CARRY ON.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 288, 18 June 1919, Page 10

CARRY ON.

(An Address Riven in Queen’s Hall, London, to V.A.D.'s and other workers, by K. J. Saunders, Y.M.C.A. Council.)

There is a striking American poster, which depicts a bright field ci poppies dotted thickly with wooden crosses. A girl is standing by one of them, and the words which she seems to hear ringing in her ears are these: “We shall not sleep unless you carry on.’' This is the theme upon which 1 ain to speak to-night. Let us imagine that we arc standing on one of the great battlefields either at Ypres, where 500,000 of our best Knglishmen lie buried, or at Verdun, where threequarters of a million of France’s noblest and best lie guarding the heights they defended so nobly. What would be the message that came to us from these great fields of death? Would they not ask us to sec that the great task to which they had put their hand was not allowed to remain unfinished, that the great piinciples for which they died should be established for ever on the earth?

W hat are these principles except the great principles of what we so s'rangely call “Foreign Missions?” Let u-> think of them one by one. There is first the determination to put an end to war, i.o establish i>eace and goodwill. is it not true that these men di«‘U that their children and grandchildren might not suffer as they have done? Secondly, the war was a great stirring of the human spirit towards freedom and democracy. They felt it intolerable, that any autocratic power should be free to impose its will upon others, however weak and small, it was for international righteousness that they died, and they lie buried in Belgian soil as a great protest that there arc no contemptible little nations, and that all have their right to a place in the sun. Then, again, the war was a great and shining example of human service; we are our brother’s keepers, and for the joy that is set before us we may well endure the cross, despising the shame like that great leader of the world’s >outh, who has been called “The Young Prince of Glory.” So they died for the sake of those at home, and those abroad—a great \ictorious array. Now l think that whilst women aie doing their part at home and on the field, manv of them, perhaps most of

them, longed that they might have the privilege of sharing to the full the suffering, and so, to-day, 1 think these men would say to us all; “There are these principles still infinitely worth living for, and they are the principles for which we have died. You may yet claim your share in sacrifice.”

These are the central principles of what we call “Foreign Missions.” May we not say that our men went to France on a great Foreign Mission, to proclaim the principles summed up in the Premier’s phrase, “Everybody's World?” The world is one; the only race is the human race. Those who do not believe in F'oreign Minion* do not really believe in international righteouness, or in the rights of the smaller peoples, or in the great brotherhood of man, or in the essential goodness of human nature. What is far more dangerous, they do not teally believe in Christ or in His Church. To those within the Christian fold who would say to us: “The Church has failed at home, why should she throw out her outposts into Asia and Africa?” I would reply in the words of that great man of faith and vision. Marshal Fo< h. In April, when the cause of the Allies setmed lost, they came to him and told him, “Marshal, we cannot hold on.” “I cannot hold on,” he cried, “then I advance.” And so it is with the Christian Church; assailed by a storm of criticism, cursed for not having prevented the war, blamed because she has not spoken with one clear voice during the long years of the world’s agony, ‘'he replies: “1 cannot hold or*., then l advance.” It is only in proportion as she has faith to see the world’s need a** a whole, to do her part in helping the devastated countries and the great needy continents, that she will get the vision and strength to solve her problems at home, and the fire to cleanse our slums and rookeries, of which we are so ashamed to-day. We cannot really set out own house in order unless we have a world wide horizon, and a passion that no race should be left outside the King dom of God.

We are realising every day that the world is «»ne world; an opium scandal in a London den reminds U" of our guilty past in our relationships with China; we find that what we do 10,000 miles av.av reaches at the heart of the Empire; a glance at a French town shows us how men have come together from all the ends of the world —white, red, brown, yellow, black men

—from all continents. We see there that the inferior races have been good enough to help us in our hour of need; that tens of thousands of brown men and yellow men, not called by Christ’s name, have given their lives for a great Christian principle, and we see dawning the vision of a world unified and made new by the spirit of Christ. Let ua think of some of the great needs of the world as they call upon us to come and help them. I lunk of the women and children of Armenia, for example, where a million have been killed in cold blood. Think of the virile, attractive peoples of Arabia and Mesopotamia. I ndcr Tuikiah misrule, the population of these lands has dwindled from 11 million to less than a million, and children die like Hies. Again, are not Russia and Serbia calling to us to help them? Poor Russia! Or there i" the gnat continent of India, where to-day women arc coming into their own, where ambition and the longing for service is stirring in them so ;hat the Women’s Colleges, newly started, are full to overflowing. What a call for leadership there is from the women of India, and They ask us in th<words of one of their women iioets:

“When the terroi and tumult of hale shall cease, And life be refashioned on anvils of peace. And your love sha*l offer memorial thanks, lo the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks; And you honour the detds of the deathless ones, Remember the blood of my martyred sons!”

