CAUSES OF WAR

Feilding Star, Volume 6, Issue 1888, 26 April 1928, Page 6

CAUSES OF WAR

ROTTENNESS AND CORRUPTION ADDRESS IjV CANON I‘ETKIE SOEDJEKS’ MEMORIAI; SER\ ICE

Over 1 .'{o returned soldiers intended the Anzac Day Memorial Servic<‘ at Sr. John's Church yesterday, this bcino the largest number on record. The Salvation Arm,'' Hand and the Pipers headed the march from the Square to the church, playing <i I>l »<* priute martia 1 music. The church was. as usual, packed to the doors, and many, ineludintr some relali'os of soldiers, were crowded out. The choir were present in lull toree. I lie Rev. Canon Petrie. M.A.. conducted the service, anl the Lesson was read by Colonel Coleman. At, the conclusion, the Last Post was sounded by .Mr Clifford Hell, who had very kindly come up from Wellington at the invitation of the executive of the K.S.A.. to lake pari in the. ceremony, and tiller the wreaths had been placed on the memorial Mr Hell sounded the Reveille. The (’anon pronounced tin* Heuediet ion, and brought tiie solemn memorial service to its end. Dr. Cameron, [’resident, ol the Jt.S.A., warmly thtinked the Church Wardens lor allowing Hie soldiers to liave their serivee at St. Johns, the choir for their presence and help, and Canon Petrie lor his lelliny sermon. lie repeated the words ol the 'Prime .Minister, spoken just lie fore the service, that it was.to the churches they must look to preserve the moral life of the nation, and the words of Canon Petrie would carry their weiahL in that direct ion. THE SERMON The text was chosen I rout the Jllli chapter of i lie Cospel ol St, Matthew. verso 2S : "\\ hereso'-wer the* carcase is. there "ill the vultures be aatherer together. The ( anon said. On this day, which lias now he(oiiie in ns our <r ihe mos;. sailed and so'emii <i' 1 yI tie* "'cle ,'eai. we travel s■: thoi.al 1 far ; cross the sea. to those hinds, where, for four p 111 a years, was wayed the bloodiest war the world has ever known. You. who went in answer to your country s call— memories of many baitleliclds..

I know, rise up in your minds to-day. And ot all of us. the story of what

happened I here has been so otten |old Holt the various spots seem quite familiar. Visions of C.allipoli, Kgypt, Palestine, France rise before us, and as wo recall scenes ol tbo various happenings I here,' we cannot, help feelings of thankfulness and pride rising within us at. the thought of the bravery and courage displayed by those who went: from here. Anzac Day, marking,, as it, does, the entry of New Zealand into the war, is the day above all days, when such memories and such feelings come to us. Vis, our thoughts to-day have flown in many directions, but now that we have gathered within the walls of this sacred building, for the purpose of taking part in our annual memorial service, our (.oughts become more.cetrtred —we think especially of those who went and fought and fell —those who made the .supreme sacrifice, and laid down their lives for King and Country. We think ol them, not as having been "cut off in their prime,” not as being "dead and done." No, we think of them as being at this very moment gloriously alive and taking part: in that, higher service to which they have been called by Cod. When we describe them as "dead," we do not, mean by that that; they have ceased to exist. \o.

we simply mean that they have, for the time, laid aside tin* outward covering of the body, and passed fro u earth, to the next and higher state of existence —the stage we call Para disc. It is. therefore, in no spiiii of gloom that, wo assemble here ’o-! y. Imf rattier in a spirit of pride an t thankfulness and hope; pride in I be simple heroism and setf-sa . ilice shown by those whom, to-day, w honour; thankfulness that they and you too were allowed to take a share in (lie redemption of the work!: and a sure and certain hope that one day we shall see them again. They fought: a good light., they finished their course, they kept the faith; and on their country's Hull of Honour their names will ever stand, with never-dying fame. Try and think of them us* spiritually present with us now. ; Kemember, as St. Paul tells us. we are "compassed about with a great, clou t of witnesses,” and surety forming part of that cloud are the young men whose names you just heard read. , To-day, too, it is lilting that we

