LESS RELIGION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 179, 24 April 1920, Page 8

LESS RELIGION

OUTLOOK FOR THE CHURCHES WAR AND FAITH ADDRESS BY BISHOP SPROTTSpeaking on . "TlTe Outlook, for Religion" at Victoria College last night, the Bishop of "Wellington (Dr. i'. H. Sprott) said he believed there was less conscious religion in the world to-day than there had been in 1914. War had not created a religious revival. War was an evil, and best that could bo said for it was thnt it was sometimes the lesser evil. He was not alone in Wis belief that the great world war had not stimulated religion. It was stated that in England there was more open hostility to religion now than there had been six years ago. In New Zealand tho church attendance seemed to indicate decreased attention to tho calls of religion. These tendqncics were to be explained in many ways. Some people admitted that the war had shaken their faith in God. It seemed to him that to loso faith in God on account of tho war was to mistake the whole meaning and purpose of life. The war had experienced a terrible revelation of evil. But evil had always been in tho world. Tho aim and object of life seemed to bo the development of personality, and God's law of creation and evolution required that man should choose his own lino of conduct. If human beings wore compelled to be- good, thev would not Irnve personality. ■ .Compulsory moral good would be a contradiction in terms. There could be no moral good except in conflict with evil. The evil and horror of war did not shake his faith in God. If the evils that were in the world were to be remedied, they must be remedied by man. God worked within men, not outside them. The war had operated against religion by exhausting the world on tho emotional side. Eeligion was essentially emotional. Han could not realise Ilia fellowship with God without emotion. The war had left people in such a condition that they responded but feebly to religious stimulus. A similar stats of mind had existed after other wars, and experience showed that tho ebb would bo followed by- a flow. Another effect of the war had been to cheapen men's conception of human life. The struggle had produced much heroism and sacrifice, but it had accustomed humanity to scenes of slaughter that woro hard to reconcile with the conception of man as having been made in the image of God. The Bishop added-that ho did not despair. _ He was aware that some, people believed religion to be leaving the wotM; thoy said it had served man at a stage of his development and was now passing. But he believed that the craving for _ the permanent good to be found deep in human'nature would continue to demand a relation with God and to search for a unifying principle which would"'govern, all the phenomena of life. Men had an ideal of perfection. That ideal did not como from anything to be 6eon in the world, and it could not bo attained'by any individual. Tlib desiiro for permanence, for unity, and for perfection led man to • God, by showing him tlmt his desires could not bo realised by the visible organs. Tho things ho desired could bo found only in God. In conclusion, Dr. Sprott said the task immediately before Christian people was the- unification of Christendom. Tho League of Nations was dead. It Itad been stillborn. Not a nation in the world to-day was prepared to make the sacrifice of material well-being that might' be necessary if wars were to be avoided. Men were tfliking already o( the next war. That war If it came would be infinitely worse than tho last war. The warring nations would set out to destroy each other, not merely each other's armies. Tho foundation of a future war had been laid bv leaving the Turks in Constantinople, in violation of the most sclomn pledges. • The Peace Conference'had failed. One hope remained, and if that failed there was disaster before Western civilisation. The liopo was tho reunion of the Christian churches. A movement for union was in progress. A great conference was to be held, and all"'tho Christian churches of the world, except the Roman CatholicChurch, had undertaken to send delegates. The first step wks to be tho exact definition of. tho beliefs for which each church stood, in order that men might understand each other. Could the Christians of Ihe world be brought together in a union of righteousness and peace? Tho fate of civilisation liung upon the answer to that question. United Christians could provide a soul for,, the League of Nations. |