Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, AUG. 14, 1937. RELIGION IN LIFE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 14 August 1937, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, AUG. 14, 1937. RELIGION IN LIFE.

Inescapable from the recognition of tlie average man is the new and undeniable emphasis being laid on the relationship of spiritual values to an adequate conception of life, and more particularly “the art of living together.” The realisation that such high principles must be integrated into every sphete of activity as a sweetening influence is being more widely felt. There is apparent an aim to inculcate to a degree not experienced in more modern times a desire for the demonstration on all sides of a pragmatic faith. In his Empire broadcast address in April of this year, Earl Baldwin declared: “The British Empire has a solemn duty to the world at this time, a duty which I have described in these words, ‘Spiritual Leadership’.” The Oxford Group, which is operating in more than fifty countries—providing new bottles for new wine—has accepted the challenge for Coronation year and declared as its aim “the rebirth of an Empire.” Lord Bledisloe, when Governor-Gen-eral of this Dominion, repeatedly alluded ' to the stablising and purifying influence of a full-orbed conception of life, embodying the adoption of Christian principles as a practical policy. But recognition of the urgency for a serious re-examination of the claims of religion to a directive position,' not only in individual but in national and international spheres, is world-wide. Last month three thousand delegates from all parts of the world assembled in Oxford for the World Congress on Faiths, while at Edinburgh another vast gathering met on Faith and Order. The Archbishop of York (Dr Temple), addressing his Diocesan Conference, observed that this year might be one on which future generations might look back as having constituted a real turning point in the history of Christendom, which was becoming conscious in an altogether new way of the need for unity. T.he Oxford Group Movement recently held a vast international gathering at Utrecht, in Holland, when almost every country in the world to which that movement has spread was represented by distinguished speakers. The battlecry was : “When men change, nations, change.” “Religion is deeper than theology, for it is life; and deeper than morality, for it is love. Not subscription to a creed, but perpetual self-renewal is the price of spiritual freedom,” declared Sir Rndhakrishnnn at the London Congress. These are proiound words and moving, constituting both a declaration and an nnpeal for recognition. The disillusionment attendant upon the aiiermatk of the Great War, the

years of depression, and exhausting international suspicions would seem to have produced a refined metal in human evaluations —not that such a result might be held to vindicate the cause, but rather that the horrific conditions from which it happily enough derived stimulus might never be repeated. The exposition of Christian principles, like the experiment of the League of Nations, has not failed. As a commentator says, “In spite of almost universal materialism today, w r e find also a sense of things of the spirit, suggesting that the religious impulse is a fundamental part of the human make-up, something which persists. The Oxford Group is proving a success, even in Russia there is a stronger turning to religion. At the World Congress, of Faiths, leaders of many religions found that they could meet in true fellowship, since the essentials of Christian, Hindu, Moslem, and other creeds were remarkably akin. There was diversity, but no enmity. There was variety rather than uniformity of opinion, but there was an underlyingunity of outlook. A religious revival is possible and practicable, and it can be effective if the new emotion is given a broad human expression, if religions are adapted to religion, the forms to the spirit.”