CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 38, 25 November 1940, Page 4

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY.

Having demonstrated the need for adequate leadership if democracy ,is to survive and that democracy can only grow from the vital principles which Christianity offers, Mr .Basil Matthews says in his now book, “Supreme Encounter’’ : The universal Church in all nations can fulfil the role of leadership by affirming in word and deed the reality of the living God of history, the eternal source at once of freedom and justice and of man’s power to weave those values into the fabric of community life. Man all over the world is in need of this guidance. If at any given time no authentic fire fed from eternal sources burns visibly in any land, men will, like moths in the dark, flutter to some smoky candle —for they must give allegiance somewhere. They give their loyalty to the arrogant in search of rule, to the quack in quest of dupes, to the fanatic seeking disciples, to the paranoiac with his certainty that he is the messiah of nis own predestined empire. A burning certainty, even in such false leaders, will capture and inflame the sacrificial loyalty of millions. We see this to-day when that conviction rises from such lies as the mythical purity and dominating mission of a race, the organic sacred “bpdy” of a people, or the dominance of an elect proletarian class . . To each of us as an individual, and to each generation, come two calls. Upon the response that men give to them depends the saving of each individual soul and the saving of the soul of the world. The first call is to discern between the false and the true absolutes that claim allegiance. The second call is to serve with all, our being that which we see to be true.