THE BISHOP'S VIEW.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 528, 19 October 1915, Page 11

THE BISHOP'S VIEW.

WAR AND CHRISTIANITY. NO HOPE OF WORLD PEACE. ADDRESS BY BISHOP JULIUS. "The night is long, and there is no glimpse of the coming day," said Bishop Julius this ' afternoon in that portion of his address to the Synod of the diocese of Christchurch which dealt with the war. "It is a year of many disappointments, and chief among them surely this: that such a war is possible in the 20th century. "I am thinking specially of the Christian outlook: that a religion so full of hope and' promise should land us here," Continued his Lordship. "In truth it is but one of the disappointments which meet us every day, arresting thought, whichever way we look, and I am not quite sure whether we have any right to

be disappointed. We made no pre-, paratiori f6r the war; our Army was siriall, and. we reduced it on the eve of ,battle; our munitions were 1 exhausted: ,after a few weeks' struggle. We made' our Navy strong, but; w<r were strong in nothing else, and our enemy, by 40 years of sacrifice, and preparation, was ready to do battle with the world. . Wonderful Success.

"Xo' my; thinking, our success has been beyond all that we had any right to expect. But the disappointment of which I speak is not So 1 much that of in the war, but of• the war itself. Is there any hope for us if, after nearly 20 centuries, the Christian nations are involved in a death struggle 1 ? In answer to. this, let me. ask another question: By what right does a half pagan society claim the fulfilment of Divine promises? If the devotion of the primitive Church had been maintained, it were another matter. Yet even the primitive Church was disappointed. .. . The idea, so prevalent among ourselves, of a millennium, brought about by some process of Christian evolution, by which, in the course of ages, wars shall cease, and the lion shall lie down with the lamb, has no warwarrant in Holy Scripture. Christ is the King of Peace, but it is tile peace within He gives, even as He has said: 'These thing have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation.' War Is Inevitable.

"War belongs to the nature of things in this world, and is as inevitable as earthquakes. Peace Societies and Arbitrations may do their gallant best, all honour to them, and they will postpone the inevitable outbreak for a score of years, until one nation is ready, and another unprepared. It is 1 conceivable that the nations of Western Europe may. lose the arts, of war, reduce their armaments until nothing remains of them, and, like the Morioris of the Chatham Islands, chant their ancient war songs,'having forgotten meaning of them, arid await the coming of a warlike race which shall devour them up." The promises of God are fulfilled, not in a world-peace, that shall reduce the nations to imbecility, but in the men of God,' who, doing their 'duty to their God arid country, step forth even into the wild confusion of the battlefield, stayed and comforted by the peace of God that passeth understandirig. 'I have just received the Holy Coirimunion,' wrote a young trooper, 'and it has bucked me up for to-morrow.' And to-morrow he died. It seems to mc that there is neither hope nor promise of wor v lcl-peace and that it is the business of the Christian to pluck good out of the evil. : j No Song of Hate Needed.

"Why is not all war waged after the German fashion? I answdr: Because, directly or indirectly, war has been influenced by the spirit ;of Christianity, and that Germany has returned to the religion and spirit of the Hun.... The Christian needs no song of hate. He gives his life, or takes the life of another* b'ut there is no hate in it. So then, one of the 1 greatest nations of the earth has 'run amuck,' and for the rejst, the w r ar-path is the only 'Way of peace.' Until the madman is bound, all talk of peace is mischievous. Peace must be, 'made in Germany.' While Lord Kitchener is silent, it i is certainly J ,nq business of mine. !to venture mi opinion on the question

of compulsion. All of-us could wish that it were possible to supply the men and; win th.e.wan, on a voluntary system. But the Empire is not doing its best, and until it does, there is little hope of victory. We cannot be too thankful for the spirit of sacrifice manifest throughout the Empire, and not least of all in New Zealand. The people have given their sons freely, and they are-not weary of giving wjhat else they have to give. Of course there are some, both here and at Home, who are making money by the war. ,No [taxation can touch them more than lit touches others. They must be left to the Divine judgment of degradation."