"TO MAKE COMMON SACRIFICE"

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 48, 24 February 1917, Page 5

"TO MAKE COMMON SACRIFICE"

10 THE EDITOR. \ Sir, —It ha* been often said that the churches are out of touch -with the people, and to some extent the charge is true. As a whole, the clergy is too ■•' detached in its life, too "speculative" in its theology, too '-'clerical" in manner, mode of thought, even in attire, to be able to appreciate the trials and troubles -.. of the men and women among whom, they labour. . ■■■.■-'■ ■■-- Everyone readily agrees that the ideals of the clergy are splendid, but the people are given no opportunity of judging how they would apply their preceptsr in the cruel every-day competitive .c0m:..,,;, plicated world in which the laity lives ' and struggles. Many earnest clergymen -■• muet have longed whole-heartedly for a".-», chance to get closer to ordinary men, to see more with their eyes what, the ■; world is like, to face similar temptations; - from a similar standpoint with. the..,.; | greater faith which is in them. The .„ war has brought Hhe' clergy such a. : - ' chance, and it would seem that soW--*

of the leaders of the churches desire to pass it by, this, the greatest opportunity, for centuries for standing shoulder to shoulder with, and of becoming a living-" force among the masses, in defence 0f,;., the weak against the strong, of: the: spiritual against the grossly material, of the civilised ma-n against the mere brute;"' in defence, when all is summed' up, ofthe highest" ideals of Christianity itself. If the hold of the clergy over the people., is limited now, what will, what must : it be at the end of the war, * when our men return to their families, battered and broken, to:find, as may well hap-;, pen, that the only eligibles who have not fought for the great cause are •the-' clergy? All who sympathise with, the J aims of the churches may well hope that in this great crisis the bishops .will presently realise that the chance to make common sacrifice with the people in the great cause of humanity at large* is not something to be avoided and condemned, but something to be welcomed' as a glorious opportunity.—l am, etc.,-i CHURCH MILITANT. r