DEMOCRACY-WHAT IS IT?

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 60, 12 March 1926, Page 6

DEMOCRACY-WHAT IS IT?

THE FOES WITHIN. SHSEP WITHOUT A SHEPgrfRp DISCUSSION BY CHURCHMEN. A most interesting as well as deeply ! thought!' ul address was delivered last night at Beresford Street Church, by the Rev. J. Ernest James, BJ>., ; His sabject was. '-Christ and Del mocracy." He asked: What is Democracy? Various equal opportunity for every man to realise his capacity the abolition of special privileges and private monopoly. Equalisation of opportunity should not be for the white man alone. It was for all men, white i brown, black, or yellow. i Mr. James referred to the danger of I 'becoming snobocrucy, bat ; said it all came back to the one point, that, finally, all authority rested with* the people of the State. Bemocraev I was now experimenting- in industrialism ; and internationalism. The next steo : was the idea that industrialism should. ' not be in the hands of a few men. Wise ' men were realising that, and already adopting a system of profit sharing. In : the days to come, there would be fewer ' rich. men. and also fewer poor men, for ' which they should thank God. At present trades unions were, on O ns j side of the industrial hedge, as tvraaj nical as possible, and on the other side I were trade combines, sucking the people. Millionaires and Slums. ! "We have millionaires." said Mr. James, "and we also have slums. The turmoil of to-day is an attempt by tha - men to work out the implication of the sacredness of personality, in industrial life." The perils of democracy were . very clear, continued Mr. James. It was in danger of the spirit that created it losing its ideals. Democracy had to watch the foes within, to train leaders who would not simply follow the crowd. There was a danger of losing - the individual in the crowd. Democracy . seemed to hare clay feet. It tended i first to standardise and then ostracise all those who ■would not be standardised. There were millions and millions of ! what were termed common people all over the world. He looked at them as one who belonged to the common people. There had never been any blue blood in his family. "High brow people scorn and despise 'us common folk who cannot boast o£ any special ancestors," aid Mr. Jamei, "but that great man Abraham Lincola I loved the common people. In his fam- ! ous speech at Gettysburg two worde j were left out in the written copy. Those . words were, "undur God." 'from government of the people by the people, for the people. . Those two words made all the difference in democracy. ! "When Christ saw the crowd of common people, he did not scorn them, but said "they were. 'Sheep without the shepherd.' which meant men wanting leadership. Christ never used words like. 'Woe unto ye scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. 1 to the common people. The saving was true. 'Whosoever will spiritualise democracy, will save the world." '* Finally, the speaker said: •'Under God. thac* is the secret of true democracy."' Dangers of Democracy. I Rev. W. Maitland Holland, B_L, B.D. I (Wellington), said the word democracy ! was somewhat ambiguous. It might j mean more than one thing. Ths general ! idea of a democracy was, as Lincoln put j it, "Government by the people, of the i people, for the people." The _ word 1 '•democracy" did not appear in the New 1 Testament' but the word ''Demos" was ! mentioned four times, and mostly in a J somewhat sinister manner. It must be ! admitted that there were dangers in j democracy. VVlieE "demos" was referred j to in the* Sew Testament it was generj ally the suggestion of a mob hostile to the Christian faith. A majority was not necessarily right. Th« tyranny of tea thousand might be as bad as the tyranny -: of one mail. A true democracy must he ; formed of good educated people, and . not of wicked people if it was to be euc- ! cessful. He believed in a democracy, i not of people who were ignorant, but of ' those who had character. ~ "What is the attitude of democracy to ! Christ to-day," asked Mr. Holland. It wai i difficult to make a generalisation. There ! was a good deal to-day of "Fork out your half-a-crown to win £30000" in tt» 1 lotteries promoted by the Minister of J Internal Affairs. He felt inclined to say ! also "conducted by the Minister of Inr ; fernal Affairs."' It was quite apparent . that to-day democracy wanted money i find also pleasure. Yet they the I people were at the bottom,- decent, i honest, law-abiding, good-natured and I willing to help a man when he was down i and out. At a time of crisis like the ! late war they found that heroes were j just ordinary men. and just ordinary, J women were fit to be the mothers, ! sisters, wives or sweethearts of such '. heroes.' f Applause .) Yet there was no hiding the fact that the attitude of the " ; democracy to the Church was that they had not much time for it. They, ' however, did come to church when they wanted someone buried. It I. was round the open grave they * ! at times saw the deeper side of humanity. To reach the people, the Church 1 could only do what the Master did. ; They never knew what a crowd would ! do. " Sometimes it would cry ,f Hosairaa" : and at others '"crucify Him." Still Christ :' carried on and did His work. "That is ! our job. :? said Mr. Holland. "Preaehthe ! living Christ. Let men see in your lives j the power of His spirit. There will ye* I surely be the harvest." !