Will It Awake ?

Horowhenua Chronicle, 12 January 1916, Page 3

Will It Awake ?

There is an aspect in relation to the great war which is suggested to us by the reading of an account ol the present condition of the noiy places in Jerusalem and the Holy Land found in a Russian newspaper, presumably well informed, which is worth observing. An extract from the journal "Sviet," we reprint in another column. It tells how die Holy Oity is now in the hands of Turks and Gormans, that the reputed site of the Crucifixion itself is oecupicd by a battery oi Krupp guns trained upon the slopes of the Mount of v<ives, while there is wholesale desecration of scenes and places which have been regarded* for two thousand years as sacred to the Christian world. Then we know how even in the earliest days of the war, the apparently meaningless and waton destruction of sacred buildings and monuments, notably of Lou vain and Rhenns, was a distressing feature of Hun methods and designs. Along with these characteristics nf the war may be noted the remarkable helplessness and even silence of the most powerful Christian churches with regard to these things, as also in regard to other still more 'appalling doings. We confess to be among those who consider that there is a meaning in the things which are taking place in the world. Within the compass of n brief newspaper article we may only hint at what we take it may be the meaning of tlie portents referred to. But these are probably among the "great things" which may well engage our thoughts. Within the past few days, the Bishop of Chriatchurch is reported to have said—"The church .... had almost forgotten that she was meant for more than show—for more than for peoplo to look at and admire her antiquities.' And there can be no question that an outstanding feature of so-called religious life during the last half century has been the obscuration oi vital truth, and, as Dean Favrar puts it—"The substitution of niggling nullities' and letish-worshipping superstitions," with results disastrous to the moral wellbeing of the community, as evidenced in the increaae of vice, "the dominance of a selfishness which immerses itself in luxury," and cold indifference to the claims of the higher life.

That the exaltation of the importance of externals has had much to do with the dlrift away irom God, which nil admit is a hiarked feature of recent years, there is little doubt.

It cannot bo said that tTiere is any sign. of a more desirable state of mind among us as a result of what has already taken place in the world. Indeed, some months back, wo quoted Canon fcjtuart (so well-known here, and so admirably able to judge) as saying that after live months of the war. there wore fewer hopeful signs than in the earlier days.

Are we, then, to Ue taught, in the destruction of external .evidences upon which we have set so much store, fclit futility of the peddling littlenesses and externaJisraa which ire still love te exalt into matters of supreme importance, and for which priests end peo pies are content to sacrifice, and dr sacrifice, all the fruits which shook: mark the professed Christian. "When nations are (o perish in theii sins, 'Tis in the Church the leprosy begins.'' —Cowper. It may require even greater disaster than the world has suffered* t< awaken the church from the "niggling nullities" upon which it- sets such store. Will it awake H — Eden Gazette