THE WORLD'S NEED

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 27, 31 July 1940, Page 6

THE WORLD'S NEED

REAL CHRISTIANITY

GOD FORGOTTEN

"Our desperate plight today points conclusively, not to the failure of Christianity, but to the world's need of Christianity and of that power which Christianity alone can bring," said Canon D. J. Davies when speaking at yesterday's citizens' intercessory service on "Has Christianity. Failed?" They were face to face with a world catastrophe which threatened to destroy civilisation and, with it, all that they cherished in life, and this situation, so it seemed to him, convincingly showed the world's need of Christianity as the only way of life which could save humanity from complete collapse. Such a statement as G. K. Chesterton's, "That the truth about Christianity is not that it has failed, but that it has never been tried," might well startle people into protest, because they knew that in the lives of countless people in every generation Christianity had been tried and verified; those men had known the power of Christ unto salvation and by the quality of their lives had borne impressive witness to the truth and the power of the Christian faith. He took Chesterton to mean that Christianity had not been tried on a social scale; it had not been made the basis of national and international life; nor had its principles been consistently applied to the tasks and problems of politics, industry, and the other major concerns of life. That seemed truer than many Christians cared to acknowledge. "The question, 'Has Christianity Failed?' seems to imply that a great part, if not the greatest part of the responsibility for the present disaster, falls on Christianity, and that it is Christianity that has let the world down so badly," continued Canon Davies. "That suggestion I vigorously repudiate. I acknowledge that we Christian people, as citizens of our modern world, must take our full share of the responsibility for the tragic situation in which mankind finds itself. In no small measure this tragedy has been caused by our cowardice and indolence .in bringing the spirit and principles of Christianity to bear more cogently on our social problems. If we had been more loyal to Christ we might have led mankind into peace and a just world order. But our faithlessness does not disprove or discredit Christianity itself, or warrant the conclusion that Christianity has failed." MAN IN HIS ARROGANCE. For many a day the sense of the presence of God, ? the need of God,- and even faith in God at all, had been on the decline. One of the main causes was man's increasing faith in himself and confidence that by his own abilities, powers, and efforts he could save himself and build any world order of peace and righteousness on which he might set his heart. The great word of the past few decades had been "progress." It had been assumed that there was in Nature a law of inevit-j able progress. The discoveries of science and their successful application to practical tasks of industry and com- j merce had confirmed man's confidence in himself, and he had come to believe that by science and education and social reform the world could be made a heaven and man himself an angel. In such circumstances, God became, j not so much incredible, as superfluous. He was no longer necessary—man could get along without Him. "It is this attempt at organising thej world without reference to God," continued the preacher, "that is now failing us in this time of peril. It is not. faith in God that has failed, but faith in man. Our modern way of life has failed because it grossly underestimated the power of evil in the world—the tyranny that sin has established over man's soul. God only can deal effectively with the power of evil in human life."