"AWAY WITH PESSIMISM"

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 48, 25 February 1921, Page 4

"AWAY WITH PESSIMISM"

"WORK OF THE CHURCH.

"Top often in these days we hear of ' the failure of the Church,' " reiriarked the pyesidont of the Methodist Conference (Rev. W. Grigg)'last evening. "We do not heed this from without, where thero are both ignorance, and prejudice; But it is time to speaEt when tho talking down comes from 'yrithini' We know that the Church has not accomplished all she ouK'ht and nii&hb have done. But what perspp or institution has? That is only to acknpwledge human conditions and limitations. Because industries have been * disorganised,Coinmerce held up or distracted, sjifl in many countries colleges and universities closed or empty, dp we say industry! commerce, and education have failed? No'! They have been but temporarily th.worted by external circumsiances. These removed... they carry on their beneficent work. The Church, like every other institution, has.felt thedistracting, destructive forces of war. There must be no blinking # of-facts. We I must face every difficulty, error, or failure with clear-eyed scrutiny; but \ve must away with pessimism. During the war it became a crime to talk down our cause. . In such, ,'a time of stress and strain every patriot , needed encourage; ment. And we had no greater encouragement than in the seer-like words<bf Lloyd .George. And yet he told i:s"the worst in words of hope. In this respect we want faithfulness and hopefulness combined.-"' We are going to make the Church | of Jesus Christ too healthy a, place, I trust, for the pessimist to Ifve in." ■ -,"'