"BACK TO JUNGLE LIFE"

Press, Issue 22599, 3 January 1939, Page 11

"BACK TO JUNGLE LIFE"

BISHOP’S VIEW OF, WORLD AFFAIRS AIM OF BROTHERHOOD OF MAN PURSUING KINGDOM OP GOD ON EARTH An opinion that the world, in its present state of chaos, had only one way to save itself—by achieving unity in life founded on a basic philosophy of living held in common by all men—was expressed in a public address on Sunday night by the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. Dr. H. St. Barbe Holland.

To a big audience in the Hollywood Theatre, Sumner, Bishop Holland described the present state of world affairs as a “crisis of crises,” and said that the world was returning to a jungle life. He appealed to church members, and particularly the members of the Student Christian Movement, now holding its annual conference at Sumner, to do their best in their own lives to fulfil God’s purpose for men—the bringing about of a common brotherhood of man.

“There is a world chaos. All are aware of it. It shouts at us from the headlines of the newspapers every day. But we are not so sure of its causes,” continued the Bishop. One phrase seemed to him to point to the underlying cause of world chaos. It was that which described the chaos in the world as largely because the key to unity in life had been completely lost. Because of the scientific advances made in the last two or three generations men had thought that they had found the key—that progress in science , would bring the world together in a common life. But man to his horror found in 1938 that his old robot had turned into a menacing monster. Science had certainly made the whole world into a neighbourhood. But it had failed utterly to make it a brotherhood. “A Jungle Life”

“Definitely and literally •we are going back to a jungle life,” Bishop Holland went on. “We sit on our own little pieces of territory, sharpening our claws—by armaments—> and ready to snatch and tear from our neighbour what he holds.” It was a colossal blunder to think that the world could be unified by scientific, or economic, or material means. In September of last year Europe had been in a stranglehold of fear and paralysis such as Europe had never known in its history. “And mark my words it is not confined to Europe. You would have to go to the Antarctic regions to escape it—and when you got there, it would be there too, because you would have taken it with you. There are no frontiers of the mind and spirit. It was a grim fact that the one thing common to the mind of humanity to-day was its chaotic thinking. All were affected by the same great disease. 'There was no basic philosophy which all men held in common on which to build the foundation of a new world. “Politicians talk so glibly about the new world they are going to build on economic and political foundations, that new world in which every need is handed out without working for it. It is rubbish. We can’t haye a new life unless it is t on a foundation that all men hold in common,” The result of the chaos of the world was that hope was almost going. Few were better able to set out the modern outlook than Noel Coward, and in one of, his lyrics he spoke Of “nothing left to strive for, love, or keep alive for.” In another acid comment an American writer had expressed the opinion that modern life was not thought worth passing on to the next generation, and that this was proved by the falling birth-rate. The world was in a crisis of crises. In a time of awful indecision it was living in a vacuum between two worlds —one dead and the other not yet born. • Its one hope was to discover the key to unity so that from a neighbourhood the world might turn into a brotherhood.

Counsels of Despair

Both Fascism and Communism the Bishop described as ultimate counsels Of despair. One went wholeheartedly for local unity, with no thought of the rest of the world, and the other g&ve no consideration to any aspects of human personality except the economic and the any o tHer alternative? There is one. The Student Christian Movement and the churches stand for one other alternative —the Kingdom of God. Christ’s revelation of the eternal purpose of God to bind .together into a brotherhood, based on th&t ultimate reality, was the heart Of everything. There was no vague idealism about the Kingdom of God. Christ Was a stern realist, and the appallihg condition of the world to-day Was a glorious vindication of what He had said. HoW we had learnt to-day the truth of what He had said—and the chief duty of man was first to love God and then go on to love his neighbour. If men did not learn to love their neighbours an economic or social system would never work. And yet politicians talked of insulating one part of the world. It Was a ridiculous word to use for any part of a world, all parts of Which were entwined together in a mesh of living. Until the world learned that lesson that men must love their neighbours the great problem of the day—distribution—would remain insoluble, and there would remain the absurd contradiction of hungry people in the midst of oVer-productiort. The problem would never be solved if men tackled it in the same spirit of self-interest which had enabled such remarkable strides to be made in production. The world had gone wrong, and church members were the stewards of God in working out His glorious purpose, if it was to be brought back from chaos. The church had two tasks—its members must proclaim its glorious purpose, and ih its life the church itself mtist be a living-proclamation of its work.

A brief address on the aims and achievements of the Student Christian Movement Was given before Bishop Holland’s address by Bishop WestWatson, Who wished the conference every success atid extended a warm welcome to the .speaker of the evening. The Rev. Herbert Newell, New Zealand chairman of the movement also spoke, describing the work the organisation Was doing among students throughput iha World.'