NATIONAL MISSION OF REPENTANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2874, 12 September 1916, Page 5

NATIONAL MISSION OF REPENTANCE

STIRRING ADDRESS BY THE BISHOP

OF LONDON

Australian-New Zealand Cable Association London, September 10. The Bishop of London (Dr. Ingram) opened tho National Mission or Repentance, at a great open-air meeting. His Lordship made a stirring address. The. mission, ho said, should preach a spirit of fortitude. The nation must seo this thing through to the very end. It was the Nailed Hand against tho Hailed Fist. He defended tho young clergy against the charge of cowardice. There wero thirteen hundred clergy under fire in tho Army and three hundred in tho Navy. Sixteen in the Army and sixteen in the Navy had given their lives, and many others had been wounded. [In explaining tho object of tho National Mission of- Repentance and Hope, for which the Church of England has been preparing for some months past, tho Archbishop of Canterbury recently stated:—We believe that if the victorious outcome which we expect and pray for in this war, is to take shape in every sense, "for good," we must recognise plainly, outspokenly, deliberately, humbly, that then) are a great many faults of ours to be corrected, a great many weak, wayward efforts to be refashioned by God's help into something straightcr and stronger. This must begin in our personal life, in the separatesoul's relation to God. Then in our homes and households. Then it muiifc be felt in our parishes and parish churches. Then in our social and civic life; and so by degrees in tho doings and sayings and debatings which have a national or Imperial or even international character—the nation, in short, girding itself in a new way for establishing through, and by means of and out of tho appalling visitation of a great war, horrible as it is, something which may become for the world' of our own or future days, what the Bible calls "the peaceable fruit of righteousness." Wo are very far as yet from having secured among the men and women of our land, clergy or laity, military or civil, that sort q'f spirit—a. spirit compatible, remembet, with tho very bravest, and sternest, and most unconquerable earnestness cjf fight, and vet a spirit implanted of. God. Well, if we are to get it we must think of it,., strive for it, praf for above all, pray for it. That is what our National M'ission is for. Wo are going to try, by evcrv corporate and separate effort that wo can make, under tho guidance of our living Lord, to create and foster that true spirit, to quicken our eyesight as to what our faults have been—faults of character, faults of culpable ignorance in regard to the very facts, and needs, and failures close around us. "Lord, that our eyes may bo opened." Be that our prayer, and then, as we humbly believe, the outcome will'be practical and the fruit will follow. The danger, or one danger, is that good people, 'intensely in ' earnest, try to securo the fruit, the changes and betterments of every sort and kind in our surroundings and our system, before the new spirit, in which alone we can hope 1 to_ judge and act aright, has become alive and keen within us. The purpose and the outcome of our Mission, if God in His love bless our endeavour, is to make that spirit live and glow, and then through it and out of it, will Ho make tho active fruits to flourish and abound.]

THE MOUNTAIN WAR

COMPARATIVE LULL ON ITALIAN ,FRONT Anstraliaa-lfew Zealand Cable Association. London, September 10. An Italian official communique states: ' "There is artillery activity on the Lower Isonzo."

STRIKE THREAT IN SOUTH WALES

Australian-New Zealand O&bie Association. (Rec. September 11, .8.15 p.m.) London, September 11 The South Wales railwaymen haio unanimously decided that unless an advance of 10s. is conceded the) tvill strike at midnight on September 17. They demand that the Government must give a definite guarantee to control tho food supply and regulate the prices. '

| PANAMA CANAL REOPENED

("The Tim«s."l (Rec. September 11, 8.15 p.m.) London, September 11. Lloyd's office'roports that all Malting shhjs havo been cleared through the Panama Canal. The channel is excollcnt, and available for vesselß drawing 30ft. /