HOPE OF THE WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19323, 10 May 1926, Page 12

HOPE OF THE WORLD.

INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP A CALL FOR TOLERATION. ADDRESS BY DR. J. R. MOTT " Tho hope of the world lies in its yout.il." Although that was not tho title of tho address, it serves best to convoy the sense of a speech by Dr. J. B. Matt at tho Pitt Street Methodist Church on Saturday evening. Tho building was packed to the doors, many gaining,standing room only. Tho speaker, whom Archbishop Avorill described as a great preacher who might have become a great ambassador had ho so chosen, began his address with a review of the political and social stale of the world. Not for a generation, he said, had there been so' much fear, suspicion, irritation and want of fundamental unity in the world as was the ease to-day and never had the nations been so overburdened with indebtedness. It meant that the years of leisure and pleasure for scores of millions were going to be very few indeed; for the backs of the peoples for generations would bo bent low by these colossal burdens. Besides the enormous amount of physical disease from which the peoples of the world suffered there was an extraordinaiy amount of moral disease, largely in the form of juvenile delinquency. It was impossible to lay aside 11,000,000 fathers and brothers as a result of war and expect the rising generation to remain unaffected. Upon the shoulders of the boys of to-day was a greater responsibility than the youth of tho world had ever known. " A Ship "Without a Rudder." The vast continent of Asia, for example, with its scores of millions of youths, was like a ship on the stormy seas without chart, compass or rudder. Many people who visited the Asiatic countries were appalled at tho sickness that seemed to be crippling their energies, but the speaker found comfort in tho thought that the sickness was of the type associated with new birth. The nations were like molten metal overflowing the crucible and time would bring rigidity. When ho vsited Russia during the days of the first social democratic revolution he had undertaken a special mission from President Wilson and had carried tho hitter's State letter to the Russian people on tho occasion of the overthrow of the autocracy. Although he was not in sympathy with those leaders who, he declared, were tumbling millions into the abyss, ho had profound confidence in the Russian peasant, intelligentsia and religionists. Russsia was the most plastic nation in the world to-day. As for China, it had to be remembered that she was passing through no fewer than four revolutions, a literary revolution similar to tno renaissance in Europe a political revolution .swinging from extreme autocracy to military dictatorship, an industrial revolution which bad been begun to the shame of Western Chiistendoin and, finally, a religious revolution. Yet it was astonishing to the visitor how many examples of the unity of the people met his eye. China should be regarded with great toleration. Nations in Chastened Mood. Already a good sign had appeared amid the turmoil. No longer were the nations self-satisfied, but chastened, humbled, nay, humbled to the dust, and humility was invariably a precursor to something infinitely greater. There was also a wonderful feeling of expectancy, in spite of the bitter disappointments of the years past. Wherever the traveller went he would'find nations, especially the backward and oppressed nations, tingling with now aspirations, hopes and ambitions. Finallv, there was a spirit of determination,' specially noticeable in the seats of learning, that lives should be spent and bent to bring in the new day that was dawning. It was tremendously significant that at a time when the world had never been in so plastic a state a world-wide Christian student movement had been evolved, embracing millions oI youth and blending all the races of mankind to make Christ loved and obeved in all human relationships. He beiieved it was Disraeli who said, "Is it not a. great tiling to see a nation saved by its youth i ct it i\as a still greater thing to see youth linked all ovei° the universe for the evangelisation of the world. It would be their duty to promote peace and demand level justice to all peoples and to apply to nations the principle of the golden rule which Christ taught was applicable to individuals. The League of Nations was capable ot great and worthy things, but it would not avail unless the peoples themselves filled in the living content, As a. practical course uf action Dr. Molt, urged the promotion of an intermit ional'"feeling, of heart, mind and will, and a world-wide campaign for the education of youth, so that war and the intolerant spirit might be made impossible. PRACTICE OF PRAYER. THE VALUE OF MEDITATION. St. Matthew's Church was packed to the doors last evening when Dr. Mott delivered his . first and only sermon to an Auckland congregation. Dr. Mott made a powerful plea tor the general adoption by Christian people of the practice of prayer, taking as his text, "He that sinketh a shaft away from where men dwell." The modern man, he declared, was Undoubtedly caught in the meshes of applied science and needed a renewal and rearrangement of his mental processes. -In this respect tho Oriental had one great message to tho peoples of the Western world and that was to look beyond tho things they saw and reap the benefits of a calm introspection. When the speaker was in Palestine indulging a solitary life on the'hills round .lonisaicm and at a shepherd s hut overlooking the Sea of Galilee he collected portions of the Lord s words regarding His habits of prayer: "Jesus constantly withdrew Himself 'into the wilderness and there prayed." "He left tho house and went into a solitary place and thero prayed," and "He went, as his custom was, to the Mount of Olives and prayed. If, said the preacher, Jesus Christ found it, desirable to bold vital communion with the Spirit, what assumption of folly in these crowded days imagined men could do without that expansive practice? Canon C. H. Grant Cowen and the Rev. Dr. 11. Ran;,ton participated in the service. Dr. Mott spoke at the University College in (ho afternoon on "Tho Demand of tho Present Age on Universities." His address was heard by a. large gathering of students and professors, numbers of people being obliged to stand.

"Peter Pan" —Sir J. M. Perm's wonderful story in picture form at ilio Strand to-day. Day sessions only at 11.30 and 2.30. Send the children during their school holidays. The Nnzol habit is a pleasant one — and worth having—because it protects tho membranes of the month, throat and nose with Nazol against the infectious germs of colds, catarrh and influenza.