CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2741, 8 April 1916, Page 9

CHURCH AND WAR

ZEPPELIN RAID A CONCRECATIONAU CHURCH DEMOLISHED. The Congregational Church; at —— was demolished l;y a bomb thrown by the Zeppelin raiders who flew over the Midlands early in February. ■ The fine building is now m ruins. The minister of the church gives the following description of the occurrence:— ' "I had just left a meeting of our Junior Missionary League at 7.50 and was walking towards the Presbyterian Church to keep a lecturing ongagemont, when I heard an explosion in the' distance. _ That it should be a bomb from a hostile airship never occurrcd to me, and I walked on and gave ray lecture. I was just finishing when some of my own young men rushed in arid told ine our church was in ruins. It was too true. The havoo was past all description. The roof was gone, the principals I supporting it being thrown- in-all directions as if they had been pieces- of firewood. The whole place was torn. and twisted in the most grotesque, fashion. The organ was shattered.' The windows (some of them valuable stained glass windows) were completely gone. The front of the church had been hurled forward in a deplorable heap of debris, while all. round the great stone pin- , nacles had buried themselves in the paths. "At the moment that the bomfc dropped on the roof—exactly eight o'clock—our Primary Leader was just opening her Teacuers' Preparation Class in the Church Parlour, about' 20 young teachers being present. She tells mo that she saw something fall from the icof, and then there was a terrific crash. The girls 6tarted off down the passage and encountered some fallen timber. This dolayed their escape for a moment-or two, and probably saved them from being buried under the. falling masonry. "Thore is no doubt the bomb was meant for the hospital., 50 yards'behind our church. The German would 6ee the lights flaring cut for a long distance and think the building a large factory. As it was they dropped on incendiary' bomb in the quadrangle, which was soo,n extinguished by some wounded soldiers. It is difficult to estimate the full extent of our damage. If tho walls will stand we wih get off for £3000, but ■if not it will be nearer to £7000. We were not insured against hostile aircraft. _ And, indeed, very few people were in this unproclaimed ares.. 1 ' "COD STILL LI YES." .A RABBI'S ANSWER TO HAECKEL. Professor Ernst Haeckel avers that the present war - lias -ended the "illusions" of the existence! of a providential God, of predestination, ..and of the immortality of the soul. Br. Schulman, a Jowish Rabbi, replies rather tartly that he dean of the German scientific world "is a-type of scientist that becomes a-dogmatist< on matters on which he, can speak witb.no ' more authority-than anyone else;!' He gave his .views to a -representative': of V ? r k "Timeß"»m those words: bod still lives, though- men refuse to obey His law. There is - no. more" <lif-. ference about God and 1 'immortality "in seeing a man dead 1 in battle'than there is in seeing him snatched'away by a microbe or carried away by an earthquake. The- manner of a man's death has nothing to do with the Divine plan for his destiny. It is very interestingto observe that an English statesman, Balfour, in his latest book, 'Theism and Humanism,' comes to altogether different results. The fact is, were it not for •ii. re ? -7 God, the assumptions tt ith which the scientists operate,' uniformity of nature, etc., would have' no basis. God and right and love and the value of the spirit are realities despite this war. ' , ...

"L will tell you what illusion thiß war has swept away—the-flattering unction to our 60ul which a materialistic science has dinned into our ears for the last fifty years, namely, that men beccme better and more civilised, because, of the mastery over nature which enables them to increase their material comforts. . ... .

"This war proves that the civilisation of the head is hut the .smallest part of human culture, hut that if brutal wars are ever to end, humanity's- heart must be educated. Men must take seriously and everybody in their lives the faith in God that wants them to love one another. It is Haeckel's godis that have been swept away by this war, and not the God of Judaism and Christianity" ; . v IRISH PRIMATE AT THE FRONT. ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION. The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh recently spent a week at the front. On the first Sunday of his tour Dr. Crozier addressed tho 14th Royal Irish Rifles and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons at an open-air church parade at nine in the morning, which Canon R. -King, Rector of Drumacliose, Limavady, . conducted'. An hour later his Grace addressed over two thousand men at an open-air parade at headquarters,. the service being read by the Rov. E. L. B. Barker, and the music arranged by Sergeant Lindof (organist of Antrim Church). _ The units included the' 9th Inniskilling Fusiliers, and members' of the. Field Ambulance and Rifles Cyclists' Company. At' 11 o'clock the next 'service vraß, held in a large field, • where a covered platform had' been raised. Here two thousand men of,- the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, and of the 12th and 13th Royal Irish Rifles were drawn up. The last parade service on this Sunday morning was at a spot twelve miles distant, when i 1500 men were paraded. The service was. taken by Canon King, and the Earl of Leitrim, the senior officer, was present with others well known .in Ulster. •• • During the week the Primate visited other battalions of the Ulster Division, and paid a visit to the trenches, one of which had been called "Donegal Pass." His Grace was accompanied by Captain Maurice Day, the youngest son of the Bishop •of Clogher, who brought the Archbishop within twonty-five yards of a bursting shell. General Nugent and liord Farnham worked in-evei-y way tp make the visit a source of pleasure and profit, and the_ enthusiastic reception given to the Primate by the men of the 16th Division showed how differences of faith and politics were eclipsed in the greatness of a common struggle. Ail assembly to meet the Primate of' the men of the Artillery Brigade to which his, own son, Major .Barton .Crozier, D.5.0.,. belongs, was-arranged by tho Rev. J. Blackbourne. —Tho "Guardian." A PATRIOTIC FATHER. After serving the Mass cf a Canon, a soldier, who had offered himself for the duty, gave the priest 6ome account of his position, in answer to his inquiries:— "I am the father of eight children— fcur boys and four girls. Tile '"■ovs are at the war and lam here'in Mende ready to go and join them." 1 know I am exempt, but "one of my boys has been killed by tho enemy, and I told myself that my . place was by the sido of his brothers, £o avengo him. So I enlisted. . . . My daughters are resigned and pray for France, and when I told my wife of my intention, her reply was: 'I believe it is your duty; I should nevor have had tho courage to tell you so, but since God has inspired you with the thought, go—it is for God and "for Franco.""