RELIGI0N OF THE SOLDIER.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16983, 15 November 1919, Page 6

RELIGION OF THE SOLDIER.

MAJORITY QF'. MEN LOST TO THE CHURCH. lesson of TH-ra y.M.c.A.; '"The soldier lias got religion. I am not so. sure lie has got Christianity." The true significance of this (says an English, paper), as well aa the ccnsider-ation-of what the soldiers think about religion, of the changes made toy the war, and of the relation of the men to the Churches, is set forth in "The Army and Religion," a report by the Rev. D. S. Cairns, of the United Free College, Aberdeen. The Bishop of Winchester, joint convener with Dr. Cairns, writes' a preface. " JSvidence was collected from every available source, and Dr. Cairns' summary will be : invaluable for all who seek to revitalise the. Cliurch, and who wish to grapple wi,th ,the problem of the returned'soldier • and- hja religion. ' "The religion.of 90, per cent.,of the men at jth.e front, is-not distinctively Christian, but a ..religion of patriotism and of;valour, 'tinged with chivalry, and ( at ,the, best merely coloured' with sentiment" and' emotion borrowed from .Christianity," gays one witness,-; :^.' : v ~"■ JIASTERN. FATALISM. 'Many ;witnesses mention the. prevalence, of. an 'Eastern. fatalism,' connected vaguely .with Omar Khayyam, a belief in the salvation by death in battle, and a. Moskim rather than a Christian colour as. distinctiva of preach" religion. "... Almost uniformly consistent is the evidence dealing with dogma and doctrine. The men, it is declared, knew little of it, and were bored with what they knew. The Omnipotence of God, in face of the terrible euffering endured by the men, was one of the beliefs that soldiers found hard to reconcile with the belief in God as merciful iove. .. "The personality of Christ, distin- ; guished clearly from the Churches - which the men criticised without stint, was more real to them. But +.ho evidence reveals a, widespread ignorance of Jesus Christ, as well aa ipnorance pi; the heroio side of Christ's life. "Thpy do not think about Christ at all. "The Christ of the Bible has no hold on them. "Little is thought oF Jesus Christ. "Christ is a far off historical character, the great ideal of clean Jiving, the background to our child prayers, the beautiful beneficent figure in art productions, but He has nothing t<> do with the daily round." The majority are, in the Words of an Assistant-Chaplain-General, "lost to tho Church at the age of adolescence." GREAT CHRISTIAN QUALITIES. Tlieso are serious criticisms, and they are criticisms mads by Church workers , as a result of thejir inquiries among the men themselves.

Dr. Cairns seems ta sum tip the situation, when he says:

"We fire confronted td-day with the plain fact that along ■with much mortal frailty, these men are in the mass displaying, however unconsciously, great Christian qualities that put most of vis to shame."

"There are three grounds of hope," says the report. "They are: | 1. The Resources of God. 2. The Self-Revelation of Man in the War. -•. ' \ f:.'-.■;'-..& ,3. The Misunderstanding of Christianity., i ■-': ■..?■'-.' ;-, ".■/'; ; '~''' ""'. "If we, believed that] .the, Christian life was what "these 'irien believe" it to he, should we he Christians?" PRAISE FOP. Y.M.C.A. Great and well deserved praise is given t 0 the Y.M.C.A., with its interdenominational mission of pure friendship in the name of Jesus. "IB this enterprise can be put on its right basis, divested of every appearance of charity, inspired, by the spirit of gratitude, justice, and and carried through as a united work 0 t all the Churches, working harmoniously together for the common good, it might of itself go very far towards retrieving the whole situation," writes Dr Cairns. If this book, which, with its mass of almost tragic evidence, is accepted by the Churches as a whole as a direct challenge to concerted action on those lines, then there is hope that the reality of the Christian religion may become a part of the daily round in the moral life of the nation. "The" immediate task before the Church in the coming years is nothing less than the winning of the gre»<» majority of the youth of "the nation to faith in God through Jesus Christ, and conscious dedication, to "His Kingdom."

The report in.- itself constitutes a bold step upon the way to the successful realisation of this aim.