If I were God – a Dr. Frank Crane essay

I'm getting over an unhappy experience with the sales couple for a restoration company, but whose main thrust was replacing roofs. They insisted that I lie to my insurance company so they could get my deductible and whatever the insurance paid. Of course, I wouldn't, which made them huffy. In the meantime, I called their boss and apprised him of the situation.This emotional upheaval left me bereft of time and energy to generate blog material. I turned to earlier writings and found something that seemed appropriate.

Dr. Frank Crane wrote eight volumes of four-minute essays. I have volume eight, published in 1919, but no information of how I came to own it. Here is the essay that caught my eye. I think it still fits our country's situation.

"There is an old epitaph that runs: ‘Here lieth David Elginbrod. / Have mercy on him, gracious God, / As he would do if he were God, / And You were David Elginbrod.’

"Maeterlinck makes the old man in Pelleas and Melisande say, ‘If I were God, I would have pity on men.’

"Omar somewhere wishes that he might grasp the sorry scheme of things entire and remould it nearer to his heart’s desire.

"If you were God, what would you do? Not that you impeach the divine wisdom, criticize the Omnipotent; but what changes would you make in men and things?

"If I were God I would enter all men’s breasts and take out the will to war.

"I would eliminate hate from every heart, and give every one ‘good-will toward men.’

"I would make cruelty, fraud, and injustice loathsome to every creature, so that none would do deeds of that kind, nor think such thoughts, any more than he would cut his flesh or eat nauseous stuff.

"I would make men’s appetite crave only such food as is wholesome for them, and cause them to turn sick when they are about to eat or drink too much.

"I would make every man and woman loving and loyal, and have every Jack find his Jill and live happily ever after.

"I would allow only enough children to be born to maintain the population to a sufficient number, and have them all live free from disease their allotted span.

"I would make death a luxurious and desired experience, when death’s time comes.

"I would do away with the motives of money, fame, and pride, and make every man’s desire be to serve well his fellows.

"Every person should receive the same wage, ‘to every man his penny,’ and the only emulation should be for superior helpfulness.

"I would put in every human soul enough intelligence to control and balance its passion.

"I would make every woman beautiful, and as good as beautiful, and all men brave and honest and true.

"Every child should be happy and obedient.

"I would remove all lions, tigers, snakes, and fierce carnivorous beasts, and would cause human beings to abhor flesh food, so that none should any more kill.

"I would have born into every human creature’s nature a dominant passion for the good, the true, and the beautiful.

"I would have all humanity co-operate and organize for their mutual welfare, each for all and all for each, and take away the lust of contention.

"When I read this over, I said to myself: ‘Why so hot, little man? Perhaps, after all, that is what God is doing, only He is not in so much of a hurry as you. Be still. And wait. For a thousand years are in His sight but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.’

"To which I could make answer in no wise, except in the deep and ancient cry of the Hebrew poet: ‘How long, O Lord? How long!’"

Pat, again: Here endeth the lesson. Thanks to the Rev. Dr. Crane.

Japonica (PL)

The Universal Blunder - a 4-minute essay by Dr. Frank Crane

 

 

Picture by sis Carolyn--2012

 

by Pat Laster 

 

Once again, I reach for a book. It’s the liturgical season of Lent, and bent on being useful, I submit this essay published in 1919 when Woodrow Wilson was president. Dr. Crane was a Presbyterian minister and wrote at least eight volumes of such essays published by Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. This essay is from Volume 8.

 “The universal blunder of this world,” said Phillips Brooks, “is in thinking that there are certain persons put into the world to govern and certain others to obey.

“Everybody is in this world to govern and everybody to obey. There are no benefactors and no beneficiaries in distinct classes. Every man is at once both benefactor and beneficiary. Every good deed you do you ought to thank your fellow-man for giving you an opportunity to do it; and they ought to be thankful to you for doing it.”

That is a mighty good sentiment to set down on your tablets. It may gain you a deal of happiness if you will believe it. It may even save your soul.

Certain people work for me and I pay them wages. But the maid who sweeps my room is no more my servant than I am hers. Because I give her money and she gives me work does not make me her superior.

It is the ancient delusion of the centuries that labor in some way lowers a man. The real fact is that it ennobles him.

For instance, Mr. Wilson is considered by the American people, and I am sure he considers himself, as their servant. He has no mortgage on his job. He holds it by no divine right. He cannot pass it on to a successor of his own blood or choice. When we don’t like what he does, we criticize him. There are certain partisans that yelp at him every turn he makes, like a pack of yapping pups. We do not suppress them. It is the constitutional privilege of vulgar people to scold their servants.

And yet he is the chief man of the … nation… . In former days he would have shouted, “Off with his head!” when any one crossed him, and would have worn a crown, also a robe… .It is the spirit of service that makes him the decent, conscientious, hard-working man he is.

The curse of wealth is that it destroys this spirit of service. The man who does nothing because he has enough to live on comfortably is no better than the man who does nothing because he can beg or smoke … on the bench by the poorhouse door. Both are leeches. They are not serving. They are being served.

When you lose sight of the duty of serving, you invite … spiritual microbes of the most destructive character to come and breed in you.

There is a luxury in being waited on. But that feeling induces pride, meanness, selfishness, the undisciplined will, the unruled passions, and the whole rakehelly crew of traits that cause excess, perversion, indolence, selfishness, boredness, and pessimism.

There is a luxury, too, in serving. It is a real pleasure when it becomes a habit. It brings on the genuine happiness-makers, which are humility, unselfishness, sanity, health, optimism, cheer, and a wholesome interest in life.

The greatest of men said of himself: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.”

And I say, especially during this season of Lent, Amen.

#