should think of one who, although not a New Zealander, was more or less familiar to us all. He was born in Scotland, but it is not as a Scotchman we think of him: it is as a son and a servant of that Empire of which we are a part. J mean Earl Haig. the leader of the British Army, at the conclusion of the war. To-day as we think of our own dead, wi think of him too, and we thank ' as we recall his sterling worth, his dogged tenacity, his thought both in war and peace for others, his patience in the hour of difficulty, his self-effacement: as shown by his willingness for the common cause to put himself under a leader of a different nationality. We recall, too, with thankfulness, his simple strengths of character, as shown by the way he disciplined himself, in days of peace, so as to be ready, if ever bis nation should need him; and we can never forget his untiring efforts to see that they who had served under him. should not be left without employ-

ment. in the reconstruction of industry after the war. Truly he was a gallant, gentleman. lie served his country well. He has passed now to the nearer presence of Hod. May lie rest in peace.

And now as we think of those who have passed within the veil, let us recall what it was that induced them to offer themselves so willingly and to risk even life itself. 'They went to the war—many of them, at any rate— because they believed it would

be a war that would end war, and to achieve that purpose they thought no sacrifice could be too great. And so the truest memorial we can offer to our honoured dead is not Cenotaphs or .Monuments—titling and appropriate ns they tire —but it is the dedication of our lives in an endeavour to keep faith with those who sleep, "where poppies grow in Flanders liolds.” They died for Peace, and for Peace we ought to live and labour. That is the best and most, lasting memorial by which we can perpetuate their memory. When I spoke of the heroism and courage and bravery shown by the men on the various fields of battle, 1 was not: trying to glorify war. While if is true that, war can. and very often does, bring out the noblest and best: of finalities in those taking part, in it, and while 1 believe, too. that there are times when it is a nation’s duty to take,part in war—which was. I think, true of Britain in the last great, war: and while I believe, too. that it is the duly of every citizen to lake his part in the defence of his country and to lake such steps as are necessary to make himself (it so to do: at the same time, war in itself ■is not a noble thing: it is a horrible, a. detestable thing; as the American (Tenoral said some time ago, "War is hell,” You hoar it. sometimes sail that Cod sends war upon men its a judgment for their wickedness It is not trine Cod never sends war. It is brought upon mankind hy mankind itself. For how is it brought about V What: causes it. V -Jesus tells us, in the words I road as my text: "Wheresoever the eareaso is, there will the vultures be gathered together." The picture lie here suggests is that of a dying man, or a dying beast, lying in the desert, and away in the distance, urged hy some uncanny instinct, a crowd of vultures—the scavengers of the air—gathering and awaiting the moment when they can pounce down, and clear the decaying llcsh from off thebones. lie was here describing in a figurative manner, the rotten and corrupt stale of the Jewish nation, and He was prophesying that, as a result. the vultures, in the shape of the Human legions, would, in a short time, descend upon the nation and tear it, in pieces. Yes, He predicted the war between he Jews and (he Homans, and He said it would lie due to the fact that the Jews had become eurrupl.. And what, He says of that war, is true of all wars. War is not sent hy Cod, upon mankind as an arbitrary judgment. It is. as I said before, brought upon mankind by mankind itself, and is just, the result and the development of corruption. Vultures don’t attack the healthy. It is rottenness and corruption that attracts them, and this is true of the vultures of war. We see this well exemplified in history. Take the ease of I lie fall of Jerusalem. The politicians and historians say (dull the war in which the .laws were finally crushed was due to revolt on the part of the Jews anil to the revenge of the Homans upon them. Jesus gives another account. altogether. He says the State was too rotten to survive. And His explanation is the true one. If Judaism had been nationally and religiously healthy, it might, in due course, have conquered Home hy the method of peaceful absorption. But the life had gone out of the nation. .Religion was dying of hypocrisy and formalism. The Slate was ruled hy men who were inspired hy the spirit of graft. Society was divided and split

into factions. And in their despair, patriots thought to save the situation bv an appeal to force. They met the clash of Home and perished.il. The words of Jesus came true. The earcase brought the vultures. The same thing Wits true of the fall of Home. That, mighty Empire, seemingly eternally secure, organised to the farthest outpost, fell it! length to the barbarian. And ("in any one who knows the history of those days doubt what wits the real cause of the fall of Home? It was just this. Home had become it carcase. Historians tell us of the unparalleled luxury that existed amongst the upper classes, the disgusting banquets that were everywhere common, the unemployment that was widespread and all its attendant evils, the lowered birth rate and ’the unnatural viced. These things made the nation rotten and corrupt. And the result was that the vultures —Attila and the Huns—came to the banquet and cleaned the hones of t hat- once powerful body. The same tiling was true. too. of the French Hevolution. That, too, was a ease* of the carcase and the vultures. The ruling classes, by

