A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

Evening Star, Issue 21748, 16 June 1934, Page 9

A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

DR NORWOOD ACCORDED CIVIC RECEPTION ADDRESS ON WORLD AFFAIRS Dr F. W. Norwood, of the City Temple, London, was tendered a civic reception last night in the Jubilee Hall of the Moray Place Congregational Church. The Rev. Percy Paris presided, and said that the members of the Council of Christian Congregations and the local branch of the League of Nations Union had thought they would like to meet their distinguished visitor in a more or less intimate way. He extended a hearty welcome to Dr Norwood on behalf of the council, and said they were delighted, as the representatives of Christian churches, to meet him in their city. He referred to the fact that their visitor was a colonial who had gone to London and made a great success of his work in a famous church.

Cr Marlow, deputy-mayor, said that in the absence of the mayor it was his privilege and pleasure to extend a civic rebeption and a cordial welcome to their distinguished visitor. They were proud of their city, and trusted that he would find time to explore some of its manybeauties. It might interest Dr Norwood to know that, whilst they were not by any means first in size or population, they occupied pride of place in the dominion for their municipal enterprises, and the community services that were rendered to their residents at a minimum cost. They were told that “ opportunity knocks once at every man’s door.” Anyone reading the reports of Dr Norwood’s life could not fail to be struck with the energetic and able manner in which he had risen to the occasion and responded to the call when it came to him. A young land like Australia must feel very proud to know that one of her sons had been thought worthy to go to the Old Land and do so much to inspire, instruct, and uplift so many thousands in the .very heart of the Empire. Particularly did Dr Norwood’s work in the cause of international peace appeal to one, especially when it was remembered that in the primitive days might was right, and that they read “ that he may take that has the power, and he shall , keep that can.” By theu‘ laws and regulations they had protected the weak equally with the strong. The struggle had been transferred from thej arena to the hajl of justice. What had been done to minimise strife between individuals ' could surely b done as regarded nations. It was a great thing to have made a name and achieved fame amongst the princes of commerce, the politicians, or the economists. . It was a far better thing to do as Dr Norwood had done—made a name amongst those who had striven for the betterment of mankind. So far as Dr Norwood’s work in Dunedin was concerned, he wished him every success. Might it be blessed beyond his most sanguine expectations. (Applause.) The Rev. H. E. Bollhouse said he welcomed Dr Norwood on behalf of the League of Nations Council. Their visitor was, he said, an outstanding figure in the work for international peace. The League was the one entity which stood between them and world destruction, and Dr Norwood stood for what the League represented. (Applause.) A STIRRING ADDRESS.

Dr Norwood, who was received with loud: applause, said ho had only once before touched the shores of New Zealand, and both 'on that occasion and the present occasion, when he had touched at Auckland, ho was one of many young Australian friends who were going to the conflict in the Old World. At that time he had not been very clear in his attitude to the war. Ho knew his country was in danger, and he felt ho could not stay in Australia. He must be amongst the scenes of war. Australia was a peculiarly peaceful country, even more so than New Zealand. Australia had been peacefully discovered and annexed almost without observation. Soon after that annexation came the Battle of Trafalgar, and thereafter Australia could mot he said to have very great significance in relation to war. On a Sunday in August, 1914, he had been preaching in Adelaide, when he had been informed that Germany had declared war that day against Russia. They had believed up to the very last that a wa,r on such a scale as had taken place would never happen. However, there was nothing for it but to go through his sermon in a tense atmosphere of mental,, suffering. Dr Norwood said that he was not a warrior, but he was a patriot, and he had not made up his mind about war. He had had an offer to become a chaplain, but he was not sure he wanted to become a chaplain. He wanted to serve and yet be able to find his mind intellectually and morally through the tangle. Later he had been induced to become a Y.M.G.A. secretary, and he had lived for some two years altogether among the Australian troops. He had come to study war from the personal point of view instead of the political. He had been literally baptised into a flood of youth, and he had never emerged from it since. He had come out of it with- a great hatred for war, and that hatred had not been mitigated, but rather increased. THE CITY TEMPLE. The speaker said he thought he must have a kind of Highland sixth sense, because ho had never come to any great crisis in his life without knowing what was going to happen. He had known quite well when ho left the shores of Australia that he would not return. He had made his farewell preparations just as if they were made by a man who was going to die. The first church he had preached in on the other side of the world was the City Temple, and the first time he preached ‘there he knew he was going to stay there. (Laughter). He had not lifted a finger to secure the position, and, as a matter of fact, fie was somewhat

