OPINION AND THE WAR.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15750, 17 November 1916, Page 8

OPINION AND THE WAR.

THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL. SEARCHING OI'R HEARTS. (raoil OTTC OW?< CORRESPO.VDE.VX.) LONDON. October 6. The Archbishop oi Canterbury-, opening at "Westminster Abbey the National Mission of Repentance and Hope: "Never in the world's history did the summons of God to the people ring out so insistently as ,no\v. The war has crashed into our home life, civic life, commercial life, political life, and has overturned our ordinary wave. The task of reconstruction has suddenly been given this generation. How are we going to do it? The purpose of the Mission is first to find out in the nation, as a whole faults and failures, and then collectively, and &- would-bc Christian people, to grapple with them in every .parish, in the land. This i« not to be a mission of good people to those who are not good, of the converted to the unconverted. Rather the ration itself is to awake to its lamentable failures, and to the splendid opportunities the illimitable trust which it has misused or missed, and to gird its loins t 0 a now and nobler endeavour. AVe have not been worthy of the greatness of our heritage. But we are going to try to be. We imagine, perhaps, dimly, but we do imagine, what is the 'righteousness-' which exalteth a nation. And, with all tho eagerness which we can evoke we long—yes, long—to mako it ours. Surely the furnace is doing its work. Once for all it has welded, us into closest union and fellowship as a people. For the first time it would seem, it is as a compacted, as a unanimous people that wc can think and pray, we can repent and resolve. Perhaps we hardly realise how new a thing that is. Wo have long been living and acting apart; we have been broken up into sundered sections and classes and interests: we have dwelt, rightly dwelt, upon each man's individual responsibility. But there is another aspect of our common life —a characteristic which we overlookj or forget. 0 r belittle. I mean tho common joint action which leads to the formation of common habits, tie establishment of a public standard -which is followed without qnalim or self-reproach just because thousands of people are tacitly adopting it. Do good people suddenly become hard and cruel and callous? Not go; but from small and inconsidered or mistaken beginnings, or inheriting;? from earlier days, good people allow the pride of power or the greed of gain or the craving for excitement in amusements or some other impulse, unregulated but not intentionally evil, to have its way, regardless of the rights of others, until the indulgence or the selfishness grows into a horrible abuse and wrong, and yet, by the mere nnmber / of its perpetrators, it has become tho natural thing to do. Nobody feels personally responsible for what everybody allows or does. The fact that there are numberless transgressors comes to be regarded as a justification of the sin. "Wo have to get rid of the notion that the sin of a multitude invests each partaker of it with a sort of associated character, in wliicli he is himself irresponsible; that just as everybody's business is nobody's business, so everybody's sin is nobody's 6in. What is needed now is to_ apply that thought to 'the prevalerit sins of habit among us in England—sins of unfaith, sins of selfishness, sins of an' indifference which have grown into callousness, and from being callous into being positively blind—blind, anH yet unoonscions of it. If anyone asks, why choose this particular moment for breaking through the quiet manner of Hfe with which our fathers and our fathers' fathers were well content, the answer is obvious. We have not chosen it. The occasion has come unasked, -unexpected. Into our familiar homo -life, civic life, commercial life, political life, there crashed in at a few hours' Dotice the war—the war, with its totally new conditions, its all-pervading excitement, its unheard of problems, its immeasurable sorrows, its peremptory boulevereement of ordinary ways. Would any of you have wished, hare dared, to make tbe6e proud sacrifices just to perpetuate the old life, with no more than the old, easy-going, conventional belief? England—l am certain of it—is to-day learning better how to gird her loins, how to resolve and how to pay. England is. But are we all learning that lesson, or are some c? us letting these irrecoverable months slip by with the thing unattempted? It seems to mo almost certain that if this opportunity goes by unused, it can never, never come again. Wait till six months after the war is over, and the new start, possible now, will be unattainable. At present all js tense and keen; the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of readiness to offer ourselves and what we love is 'in the air.' We have no doubt at all about the righteousness, the honourable obligation, the high privilege, of the part we are allowed to take in this dreadful ordeal of battle. Ido not dwell upon that to-day. The readiness —how well proven—to rally to the call of King and country can take shape in a kindred readiness to rally to the call of God. the call to make something new of England's life. The first is effortdeliberate. painstaking effort. If we intend to reach nearer standard in our corporate life we must colirageously. decisively -ehoo.se so to do. Nothing is so dangerous a.s under-rating your opponent, and what we describe as vis inertins, reluctance to active effort, "is in corporate life the most formidable perhaps of all our foes." THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER, The Bishop of London, at Crieblewood : "We are well reminded in a symuar.betic- article in "The Times" on the National Mission that Whatever failure there is -must be traced to the fact that, in practically all the Christian bodies of this country, religion hag lost its character of warfare. It is too peaceful and contented and comfortable, too little of a. war in its members*, lis objective is nothing less than the rousing of religious people, and still more of those who at present make no such profession to a sense that religion is a contest of tmexampled frigbtfulness.' _ Which shows what the nation is expecting of the Church —but it is to be 2 soldiers' battle. What is wanted to-day is a strong, effective, witness from every Christian man and woman. The main thing wanted to-day is that every Christian soldier shall and effectively show his colours. He shows his colours when, over-worked and tired though he • may be, he is-seen regularly in the parish church; when he lets it"bo known that ho will not have filthy language used in his presence without protesting; that he does not agree with the man of the world's view about immorality ; and that be does believe in Christ and try to model his life on the New Testament. The Christian soldier shows his. colours, too, when, putting fisidp natural shvness tfnd reserve, he tries to pass on in language, how""chifiwd tindced all