their persistent evil livhia, their seeptieism. amt tlieir eynieal indifference to the need of the people, provided the corrupt and decaying carcase, and (lie vultures of revolution came and the jrreat drama of blood was enacted. It; was true also of the late war. Nine and a half years after tin? Armistice, one may dare to say thin,as which, at an earlier date, one would have hesitated to say. Well. now. why was it that that awful orgy of lil/tfk 1 •itiil Itiwl I t'l sjvjiw I leitfono

Hioo.i aim lust passed over ion rope from 11)1-1- (o l!»iy V Why did it happen’. 1 Politicians give various answers. The easiest answer of all is to say dial Germany alone was guilty. She was the one criminal. Ilut that, answer so deep enough. Admitted that one European Power precipitated the eonlliet and exploded the mine. Admitted, too, that, this was a crime against God and man. Admitted that it was right to resist it. Ilut could one nation have done this, had there not been a general atmosphere favourable to war’.' Admitted that one people shook the

lighted torch over the heap of powder. there is another question lo be answered —did one nation supply till the powder, or it is it possible that all the nations made their contribution to it V Just think. Was there is 11*14 one single morally henllby nation in Europe V What of France, with her deliberately lowered population, in the interests not of economy, hut of pleasure V What of Belgium, with her record in the Congo V What of Turkey, stained with many massacres of harmless peoples V What of Russia, with her vast population handicapped by ignorance, ami her rulers given to tyranny V What of Germany, with her brutal Prussianism, her gross feeding, her atheistic teachers, and (lie open bestiality of her vices V And what of Britain V Have we forgotten what she was like on the eve of war V Disordered by strikes, largely given up to pleasure, men of all classes self-centred and self-seek-ing. trying to get all they could and to give as little as possible in return: all the time, too. drifting further and further away from God. Both America and Germany openly spoke of tin’ British people at that time as being a decadent people, and most certainly, morally speaking, and country was not. at that time in what could be called a healthy condition. The truth is that both politically and socially the whole of Europe .ipst before the war broke out was full of corruption. To understand the cause of war, we must get behind all political questions, until we reach the real cause, which is moral. II is given to us in the words of the (ext, the vultures came because the world provided the carcase.

Yes*, and they will come again if Hm world provides similar conditions. The only way to prevent a new gathering of the vultures is - to make tin’ world so morally sound that there will he nothing for the birds of prey lo feed upon. That slate of affairs does not exist at present, if. does not exist here nor does it exist in any part of onr Empire. Those false gods—. Mammon and Bacchus. Venus and Demos —have too great an influence upon us. and their influence is not for good. It: only leads to corruption. If we are to become morally healthy, then we must renounce those false gods, and give ourselves up wholly to the service of the one true God. If we do that, then we shall he contributing our share towards the abolition of war.

It is true that our nation is only one of the many nations that exist in the world. But we must remember that our nation is (lie dominant nation of the world. She is the most wi iespread nation. She is. of all the nations, the one most in touch with others nations, and so she lias more influence and consequently more responsibilities than any other nation.

ll' only. then, she herself "ill turn to Christ, in earnest, and rid herself of all corruption, she may become the very salt ot the earth, and cleansing all with whom she comes in contact; ami so help to bring about, that time when war shall be no more, and peace shall reign throughout the world. My friends, if we will not do this; if we are content to go 0:1 as we are, still worshipping at the shrines of those same old false gods to whom I have already referred, making, that is, the pursuit of worldly gain and worldly honour, the indulgence of our passions and the satisfacvtion of our ppet.ites the great aims of our existence, with never a thought of God or eternity, (and that a great many are doing this cannot he denied) :* and if all the other nations are content to do likewise: then nothing is surer than this, that soon once more the carcase will he lying out in the desert, and down will come the vultures of war, and the sacrifice we are commemorating to-day will be all oC no avail —our young men will have died in vain.