NOTES OF PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONFERENCE OF THE WELLINGTON DISTRICT CONGREGATIONAL UNION. AUGUST 16th (Continued).

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 256, 18 October 1916, Page 3

NOTES OF PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONFERENCE OF THE WELLINGTON DISTRICT CONGREGATIONAL UNION. AUGUST 16th (Continued).

The second paper was read by Mr C. J. Nicklin on “Social Reconstruc - tion after the War.” After pointing out that this problem was one that would seem ridiculously easy or profoundly difficult according to the point of view taken up. he enumerated some of the outstanding conditions, social and economic- the awakening of men’s minds during the last halfcentury through the spread of education, the unrest in the industrial world, the inequalities between rich and poor, the apparent powerlessness of the churches —that combir.-* make our time one of the most criucnl in the history of the world. Society wi'l have to be reconstru< f ed ut of the old materials, much of which will be the worse for the war. Just as the tillers of the soil will have to free the land from the debris of conflic t before they 'ran sow for harvests, so those who attempt to reconstruct the whole national organisation after the dislocation caused by these years of war, will be confronted by a task more complex than that of simple rebuilding. As one result of the war, there will surely be serious deterioration of the national character in many of its phases, both among those who have gone to figh* and those who have stayed behind. To be a part of a great military machine, where individual thinking is incipient mutiny, does not conduce to the development of traits that make for Social Progress; while those who stay behind have in some ways a harder task to fulfil. All honour to the men who have gone to the Front in response to their country’s call, but no less honour to those too rare, alas!—who on principle refuse to make profit out of the war, who in times of popular c lamour dare to utter what they conceive to be the truth, in the face of public hysteria, and who have learned that in God’s purpose the way of life is not to be ministered unto, but to minister !

Perhaps the most serious menace to the national life arises from the fact that on the strength of the shibboleth, “We must win the war, nothing else matters,” the Government have induced the people to acquiesce in the jettisoning of every popular liberty

that has been wrung from privilege, from the time of Magna Charta until now. Trial by Jury, the Freedom cf the Press, Habeas Corpus Art, th<* Right of Assembly, Bill of Rights, etc. —all have been suspended, or may be suspended at the da tum of the military authorities. True, such 'ihpensions are, presumedly, only for the period of the war, but when we remember at what rost these liberties have been achieved, we .ire justified in doubting whether it may not prove harder to reinstate them than people imagine. Most precious of all the legacies from the past is the public and legal recognition of the inviolability of the individual conscience ; yet the New Zealand (ioverninent has practically made it illegal for a citizen of military age to possess a conscience other than the oflit ial conscience of the religious body to whah he belongs, as specified in its published tenets. Thus have we allowed to be filched from us the very ess *nce of Protestantism, the fundamen.al principle which just hid Nonconformity. Turning now to consider what the war has added to the national character, barriers between class .J,id class have to a great degree been broken down; fashionable butterflies of fortune, ashamed of their useless lives, are finding in duty and in work a robustness of c haunter that will not end with the war, and in devoting themselves to tin care <>l oth rs. are developing that latent maternal instinct that dwells in every woman worthy of the name; ilu>u"ands of men that have responded to Lord Derby’s call for recruits, now for the hist time in their lives decently clothed and humanly fed, walk with head erect be< ause they have at 1 ist a place in the economy of the action’s life; a thousand and one touches of nature, the many unpublished acts of chivalry and self-sac rifii e, not only along the trenches, are making the Allies kin, but often across the* trenches arc miking the- enemy kin too. All this will do muc h to bridge* the gulf between < lass .mil class, but the gulf must be* removed n> secure the permanent well-being if .he community, and to remove it we must recognise that it is a real conflict of interest. In a state of society based upon Justice, the interests of all are identical, but society as we know it is based on injustice. Hence the conflict of i*VN*rest between Capital

and Labour, between the millionaire owner of half a province or the member of syndicate coolly pocketing the unearned increment and the landless, tramp who finds everywhere land unused but nowhere land unowned. These things could not be if our corporate life were based on social Justice, and a> the Hebrew Prophet interpreted the will of the Lord to th • Israelites of old, to understand what Social Justice involves, we must look to the Church, the real Church where (iod’s witness is, by whatever name we may be pleased to rail it. For the quality of the political, soral, or corporate life of a community is determined by the quality of its spiritual life, and therefore if soc iety is to be reconstructed, endowed with newness of life, the Church itself must first undergo the same process. It must not try to live on the glory of the past, but get fresh conceptions of the truth for every new crisis and problem of life. To-day life is not the simple problem it was two or tbr.*e centuries ago; temptations and difficulties that confront the Church to-day are infinitely more complex and more subtle.

If anything is wrong with a structure, you examine first its foundation, and “The Church’s one foundation is lesus Christ her Lord.’* But an institution does not become founded upon Jesus Chri't by indulging in an infinite amount of talking about Him, but by endeavouring to discover what was .be purpose of the Christ 1 fe, and making that the basic purpose of th* life of the Church. The purpose of the Christ life was to reveal the* Father; and the principal attributes of Fatherhood are Responsibility, Protection, and Sustenance. Thw. is stamped as an abiding instinct on every finite form of Fatherhood, through the human, down even to the brute creation. F.verv civilisation which has a written legal rode* makes the father responsible* for the* sustenance of the child, and it is an unwritten law of all savage* state s under normal conditions. Whence but from the land comes, in the final is-.ue, the* sustenance of the vast majority of mankind? “The earth hath He given to the children of men.” And we claim to sell it at as big a profit as may be to the other children of men whom we have disinherited, in disregard of that other Divine utterance, ‘‘The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine, salth the

Lord.” Just as great estates ate out the heart of Rome, so will disobedience to (»od’s law eat out the* heart of every nation thus disobeying, for the heart of a nation is the belief spiritu d, social, physical, in the* Fatherhood of (iod. The writing is on the wall; it was on the wall before the war, but the war has made the coming change one of months instead of years or decades, revolutionary instead of evolutionary; and if the Church is going to play the role of the Hebrew prophet, it must stand true to the* Divine Law that it is its function to guard, ind prove itself the bringcr of (iocxl Tidings, the publisher of Pt*ace\ and the Witness of the Fatherhood of (iod.