CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2630, 27 November 1915, Page 2

CHURCH AND WAR

4 / BISHOP OF LONDON'S LETTER LORD ROBIiRTS'S WARNINGS. ZEPPELIN RAIDS. The Bisliop of London Ims issued a loiter to the' Church people of his diocese on settling down to another winter of war. Our tirst duty, ho says, is to continue to breathe into the soul of the nation the courage, cheerfulness, and hope which are essential to carry on the war,'to the end:—

"Tho one thing to be most dreaded just now is an..inconclusive peace. The end of the firs'; year of tlie war, now that we know the long preparations which had been made seoretly by one nation 111 its ambition to enslave tho world, was .bound to sliow littlo signs of coming victory; but if we show ourselves worthy of tho -great cause ■ en£l listed to us, Aug Ist 4, 1916, ought to have a very different story to tell. 'What this time of . Jvading and thought has done for mc i/, to convince mo with a deeper con-fiction than ever that one country, and one country only, is to blame for this war, and that our only fault has been an unwillingness to bolieve that so great a crime was really contemplated. .. . What has happened up. to now should therefore not in any_ way shako the faith of any one in ultimate victory—it' was bound to happen. 'Tho children of this world aro in their generation wiser than the children of .ligb;;.l Whether the children of light wero right in being so innocent is ,a political, question whick I should not it ..Tight to discuss now; when it is discussed, as a staunch supporter of Lord Roberts for many jears in his policy of National Training) I shall mora than ever believe, and v state my belief, that our great soldier was right in- Ids warnings and in Bis suggested preparations." Dealing next with the question, "Is there a God of righteousness at aJI ?" the. Bishop says that if the New Testament is a reve.ation of His character aud will, can thare be a doubt 011 Whoso side we are fighting? We have every reason to believe from a religious point of view that the tide will now slowly turn. We have no right to leave tho ta.SK of saying the freedom of the world to our children: our best and brntest have died alreac.y, for it; wo must see it through to tho end. flio Bishop continues :—

"And in doing so ivo must be perfectly ready to take our share of the danger. There nust be a kind of glorying in London at being allowed to tako our little share of danger in the Zeppclin. raids. Cowardly and brutal as tlioy are, and carried out contrary to all international law, they have this advantage. As a gallant old clergyman said after ono of the raids,' "file Zeppelin pissed right over our house, and was there potted by the aircraft. One of their fuses, weighing lib. 50z., fell 6ft. from my front door, 'just where I hnd stood, and it wes hot when I carried it in. It was a terrific but very splendid sight, md it has had £gr me something exhilarating in it, for, like moBC old men, 1 have felt so selfish in being comfortably at home out of danger, and now, at any rate, ono is allowed to feel that ivo may take our share a bit after all.' \That is the spirit in which to face tl© danger of those coming evenings. After all, evory one of our dear boys in the trenches is facing at least a thousand times the danger every night which any individual citizen is called upon to face, and why should the' boys face it by themselves?" - While entering upon the winter with hope and slacken our prayers. Do we ! pray";enough at homo, not only for the sick and wounded, but for our -actual' fighting soldiers and our'watching sailors? In concluding,- the Bishop; writes 'We have suffered at present nothing liko the losses of our Allies. Tho smoke of the' villages ol! Poland, tho shattered towns of Belgium, one-sixth of the richest part of France under the- heel of tho temporary conqueror, cry aloud for help and redress. We pass forward on our high mission to bring them not only temporary relief, but freedom for ever." METHODISTS IN THE ARMY. THE REV. J. A. LTJXFORD. The following extracts from a letter which the Rev. A. C. Lawry, of Auckland, has Received from the secretary of the British Wesleyan Conference, will be read wjlih. interest :—"One of the things that'is helping to steady and strengthen tho heart of the Old Country has been the splendid, way in which Now Zealand, Australia,' Canada, and South Africa have rallied to our help. I asked a man from the front the other day 1o give me the deepest impressions tliat had been made on his mind, and his answer was as follows: 'First, the unparalleled bravery of the colonial troops, and especially- of the New Zealanders, at the Dardanelles ' and, secondly, the cheerfulness and good humour o:: the British soldiers.' This week I visiiied the Rev. Major J. A. Luxford, who has lost a limb at the ■Dardanelles, and is now here. He is veil cared for in the Endsleigh Palace Hospital, and is making.a splendid recovery. In two or three days ho will go to Roehampton, in order to have a new limb fitted; but in spite of his maimed condition, and .altered prospects in lifo, ho was manifesting a spirit of noble patienco a:ad Christian heroism. One of our own chaplains, the Rev. TheopKihis Harris, is also in a London hospital, having lost a limb, and he manifested the name spirit. Four- of Ojir ministers aro invalided with 'trench fevers.' Ono hundred and fifty of our ministers are. at the present time representing the Old Country in tho Army and Navy, and I think you will consider this a very noble contribution. We havo undoubtedly 120,000 Methodists in tho Army. Our church, in the Motherland is, however, . maintaining tho strain wonderfully.- .-In Church fifo we have women' who are doing some of the work that-'used'to bo done by men.. Soino of tho men who thought their day was done havo had to harness up again, and havo gone back t)o their church work." THE DAUNTLESS CARDINAL MERCIER.

