CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2994, 3 February 1917, Page 14

CHURCH AND WAR

THE NATIONAL MISSION

COMMITTEES OF INQUIRY

The Archbishops of Canterbury and 'York have issueu tlie following letier iu reference to die Aational iUihsion: — "Tlie work of the Alission will not have been accomplished until the National Church fliauus us the iiying witness that tlie leaven of Cliristiaiucy lias indeed penetrated every department of our national life We look forward to a time when the Jxingiioin ol God shall be iu actual truth tue goal or all effort and desire, and the thought of the Kingdom of God the controlling thought in our minds. We look forward to a time when the particular interests of the various sections of the community shall he harmonised in service fof the good of all, and the Christian law of fellowship and mutual help shall visibly govern the v. hole operation of our social system, whether it bo

viewed iu its moral, political, or economic aspect.

"The vision is yet for many days, yet we dare believe that its fulfilment is not' unattainable if we seize tiiu opportunity of the present to start atrcsh. And it we would assure our progress towards our goal we must, even as we continue to pass on from stage to stage; constantly laid guidance for our nest advance in securing and surveying the gains which are alreadj\ours. Jjlven now the lesons which the Mission has taught us with new clearness and force seem to indicate some of the linos along which our immediate move forward must be directed.

"Have we not learned, for example, through the eagerness of our desire to present the Christian Faith as tho one sure Foundation for the upbuilding of our Rational lifo, how many thou, sauds of professing Christians and Churchmen there aro who have a wholly inadequate understanding of its depth and range, and how urgeut, therefore, is the need of reviving and perfecting tlie ministry of teaching?

"Have we not realised that if tlie Church's public worship is to attract and uplift the people of the land there must be more freedom of adaptation to meet the needs and desires of their actual lives; and that the Holy Communion must regain its rightful place in our hearts as the true centre of Christian fellowship and worship r 1

"Has not our experience of the results of tire united effort of the Church taught us, that now life 'and hope can spring up in the most lonely or the most hard-pre3sod parishes? "Have we not been made to realise mora keenly than ever abuses and anomalies in the. outward structure of ffie Church's life" which not only distress ourselves but also perplex .or offend the conscience of those whom we most desire to draw into our fellowship? "Has not the very message of the Mission brought home to us how much more clear, courageous, and sustained must be the corporate witness and warfare of the Church against the sins which stain our national life, how great is the call to commend the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit by which the problems of our industrial life can bo most surely solvedP

"Many other questions have been raised, many other hopes stirred, i>y our National Mission. But the .subjects which wo have mentioned seem to us to call for the special attention of the Church.

"In order that these aspirations end discussions may bave useful sucgesticn "and /guidance, we propose to appoint five' committees of inquiry to report to us upon tho following terms of refereuce: —

"1. A committee to consider and report upon methods by which tho tenoning office of tho Church can be more eftcctively exercised. "'2. A committee to consider and report upon ways in which tho public worship of the Church can bo more directly related to tho iolt needs of actual life at the present time. It is desired that this committee should pay special .attention: (a) to ;ecent reports of convocation and its committees on the revision of the Prayer Book; (b)'to opinions and desires expressed by chaplains in tho Navy and in the Army. 3. A committee to ■ consider and report upon the facts and lessons which the experience of the National Mission has brought to light as to the evangelistic work of the Church at home, and the best methods of improving and extending it. "i. A committee to consider and report upon the following questions: — "(i) What matters in tho existing administrative system of the Church,' including patronage and uidowments, seem. to them to hinder the spiritual work of the Church; and

"(ii) How can the reform or the removal of such hindrances be most effectively promoted? "5. A committee to consider and report upon the ways in which the Church may best commend the teaching of Christ to those who are seeking to solve the problems of industrial life. "That we have not alluded to questions affecting the constitutional position of the Church in England is because all thoughtful people will study the handling of these questions in the weighty report of the Archbishop's Committee on Church and State. "Again, a necessary result of the prayers and efforts of this year must needs be tho quickening of loyalty to the cause of tho Kingdom of- God throughout the world. But we have not thought it necessary to appoint a special committee on the missionary work of the Church abroad, because it is the special task of the Board of Missions to see that this paramount obligation holds its rightful place in the corporate life of the Church." In an article commenting upon the Archbishops' letter, • tho London "Times" says:—"An important letter from tho two Archbishops now insists that the Mission of Witness, already delivered by tho appointed messengers in'the churches, is hut tho first stago to a wider spiritual campaign. ... It is certain that if the Church can succeed in impressing the nation by the reality of its witness to the great Christian principles of righteousness and fellowship it will do incalculable service to tho national well-being. The final problems of human life, whether for the nation or the individual, can only bo solved in the light of moral and spiritual principles." A LESSON OF THE TRENCHES. ADDRESS BY BISHOP WELLDON. Men have learnt in the trenches, said Bishop Welldon, Dean of Manchester, in an address recently, lessons which they would not, or could not, have learnt elsewhere. There, the youth of high rank and lordly wealth, with every opportunity of ease and pleasure and luxury spreading before nim, has flung his life away, as though it were a common thing, for tho nation and the Empire. It has been stated that as many as a hundred heirs to titles have fallen on the battlefields of Europe and Asia. But there, too, tho private soldier who but the othor day was the man in the street, with nothing as it seemed, of light and lustre, of distinction and elevation in his story, has, although no glamour of notoriety dawned upon his_ vision, yet fought and suffered and died without complaint, but with a sublime and simple heroism. It is not long^since T heard a well-known representative of the Lnbour Party picture ,to an audience of working men the young aristocrat- "tlnoitaff.'' "tbe flnde," as: he called "tera, sanrrterinij; down Bwnfl Street

in London with his gloves, spats, and cane, as though the world were all iiis own, and lie np.ver needrd or meant to do a stroke of work in it; the speaker called him "Algy," and, having so described biin, he drew himself up, paused for a moment., and then, in ringing tones exclaimed, "Where is Algy now?" "He is iu the trenches," was the answer which ho gave to his own question; and tlio working men burst into round upon round of applause. It is impossible that men who have been so intimately allied in war by the solemnities of life and death should not, after the war, show one another a deeper respect and a kindlier courtesy. They will think less, far less, of social distinction; they will think more far more, of the common heritage, which they have saved, though as by fire. They will come home prepared to co-operate, with a devotion unknown before, for the safety and dignity of the State. "IN THE BECINNINC, COD." Mr. Alfred Noyes, the poet ,speaking at Bedford College, said we were "in danger of something like intellectual disintegration.

"It had been made-the test of a man's greatness in modern literature that he should be able to show in new. | and startling ways the ultimate no- ' thingness of things. Solemn books were produced discussing nothing more and nothing less than the'great question whether our world might not be an 'accident.' Let tiiere be no mistake about it: from that way of thinking came this hideous disaster upon our civilisation. Germany, carried it further than we did; they, declared that there was no power above the State. All great art was to sot object with which it dealt in relation to the Eternal, and all great art was based on the first four words of the great Book: 'In the beginning, God.' "