CLERGY AND WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1687, 17 March 1917, Page 4

CLERGY AND WAR.

REASONS FOR APPEALING. PASTORAL LETTER FROM DR. SPROTT. The following pastoral letter from the Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprott) was read in the Anglican Churches of the Diocese on Sunday:— “Doubtless you are aware that I have already made appeal for exemption in the case of two priests of the diocese called by ballot to military service. I am now appealing in the case of three others, and it is my intention to appeal in all such cases. I think it right to tell you my reasons for so doing. I need not say that I as earnestly desire as any of you can desire that the war shall be brought to a completely successful issue by the Allied nations: and I am as strongly convinced as you can bo that to this end we are bound to use every legitimate means in our power. But on many occasions and in many places since the beginning of the war, 1 have stated my conviction (hat victory cannot be secured by material means alone. Neither men nor nations are wholly masters of their fate. Enough, indeed, is always within our power to justify and to make obligatory the most strenuous effort on our part to .compass ends that we deem worthy. By such effort we are disciplined and educated. But when we have done all that men can do, there always remains in human life an incalculable element which no insight of ours can penetrate, no foresight control. We may, if we please, see in this element of mystery the operation of nothing higher than chance. But if so, let us clearly understand to what we commit ourselves. We commit ourselves to the view that; the universe in which we live is fundamentally irrational. To the Christian man this mysterious element in human life lies, like all else, within the living Providence of God. God rules and overrules all. Tie too is wise’ and has His purposes, and with Him the last word in human affairs ever remains. So only can we believe the world in which we live to be a rational world.

“Such, then, being the state of man, something more is demanded from him than material effort, however .strenuous. There is demanded the prayer of uttered humbleness of heart; the resolute turning: away from evil, the moral effort to learn, and, having' learnt, to do. the will of God. It is just the function of religion, and of the Church as the organ of religion, to keep this demand and this need ever before the minds of men, and in manifold ways lo quicken and strengthen men's hold, always precarious, upon (he spiritual and the unseen. This being so, a crisis in onr history like the present would seem to be the very last moment one would choose in which to weaken the agencies of religion, already lamentably weak. On the contrary, one would suppose that at such a lime everything possible would be done to strengthen these agencies.

■‘You will therefore uuderstund why, wlu'ii at. lhe beginning of the war the younger clergy consulted me about volunteering, I gave it as my judgment that they could best serve (heir country by remaining, in face of whatever obloquy, each at bis appointed task. Such judgment I believe to have been enlirely iti harmony with the mind and intention of the Church. You will also understand why, now that the Covernment has given the rigid of appeal, 1 count it my duty to exercise that right. I thus bear my testimony. not. I think, unueeded at this time, to, (he presence and operation of spiritual forces in human history. And I the more confidently exercise this right for three reasons: (1) Because the clergy do serve and are anxious and willing to serve, in their proper capacity as chaplains, it must be remembered that the number of chaplains serving is fixed, not by the Church, but by the Defence Department; and (2) because notoriously the Church is not over-staffed either in this or in any other diocese in Now Zealand. The average area of a parish or parochial district in this diocese is, roughly, 270 square miles. As some of our parishes where population is dense are of smaller area, so of others the area is much greater. In seven only of our fifty-three parishes are there at the present time more than one clergyman. You will remember that the English missioners who visited us in 1010, after they had seen the large areas over which our small band of clergy were wording, come to the conclusion that in this country (he Church was faced with an almost impossible task. And (3) because for some years to come owing to the volunteering of theological students both in England and in New Zealand, it will be almost impossible for us to find additional clergy. I may just say that by Eastertide next we shall have lost three of our clergy since the beginning of this year. “Such, then, are my reasons for appealing. If my appeals are dismissed 1 can do no more. The responsibility will then rest, not upon me, but upon the supreme authority of the State.'-'