowledge of God in His works, and in these particular works-in the determining and using of certain creaturely realities to bear witness to the divine objectivity. What distinguishes faith from unbelief, erroneous faith and superstition is that it is content with this indirect knowledge of God. It does not think that the knowledge of God in His works is insufficient. On the contrary, it is grateful really to know the real God in His works. It really lets itself be shown the objectivity of God by their objectivity. But it also holds fast to the particularity of these works. It does n~t arbitrarily choose objects to set up as signs, in that way inventing a knowledge of God at its own good-pleasure. It knows God by means of the objects chosen by God Himself. It recognises and acknowledges God's choice and sanctification in the operation of this knowledge. And, for its part, it uses these special works of God as they ought to be used-as means of the knowledge of God. It lets their objectivity become a witness-yet only a witness-to the objectivity of God. Where the worship of God is made possible and necessary by God Himself, it does not establish an idol worship. Faith, and therefore the knowledge of God, stands or falls with all these determinations of the clothed objectivity of God. It is under these determinations that God is spoken about and heard in the Church of Jesus Christ. Not a single one of them can be set aside or altered without radically injuring the life of the Church ."-Church Dogmatics.

Thomas Merton 1915-1968

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN is dry ground for the seed of God's Truth. A modern American city is not altogether a propitious place in which to try to love God. You cannot love Him unless you know Him. And you cannot come to know Him unless you have a little time and a little peace in which to pray and think about Him and study His truth. Time and peace are not easily come by in this civilization of ours. And so those who profess to serve God are often forced to get along without either, and to sacrifice their hopes of an interior life. But how far can one go in this sacrifice before it ceases to be a sacrifice and becomes a prevarication? The truth is, we are simply not permitted to devote ourselves to God without at the same time leading an interior life. "The reason for this is plain. Everything we do in FRIENDS JOURNAL

What's that again?

of an article in Time about the five percent of American households that do not have television sets (some cannot afford TV, or are in areas of poor reception, or have "kicked the habit," or consider nonownership a reverse status symbol, or make it a form of personal protest, or have religious or intellectual misgivings, and so on) is this sentence: "A fair number of videophobes are Quakers." Now we know.
SMACK IN THE MIDDLE

January 1, 1969