the bettor for being so) the .secret «>l his own life and Pluck up your wurage and bear witness to *be friend 'with whom you walk home every night from'the city. Why does in" not. conie to church ? Why does she not say her prayers? You are the human link by which God would reach them in the mission. Thus is jnst the contrary method to the stranger the railway carriage who asks you, 'Are you saved?' He has got to earn his right to ask you, t» personal a question : but the Divine order is—first, that which is material: afterwards that wliich is spiritual—and that natural human tie which is already knit between you and your friend is just the natural tio through "which the spirit loves to flow, and your friendship, instead of being lost, gains a new glory." The Bishop of Rochester; "To-day we are beginning to grasp the truth that, no foundation is possible for the society of men and nations apart from the spirit of Christianity. But we have to confess that we have permitted whole departments of (mr national life to be raised on other foundations. Our policy, our trade conventions, our laws, our investments. these have been allowed to work out their expansion in a region where the standards of our Lord wore no longer thought to have a. place. The sanctity of marriage has been torn frotn its stem stronghold to suit the inclinations of 'an evil and adulterous generation." Pleasure was fast becoming the only standard by which human conduct was to be gauged. This life was regarded as an end in itself, till it was difficult to discover m modern society a body of people who professed to be no more than 'strangers and pilgrims on the earth.' Front.:his materialism the war lias turned us. We have been called in countless instances to sacrifice all that was best and most lovable in the life of England, and ivo have had to conl'css that if there is nothing beyond this life, 'we arc of all men must miserable.' The barriers between life and death, between, spirit and matter, have worn very thin; and the spiritual world is forcing its way through to regain it* proper place iu the lives of men. ' Who would be bold enough to deny that those bright boys of our? have done the greatest thing that any man can do with .his life, when they laid down their lives for their friends? If this life be all, those lives have only been thrown away. The easy-going religion that makes small claims on time and purse nnd_ service and that suits us is very possibly not the religion that God desires or designed." •WARE DRAINS.

