CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILISATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 187, 25 August 1937, Page 4

CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILISATION.

Emphasising that the news and opinions being Fablished to-day draw attention to the disunity of aim and conflict of interest that now disturb all human life throughout the world three eminent personages recently wrote a letter to The Times London, calling for the application of Christian principles to the affairs of communities and nations. The writers of the letter were Lord Salisbury, Lord Davidson and the Rt. Hon. Ernest Brown. This disunity, the letter says, i^ to-day the greatest menace to modern civilisation. "On ' one point all thoughtful people must be united," the letter continues. "No effective unifying or harmonising principle has yet been discovered in any system of social or political organisation, or science of national or international statecraft. Quite plainly human ingenuity and human intelligence have failed to find a remedy. "It cannot be God's plan or purpose that no remedy should be found. He surely has one. The most urgent duty of every Christian is to try, under God's guidance, to find tfie remedy and then apply it with faith and unremitting intensity of purpose. . "We have been deeply impressed with signs around us of the revival of conviction in this sense," continue the writers. "We believe that many a humble Christian is striving by prayer and effort to help forward God's purpose and we thankfully recognise that men are banding themselves together to seek and to find the road to it. The Oxford Group is a notable example. This world-wide movement stands out as a challenge to the Churches of to-day to be up and doing. "The dominating motive which animates these efforts, whether in the" Group or elsewhere, is a pledge of loyalty to apply under God's guidance the spirit and principles of Christ to individual conduct and to every department of social and national and supernational life. These workers for Christ are striving in cornmon with all the Churches of Christ--endom, and in loyal co-operation with them, to drive liome as a fundamental principle, that every one in every nation is in Christian duty bound, in all possible and practical ways, to apply and insistently work for the general application of ■ the principles of Christ not merely to his own problems but most especially to those of his community and nation, and of the nations of the world. "We write this letter to urge the crying need of mankind that this fundamental principle should be emphasised and insistently applied broadcast throughout this and other countries. What nations imperatively require is a development of the sense of personal responsibility to bring men and women and all administrations and Governments to a spirit of loyalty; tq Gqd« This alone can unite a chaotic world."