State Services

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 18

State Services

“All sorts of social activities intimately concerned with human life have been brought under the shadow of the State,” said Dr. Bell, Bishop of Chichester, in an address to probation officers, reported in "Probation. "That is a very good thing in many ways, because while the old conception of the State was that it was to act as the policeman, it has been our experience that private persons have not the means to do the enormous number of things which cannot be done, without, the State.

“I am not quarrelling with the State nor the State services. The point I want to make is that the more the State comes in to control the life of the community, the more we have to see that those who are responsible for the government of the State, those who are responsible for the different departments in the State, those who are officers in these innumerable areas in the State, must have a higher sanction than the State if they, are to do the work the State wants from them.

“There is a very real danger, against which we have to be ou our guard, of a secular State, tin organised community functioning in a very highly developed way, coming in between the sources of spiritual life and the work that has got to be done. The issue is not between the ‘God-religious’ and the ‘Social-religious,’ but between the worship of God and the cult of race or humanity.”