Tides of Selfishness?
Big Increase In Demand For Bibles Shows Trend Against Materialism
[. . .]
Almost a quarter of the twentieth century has now progressed and still there is no unanimity among savants as to whether it is to be an era of the spiritual, the triumph of the soul, of morals, of benevolent civilization, or whether it is to be an epoch of materialism, an age swept by the tides of selfishness, revenge and hatred.
In the high ardors of the war self-appointed prophets predicted that a new and brighter world would emerge; that the soldiers would be the advance guard of a new spiritual order, crusaders leading to a higher plane. After the war they were not so sure that this new renaissance of the spirit had come, and some of the same prophets thought they saw the engulfing tides of materialism sweeping away all the spiritual victories of war, carrying the world into a dark age, in which the war-torn twentieth century was to be the darkest and most materialistic.
But the lathes that turned out shells and war materials had hardly stopped before the power belts that propelled them slipped, figuratively, over to the shafts of printing presses which turned out not only depreciated currencies, but also copies of the Holy Bible in unprecedented numbers for the fulfillment of the demand of a world sorely afflicted by the tragedies of war. It is the usual remark that the presses were used alone for the printing of more and more currency—and the fact that the Holy Bible, the Book of Ages, was being bought by the millions has escaped the notice of those who stood close to the stone walls of materialism and, eyes down, looked only at the mortar-seamed stones that appeared to hedge the future of mankind.
Every student knows that the first book printed by Gutenberg was the Holy Bible. The printing of that first Bible, called the Mazarin Bible, on movable block type took about five years, from 1450-1455, but the science of printing has advanced so far since that time that the American Bible Society has placed an order for 3,000,000 of the Bible, which are to be turned out on a rotary press at the rate of 10,000 an hour, and are to be sold in the Latin American and other countries for the sum of one penny.
[. . .]
[New York Times, January 1, 1923, p.XX1]
[. . .]
Almost a quarter of the twentieth century has now progressed and still there is no unanimity among savants as to whether it is to be an era of the spiritual, the triumph of the soul, of morals, of benevolent civilization, or whether it is to be an epoch of materialism, an age swept by the tides of selfishness, revenge and hatred.
In the high ardors of the war self-appointed prophets predicted that a new and brighter world would emerge; that the soldiers would be the advance guard of a new spiritual order, crusaders leading to a higher plane. After the war they were not so sure that this new renaissance of the spirit had come, and some of the same prophets thought they saw the engulfing tides of materialism sweeping away all the spiritual victories of war, carrying the world into a dark age, in which the war-torn twentieth century was to be the darkest and most materialistic.
But the lathes that turned out shells and war materials had hardly stopped before the power belts that propelled them slipped, figuratively, over to the shafts of printing presses which turned out not only depreciated currencies, but also copies of the Holy Bible in unprecedented numbers for the fulfillment of the demand of a world sorely afflicted by the tragedies of war. It is the usual remark that the presses were used alone for the printing of more and more currency—and the fact that the Holy Bible, the Book of Ages, was being bought by the millions has escaped the notice of those who stood close to the stone walls of materialism and, eyes down, looked only at the mortar-seamed stones that appeared to hedge the future of mankind.
Every student knows that the first book printed by Gutenberg was the Holy Bible. The printing of that first Bible, called the Mazarin Bible, on movable block type took about five years, from 1450-1455, but the science of printing has advanced so far since that time that the American Bible Society has placed an order for 3,000,000 of the Bible, which are to be turned out on a rotary press at the rate of 10,000 an hour, and are to be sold in the Latin American and other countries for the sum of one penny.
[. . .]
[New York Times, January 1, 1923, p.XX1]
posted by A. Mattson at 2:31 PM
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