PRAYERS FOR PEACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23631, 15 October 1938, Page 14

PRAYERS FOR PEACE

MORAL AND SPIRITUAL REARMAMENT CHURCH’S “RECALL” FALLEN FLAT WHAT POLITICAL LEADERS CAN DO (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON. Sept. 19. The Rev. S. J. Marriott, Canon of Westminster, writes to The Times regarding the letter in which Lord Bledisloe inquired how Lord Baldwin and his co-signatories propose to put into effect their policy of “Moral and Spiritual Rearmament.” The canon says: The first step surely is to put before the nation a concise statement of what that policy entails and what it will demand of the people. Every German citizen knows exactly what Nazism is and what it requires of him. If at last we are to have a policy other than that of temporising and hoping for the best, let it be laid before the nation in explicit terms and with no concealment of the sacrifice and discipline which it will entail.

If we are afraid to ask the nation for a sacrifice and selflessness at least as great as that which the totalitarian States require and receive of their followers we shall fail. Indeed, that is the crucial test —can the democratic countries give to Christian ideals as fearless and determined a loyalty as that which is being given to the militaristic and anti-Christian creeds of the dictator States?

My own experience leads me to endorse heartily Lord Bledisloe's conviction that “ there are hundreds of thousands of God-fearing people who would selfllessly and whole-heartedly respond ” to such an appeal. As a first step, then, let us have the ideal of “ moral and spiritual rearmament” reduced to specific application and shown to be a perfectly practicable policy, as can easily be done. And let it be done by those distinguished leaders in the nation who signed the letter in question. If the movement is regarded as a religious matter in a “ churchy ” sense it will be done for.

I am sprry to have to say this, but it is a fact. The Recall to Religion issued by the Church has fallen flat, but, if it is brought before the people in these terms by our national leaders, it will succeed. Church religion is at present for the very few; vital religion is still for the many. Political leaders can do for the nation what ecclesiastical authorities cannot. EFFECT OF PRAYER

The Rev. J. D. Jones, president of the National Free Church Council, referred to Lord Bledisloe’s ” noble ” letter and. while he had no doubt at all" that throughout these dark and perilous days prayer has been made in all our free churches that war may be averted and peace preserved, he ventured to suggest a special day of intercession, and remarked: “ Lord Bledisloe asked how we could give practical expression to the spirit of that letter. Would not this act of united intercession be such a ‘practical expression ’? There is an old word which says that the prayers of righteous men avail much in their working.”