The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1017. OUR DEFENCE MINISTER'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 76, 22 December 1917, Page 8

The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1017. OUR DEFENCE MINISTER'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

The Minister of Defence, Sir James- Allen, upon whose shoulders has been laid for more than three years the heavy burden of organising the material forces of the Dominion in this war, has not been forgetful of the necessity of organising also the moral and spiritual forces. From time to time he has sent forth appeals to the Churches of the Dominion, and the following appropriate Christmas message to the members of the New Zealand Expeditionary.-Force and Army Nursing Servioe will be read at his request in all the churches of the land:— The time has como for another Christmas message to go forth from New Zealand to those ivlio are upholding her honour on land and soa. Again we ask you to join with us nt 6 o'clock on Christmas morning in prayer for protection and continued success. Heavy as tlie burden has been, and heavy as-it yet may he, ive reassert at this Christmas time our unshaken faith in. the..righteousness of our cause and your ability, .under God, to do .'your country's part to vindicate that cause, it is therefore with a stout heart and an undimmed pride that we bid you be of good cheer, trusting that next Christmas once more the Divine message may- ring out over the world—"Peace on e'arth, good will towards men."

This call to seek help from the highest source will- no doubt meet with a real and universal response. This war has led to no great revival in the churches, and it has not led to the formation of mass prayer meetings, but it has deepened and solemnised life. Sir George Adam Smith said some, years'ago that the shores of the unseen world-had receded far from the life ot the average', man,'but. the war has brought these shores near, and such a call ■ as this will be met with sympathy. It was said by General Sherjian • that "War is Hell," but it has also its good side. A writer in the Oc- . tuber .number o r f thc Jlibbcrt Jour- . mil. wisely says':. "It purges away 1 old', strifes'and/sectional .aims and raises-us-a'while into a higher and purer air. It helps us lo recapture--some of the lofty and intense patriotism of the ancient world." This call of Sir James Amen'to the practico of the most veal and most intense forni of religion is an act of the highest reason in a war which at_bedrock is a war of moral and spiritual principles! Such a call iri days of easy-going material ease and prosperity would have sounded strange. An American poet during the great Civil War sang of the moral profit .that came from the sacrifice of that great struggle: Bui now the cross our worthies bore. .On us is laid: Profession's quic! slecji is o'er, And-in- the -scale of truth, once more ■ Our faith is weighed. There; is-no'blind optimism in this call. of.Sir James. Allen.The wild ; bea,st jowcrs of .oiir'.'civilisation arc nob -yet-.-'destroyed, •. and', heavy bur-ilc-n's of sacrifice, may' ; h'avo'.ycti-to be ■borne: before-'thc,'- -freedom, -of the world is secured and . a just and lasting- peace established, but, that destruction is-sure to come. At the last in the great struggles of th'e world the cause ■of righteousness triumphs, though the struggle may be long and the sacrificc great. The conscience of a-morally, world has endorsed the declaration of Britain that this is a war for righteousness. The cause of the Kaiser has only found support from tho Habsburg despot, the Turkish assassin power, and the Bulgarian fratricide, and both the latter Powers are probably very sorry they sold themselves to Germany.

In these clays when sorrow clouds so many homes we ave apt to_ think that the golden age is a thing of ■the past, but we err in,this. In this world's beginnings I the first city was built by Cain, ■■"and its policy was one of "blood an'd iron"—the policy of the German -Kaiser. We are apt to .think that the .first Christmas Day-dawned-in a world at peace. But it was not so. At the time the angels sang their Christmas song liuarly twenty centuries' ago the conquering hordes, of the. Roman Empire ' were ■ devastating Northern liurone with fire and sword, and the Roman Navy was penetrating the great central rivers/ and by brute force making a larger Empird! In the very land where the angels sang the bad Ki.vg Kkrod reigned, and when he heard of the coming of the Heavenly Child King he stretched out his arm and slew the children of the land to make sure that he would kill the coming King. It was in such a world and in such surroundings that the first Christmas, hymn was_ sung, On Earth I'cac.e, Good 117// to Men. , The hymn was not a description of the present, l.mt a prophecy of the .future. . The hymn really means on earth peace.. to men .of good will, and it announced.the coming of a Heavenly .-force-, to .destroy the bad will of man and to build on good will, peace, and righteousness. This Christian song is no unrighteous messagb of easy-going pood nature. It declares war on earth to men of bad will, and in this sense it bring? not .peace bi*t. a sword. The first Christmas hvmn, with its message of peace. w?s also a declaration of war against'evil and bad will, and its singers looked forward to a future (irilden ace. And so it is with us to-day. The world is passing' through a great moral crisis, but the day of pcace is coming. Already on tjie sable groundOf man's despair t h Freedom's glorious picture found, With all i/sjlusky hands unbound.-Upraised-in prayer. ,