frighuj ,ted of it. He had told the City Temple people that he had to return to Australia, but ho knew they would ask him again to stay with them! (Laughter). He had made preparations to leave for Australia, and ho had written a letter to the City Temple people telling them that, but he knew he was not going to leave them. (Laughter.) He had been released from his promise to return to Australia, and he might say that he had resolved that he would not be a second edition of Dr Parker or Dr Campbell or anyone else. (Applause.) Some fifteen months ago there had come to him a strange impulse to break away from his church and go and see the world. He wanted to return to Australia after an' absence of seventeen years. He wanted more than that. He thought that the world was facing a crisis. The European nations were facing each other with suspicion. They were trying to face two ways at. once. They were professing allegiance to the League of Nations and peace, but they were arming all the time, and in even more deadly fashion than at any time since the world began. They were, moreover, pushing up their tariff walls against each other, higher and higher. That was the field upon which their destiny was turning. There might be war in Europe—anything could happen in a lunatic asylum, but he hardly expected it. Europe had nothing to gain, blit there were responsible people who were afraid, and they were arming because they were afraid. They knew very well that if an avalanche broke loose again there would be no stopping it. They were caught in a trap. But there were other parts of the world where things wore happening, and .he would like to say that had made him make up his mind to wander in Africa, India, China, and Japan. He would like to explain that he was .paying his own expenses on his trip and not taking a penny from his people in London, though they wanted to pay him. Until he came to Australia he had not sought any publicity. He had wanted to keep out of the limelight. He was not going to write a book; he had never contributed to an article to a newspaper under heaven. He hoped he would not. (Laughter.) He nad discovered since he came to Australia and New Zealand that he had become a public man. He had told the missionary people of his intended trip, and they had arranged for him to meet people in the various countries,, and he had had a wonderful time. He had told these people that he was a minister of Christ with no axe to grind, and he had simply told them that he wanted to talk to' them in friendly fashion and learn of their outlook on life. He had been tremendously moved by his long journey, which had now lasted a year. MENACE OF NATIONALISM. He was morally convinced, said Dr Norwood, without desiring to become a prophet, that the great things in the world during the next decade would not be so much European in application as they would belong to another continent. The lands washed by the Pacific Ocean would find themselves as the frontiers of world happenings. Another conviction he had was that Christianity would be challenged, and challenged very seriously. If they were going to relapse into nationalism, and it looked as if nothing could save them, and if, in addition to political nationalism, they were going to have economic nationalism; and it looked also, as if nothing could save, them from that; they would sec how it was. Science was putting all the nations upon a virtual equality. Any nation could become a manufacturing nation and use machines and use forces like steam and electricity, and make everything it wanted for itself. Almost any nation with chemical knowledge concerning soils and what not could produce fertility sufficient, and more than sufficient, to provide for its people, and if they were going to harden this nationalistic fervour —this cutting off of relations one with the other—then they were going to be brought appreciably nearer to war. The one great religion in the world that stood for Christianity, and which attempted to demonstrate that all men belonged to one family, would then find itself very seriously challenged. Look at it now. Take a man like himself, who preached peace. Could he go through Russia and preach it? Would he have much vogue in France? How did they think Herr Hitler would receive him? Would Mussolini welcome him? How about Japan? When he had been in Japan ho had been under police surveillance all the time. The Christian Church was in a very peculiar position. “There are hardly any countries m thd world to-day where there are any free newspapers,” said Dr Nonvood. “ They are almost all governmentally controlled. The views expressed there are dictator’s views. The only exception, with, perhaps, the exception of the Scandinavian countries —almost the only countries where there is still anything like a free Press are the English-speaking countries, and preeminently within the British Empire. That is a significant thing in itself.” The speaker said that they knew what had really happened during the Great War. He related how a man surrendered his individuality—handed himself over to military authority. He was dressed in a uniform and was not responsible regarding his future. He had to do what he was told. For four or five years humanity was drilling and marching, and the men were almost indistinguishable one from another. The British soldiers were dressed in khaki, to look like clay; the French ui blue to look like the sky; the* Germans in grey-green to look like God knew what. The technique of war had passed for politics and sociology, and men were not so happy in trying to express themselves individually. They were willing to bo “ bossed,” and they were being “ bossed.” They would tell them that in this and that country they were much better off. Maybe they were. They might have better food, pensions for old age, and the rest of it, but they were being controlled, bossed. Here, <>say, were 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 people, and the one voice ol a dictator rang out like a trumpet of God and nobody lifted a voice against it, CONTROLLED RELIGION. And religion was being controlled. In Russia they had eliminated it officially—wiped it out. In Italy they had compromised and agreed upon a certain separate State —religion on this side, the State on that. In Germany they had oven Teutonised the Patriarch, revamped the Old Testament, ami almost stated that Abraham and the rest were not Jews, but Teutons. In Japan the country as one ,man responded to the Emperor. The figure of the Emperor loomed through everything, surrounded by mists of superstition. The Emperor loomed high above the whole Japanese race, and every man and woman had the idea imbued in them'that they must do what the Emperor wished. If they got much further into that kind of realm the State would get very afraid of Christianity. They were denouncing war constantly and educating thousands of people to declare that under no conditions would they go to war again; but ther6 were thousands not going so far as that in discrediting war and calling for pence. It was nob impossible that some State like their own, terrified by the condition of affairs, might take steps to soft pedal Christ.

