GERMAN RATIONALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1916, Page 8

GERMAN RATIONALISM.

RESPONSIBLE FOB THE WAR. ■ SERMON BY DEAN REGNAULT. In the course of a sermon at Christchurch recently, Dean Regmuilt said the nations of Europe were sick unto death, The bloodshed and conflict that had commenced two years ago continued more fiercely than ever. Men had been killed in hundreds of thousands, and they might ask, since these Christian nations were shedding each other's blood, if Christianity had failed. The nations of Europe had set aside Christ, the King of Kings, from their councils, their legislatures and from their courts of justice. Setting God aside, the nations appealed to brute force. There was war against God in the first place, and war against man followed naturally and inevitably. The war against God had its origin in Germany. It was doubtful whether there existed any true belief in God in any educational' institution in Germany outside the strictly Catholic institutions. Rationalism had a very firm hold on the German mind. Before the war the writers, journalists, authors and scholars of Britain used to go to Germany to worship at the false altar of German culture. Socialism and ojlior disturbing influences had flourished in Germany. The p'-eacher went on to say that Renan, after being a Catholic ecclesiastical student in France, acquired his rationalistic tendencies in Germany. But Germany had not been the only nation to fall away from Christian ideals. France and Australia had Godless educational systems. The average respectable British Protestant of t"-day had not tho slightest idea of Christian humility. Worldly success was everything in his estimation, and he could not understand 'liow God could forgive Catholic bishops and priests for the things he had heard alleged against them. The intellectual poison made in Germany had spread over the world, and worship of the gods of German culture had delivered the nations of the world into the hands of these gods. In this extremity the world should approach Christ in a spirit of humility and repentance. Christ was still the arbiter of the destinies of the nations, and he would 'heed the cry of the repentant. The Belgian, people were setting an example to the rest of Europe. They had restored God and religion to thenproper place, and God .would not forget them. France was returning to God, and her gallant and victorious soldiers were offering their supplications to the God of Battles. The spirit of the Freeh soldier to-day was expressed in the words, "My soul to God and my heart to France." Before the'war the French Government drove out 6243 Sisters of Charity; but now, in tho time of war, those Sisters of Charity had returned to assist wounded French soldiers. There, was hope that France, triumphant, would resume her place as the eldest daughter of the Church. England had opened her arms to exiled nuns and priests, to' Belgian refugees. In every church throughout the Empire prayers were being offered up for the soldiers, and there had been a notable strengthening of the ties of religious duty, ■