SPIRITUAL BASIS FOR RECONSTRUCTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1920, Page 3

SPIRITUAL BASIS FOR RECONSTRUCTION.

(Wellington “Dominion.”)

The New Year niessago to the British Empire from the Prime Ministers of the

British Commonwealth is a remarkable document. The Prime Ministers recognise that the great problems which face the civilised world are fundamentally moral and religious problems, and that their right solution depends upon the realisation of the supremacy of “ those spiritual forces which are the one and only hope for the permanent foundation of world peace.” The war has shown mankind that the only sure basis of international concord is the moral law. A horrified world lias witnessed the consequences of the German doc- : trin'p that international relationships lie outside the sphere of morality. That doctrine has been judged by its fruits, and damned for ever. The establishment of the League of Nations is an impressive declaration to mankind that nations are moral agents, and that they must act justly and honourably to each other. It is a recognition of the fact that States have duties and obligations as well as rights and interests. The relations between civilised nations are becoming increasingly complex, and their points of contact more numerous, and the extension and strengthening of the authority of law in this sphere will hasten the coming of the time when the whole human race will be welded into an organised community of friend-

ly States working together for their mutual benefit. This idea of a real fellowship of all nations is, of course, in full accord with that “central message of Christianity ” referred to by the Prime Ministers. Their insistence on the supreme importance of the spiritual foundations of reconstruction is an indication that the leaders of political thought have been forced to the conclusion that materialism is a very shaky basis for civilisation. The Prime Ministers tell us that the principles of Christianity provide the only sure guarantee of “an ordered,

harmonious life for all men.” Order is Heaven’s first law, and without law and order there can be no real freedom or progress. The sacredness of the State was proclaimed to the Christian world in the declaration of St. Paul that “the powers that be are ordained of God.” This means that the State is a divine institution. It does not mean that tyrants and autocrats are divinely appointed, or that resistance to an unrighteous Government is sinful. It does not confer a divine right to govern wrong. Th(e Apostle holds that political authority is an essential part of the divinely ordered constitution of society. In his hook on The Influence of Christianity on Social and Political Ideas. Dr A. J .Carlyle remarks that the sacredness of authority lies in the end or purpose for which authority exists. It exists for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a just order. The State is sacred only in so far as it re-

presents the principle of justice. The Christian conception' of human society finds expression, says Dr Carlyle, firstly iii the principle: that all men are possessed of reason and capable of virtue; and we cannot rest till their intrinsic* equality finds some reasonable form in tho condition and opportunities of human life, because it is its function and end to set forward the supremacy of righteousness and justice in the relations of man to man. Unless the State is built upon these moraPfoundations it cannot guarantee “an ordered,

harmonious life for all men”; it cannot ensure that “good life” which, according to Aristotole should he the object of political organisation. The Prime Ministers emphasise the importance of recognising a divine purpose for the. world. Unless such a purpose exists we have no logical justifiication for belief in human progress. The materialistic interpretation of the universe loads to pessimism. The Christian lielief that the moral order is-an essential part of the structure of.the universe, and is at least as real as the world order—that there is “a Divinity that shapes our eiids_rpugh, hew them how wte may”—provides a rational

foundation for optimism. In these monjentous days when men of good-will are endeavouring to bring order out of the chaos caused by the war, and to build a new and better world, it is encouraging to have the assurance that mankind is not drifting hopelessly along a dark road that ends in a precipice; but is surely, if slowly, working out its salvation. The Prime Ministers can find no other justification for this assurance than faith in the eternal validity of those spiritual forces which are striving to secure the fullest possible measure of “good life” for humanj tv. The New Year message strikes a deep religious note. Let us hope that in foreshadows a resolute effort on the part of the statesmen of the British Em piro to raise their legislative and administrative activities to a higher plane, to get out of the wretched old ruts of political prejudice and partisanship, and to take their stand firmly and courageously on the everlasting principles of justice in all dealings at home and abroad.