RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 99, 24 October 1938, Page 3

RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

THE NEW CALL TODAY

AWAITING-GLEAM OF HOPE

The strong conviction that a new call is being made on the scientific vitality of the world today is held by the Bishop of Wellington (the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland), who, in his sermon in St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral last evening at the special thanksgiving service for the merchant navy, said he was going only one step further when he declared that the whole area of spiritual life, of which God was the centre, was demanding an exploration which would call for all the vitality the people had at their command.

The service, which is always held on the Sunday following Trafalgar Day, was for the merchant navy and all who work upon the sea, and was attended by representatives of the various shipping companies, naval exservice men, the Navy League, the Marine Engineers' Institute, the Marine Department, the Sea Scouts, and the yachting clubs. "We catch the reflection of the springs of England's greatness not only when we stand in reverent awe beneath the statues of Captain Cook and Captain Scott in our land, but also when we read the records of those early pioneers, cultured men and women many of them who braved the various discomforts and dangers of those voyages from the Old Country in sailing vessels of a few hundred tons, faced the rigours of pioneering in the bush and established another England on this side of the globe," said Bishop Holland.

"Launch out into the deep has been the motto not only of seamen and explorers, of admirals and cabin boys, of whom you people gathered in the church tonight are heirs and successors, but of men and women of our race in many other activities of our national life. The vitality which never let them be content with past achievements, but which led them to push on to new discoveries, to new inventions, to the conquest of new areas in the world of science is surely a heritage we must guard with the utmost vigilance.

"During the last few weeks of catastrophic crisis in world affairs it has become a strong conviction with me that a new call is being made on that vitality today. The physical world: has been explored. Only Mount Ever-1 est and the Amazon remain to be conquered. Half of the brains of the British nation are being used to press forward into that vast field of scientific discovery which is transforming the conditions of our life from day to day and exposing such possibilities of achievement, and diabolical horror that it not only leaves us breathless but makes us wish that moratorium foxscientific research could be declared. SPIRITUAL EXPLORATION. "Scientists themselves are realising this. lam only going one step further when I say that the whole area of spiritual life, of which God is the centre, is demanding an exploration which will call for all the vitality we have at our command. "Why do I say this? A few days ago a great number of the heads of the British Parliament issued a manifesto calling for 'moral re-armament.' What does moral re-armament meaa? It means that the spirit of man has to be re-equipped with the capacity to use aright the vast resources opened out by science. It means that man's moral development has not kept pace with scientific development, that man is no longer master of his own house but has become the hopeless slave of the new machinery of life which he has evolved. It means, in fact, that the only hope of escape is the rediscovery of God. ' . , . "One of the most moving periods m Mr: Neville Chamberlain's closing speech on the European crisis in the House of Commons was that in which he said that now that the Munirfl agreement had created just the possibility of peace, the moment was ripe for a spiritual revival. That was a remarkable statement from a man who does not carry his heart on his sleeve. Yet we know in our hearts that he is right." In the Victorian era there was little hope for such a revival, said the Bishop, but now the mood had changed—the world was waiting for a gleam of hope.