THE YEAR OF VICTORY

Otago Witness, Issue 3234, 8 March 1916, Page 30

THE YEAR OF VICTORY

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

NEW YEAR SERMONS

(Fsom Oun Own Cobbespohdent.)

LONDON, January 5

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in Ins New Year message to the clergy and laity: " The persistence of so much that is bravo and buoyant in tho faco of the unending sacrifice and pain is itself a splendid witness to the power and love of God. Therein, jnoro wonderfully than even is His loving handiwork revealed to tho Christ-taught eye. It is a mysterious and difficult thought, perhaps, but I believe it to be true, that every act of human love and eelf-surrender is an outcome and utterance, in its own littlo way, of the force which bears away for good in the whole of the universe, the underlying and pervading love of God, which can find in our littlo acts and words its visible or audible expression. Once bring that down to your own surroundings and conditions, and a vivifying power springs into being, to dignify by its touch our petty prosaic acts of unnoticeable self-denial, or of deliberate thrift in quite littlo things for a ' public good ' which looks .so big and far-off from our domestic luo, or again, of reserve and quietness in speech and criticism at a time of public anxiety and perilous strain. Small as they look, theso things are things of God. They matter intensely in English life to-day Preaching at St. Paul's Cathedral, his Grace said': " English life has undergone a change which is irrevocable. The new fellowship set going in English homes can never pass away. What we have to see to is that it shall be wholesome through and through. As the New Year opens we are poorer in tho hearths and homes of England by the loss of our very best and manliest. Thousands of the men to whom we looked confidently for fulfilling for the British Empire the noblest of her traditions are to-day lying cold and stark on foreign soil. Every college and school knows it. Not one of us probably at this moment but is thinking of the lad on whom we rested all our hopes. We thank God for him. W c pray God for him here and now upon our intercession day. We are the poorer, but wo aro the richer, too. Those gallant lives, those bravo and willing deaths cannot be in vain. England as an Empire can thank God.and take courage. We set high store by what they did. But it would be simply intolerable for us to stand aside and withhold from tho common offering all that we have." THE PRELIMINARY VICTORY. Tho Archbishop of York, at York Minster: "A year ago we prayed for victory and peace. Since then a year—stern, terrible, and anxious—has gone. We have, indeed, much ground for thankfulness that _ tho enemy is no nearer the -fulfilment of his inordinate ambitions. Nay, we can see that they cannot be fulfilled, for the sands of his opportunity are running out. Tho cause to which we are devoted has suffered no great defeat, and though there have been bitter •failures and disappointments, they have been borne with calmness and self-control. Tho ties which bind us and our Allies and all parts of our Empire together are stronger than ever before, sealed by tho seal of common sacrifices, which can never be forgotten. The spirit of our own people is not less, but more, determined to endure, because it has learned tho gravity of the task which is committed to it. There is, therefore, no place in our thoughts or prayers today either for fear or for gloom. The question must arise in all hearts: Our cause is just, why do 'the feet of the vindicating justice of God move, so slowly? Might not one possible answer be that God is waiting for the response of men to the call of His judgment, stern and terrible? His operations arc on a scale which ehow that deep and far-reaching purposes are to bo wrought by them; they aro primarily His verdict upon tho sins which stained tho old world of our 19th century civilisation. Surely all this, convulsion of the nations of Europe can mean but the pangs of the birth of a new and nobler world in which the nations must themselves see and grasp the purpose of God which will be fulfilled partially, at least, if, through the experience of war, the nations gain a new passion for peace which will make a renewal of war impossible. God's concern was wider far than the more humbling of the German mind. It might_ bo that victory was withheld until the nations who fought for it had a deep and sincere desire for the fulfilment of God's purpose; it might be that victory was withheld until God saw that they had learned the _ lesson of tho groat moral ordeal through which tho spirit of the nation was called to pass. Wo would be found worthy of victory over our enemies when wo had attained to some fuller and completer victory over ourselves by which alone peace could bo a blessing." GOD HAS NO FAVOURITES. The Bishop of London, preaching at St. Paul's: "God has no special favourites. He is not tho special God of the British Empire any more than he is of tho German. Ho is the God of all tho earth, and no individual can escapo His eyo and no nation His judgment. His rules for tho government of tho World are well known, and up to a point have been fully revealed. It is part of His education of tho world that Ho never allows a nation or an individual to escapo from tho responsibilities of their mistakes. Tho moment we understand that idea, pessimism at tho fact that _wc have not yet won tho great war is nothing short of absurd. Our youth were not trained to serve, in spito of the repeated warnings of the last great soldier buried in this great Cathedral. The navy is trained, alert, and efficient. Therefore, it rules the seas. If there has been a miracle at all it is the escaping of a worse disaster than wo have ever yet had. Nothing has happened which must "not happen when an unprepared nation has to meet one which had prepared for forty years. Tho inevitable has happened, and it is no part of God's plan, to stop the inevitable. But if that were all it would bo only a negative comfort. The positive comfort is that God has never allowed devilry, lust, and tyranny finally to triumph in His world. The truth is that if tho day of victory is coming, it is only part of a, larger day. Our sons would have died in vain if, after the war is over, we were to go back to our old life. Wo are opt to forget that before the war began wo were on tho verge of civil war at home and of an industrial revolution The nation, which is to bo tho instrument of God's judgment must bo worthy. Are we as a nation such a v/oapon? Can wo say that wo aro not as other nations?"

