The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1937. A CALL TO CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 60, 4 December 1937, Page 10

The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1937. A CALL TO CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

4 A notable address during the week was the appeal by the Bishop of Wellington at a New Zealand Club luncheon for a return to the Christian philosophy of life. It was the kind of appeal which is not often made on a secular occasion, but it exemplifies the growing opinion of Church leaders that if Christian philosophy continues to be regarded as something to be cloistered in ecclesiastical sanctuaries it may cease to animate the ethical principles of our daily lives. Christianity in certain parts of the world is fighting a defensive battle against the forces of materialism, forces which have become aggressive. Elsewhere it is threatened with stagnation as the result .of public apathy. There is need for a spiritual revival which will reanimate its influence, and recover its initiative as the best inspiration for righteous living. Righteousness, we are told, exalteth a nation; contrariwise, the pages of history, Biblical and secular, are replete with examples of the fate of nations whose peoples have fallen from righteousness into moral and social corruption.

Church leaders are not alone in their anxiety concerning the disturbing drift of people toward a routine of living in which Christian philosophy has no place. A somewhat similar appeal was made by the Leader of the National Party in a speech at Featherston some days ago. Social reforms, said Mr. Hamilton, should come from the reformation of human nature as well as from the economic system which all were anxious to improve. “The message the churches are giving out to-day,” he said, “is what we should take up,, for we have to keep the right balance between the material and the spiritual aspects of life.” There can be no question that the balance has tipped too far on the side of materialism. There qre social dangers inherent in such a condition, but if our public men make common, cause with the leaders of the Church in emphasising these the drift may be arrested. Christian philosophy is the foundation of civic righteousness, justice, and humanitarian feeling. It should permeate the whole community, preserving its ethical standards, influencing its activities, and regulating its aspirations.

Bishop Holland quoted the German General von Ludendorff as declaring that Christianity would be the ruin of the British Empire. But it is one of the outstanding facts of history that it is this very philosophy, that has made for Britain’s greatness and prestige as a buttress for freedom and humanitarianism. No people has fought; so tenaciously for freedom to work out its spiritual salvation in its own way, and the struggle for this principle has affected the mentality of the whole of the British race toward individual freedom in all things as a common right. “If the freedom of the individual to weave his own destiny is taken,” said the Bishop, “what is left? That is the fundamental product of the Christian Faith, and nothing else.” The truth of this remark is demonstrated in the fact that in. certain countries —Russia, Germany, and Spain—attacks on the Faith, and the curtailment of individual freedom have been the chief characteristics of the new social order which has usurped the old.