He would say that they had got to make the biggest struggle m their lives if they wanted to see the ideal of peace triumphant in the world. The speaker referred to H. G. Wells s book, ‘ Shape of Things to Come, in which it was stated that the critical period after a war was the fifteenth year, because the young men of the war were middle aged, the old leaders had passed away, and a new generation was taking the field. The fifteenth year was the year of crisis. But in spite of all that he had been saying he remained a stubborn optimist: J he be lieved that pessimism would break down, and that was as they knew it could not endure. It could not justify itself, it could only ruin any nation. If they would have war then prepare for revolution. Dr Norwood concluded by saying that Christianity must'find the means to promote public opinion; it must be virile enough to hold their Empire through to the base of things, and it should keep it on the side of peace and the side of freedom. (Applause.) Sir James Allen, in moving a vote of thanks to the speaker, said that in his mind another war was a practical impossibility. He believed that the Christian spirit was gaining in the world. They wanted Christianity in the world and the dispersal of ill-feeling between the nations. „ , , The Rev. E. S. Tuckwell. seconded the motion, which was carried amidst loud applause. TO-NIGHT’S AND TO-MORROW’S SERVICES. Dr Norwood, who will conduct services of an inspirational nature in the city to-night and to-morrow afternoon and evening, is exercising a great influence by his ministry in the City Temple, London, and is regarding his opportunity and responsibility as a sacred trust. Not only in England, but throughout the world there are very many who have received good from the City Temple ministry. The Temple was erected in the critical times of 1044, and the present building was an adventure in faith in 1874, and this old building is loved and honoured by countless thousands not only of London citizens, but by meil and women dispersed throughout the Englishspeaking world. Dr Norwood is a representative of evangelistic traditions, and his visit to the city should be pt great service and inspiration to the community.