TOO MUCH PESSIMISM. Canon Wilberforce, at St. John's, Westminster: "There is too much pessimism in tho world. In spite of tho unparalleled sacrifice there mirt be no shadow of discouragement or fear as to tho issue of the conflict. We are fighting not for gain, but for tho libertv of Europe. Our mental attitude should be on" of thanks to know that the national strength is unshaken. No mortal blow has been dealt at the Allies. Let there bo no pessimism. Equally in our united approach to the Lord God Omnipotent there must bo no cringing humiliation. Britain was forced into tho war by the mad ambition of ono_ man. \Yu confess that wo have great national sins, and wo do not possess Puritan perfection; but wo know that unless wo have been guilty of dishonour to both God and man wo could not have, kept out of the war. It is, therefore, with perfect that wo may approach the Lord God Omnipotent." RELIGIOUS OUTCOME OF THE WAR. Tho Bishop of Birmingham, in his diocesan letter: " There is "pressing upon my mind most of all the great question of what is to bo tho religious outcome of the present war. It is our duty, not only to be getting ready to strengthen the returning soldiers in their religious life, but also to fill our women with longing and power to be of full use in the days that lie. before us. What part is tho Church to play? I believe that the really important matter, if we are to help in this establishing of the nation in religious devotion, will be the awakening to their responsibilities of tho so-called fathful members of tho Church." A CITIZENS' WAR. Dr Hensley Henson, Dean of Durham: "When victory must be won in the workshops, where the engines of warfare are manufactured, before it can bo won in the field or in the trench, it is evident that all turns on the habits and dispositions not of armies merely, but of the population at home. When the cost, of war has grown to such extravagant proportions that only the largest sacrifices on the part of the citizens can enable the State to maintain a prolonged conflict, it is evident that critical importanceattaches to the measure of the private sacrifice which the citizens will "make. When tho novel and gigantic requirements of the strugglo compel in such a society as our own —a society organised for peace and habituated to it —drastic changes of system arid great surrenders of tradition, it needs no argument to show that the successful achievement of the indispensable changes must depend on the patriotic, spirit of the citizens, on their sense of proportion, on their willingness to subordinate personal preferences to the public good, on their capacity to rise above prejudice and faction, and to look singly and solely to tho welfare of the country. It is a heart-piercing spectacle, infinitely suggestive, with which wo aro faced. Tho sheer volume of wretchedness dazes and paralyses us. Tho imagination faints before tragedy so vast and profound. The physical tragedy of tho war takes its place with the kindred disasters of earthquakes, pestilence, flood, the fearful eatastrophies which shiver planets or mark tho bounds of geologic ages. It fs one mor« glorious chapter in the conflict of the spirit against the flesh, and it is adding to tho succession of spiritual heroes countless numbers of valorous combatants." THE LACK OP PATRIOTISM.

The Bishop of Carlisle, in his Cathedral: " The lack of patriotism is. not confined to any single class exclusively. It is quite as common, and vastly more culpable, among our academic and armchair cosmopolitans than among our half-educated artisans. The half-educated artisan has much excuse for his invertebrate patriotism: the armchair cosmopolitan has no excuse at all. Moreover, I ask, whose fault is it that so many artisans are lacking in patriotism? Who has earnestly and intelligently endeavoured to teach them by word and good example the difference between false patriotism and true; between the bitter Jingo patriotism of the ancient Jews and modern Germans and the benignant patriotism of Jesus? Have the clergy, by their unhappy divisions taught them this Divine distinction? Have the politicians by their servitude to party and their bondage to votes taught them? Have the industrial leaders by their inflammatory appeals to class prejudice and sordid selfinterest taught them? The little that has been done has been done by the press, but •the press is too much divided against iteelf to lead and unite the people. As I muse upon these things, my wonder is not that a small fraction of our working classes is unpatriotic, but that any patriotism is left in them at all. But a better day is coming, and even the curse of war may, through the Divine mercy, bring blessings in its train. The war is a grand opportunity for tho cultivation of self-discipline and the recovery of true patriotism in tho larger and more generous development of national con.Kciousness " HAS RELIGION FAILED?

The Chief Rabbi (Dr Hertz), at the Great Synagogue : " Tho stoutest heart was filled with depression and dismay at the immeasurable woo of this veritable tragedy of tho nations. Yet tragedy, as the ancients truly held, lifted us out of the petty and self-centred, and purged and purified us. Tho men who have fought and died at Gallipoli have not fought and died in vain, although tho rocks havo been abandoned. They have set now standards of human courage and added luminous pages to British history. That is tho great paradox of religion. From darkness and tho shadow of death, from deepest suffering and vastest sorrow, man can reap a harvest of such spiritual power and transcendent worth that, like Adam in tho Talmudio legend, he will utter grateful benediction to God for the new light with which his path is henceforth sown. As to the feeling shared by some that because of this stupendous convulsion religion has failed. I recall the question asked by the lato Dr Scheehter: 'Have we been living in a really religious age when this calamity overwhelmed us?' Surely wo cannot speak of anything having failed when it has never even been tried. With the victory of Britain tho old pagan idols and heathen idols will be shattered, and it will bo a chastened humanity that will emerge from tho ruins of the cataclysm."