CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILISATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILISATION.

AISSttaCE OP , MATERIALISM. Speaking at a mass meeting in conjieetion \Vitti.the CiE.M.S. at Ipswich oh "Christianity, and Materialteni," the Arehfoiahop of Canterbury aaid that the quaition Was more important to the ViU of the \vor)d than any other. "W-hat do we meati by materialism ?" lie asked. "We mean a civilisation which considers that it is enough iW itself and has tlo iic6d of the Spirit of Cod—what is> somotfniM called antiChrist. Hero in this country it will take us a little time to rfiailse liow , duk'kly the great principles rtf thd Christian faith arc being, not so Hiti<?'t c|iiciti6hed~it seems as if- people wcr." liot enough interested even to question them—as i"nored.. "Atlvcma this materialism may take the form of what ia called a class war, in which a material native will urte those who want more to try to fenatcl/it from those who have, they think, unjustly got it. Depend- upon it, a cl M s war will be bad. even for the class that wins » Some people said that the motive of KiilF-intercst, of material interest, would atop another great war. "I venture to say, if peace rests on nothing stronger than self-interest, then there are thittes •latent in human nature that not all the interests of a material civilisation can etop v These latent instincts will leap out .with surprisihpf suddenness/strong enough to svveoji all before them. There jiiiiFt bo ooiriot'h;n<? stronger than se'fIi"-- '—t'-v nriiiciple that there .must 1 ' •' ■ • '.: " use it is God's will.

"Once again there is a great danger of this wonderful civilisation becoming unstable because it may lose its basis. The basis, I think we agree, of this civilisation is the home. What is really the protection of the home, the basis of our national life? It is surely the Christian principle of marriage. "Our whole Western life is built up and based on that principle. ,Jt is exacting, it is hard, but at least it ha been hitherto the great standard that resists the pressure of restlessness and desire and holds the homes of the country together. Now vhat do we see ? Why, increasingly, even among Christian people, a notion that you can abandon these Christian principles, that whatever they may be for devout folk, they cannot be accepted foi' modern civilised life, and that, therefore, these standards must go. "Now, no truer word has ever been said than that of Professor Gilbert Murray when ho wrote, 'When a great standard is lost, ihen it moans that its normal place is taken by the random rush of momentary desire/ That if profoundly true. I bey you all to pray that those of us often twitted for having standards of cloistered virtue, for holding narrow views, are really doing our best to protect, our homes from the inrush, of this tide of desire and passion." The archbishop appealed to the Church to get togct/her to fight the common enemy, materialism. "In this Church of England at the present time/ , he asked, "what is really going to happen because of this or that opinion, about this or that prayer, or this or that particular practice? Are we going to stand aside and watch one another with suspicion, or are we going t ■ agree that, in face' of this great menace of a rising material civilisation,.we must put aside difficulties and stand together? We want something more united."