A REVOLUTION IN RELIGION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 50, 23 November 1918, Page 6

A REVOLUTION IN RELIGION

DE. CLIFFORD'S VIEW. "I think there is no doubt whatever that a great religious revolution is taking, place in our midst, the results of which will lie as important and ns momontous as the.changes wrought by the French Revolution," said Dr. Clifford to a "Daily News" representative recently. "Some people may 'doubt the accuracy of my assertion," but in my opinion it is a correct description of what is taking place. Ideas are the force that rule the world, whether new ideas'or old ideas revivified. "Changes, radical, and fundamental, are taking place Jn the thinking of men concerning religion, which mark an unquestionable advance towards .brotherhood, justice, and righteousness. I am certain that Christianity will become in tho future much more ical and practical. It is practical Christianity translated into everyday life in all its phases that the soldiers at the front are asking for. "War has brought us into closer touch with the realities of life and death. In future, instead of the omphasis being upon creed, ritual, church ordei and government, the empKuais of tho religious life will have to bo on behaviour and conduct upon the attitude of man to man, upon his attitude to the nation, and upon the attitude of one nation towards other natio.is.' This translation of the spiritual force into tl|e political life will mean not only a new state order but a new world order, and in its wider form it will eventuate in an international tribunal for the settlement of disputes amongst nations, such as is enehi'ined in ihe proposal for a League of Nations. "In short, the changes are driving people, to a recognition of the oneness of humanity—one God and one destiny for file whole human race. The revival is equally emphatic in France as in Britain. The conviction is deepening in men's minds that the ultimate victory in this war wjll come to the'nation or nations that have the highest and truest moral, and are lifted to a 'higher .plane of living."