“NOT SOLELY .... FOR DEMOCRACY”

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23191, 30 November 1940, Page 11

“NOT SOLELY .... FOR DEMOCRACY”

From an article by Dr. George Glj • In the last few weeks the British Foreign Secretary and the Com-mander-in-Chief of the British armed forces have broadcast pronouncements which roughly and fairly may be described as sermons, such as would not disgrace a Christian pulpit. Let those who point a linger of scorn at what they may regard as this new manifestation of British hypocrisy, suspend their judgment, and themselves beware lest they rashly presume to pronounce on matters they do not fully understand. The pure intellectual is nearly always wrong in his judgment of future probability, no matter how deeply fortified his judgment may be by knowledge of worldly facts. There are tramps, who read no books, whose interpretation of what is at present taking place rings truer than that of many pundits; as those who talk to tramps may discover for themselves. . . . The domination of one race, one society of human beings, by another, is a clear transgression of reason .and of Christian principle. Very well, it has become no longer possible. The poor mind of man is helpless beside the overriding spiritual truths, which through human agency, but against human intention, keep the human race in the long run on the right lines; correct its faults; restore its pre-destined direction. A Moral Portent As the corrective and restorative process is consummated, we are presented with the glorious spectacle of the Foreign Secretary and the Com-mander-in-Chief of the armies (for irtstancc) of Great Britain, though they be the very symbols of the former policies of imperialist conquest, now uttering unaccustomed truths which symbolise instead the new world into which we are passing. The religious note that now rings through the utterances of politicians in the democratic countries is the greatest portent of the times. Lord Halifax on July 22, broadcasting to the nation, enunciated a principle of the Christian faith. He said, for instance: Where will God lead us? Not, we may be sure, through easy or pleasant paths. That Is not His way. He will not help us to avoid our difficulties. What He will' do Is to give to . those who humbly ask the spirit that no dangers can disturb. The Christian message to the world brings peace in war-peace where we most need It; peace of soul. Jt is that same Christian message which makes its Giver, Who is God, the best Friend with whom a man can share life or death. - , Those of us Who cannot serve in the armed forces must all do our best in other ways to help them. I’m sure we shall. And there Is one thing we can all do, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilians, men, women, and children all together, which may be much more powerful than we know. And this is to pray. . . . But prayer is not only asking God for what we want, but rather the way to learn to trust Him, to ask that we may know His will, and do it with all our strength. If we cad really do our work, whatever it is,, as well as we can'in God’s sight, it will become His work, and we can safely leave the issue in His hands.

r Lord Gort, giving an address in •ithff--British- Broadcasting Corporation’s evening Service on August 4, said?

The War as a Crusade

Have we, the British people, been r in all respects above reproach? . . . In the pursuit of material gain, and pos-

asgow in the "Contemporary Review.” sessing, as so many did, a pleasant life, plenty of relaxation, and not too long hours of toil, we were apt io forget that, the strength of Britain m the past has been built up on service—service to God, service to our country, and service to our fellow men. Without this conception of service no great nation can endure. Neglecting our religious obligations and in the pursuit of pleasure, we filled the roads, but deserted the churches. Did we not all too gladly accept the material benefits which came our way without pausing to remember that everything worth having in this world demands some service in return? Is it not possible that reverence—reverence for our country and its traditions, reverence for all that is best in Britain and, above all, reverence for God —were lacking in our modern outlook? It is a plain fact that unless a country bases its life on religious faith it cannot endure. And to-day it is evident to every one of us that we are engaged not solely in a fight for democracy, but over and above that in a crusade for the maintenance of those religious principles which we were taught as children by our mothers. \ “The Surprise of His Life” It is to be remarked that religious propensities are pointedly absent from the pronouncements of Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini. Signor Mussolini has at any rate been consistent. He has always based his ambitions exclusively on the power of his army, navy, and air force. He has never pretended that he is aware of God. He has never mentioned God in his speeches. He is the very perfection of the pure intellectual who puts two and two together and gets the surprise of his life. Herr Hitler, by contrast, having heard of God, and having no doubt sensed, with his keen objective nose for strategic values, that there may be a propagandist niche for God in his strategy, has on more than one occasion thanked God for German victories. There is no reason to regard him in, this matter as insincere. He probably believes that God is using him. What is more, he is probably right; but not in the sense of his own interpretation.

Obviously Hitler is being used, somewhat after the manner of a surgeon’s knife, in an operation that is fashioning a better world and a better England; for his challenge was necessary before England (for instance) could be shaken out of her complacent and smug selfrighteousness into a new and living consciousness of the elemental things such as were expressed by Lord

Halifax and Lord Gort on the occasions above referred to. The Greater German God On June 5 Herr Hitler, on the eve of the battle for France and on the morrow of the defeat of the, Low Countries, issued a proclamation to the German people, ordering the church bells to be rung for three days, and” adding; May their ringing accompany the prayers which the German people will continue to offer for their sons, because this morning the German divisions and air units have been assigned new tasks in the fight for the freedom and the future of our people. Herr Hitler’s conception of God’s role in life is confined within the frontiers of Greater Germany. On July, 19, making another of his fantastic paeans about German victories and God’s part in them, he said:’ “It almost causes me pain to think that I should have been selected by fate to deal the final blow to the structure [namely, the British Empire] which these men [namely, the British politicians] have already set tottering.” Delivering final blows against those who resist his aggressions is Herr Hitler’s supreme conception of God’s work, as delegated to Herr Hitler, causing him pain by the sense of his responsibility. His pain no doubt was eased bv the Siegheil” that immediately followed for “the guarantor of German victory” (the said guarantor now'being Herr Hitler exclusively). Though he himself be blandly unaware of it, and even incapable of appreciating it, a man like Herr Hitler can indeed bo used for God’s purposes: as the better world will one day realise. The rose needs the manure. To show “Ancient Wisdom” as running parallel with “Modern Science” is the object of Faith Hart in The Ageless Mysteries (Rider. 96 pp. 6s. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.). Reincarnation, the law of Karma, the truth of astrology, the significance of mythology, the fundamental principles of the “four elements,” and the “manifestation of the Uod within” shown through these same elements are expounded to the reader with much verbiage. What can be made, for instance, of this statement?—“ The figure of Lot’s wife turned to salt is a parable showing the fixation of a volatible substance.” The book abounds with sentences of this_ kind, which may have some meaning for the writer but are unintelligible for the most part to the general reader for whom, apparently, the book was written.

One of the bitingly truthful portraits in Robert Ziller’s book of drawings, “We Make History” (Allen and Unwin. 5/-). All the familiar names and faces in the Nazi hierarchy are here, with some less familiar, such as the Hohenzollern Nazi,, “Auwi,” Baldur von Shirach, the Youth Leader, and others. Nazism has never been more scathingly characterised than in line. With equal satirical penetration, he has printed on the page opposite each drawing short quotations from the speeches or writings of its subject. Whoever glances from word to fea-

ture has his sight and his understanding quickened. Besides, there are other drawings, as truthful, even more deadly in effect, of the victims of Nazi doctrine and Nazi power. There is, for instance, a series of four: of a son, shot “while attempting to escape,” of his desolate wife, of his grief-ravaged mother, of his father, lost in despair. Opposite the drawing of tlje father is set this quotation from a speech of Hitler’s in 1938: “Wherever I have gone in recent days I have seen nothing but enthusiastic crowds and happy faces.” /