BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1948 ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 72, 23 July 1948, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1948 ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE

Addressing Bishops attending the Lambeth Conference, Sir Stafford Cripps, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the only escape from the terrors and tragedy of present day civilisation lay in the Church’s fearlessly attacking all things evil. He added we must realise that preaching to small congregations of the converted, or the repetition of archaic prayers or the singing of hymns often strangely inappropriate to our present circumstances was not going to win over those who are absorbed in their own practical and immediate needs.

He also said it was completely wrong to attempt to associate the Christian faith exclusively with some individual political party, whether it be Christian or secular.

All in all, he condensed a lot of vital truths into a few well chosen words. He might, have added it was also wholly wrong to attempt to associate the Christian faith exclusively with any one nation or group of nations. Despite the discouragements and disappointments of the present day, there is still ground for the belief that a determined stand against all things evil by a Church determined to make its every member an ambassador for the Kingdom of God on earth could have tremendous power for good. If every member of every Church congregation were to resolve to try, by the quality of his own living throughout every day of every week, to make a living force of the faith he professes every Sunday, then the world would be a much better place to live in.

If the principles of Christianity were practised in all relationships with their fellowmen by those who profess to be Christians, then the effect in spreading the Gospel would be greater than all the organised missions on earth. It is not fantastic wishful thinking to believe that, if the councils of the so-called Christian nations were run on the Christ-principles of' absolute honesty with themselves and others and absolute love and tolerance towards their neighbours, the fear of. war could be abolished. , . It is not mere impractical idealism to say that if every employer, every worker and every businessman used those principles in daily life industrial disputes could be wiped right out of society, along with the petty jealousies and snobberies that help to fan the flames of class “hatred. Sir Stafford is right when he says the practice of forms and ceremonies is not of itself enough to win the hearts and minds of those absorbed in their own practical and immediate needs. The repetition of formal prayers is not enough for that. Today the world is full of men and women whose lives seem to them drab roads of stark futility. Happiness for them lives in a well-filled wallet, or lurks imprisoned under a cork, only to be released at great expense and to vanish again after a time of mad exhilaration in a blue cloud of painful regrets. Those who need Church help are not so much the professedly godly as those who feel they have no answer to life’s complexities, that there is no way out of wh&t Sir Stafford so aptly calls the “terrors and tragedy of present day civilisation.” And it is only by a constructive, vitally earnest example in living the faith as well as preaching it that those people will be influenced. To attack all things evil, as the British Chancellor suggests, places a tremendous responsibility on the Churches and their members. It imposes upon them the obligations of absolute hon-

esty and absolute fearlessness at all times and in all circumstances. And that is a tall order for any group of humans, even with God’s backing—but nothing would be more likely to influence the world for good.