PRESERVING PEACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1919, Page 7

PRESERVING PEACE.

NEED FOR CHRISTIANITY. DANGER 01? BOLSHEVISM. BISHOP AVERILL'S WARNING. Some striking comments upon tha future prospects of peace, and the necessity for the upholding of the supremacy of Christian principles, were made by Bishop Averill in his address to tha Diocesan Synod last week. White more than thankful for peace after the horrors, losses, and disorganisation of war, and convinced that the peace terms were promulgated in the spirit of justice and not revenge, there was, he said, a very decided limit to the world's jubiliation, apart from its thankfulness, inasmuch as to the future settlement and peace on acocunt of the spirit of unrest, which seemed to pervade all the nations. "In spite of the obvious failure of a materialistic basis of civilisation which culminated in the war," said Bishop Averill, "in spite of the exalted and spiritual ideals for which we professed to be fighting, are the signs of the times hopeful for the permanence of those spiritual ideals as a basis of society in the future? Is the proposed League of Nations likely to be a bond of goodwill and a guarantee for peace in the future, and is it to be anything more than a scheme if grade preference? Will the nations recognise and obey an international tribunal instead of resorting to erma? A League of Nations on a purely materialistic basis will have little chance of surviving its first great shock. The spirit abroad in the world at the present time woukl wreck any League of Nations. Are we. making any real attempt in civil life to translate into action the great principles for which we have been pouring oitt oceans of blood and treasure? "FIDDLING ON VOLCANO'S EDGE." "We have been fighting for the supremacy of Christian principles in the world, for justice and righteousness as against the supremacy of force. Now that we have satisfied our honor, are we going to repudiate the other great principles for which we have travailed in pain, or are we going to sink back into a state of peace such as existed before August, 1914, when the world was 'fiddling' on the very edge of a volcano? Are wo going to allow thousands and tens of thousands of men and women to die in vain simply because we will not not many any real general effort to face the great industrial problem which stands between the peace of the world and chaos and aparchy? Can we say that God has any real place in the corporate life of our own nation, and can we say that Christian people generally are striving to bring Christian principles to bear upon the problems which are distracting the. world to-day? Christianity is the only solution of the world's impasse, and until the nominal Christian becomes real and strives to put his religion into action, there can only be clouds and darkness ahead. "The world is waiting for the manifestation of the corporate Christian conscience speaking through an undivided Church, which shall be Unhampered bv national or racial limitations. Until Christianity has its programme—and its programme, mint, of course, consist of the principles of Christ applied to social and economic questions on their moral side—what constructive answer can we give lo Bolshevik propaganda? THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH. "Surely Christianity supports strongly the moral aspects of the Board of Trade's recent report upon the coal industry, and desires to see. in all industrial concerns the status of the worker raised to a representative share in all industrial concerns in which Labor is an essential part, Surely, also, Christianity stands for personality, for manhood, for a just share of profits, for security of tenure of the employed, for reasonable hours of work and recreation, for judgment by character and not by wealth, for responsibility of stewardship and for honest work. Labor surely has a right to representation on all industrial boards of management which determine conditions of work and distribution of profits. "Thank God there arc plenty of good Christian men among employers and employed, but so long us they continue in separate camps tlierc is little hope of the Christian standpoint being ever honestly discussed and tested. "We stand between two alternatives, and certainly the present system cannot .continue, viz., either the moralisation and Christianisation of industrialism. nr some form of Bolshevism which will destroy any possible hope of re- I construction on a true and firm basis. "I would again urge upon the Church the duty of studying this industrial problem without prejudice," concluded the speaker, "and with a real desire to make some contribution to a pressing and difficult problem' which threatens to rob the world of the blessing of peace,"