"STRICKEN GERMANY."

Patea Mail, Volume XLIII, 28 July 1919, Page 3

"STRICKEN GERMANY."

"WE HAVE SINNED GRIEV--01'SLY"

Dr. Conrad, formerly one of Ihe exKaiser's Court preachers, addressing his Berlin congregation recently, vised these words in speaking of "stricken Germany "—"May we then turn from our evil ways, may we then turn from our pride, our injustice, our unworthy aims, our base, selfish, sinful desires, and find in Him the satisfaction of all our desires."

But the most striking words are those of Dr. Fassbinder, a Franciscan monk, to a Catholic confraternity at Munich : "We wanted to gain the whole world, and were willing to barter our souls for the prize. Would i! have profited us.' When I reflect upon (he iniquity and sin which governed our lives both as a State and as individuals, I am forced to believe that i! was prido, avarice, greed, and envy of the welfare of others which were the active driving forces within us. Think of what world domination would have made of us. Germans. Wo should have walked the earth as gods. Superciliously we should have looked down upon the 'inferior races' of mankind.and not a chink or cranny would have l„. ori l<-fi in our brazen armour through which the divine grace of charity, humility and mercy might enter. We have sinned grievously, we Imve disgraced our German name, ami it will be God's own way of healia/c us if He casts us on the bed of humiliation, and does not; stretch out Hi ■■ Almighty Hand to raise us until we are again ready to walk with Him and Ho with UK."