Sir J. Criehton-Browne, President of ' tho Sanitary Inspectors' Association: "Had the millions consumed by the war in one year been devoted to feed-, ing, housing, drainage, and smoke abatement we should have had, in a sanitary sense, a new heaven • and a new earth. There will be no relaxation of sanitary vigilance when the war is over for post-war periods have always proved seasons favourable to copious crops of infectious disease. We wero not prepared for war; let us bo prepared for, peace. Soldiers in large numbers will before long be returning hom© from infected areas, and precautions* must be taken. Among the social reconstructions that are to follow th'c wax, from the sanitary point of view, the most vital will be housing reform. We cannot send bads the brave men who have fought for us abroad into liovels and dug-outs and slums at home. We must recognise the. right of every civilised man to a clean wigwam and of every civilised family to a decent lodging, whether they can afford to pay it or not- It is elbow-room that is wanted. The two official remedies for shimdom are a living wage and extensive building operations under the direction of, and, if need be, with the assistance of tho State. Rut the living wage cannot of itself eliminate the slum without tho co-operation of the builder and the sanitary inspector. Three hundred thousand good habitable cottages aro wanted in ■' the country immediately.''

TO SOCIALISTS. Tlie Nationalist Socialist Party, in a manifesto to oversea societies (signed by Air and Mrs Hi. M. Hyndman, Mr Will Thcrne, Mr Ben Tillett, and many others): — . '"Comrades. —We see with, 'surprise and regret in the Socialist and I/aoour journals received from British! colonies that a considerable number of colonial Socialists believo that Great Britain ought to have taken, no part in the wax against the Germanic Powers. Many apparently believe thai we should have stood, aside while France, Belgium, and Serbia were finally crushed, in accordance with the German programme of militarist aggression. That policy has never been adopted at any International Socialist Congress wnatover. 'On the contrary, the right and the duty of Socialists to defend their own nationality from' aggression has been repeatedly and unanimously affirmed. Up to August 3rd 1914, we. tho undersigned, then members of the British Socialist Party, took every step we could in favour'of peace. When, however, the Central Powers, rejecting all appeals for arbitration in regard to &rbia, suddenly attacked neutral Belgium and rushed their armies through the opening thus gained in order to smash the French Republic, we were bound to stand uy our own Government in declaring war upon the aggressors—strongly as wo had always opposed its secret diplomacy and the incompetence of its foreign policy. Tt is not now disputed that the object of Germany and her Allies in thu s making war on Serbia, a nd thus forcing on a general campaign, was to obtain German domination of Europe and to establish a Germanic Empire extending from the North Sea to the Indian Ocean. This meant and must mean putting the smaller nationalities entirely at the mercy of Prussianised militarism. Had Germany thus won, democracy and Socialism would have been thrown back for more than a generation. The victory would have been the triumph of Prussian Jnnkerdom, of military reaction in its worst shape. The war was made by that section of German society which keeps Prussia itself under ' a tyrannous bureaucratic rule with its three-class franchise, and succeeded in depriving Baxony of universal suffrage. Under such circumstances, it was and is the bounden duty of Social-Democrats here to join with the overwhelming majority of our countrymen in resisting the common enemy, but British capitalism strengthened by German militarism ivould be more dangerous still. When pcaco comes, the workers will have a tar greater chance of obtaining con-, trol of this island than ever before. I'sed to arms, disciplined and conscious of their power, it will then be the fault of the people themselves if, victorious over Germany abroad, they fail to overcome capitalism and wageslavery at home. Already we are demoting all our energies to preparation or this great struggle, and we hope :o have your help aid sympathy in our jlorious work."

