REVOLUTION IN RELIGION

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3999, 27 November 1918, Page 3

REVOLUTION IN RELIGION

DR. CLIFFORD'S VIEW,

"I think there is no'doubt whatever that a great religious revolution is taking place in our midst, the results' of which will be as important and as momentous as the changes wrought by the French devolution," said Dr.. Clifford to a "Daily News" representative recently. "Some people may doubt the accuracy of my assertion, but in my opinion it is a correct description of what is taking place. Ideas are the force that rule the world, whether new ideas or old ideas, revivified.

"Changes, radical and fundamental, are taking place in the thinking of men concerning religion, which mark an unquestionable advance towards brotherhood, justice, and righteousness, I am certain that Christianity will become in the future much more real and practical. It i? practical Christianity translated into everyday life in all its phases that the soldiers at the front are asking for.

"War has brought us into closer touch with the realities of life and death. In future, instead of the emphasis being upon creed, ritual, church, order, and government, the emphasis of the religious life will have to be on behaviour and conduct upon the attitude of man to man, upon his attitude to the nation, and upon the attitude of. one nation towards other nations. This translation of the spiritual force into the political life will mean not only a new state order but a new world order, and in its wider form it will eventuate in an international tribunal for the settlement of disputes amongst nations, such as is enshrined in the proposal for a League of Nations.

"In short, the changes are driving people to a recognition of the oneness of humanity—one God and one destiny for the whole human race. The revival is equally emphatic in France as in Britain. The conviction is deepening in men's minds that the ultimate victory in this war will come to the nation or nations that have the highest and truest moral, and are lifted to a higher plane of living."