WILL WIN OUT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 138, 27 March 1950, Page 2

WILL WIN OUT

CHRISTIANITY’S FIGHT BROADCAST ADDRESS “The enemy which we of the Army, as indeed of all Christian churches, must fight to-day is not a tangible visible enemy, but one who is deceitful, sows uncertainty, spiritual sloth and the drug of indifference,” said General Albert Osborn, C.8.E., of the Salvation Army, in a broadcast address last night. He said that Christianity had won out before and was prepared! to do so again. “Many people, crying in the darkness for truth and spiritual certainty have, in their bewilderment, been misdirected to them. It is our duty our great privilege to clasp in fellowship and guidance the hands of those who are searching for light and life amidst the mists of world confusion.” By the grace of God, the Salvation Army throughout the world is standing alert at battle stations, carrying to the ancient enemy the fight against sin and ignorance and disease and misery,” he said. “In spite of the great forward march of our Salvation Army in for eign fields, our hospitals and schools' in Africa, our leper colonies in India and Indonesia —which I hope soon to visit our growing-work in South America, I see only too clearly how vastly fhuch more remains to be done, especially in the Far East and in Africa. These native races are looking to us. “But let us be patient,” he continued. “In the reckoning of God, 1000 years are as a day. It is not yet 2000 years since 12 men, as good soldiers, set out to follow His command, ‘Go ye into all the world.’ It is only 83 years since this Salvation Army of ours came forth from the slurbs of East London, like the tiny and beautiful flowers 1 have seen growing upgn the bombed sites in Britain. God’s purposes grow and unfold through long years ,of faith and prayer and toil.” Report 1 General Orsborn said his report on world conditions was based on personal experiences and investigations in many parts of the world. Concerning Britain, he said that he did not consider that material incentives, national pride and pep talks were sufficient in themselves to produce enduring recovery. Such stimulations could alleviate but not cure Britain’s social ills.

“No one, least of all one of her sons, would think of decrying Britain, especially in these days of her great and bitter trial,” he. said. “She is a lovely land ... a land of human kindness, of quick and practical sympathy, a land where the handicapped, the young, the aged are more and more eared for, where youth with public spirit, . enquiring mind, artistic and sound ideals,, far, far outnumber the socially rebellious, the youthful delinquents—whose excesses are so widely publicised and give a totally unfair picture of John Bull junior. A symphony concert will attract overflowing audiences of young folk. On a fine day, the public parks will show you a parade of young mothers and bouncing babies equal to any I have seen in world-wide travel. There has never been more government care and provision for mother and child than right now in Britain. “But it cannot be denied that Britain as a whole needs to recover her faith in God and in the importance of things spiritual,” said General Orsborn. “It is perhaps permissible to recall the immense debt she owes to the Christian character of her forefathers. This was expressed in industry, in education, in public life, in international affairs, and fundamentally, in the home, through all sections of society, and not least among those millions who were the toiling theart and the strong right arm of our country’s greatness.” The Salvation Army never meddled in politics, for its business was with the Kingdom of God, he said. Just the same it became difficult to speak of the faith of man without being sharply aware of doctrines of humanism and materialism, backed by methods rapacious, cruel and merciless, which were at present advancing upon those tangled and blood-soaked ranges of human life where hope had died and faith proved illusory because of constant war.

“I find in the Far East a dark and uncertain situation where our own and other missionaries, though brave and ready for suffering, have to consider how far it is wise or possible to stand their ground or to withdraw before the oncoming tide of violently anti-Christ-ian forces. In India, Pakistan and Ceylon we are not at present adversely affected by the changes of government, but we see the emergence of a few problems. .“In Africa I found among the native races a stirring and a marching potent for good or ill as Christianity succeeds or fails in understanding and guiding its inevitable development. In South Africa there are exceptional complexities, and venturesome amateurs, like myself, had better pass no hasty judgment. Religion Can Help Summing up General Orsborn said that (the masses of the people would everywhere be happy to settle to 1 peaceful and productive ways of life if scheming and artful agitation could be restrained from exploiting the tragedies of human family. Natural and spontaneous grievances there would be, but they would not foster disruption and enmity among nations. They could be settled without much trouble* and religion would help. “Now we find that, before mankind has had time to adjust life to the discovery of atomic power, this, too, has been out-dated,” he said. _We have passed, like a swift slab of lighting from the atomic to the hydrogen age’. I do not share the frequently heard comment that these new weapons can utterly destroy civilisation. They may indeed blot out large centres and cities; but when one has travelled the world and seen its teeming millions, we know that the advanced science of destruction might obliterate its own creators; but the world could still be left to its not so advanced peoples. I feel strongly that we have not devoted the same effort to spiritual advancement as we have no material and scientific development “To-day, to an exceptional degree, we have to exercise a positive Christian faith to counteract dreadful uncertainty. Everywhere men and women are groping for that which is sure and good and eternal; there are, I think, some significant symptoms of a spiritual awakening. I think that the realisation is growing upon lead-

ers of thought and action that, if the world is to be saved in a material sense, then that salvation must have its base in spiritual, redemption.”