NOT NELSON'S WAX. Lord Sydenham, criticieing Mr Churchill's statement that the Battle of Jutland was • an "audacious but i necessary attempt to bring the enemy to action" :— "It may fairly tie said that these new. theories of narval strategy violate the whole teaching of the great masters of war. Drake begging to h© allowed to attack the Armada off the coast of Spain, and Hawk© electing to fitxht in the dangerous waters" of Quiberon Bay, and Nelson wearing out the last year of his glorious life n burning eagerness to bring his adversary to action, forgot to ask themselves 'what harm' would be done if the enemy 'took a promenade at sea'? It is, of course, true that the excursion of Viiieneuve to the "West Indic s inflictod no harm in the event, because Nelson, with the. sure instinct of a great seaman, quickJv followed. It

may bo that- a roii-.- of tho 'BSgfr Fleet- in tho Nona Son would cause no injury—measured in lives pounds sterling—upon British interests. Out. now and always. the one supreme naval object, i.s to rapture or destroy tlio enemy's armo.l ships whenever aa<l wherever tiiev are accessible. Mr Cluircliill strangely fails to realise that nothing would exercise a more profound influence on the Mtuation present and future than a decisive and final fleet action. His implied doctrine is that the present naval situation is perfect, ly satisfactory, and that we shouW riot fight unless tlie most conservative <aj. dilations lead to the 'consciousness of ovenvheJminp: superiority,' failing which wo should 'fall hack upon the safe and far stronger position of farcing tbo enemy to c.omo right over to oar coasts.' Tf ever Boards of Admiralty and naval commanders afloat become - imbue-d with ideas of this kind—which is surely inconceivable —we- may bid farewell to the dominion of the sea."

THE FIRST DIVISIONS.. General Sir W. .Robertson, Chief o( the Imperial General i>tolf, at Daldcrbjj Lincolnshire: — 1 '"Think of it —when wo weut to Kir wo had just six divisions. Fortanatelj they wero very good indeed. No better divisions ever left the shore of uj' country. (Cheers). The way vrfricj those six divisions kept up their endttd fought at Hons, La Chateau, and 14 tho wonderful retreat to the Marat, and then turned and thrust back tie enemy to the Aisno is a story which will go down to history for all umi). I personally will never forget what I witnessed, and what 1 heard during tha first few weeks of this war as to the doings of thoso wonderful divisions. The endurance, unselfishness, gallantry, and dogged determination displayed were simply marvellous. By all the ordinary rules of war they were thoroughly beaten divisions within a few daysafter they came in contact with the enemy. But they were not beaten, and if anyone snggested to these men that they were beaten I do not know what sort of reply they would get. (Cheers). So they fought under' the leadership of Sir John French, for months alone, to keep tho flag of tho British Empire flying. They were not beaten, they never hav© boon beaten; they are not beatcii now. On the contrary, they arc waning—(cheers)—slowly, if you like, but none the .less surely, by the side ofl those numerous other which have been sent out and are now fighting so splendidly."

PLAIN TALKING. | Bishop Welldon (Dean of Manchester) ! | at tho C.E-M-6. Conference: — "The ordinary working man does not think much of the cferyy; they think that the clergy sire not intellectually, competent to deal with their difficulties. There certainly lia-s boon in the last fifty years a marked intellectual \ decline in the clergy of the Church of . England, and when that intellectual declino is associated with spiritual coclesiastical assumption, it is not very pleasing to his friends of the working classes. Tho working man is asking to-day, Is it compatible with an almighty and all-loving God that tho world should now be a veritable Hell, Jud how it is thai 13 centuries d|i Christianity did not prevent the most horrible, of all wars in human history?' The Church needs more intellectual, power to meet such questions, and tho. Church is making a mistake in allowing a barrier to be set against the entrance into sacred orders of men who are both, intellectual and spiritual. The bishops' yote in the House of Lords in the past has brought no credit to the Church; and the clergy can hardly claim to havo taken pains to place themselves in deepsympathy with the masses of ' tha people. The word 'humbug is' frequently spoken among the working classes' when they hear bishops, archbishops. and even deans enforcing lessons of sacrifice. I think that tho /; clerjcy might sot.aside a certain pari of their incomes to show that they su% in earnest.''