The Wisdom of a King

I am not one of those people who believe that the world is “going to the dogs” or that there is no hope for civilization. I have a great faith in human nature and I believe civilization can be salvaged from the total wreck it has almost become, but I am quite sure that salvation can come not through political or economic factors but through divine intervention.

I believe that most of the ills of the world-and the world is only a mixed collection of individuals like you and me-are not traceable to physical or mental causes but result from a lack of spiritual power in you and me caused by the low priority we give to the development of the spiritual side of our being and to the lack of faith that Cod will give us His Holy Spirit if we ask Him.

What do I believe? Is my belief of any value in an age when the main topics of conversation are based on atomic warfare and distrust? This I believe-that God is our Father and loves us and that Christ died for the world and came to show the world what God was like and to teach the world the way to have a joyous life and be free from fear-and the world includes you and me.

I believe, too, that only by following the commandments He has given us can we be delivered from the spirit of defeatism which haunts so many people today.

I believe in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I believe that without the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives it is impossible for us to do our daily job effectively, whether that job be the ordinary everyday task of bringing up children in the home or whether it be the high and great responsibility to which our young and gracious Queen has been called.

I believe in faith in humanity and a faith in a God who understands and guides me, and against which the fears, trials and disappointments of our day cannot prevail.

If I were asked to express this faith in words I could find no better way than did our late King during his Christmas broadcast in the fateful days of 1939: “I said to the Man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ ”

This I believe with all my heart.

J. ARTHUR RANK makes flour for England`s bread and motion pictures for the world`s theaters. He ended his formal education at seventeen to take a thirteen-hour-a-day, ten-shillings-a week job in his father`s flour mills. He eventually became highly successful in this business, but it is in his second calling, the movies, that he has achieved world fame. His interest in motion pictures began with religious films. While his secular film interests are now far-reaching (he produced Henry V and Hamlet), he has never forgotten his original reason for entering the field-- belief that pictures should serve as well as entertain. Married to the daughter of a former Lord Mayor of London, he has two daughters. Most of his leisure is spent at his country home near Reigate where he golfs, shoots, and breed dogs. The local Sunday school class which he teaches gives him his deepest satisfaction, he says.