RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 198, 19 August 1916, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITIES OF EMPIRE. (By G. R- PARKIN, CJkLG-, T.T. T) , D.CJL, Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust.) (Concluded.) ALL THINGS POSSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN LOVE. Then turn to the other side of the problem—turn to the great question of drink in this country. Nothing but Christianity and Christian effort will cure that. One problem helps another. Does the slum create the drunkard or the drunkard create a slum? It id a vicious circle. We spent £151i,000,000 hist year in this country on drink. 1 am willing to admit at once that perhaps one-quarter of that amount might be spent, without any intemperance at all, in social enjoyment anil pleasant hospitality and friendly intercourse. 1 think myself 1 am making a very liberal allowance if 1 say a-quartcr of it was spent in that way. But against the other three-quarters there is a most terrible indictment. It fills our police courts. it fills our lunatic asylums, it fills our inebriate asylums, it creates degradation -wherever it goee. Yovi have got to impress upon the minds of the Jaynien of this country that they niust possess the spirit of Christianity, which 6ays "we cannot use our money in such ways."' Great fortunes have been built up by the distillers in this country. Now their businesses have been changed into limited companies, and thousands and tents ot thousands are interested in the trade in that w&y where only a few were interested before. It. therefore, becomes a question of getting at the consciences of the laity, of busine«s men, of getting them to -understand what it means, because no one can deny that tie great strength of the distilling and brewing trade is built up by exploiting the weakness of our fellow-men. THE WEAKER RACES. .1 have dealt -with one side of our responsibility; in conclusion, 1 want to deal with another. Of the 400 million people in our Empire. 350 million arc people of weaker racue. What do we dc when we go to these races? In Can ada our iirst duty was to prevent the sale of intoxicants to the Indians. It -was whisky and brandy much more than •war that swept away the North American Indians from that great continent. iKow we have stopped the tide by keeping the men away from their weakness. The same thing happened in Australia and Tasmania. To-da} - we are driving railways into every corner of Africa, and sending not only the missionary into tho heart of these barbarous countries, but the greedy trader who nante to sell bad whisky, and also the drunken navvy, and that is the example of Christian life that our country ects, unless we stop -that tide. We have got to do it. This ought to be the most temperate nation in the world. Instead of sayinji. if you have a loose member of the "family, that you will send him off to the Colonies to make a new start, you ought to remember that you are degrading colonial life by doing so. You should cure such tilings here at home yourselves. This is the great testing-ground of people for the outer edges of the Empire. What a great responsibility it means. Take the question of the 350 millions of our people of weaker races, how they look to Uβ for justice, for wise government. We send out boys from our great public 6chools to be rulers, officere, civilians; we send out the ordinary soldieT from our country villages and from our 6lums. Every one of these men ought to stand at the ends of the earth for all that English civilisation and Christianity means. live hundred thousand eailora go ottt from our porta every year to | every port in the world, and"they, too, 1 ought to be standing for that principle.' We send 75,000 soldiers to India alone. Every one of these men ought to be a tested man. -with this spirit of Christ about him, and then we should not have to send missionaries so much if every soldier and sailor fulfilled his duty. I never come back to this country ■without feeling a burning desire to make Englishmen understand the greatness of the country to "which they belong ami! the tremendous responsibilities that j come upon a man who is born in this island. Our great British Empire is proud of its sons who have risen up to defend it; but, above all, let u 6 train | those sons to stand up in the name of Christ for all that is highest and holiest j in our national life: let us create that •wonderful influence that will permeate the world after this war even more than I it did before, and let -us use that won- j derful influence in a way worthy of tho ! great vocation to which thie nation is j called. ; I THE PROBEEM OF EVIL. Preaching at Bow Street. London. Canon Masterman said the question "From whence hath it tares?" went kick to the eariiest beginnings of human thought, and brought us face to face with the whcle problem of the mystery of evil. There were three possible solutions. First, there was the theory that I evil in the world had been entirely tho. outcome of human agency. This led ultimately to a conception 'of human depravity that marlc it difficult to see anything in man worthy of redemption. On the other hand, we might fall back on the blasphemous alternative of sayimr that God was the author of evil in the world. That way lay bewilderment of' -thought, yet often people had fallen back | upon the idea that good and evil were alike divine in their origin. Of course, that led ultimately to an attitude of! complete indifference as between the one i and the other. The third alternative' was, "An enemy hath done this." TJlti-1 mately evil went back to the spiritual \ world. The seed was sown by a malig- j nant agency. AH that man did was by ■weakness of body to give scope for that hostile agency. Jesras warned us ~against the danger of impatience. We are prone to attempt to stamp out evil by stamping out evil men. None of us I was -free from the tendency to wish that I people who seemed to minister to the; evil of the world should somehow be got rid of. If was a great temptation. Half tho wars of history were the outcome of a conception of that kind. But good and evil were strangely mixed together in human life. Our powers of judgment and discernment were limited. God bore patiently with evil because He desired to gather into His garner every single fragment of good. He would not allow His purpose to be marred. Our duty was to be patient with evil men, but to I fight ceaselessly against evil; never despondent beca-nse we knew the final , victory ■was assured. ]