CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 8 May 1943, Page 4

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

WANTED: SPIRITUAL GBU To The Editor I find that practically every soldier, is in favour of the election. We are supposed to be fighting for democracy and freedom, and the right of the people to express their rights and voices through the ballot box is a sacred democratic right, as Abraham Lincoln stated when declaring in favour of the general election in the midst of the American Civil.War. What we really want is not a people's political movement, but a people's Christian union; otherwise we are putting the cart before John Wesley, in England, and Thomas Chalmers, in Scotland, both preached for years prior to their spiritual awakening, and their later extraordinary success came entirely after their illumination. • Movements like the YM.C.A. and the Student Christian Movement owe their origins and their early power to the evangelistic movements of their day. . The conversions of Wesley and Chalmers from moderatism to the evangelical faith are spoken of as "two of the great turning points of British history. Wherever they went, there followed an intellectual, moral and religious awakening." Effective evangelism stops the drift among youth, -drives back unbelief and brings about good social and ethical reforms. Then do the people-begin again to respect and read the Bible and to follow the Christ of the Bible in their daily life. However, it needs people of real faith and couragespiritual , grit —to start such. a movement, for the former movements lose their first love and spiritual enthusiasm, in short, "the organism creUtes the organisation, and then the organisation destroys the organism." Alas! how true. CHRISTIAN SOLDIER