On tho occasion of tlio festival of Saint "Miehael ; she patron saint of Brussels, Cardinal Mercier, according to the "Telegraaf," sent a request for prayer to all the priests , in his diocese, in t'he course of v.hicli he said: "A year ago we all feared'for our independence. The advantage of'the aggressor was his strength, his number, and his cleverly-designed plans. From the iiumaJi standpoint wo 'had everything t/j fear, and I clearly recollect that on September 8, 1014, at Marseilles, when three French Cardinals and I entrusted our countries to tlio protection of tho l-lolv Viririn, our eyes wero turned northwards, and wo said, .in the words of the Psalmist: 'Tlicy have their war materials and horsemen, but we, relying on our right, will firmly trust in God, our Lord,' and, if I am not mistaken, on that samo day, the birthday of the Holy Virgin, tho first reports of Che glorious but then still unconfirmed battle on the Marno appeared, and tlio invasion was checked and tho retreat began, which we earnestly pray to tho Holy Heart of Christ, to our Holy-Vir-gin, and to Saint' Michael to hasten and accomplish." A FATHIR'S NOBLE LETTER. ' Captain Leonard Robinson, of the Oth Lancashire Fusiliers, w'ho fell in recently, in the .wes

a member of the Quadrant Congregational Church, London. In acknowledging a letter from the Rev. H. Brierley, minister of'the Quadrant Church, Caj>< tain Robinson's father (the- Bcv. J. H. Robinson, of St. Paul's Congregational Church, Wigan) writes: "He waa a good boy, honest, fearless, square, and he seemed to have his foot on tha bottom rung of the ladder and wak beginning to climb. Now he's gone. Still,I would rather lie died a hero's death: than live the coward's life. His two other brothers are in it. I sometimes shrink from the future. I have trodden tlie .lonely, way before, and have gono through,many a, dark night, but the morning 'has always come. I m wait* ing for the; morning." XHEOLpGIOAL;. STUDENTS. The Bev. A. IV Glittery, the well' known Primitive Methodist preacher, who recently paid a visit to France, has returned full of admiration for the g'ork of tho Y.M.C.A. "If I had my way," said Mr.'Guttery to a Press' representative, "I. would close our theological colleges for, twelve;-months, _ and send the students nut to do religious work especially ill connection with the Y.SLC.A. Of tha Jalue and immensity of scope of tJiia movement one cannot 6peak too highly 1 Tho Y.M.C.A. hut is the soldiers' club, and hero are provided billiards ana baths, reading and writing rooms, as well as small chapels whero a man can go for quiet and privacy. Certain mem- 1 bers of the staffs are young mon of means who are unfit for militarv service, and who liave-gone over to franca with their own cars to do anything they can." THE FRENCH SOLDIER. Tlie Abto Hamon. who is a vicaire at Bcurg-dos-Comptes, in a letter home from the front, says:— "Generally speaking, gaiety reigns in our ranks. Artillerymen and Zouavea take the offensivo day after day. and - I believe the German line will soon be broken here. Yesterday, I-had a talk with some German prisoners. They were quite demoralised, and declared that their comrades, seek opportunities of giving themselves up. Our; reoent successos have inflamed the spirit o£ our men, and their only wish is to go forward." In tho sanio letter is a moving ao« count' of a general absolution given to a company just before going into an assault: — "The day before yesterday, a young lieutenant with tlxp .face and figure of Ail angel came to ask me to bless hia company, t ! he captain of which had been killed, before going into.the trenches for an assault; I went ito them, and, mounting a little mound, spoke of them' • of God, their, soul and their kinsfolk/ My emotion communicated itself : to thorn, and wc wept'a little together. x I told them that though they could not' make their Coiifession, they could gain pardon of their sins, by making an" act ,of-.contrition. , They all .went down on their knees, and I. gave .them.'absolution.' I, shall never fdrget; -as long as I live, this, touching, sight.' 'They .then rose and marched off to the-encounter. 1 ' THE ANGELS OF" MOWS. Preaelrng at tho City Temple, thi Rev. R.-J. Campbell referred to tha story of the miraculous intervention of tlie angels at Mons. He said tho quea* tion was of tlie first importance, since it dealt with a possible mode, of Divine intervention. Ho was not prepared! either to deny or affirm the truth ; of the Btory, but he could not dismiss it as impossible. It was not enough to say that the intervention was useless if it was to save lives, since the men then saved had since lost their lives. Divine intervention was not necessary to 6ave liveß but to save souls, and no one could deny that.,, since that time tho soul of the nation had been roused. DR. J. A. HUTTON ON THE WAR, Preaching to a large congregation at' Rectory Place Congregational Church, Woolwich, the Rev. J. A. Hntton, of Glasgow, said: "I am as much in favour of peace as anybody, but I was notim* pressed by a pamphlet which I, in common with others, have received, setting forth tlie cost in'lives as an argument against the war. Because men had been killed who might have made great colli tribution to the social comfort or scientific knowledge of the world is not a strong argument for peaoe. I confess there was something about that pacifist. pamphlet that angered me as I have not been angered since the war. began. For one tiling, it was a snobbish pamphlet. I am not impressed by the fact of tha death of any professor, be ho English' or German, because lie has had some show for his life and message. I am' far more impressed by' the death of tha father of nine children, who, with a, widowed mother, are left behind to face tho world and possibly' to eat the bitter bread of poverty. I would father stop • the war, for their sakes and because of the fate of their father than because of the dqath in battle of the professor. Tlie argument that tlie war should stop because of the cost is, it seems to me, contrary to the highest teaching, and a forgetting of tho things for which wo are