IN TIME OF CRISIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 52, 30 August 1939, Page 4

IN TIME OF CRISIS

♦ SEEKING THE CURE I ALL ARE RESPONSIBLE Cabled advice has been received b> the Oxford Group in Wellington of a special, world broadcast by Dr. F. N. - D. Buchman, founder of the movement for Moral Re-armament, made' on Sun-' day morning, August 27, from the Californian station WIXAL. Dr. Buchman's speech was broadcast in English, • French, and German to ' Europe, America, Canada, the Near and Far East, Africa, and , India. "I. speak on behalf of those millions,'' known and unknown, in every country, who have found in moral re-armament , a common life transcending all the barriers that separate man from man and nation from nation, and who are convinced that moral re-armament is the only cure for crisis." said Dr. Buchman. '"There is an answer for crisis and it must be made known. Crisis - shows our failure. Before crisis ends in catastrophe have we the "courage to face its real cause? ' We" ourselves are the cause. It is the way in* which every national and everyone of us has been living which has* brought us where -we are. Every national and every individual is responsible for the" existing situation. THE PRICE OF PEACE. "Failure lies not with one nation but with all; we-are all guilty. In every .-. nation "those forces are at work which create bitterness, disunity, and destruo • tion. Nations, like individuals,, have turned a blind eye to their own faults, ! while pointing the finger at each' other. .' Selfish men and women make- front- l line trenches necessary. .A wave of tinselfishness ■ sweeping over'our nation and every other nation would be a permanent answer to war. .We have all wanted peace, we -liave sought it in pacts and in leagues, in alliances, in changes of systems, in economic and- "" disarmament conferences, . and have sought in vain. We have wanted peace but we have never yet paid the price of peace—the price of facing with God * where we and our nations have been wrong, and how we and oiir nation, as - God directs, can put right the wrong. , "A new spirit comes when we make an honest apology for our own mis- ' takes instead of spotlighting the mis- , takes of the other nations. -There is ' a common,meeting ground in the fact that1 we all need- to change, nations as well as men. In a crisis: of kind, if leaders change they can change their people. If people change they can change their leaders. The crisis is moral and can oniy be' met in the spirit of moral re-armament, the spirit of honesty, justice, and love. . Moral pc-armament means the- 'poorer to ■' change people, your enemies-as well .- as- your friends, the other nation. .as , w.ell as your own.' We must be prepared for unexpected paradoxes. Every man is responsible for his" nation. Nations will fnak-e honest apologies an 4 rectify past mistakes when the peoples ■of , those nations demand, "that kind of .national poliqy X.XI. t X.~ ."Each man"has-arx"immediate, part,to play.' He can accept*- for."himself a , change of heart. ' He can decide to listen to God daily. He can start to build a hate-free, greed-free world. There is enough in- the world for every nation's need- but npt enough for every nation's greed. - "The sacrifice that is necessary for lasting peace is nothing compared with the useless sacrifice of war., There is still time for this selfish, fear-driven world to listen to the .living God. The , forgotten factor in diplomacy.'-is that God has an inspired plan for-J; peace, and means to carry it out through men and women who are willing.to obey. TO RECONSTRUCT THE FUTURE. "Above every other loyalty is/loyalty to God. In the obedience to God of all peoples, every nation will find "its true destiny. This is the truest patriotism. It -requires the highest courage. x lt gives the greatest strength. A "nation's • surest defence is the love and gratitude of her neighbours. People of all nations will support to the utmost those statesmen who shall'seek in this spirit to avert catastrophe and build that peace without bitterness that all men desire. Will statesmen and leaders of every nation unite in this programme' which puts right, the past, an 4 reconstructs the future? "The millions who already know . these great truths must pass them on to millions more. If those people who are listening now will ask those millions who are already living moral,'re-arma-ment how to- begin, it will "help to change the world quickly. One hundred " million listening to God .will form the world opinion that will,make war unnecessary. On account of th* criJsis "we - are now speaking to the vror)A instead 'of waiting until December, ~W_i«_. there will be a hundred million people listening. " , ■ "We need nation-wide thinking and action. We have war because we cannot make peace. We can gain by peace-, ful means far more salutary ends-than could otherwise obtain. We must point. ' .to. a new era, a new type of personality, v . a new home, a new industry, a' new . type of government that by the force of its constructive programme will out--1 law war and industrial unrest. During .these days we must develop the .framers of a just peace that will make i peace permanent. If this thinking had 'dominated Versailles we would not now ! again be in the throes of crisis', and i twenty years tragedy would have been "averted. The menace of war makes us rethink all our values.^Personal and national surrender to God is a.world necessity. Civilisation is at stake. "The future lies with the men and * nations who listen .to God and obey.**,