WAR AND CHRISTIANITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1573, 6 July 1916, Page 3

WAR AND CHRISTIANITY.

THE CHURCH’S “FAILURE.”

The Bishop of Wellington (Dr T. IT. Spro(l) referred :d the Wellington Anglican Synod to the statements which have been made that the present war ims demonstrated the failure of the Church, lit! said: “Again and again have we heard it said that the war has demonstrated the failure of Christianity and (he Church. In wind sense and lo what extent is this statement true? 'fo begin with, I lake exception to the use in this connection of the word ‘failure.’ The word 'failure’ connotes, I think, a certain finality, as of a task once attempted then found to be impossible, and finally abandoned. Such is not the. plight of the Christian Church. The Church has ‘tailed’ only in (he sense in which (he Allied nations have ‘failed’ in the war; it lias not yet succeeded. The fact is, the Chnreh’s task will not be completed so long as humanity inhabits this earth, and the only person entitled magisterially to pronounce upon its success or failure will bo the last man.”

Bishop Bprot( then proceeded at some length to show wherein the war has especially shown the Cliureh’s “non-success,” rattier than “failure.”