People Need a Sound Guide

TRAVELERS know the value of dependable maps. Repairmen may consult manuals before undertaking a particular job. Even experienced cooks may use others’ recipes. Regardless of what activity a person might pursue, he will likely benefit from some kind of guide.

In caring for daily matters of life, people often rely on past experience and training. Then, too, a person may prepare ahead of time for various situations that he may have to face. A traveler, for example, can read, talk to others and then decide what to take along in the way of clothing, equipment and the like.

However, there are things in life for which one cannot plan ahead. Totally unexpected situations crop up. A person’s knowledge and experience may fail, and his everyday sources of guidance may prove deficient. He may be unsure which way to turn. His situation may be like that of the seamen caught in a fierce storm, described by an ancient Hebrew songwriter as men who “reel and move unsteadily . . . and even all their wisdom proves confused.” (Ps. 107:27) Have you ever felt this way?

Especially in the field of human relations do people keenly sense the need for dependable guidance. For example: What is the best way to bring up children? How can parents maintain good communication with teen-age sons and daughters? What will keep the marriage bond strong? How can good relations be maintained with neighbors and fellow workers? These questions and many others like them deserve answers. But is there a source that can provide the right answers?

There are times when problems simply cannot be solved on the individual level. A person may be the victim of circumstances that are beyond his control​—like the pressures resulting from what others do. He may be honest and fair in his dealings with fellowmen. Yet he is powerless when it comes to putting a complete end to all the moral and ethical wrongs that may be committed by those among whom he must live and work. He may work hard, spend money wisely and save on a regular basis. But he cannot prevent national inflation from reducing the value of his savings. Nothing he can do will positively guarantee economic security for himself.

Clearly, people today need a guide that, not only provides sound answers, but also gives aid in coping with problems for which there may be no personal solutions. And since many of the problems are global, that guide should tell how these global problems will be solved.

If such a reliable guide for living exists, what would you expect it to do for you? What effect can its application have on your family, your health and your future?

Where Sound Guidance Should Lead

Why are strong, unified families important? “Entire civilizations have survived or disappeared, depending on whether family life was strong or weak.”​—“World Book Encyclopedia,” Vol. 7, p. 24.

Selfishness, bitter quarreling, lack of communication, and suspicion undermine a family’s strength. What should sound guidance do for a family? It should lead a family away from these weakening influences. It should encourage, instead, unselfishness, deep affection and trust among all family members. Following a dependable guide should, therefore, be expected to produce better husbands and wives, better fathers and mothers, and better sons and daughters. Yes, the result should be unified families​—families in which each member is concerned, not primarily about himself, but about what will be in the best interests of all.

Sound guidance should also aid people to avoid or minimize stress that can be destructive to personal security, good health and fine relations with fellowmen.

Neurologists recognize that stress can bring about changes in a person’s system that may damage his health and jeopardize his life. A person who becomes physically ill due to frustrations, anxiety over making a living, or poor relations with fellowmen may regain his health if he can be helped to change his altitude and outlook. Hence, proper guidance should also serve as a preventive measure, contributing to a person’s enjoying the best from life under the present circumstances. What kind of guidance, then, is needed?

Man needs guidance that would lead him away from becoming too attached to material things and that would give him assurance that he will not be reduced Io a hopeless state. Such guidance should also aid him to overcome jealousies, hatreds, prejudices and suspicions. It should move him to shun habits that are physically and emotionally harmful.

Can any man or group of men provide the fine guidance that points to a secure and happy future for you and your loved ones?

[Picture on page 4]

Living in harmony with sound guidance should result in producing . . .

NOT THIS . . . BUT STRONG, UNIFIED FAMILIES

[Picture on page 5]

FROM THIS . . . TO THIS

Does Man Have the Answers?

HAVE the world’s experts provided the guidance needed for creating strong, unified families? Do science and technology point the way to a secure and happy future?

Consider what the experts themselves are saying about the guidance they have given to parents:

Do not these admissions show that the experts cannot be depended upon for supplying the right kind of guidance for successful family living?

Is Science the Answer?

What about science and technology? At the close of the nineteenth century people were enthused about the marvels they thought science and technology would bring about in the future.

“Scientific American,” in its issue of July 1899, looked ahead optimistically to the impact the automobile would have on city life. This publication envisioned “light rubber-tired vehicles moving swiftly and noiselessly” over “clean, dustless and odorless” streets, eliminating much of the “nervousness, distraction, and strain of modern metropolitan life.” What a far cry this is from the actual situation today​—noisy streets clogged with cars, buses and trucks, spewing deadly gases into the air.

True, science and technology have produced more laborsaving devices, made possible more leisure time for many and given people greater mobility. But, sadly, all this has been accompanied by additional pressures that fragment families, lead to frustrations, ruin the health of many and, in fact, threaten human existence.

Writing in the New York “Times” of January 7, 1975, René Dubos, scientist and author, observed:

“In the United States, the average consumption of energy per person is today approximately double what it was thirty years ago and double also what it is now in Europe. Does anyone really believe that this difference is reflected in more happiness, less suffering, greater longevity among present-day Americans, or in a more rapid progress of American civilization toward more desirable goals? A recent study based on measurements of various social indicators in 55 countries failed to reveal any beneficial effect of increased energy use on the quality of life; if there was a correlation, it was that the greater the energy consumption, the larger the percentages of divorces and suicides!

“An abundant supply of energy is, of course, essential for the production of more and more industrial goods, but this is not all that there is to happiness and civilization. . . .

“I shall go even further and claim that in the highly industrialized parts of the world a decrease in energy use could have a multiplicity of beneficial effects in the long run. These would include improvements in physical and mental health, sounder agricultural practices based on ecological principles, architectural styles more interesting because they are better adapted to local conditions, policies of rural and urban planning that would favor a revival of community spirit​—and of course a less disturbed global ecology.”

Regarding the dangerous situation in which man finds himself, Barry Commoner, in his book “Science and Survival” (p. 126), writes:

“Despite the dazzling successes of modern technology and the unprecedented power of modern military systems, they suffer from a common and catastrophic fault. While providing us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-speed transportation, and with military weapons of unprecedented power, they threaten our very survival.”

Obviously, the problems facing mankind, in many cases, stem from things that were viewed as promising a better world. There can be no question about the fact that shifting and conflicting opinions of men cannot be depended upon to lead the way out of the present bad situation. Does this not suggest the need for a guide from a source higher than man? Moreover, since many people do things that they know to be wrong and harmful to themselves and others, such a guide must also provide incentive for them to change their ways. It must give them a real purpose in life. Does such a guide exist?

[Picture on page 6]

New York Times, March 2, 1974, P. 31

A Guide to the Perplexed Parent

[Picture on page 6]

The Milwaukee Journal, January 22, 1974, p. 2, part 1

Spock Blames Self for Brats