1 here is attractive and fascinating work for the young girls of India now open to such movements as that of the Gir* Guides. India is to-day rising to new heights, seeing new visions, filled with new longings, asking for new friendships She has a glorious past, yet she is poverty-stricken and in need. She asks foi men and women of the West to come out in no spirit of patronage or of dominance, hut as servants and friends. When one thinks what women have done under the Red Cross, and realises that only 55 million of India’s 300 million people get proper medical attention, one thrills with the thought of a great Fxpeditionary Force of skilled doctors and nurses from the West going out in the name of the Great

phvsician to give life, and light, and h.jltb. I(j r to think of China, which during t|, war has sent us a great army of Kour. There in that great and wonBrful country, which has seen the » t and fall of Babylon, Assyria, and neveh, or Crtece and Rome, which Ra great tradition of culture, and of aj; and which to-day contains a quarts of the world’s population. One ■ China’s leading patriots has thus drubbed her dire need: “The outlook {0 China is exceedingly dark and very piously dangerous. The whole tenantry is torn by factions. As a | there is really no spot in China Hhich you may call safe, where life Hid property are adequately protected. I Whether China will live as a nation ! E} not know. We need Jesus Christ [today because we need more liyftt. I There is utter darkness, and i is ■brgely the ignorance of the people It; it has been the cause of all the great Houble in China. We need Christ bebusc of the richer life which He lungs, and I do not believe that i‘her life can come to China unless le have a penitent life with which to kgin. The root of all evils in China \ the love of self; the evils produced r such sins as concubinage, gamb ing seeking power and wealth, are pgilv due to selfishness, and to the deal that man himself is the most immrtant. Christ comes and teaches us d think in terms of God, and terms W humanity. This is the only hope $ far as I can see.” And as if to prove it, the little Christian Church in China stands firm then all about it is breaking up As n the great days of the Renaissance of Europe, it is the Church of Christ rhich shows men how to live, and how o cary on. I think it is fair to say hat the patriots of China are saying 'hat the great poet and patriot of ndu said just lately: “Our lamp has f (, ne out; will not Britain let us light t at hers?” In these great lands the *rop of Confucius, the lamp of Budha. and the lamp of Mahomet are all turning dimly and fitfully, and in sopite all our sins in the West, we have wonderful asset of the life and eath of Jesus Christ telling us what »od is like, and this is what the world s hungry to know. Think of Africa, again, with all its hn, child like peoples, in the grip of ’ t and suffering unnamcable things. think how’ one nation after another t r °tn the West has gone in and cx'l°ited these simple peoples. We

think of the terrible record of the Germans in German South-West Africa. It is not worse than that of our allies, the Belgians, in the Congo, 1 neither we nor the gallant French arc without blame in the way we have oloited the weak peoples of Africa. But when they meet with Fmglishmen, who are also Christians, they show us, as they showed to Livingstone, how magnificent is their loyalty and their lid-liLe faith.

When the body of Captain Selous, that mighty hunter, was lying out in No *' n’s Land, two brave men went out to bring it in. One was his vfrican servant, and the other was a young Englishman, and side by side they fought for it, and brought it back. The young Englishman has given us his name as one who idles to go back immediately as a missionary to that great dark continent, because he realised as in a flash what sterling qualities there are in African hearts, and because he knows that his Master needs the gifts that Africa has to offer.

And so I think we may say that liis Kingdom will not be accomplished nor His heart satisfied until He sees the idealism and the spiritual vision of India, the cheery optimism and the practical genius of China, the loyalty and rugged faith of Africa laid at His feet, and made available for the great Commonwealth of Nations. The task offered to you is to help, whether at home or aboad, in building up that great Commonwealth, and the needs of these countries for people of sympathy and vision are clamant to-day; for in China, as in the West, in India, even in Africa, a new world is being born, and Christ is making all things new. Let Him speak to our hearts through the lips of the great dead, His challenge to us to carry on. They have won the war; it is for us to win the world. Not to dominate, but to serve; so will Britain carry to a worthy end the great word of the past; so will she complete the great struggle for the freedom and democracy and righteousness of ihe world.

It is not for nothing that the 'nglo-Saxon race controls one-third of the habitable surface of the globe; that it handles half of the world’s wealth. It is a great stewardship from God. Let us use it in His Name, and for His Kingdom. And the lives He has given us—shall we not dedicate them in His service.