KITCHENER AND RELIGION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

KITCHENER AND RELIGION

MANLY CHRISTIANITY

In* the current issue of the Guardian the Rev. J. H. Molesworth. late incumbent of All Saints'. Cairo, writes as follows on Lord Kitchener's religion :—

" What were Lord Kitchener's guiding principles ? What was his altitude towards the faith of the Church? These ' are questions to which it is not possible to give a precise answer. When the question was put to Lord Beaconsfield. ' What is the religion of sensible men?' he promptly replied : ' Sensible men never tell.' What he meant was that upon questions of this sacred character there might be a legitimate reserve— reserve born of a profound | reverence for the things of God. This great reverence towards the mysteries of life Lord Kitchener undoubtedly possessed. Viewed Life Seriously. " No one could be long in his company without realising that he was a man who viewed life seriously. I may illustrate this from the effect he produced on society ui Cairo, when he went there to take tip his position as British Agent and ConsulGeneral. Cosmopolitan places, like the capital of Egypt, which are largely the haunts of pleasure, are often given over to a frivolity which is not seen .in. cities of commerce and business. There is frequently a relaxing of morals beyond what it witnessed elsewhere, and a general air of undiscTpline, and it goes without saying that in such places Sunday and Sunday worship are at a discount. . Attendance at Church. "It would be foolish to assert that Cairo was free from these vices. But the comintr of Lord Kitchener instantaneously wrought a change. He was known to be a man of unswerving devotion to duty, of disciplined I life, of resolute purpose. Instinctively we | all braced ourselves up, and it was as though a tonic'had been administered to the place. So far as his work"" permitted,' I Lord Kitchener was regular and punctual 1 in his church attendance, and this at once I told beneficially upon the Sunday habits of t the community. " He was president of All Saints' Church Committee, and. I never remember his omitting to take the chair, even when hard pressed by State business. " Earl Kitchener was indeed a type of I that simple, manly, straightforward i Christianity which we associate with the I best English laity, which does not trouble | itself indeed about subtle questions and I controversies, but rests on the broad facts Jof revelation, and in simplicity practises I its tenets."