PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Will History Repeat?

(The following feature appeared in PG&E Progress in September, 1962 and was reprinted in February 1969)

One of the most widely read books of all time is "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Written in 1788 by Edward Gibbon, it sets forth five basic reasons that great civilization withered and died. These were:

• The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis for human society.
• Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
• The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
• The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within—the decay of individual responsibility.
• The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.

The oft-heard warning that "history repeats itself" has an ominous meaning in the light of the above.

IT DEPENDS ON YOU

The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations progressed through this sequence:

From Bondage to Spiritual Faith
From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage
From Courage to Liberty
From Liberty to Abundance
From Abundance to Selfishness
From Selfishness to Complacency
From Complacency to Apathy
From Apathy to Dependence
From Dependence Back Again to Bondage.

The U.S. has passed its 200 year anniversary.

It depends on you!