"RADIANT ILLUSION"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 108, 10 May 1933, Page 7

"RADIANT ILLUSION"

UNIVERSAL PEACE

THE SOBER HOPE

"Turning from our own country t| the world at largo, the immediate fttture is no less uncortain," remarked Bishop Sprott in his presidential address at the opeuing of ihe Synod of the Anglican Church yesterday. "Here, too, there are no definite signs of approaching day. It may be thought that this is 100 pessimistic. You may remind me that within the past few days we have Karnt that the promised World Economic Conference has been definitely tixed to bo held next month. That is so, and we look forward to it with hope, but past experience of conferences permits only a- chastened hope. Apart from this prospective conference, the conditions seem in some respect! to be worse than they were when last we were assembled. The Disarmament Conference, then sitting, from which much was expected, woefully failed to fulfil our hopes. It is again in session, but, up to the moment of writing this address, the news regarding it it far from reassuring. . ■" '•So, too, the controversy proceeding a year ago between the League of Nations and Japan has ended in Japan carrying out her aggressive. programme and finally- withdrawing from the League. It has been urged in Japan '■ defence that she bad great provocation and also great interests at stake. This may be true, but it is no valid defence. Japan bad voluntarily entered the League, and had {solemnly accepted the obligations of membership. It was just with conditions provocative of war that the League was created to deal. It was not created to maintain peace, when peace was' not menaced. "PROVED UNWORKABLE." "One thing has, 1 think, been demonstrated—that the sanction! pro* vided in the League's covenant, such as boycott and combined armed intervention, has proved to be unworkable. Perhaps it was never quite seriously: believed. that they could be put into operation. It is plain that, in the future the League, of it continues to exist, as it is to be devoutly hoped it will, must rely wholly upon moral forces. And this implies that moral considerations must predominate both, in. the League Assembly »ndjn the nations there represented. This, I need not ray, is a tremendous condition: it might well seem impossible of ever being fulfilled. Without admitting the impossibility, I fear we must face the *act that the era of permanent and universal peace is not at hand. That it~ should immediately dawn was one of the illusions men cherished at the close of the war. With the horror of the war still fresh in their minds and pressing upon,-their hearts, me» felt that peace, permanent and, universal, was a pearl of such supreme worth, that the whole world would at once be willing to sell all to purchase it. It .was a radiant illusion.. : A ."IBM FOUNDATION. ••Mark, I say illusion, not delusion. These two words are in usage often confounded, but there is a distinction, not merely, academic, but of most vital import, between them. The. distinction may be thus stated. , A delusive belief! is a belief that is all erroi, containing no truth, pointing to no truth. An_ illusion, on the other band, is a belief, in form erroneous, but containing a truth or pointing to a truth. A delusive hope is a hope, utterly baseless, incapable of being realised either her* or any in any other world. The hope of peace, born of the war, was an illusive hope; illusory in so far at it« immediate realisation was expected, and that its mere desirability, without its moral pre-conditions, was thought sufficient tc effect its fulfilment. But it was not a delusive hope. It has a firm foundation in the purpose of-God and in the moral order of the world, and is capable of being progressively, realised, unless indeed our faith , m these be a delusion, in which case what remains for us but to 'forget the mighty hopes that make us men', and sink into cynicism, bitter or frivolous, is either form impotent!, Well, the illusory part of our hope has been dispelled. The sober hope remains as the object of the world's endeavour. So, too, remains its inexorable moral precondition, long since stated by Isaiah— 'the work ot righteousness snail . 0% peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.