DESTROYED IDEALS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21189, 12 August 1940, Page 6

DESTROYED IDEALS

COLLAPSE OF FRANCE BRITAIN’S ALLY BLINDED DR. A. HODGE’S ADDRESS “The strength of a -nation lies ultimately not in its mechanical superiority but in the morale of its inhabitants,” said the Rev. Dr. Alexander Hodge, 8.A., 8.D., of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle, during an address in the Hamilton Baptist Church last night entitled “Samson Today.” The speaker said the story of Samson illustrated the inadequacy of physical resources where the inner resources were weak. “On the confession of her leaders,” said Dr. Hodge, “France’s great army collapsed because of false values and destroyed ideals in the heart of the nation. Samson’s strength lay in his abstinence. The cutting of his hair was the symbol of surrender to license and indulgence. Along that road lies destruction for individual and for nation. One of the saddest pictures in the Old Testament is that of the Hebrew, blinded by his enemies, shuffling away to captivity, a sport for his foes. “No less sad is the present-day condition of men who sell their souls for immediate pleasure. It is an out.rage of human personality to forsake abstinence for license. Today Britain is facing a momentous choice. Her ally is already blinded and m captivity. Our salvation lies, as ever, in a robust and sturdy faith in God and in the love of righteousness. Our strength will be as the strength of ten if our hearts are pure. While Lord Halifax emphasises prayer, Lord Gort the Christian armour and Noel Baker the importance of morale, it ill-behoves citizens like ourselves to be careless of the way of Christ. In the finish every important i*sue is an individual and personal one. The choice is really our own—Christ or anti-Christ, righteousness or sin.” Dr. Hodge’s address marked the opening of the Baptist Church Centennial campaign in Hamilton, which will be continued m the Baptist Church tonight with an address, “The Future of Europe.”