DEMOCRACY A FAITH

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 284, 26 August 1940, Page 6

DEMOCRACY A FAITH

Christian Sheet Anchor Of Freedom NO COMPROMISE WITH EVIL “M e must never compromise with evil, and never show any cowardice in meeting it,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hamilton, in an address last night. Christian, neighbourly thinking, he said, made for good government and happy, joyous living. Self-materialism brought certain ruin and despair. The present struggle was in many ways a war of paganism versus Christianity. Democracy must not fail to realize that it was a faith, and not a jumble of private interests. He believed that now democracy had stripped itself of the fear of war it was more than halfway to victory. Totalitarianism had yet to show that it could fight.

"With many people there is too much wailing, too much pessimism, with the result, that, .some say that those of us who talk of freedom, progress and enlightenment pursue vain dreams," said Mr. Hamilton. "That is rubbish, of course. Progress has always been forged in lire, and temjiered in struggle. There will always be false prophets, who cry calamity—better an over-enthusiastic apostle any day, because he knows the road of progress is never smooth, but he laughs as he bumps along it. Nor is this spirit out of step with Christian truths. Indeed, it is the very embodiment of it. “If, in the providence of God, Hitler be that man by whom offence cometh, .and if this war is the purging tire through which we as a people, and as a nation, must pass to rise to higher service, shall we in that perceive any departure from those divine attributes which we have always ascribed to a just and a loving God? Surely not. In our time we have made remarkable advance in the practical application of technical sciences to industry and commerce. The moral and social life has fought upward and onward alongside them. Personal Freedom.

“Perhaps the great feeling ,of disillusion and pessimism is because people see these things lead to trouble, while they had hoped for a better world —that is defeatism. Better now to review the great legacies of the advance in our days, and see what can be redeemed and well used in the future. Above all, we must ever cherish a gift of our age—personal freedom. I find that when people become lost and hopeless in the maze of the world’s problems, shaken faith is a root cause. This hopelessness is particularly apparent in those sections of our modern civilization which have lost, or forgotten, the sheet anchor provided by true Christian belief and faith. “To some it has Income a fashion almost to ridicule faith —religious faith, faith in the providence of God, or even faith in the personal ideal in democracy, faith in the family life as a basis of the national life. Truth outlives ridicule and outlives persecution.

“These are days when we must live up to our faith,” said Mr. Hamilton. “If we are opposing merely because our material well being is threatened, then hope is lost. If it is only our personal safety and coinfort that is at stake, then hope is lost also. We must oppose Nazism and Communism, because of their fundamental flaws —they deny God and ridicule Christian philosophy. Materialism has always failed in, the full-dress trial of strength with right. Materialism takes away the soul of men. Overhaul of Human Values.

“There could not be a more appropriate time for us to overhaul human values Dian the present. Now is the time to deal with the spirits of envy, vanity, and lust for power, all of which corrupt, human endeavour. We cannot afford to make a mistake and muddle our faith.

“I do not believe that we can unite one form of totalitarianism to destroy another. The alternative is not Nazism or Fascism —it is always totalitarianism or democracy. Free people have proved themselves in a thousand desperate encounters, and against, the greatest odds, and there are millions all over the world watching and waiting for a chance to shake off the yoke of tyranny. Today one can almost glory in democracy, free of fear of war. stripped of half-heartedness, and ready to resist attack with counterattack. Nazism and Communism are doing the same job—they are destroying existing values, spiritual and moral. The human wreckage of democracy they have strewn about the whole of Europe. “Those who scoff at the British Empire forget that it is the birth and the gradual development of the' conception of diverse peoples, linked together in a single commonwealth, and dwelling in freedom and peace, that forms the glory of the British Empire, and the justification for its existence. Totalitarianism, as a creed, is hurling itself to its own destruction. The Christian sheet-anchor of free men and women is at stake. It is the only faith on which true democracy can be based.”