CLERGY AND THE WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11948, 6 March 1917, Page 2

CLERGY AND THE WAR.

A HAWERA PROTEST.

[Pas. Pass* Amoctatios.l HA WEE A, March 5. The-Hawcra Roman Catholic congregation last evening unanimously passed a resolution: " That while thoroughly sympathising with the desires of thei Government to prosecute the war with all legitimate vigour we respectfully but emphatically protest against a law which enforces conscription upon the clergy and ecclesiastical students. 1 '

CANON LAW AND DIVINE LAW

AN OLD TESTAMENT TEXT

The question of the clergy and the ballot was dealt with on Sunday night from St Andrew's pulpit by the; Rev A. T. Thompson, who took as his text the story of David, contained ; n Chronicles 1., xxviii.. 3, "But God: said unto me, thou shall. not build a house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war and hast .shed blood."

" Here is a passage hidden away in the records of an empire builder,''' said the preacher, "that is worth its weight . ; n gold in this present crisis, but no one has spoken the word. No one has heeded the plain implications of this passage, which tells of a great and noble purpose, the divine refusal, and the plain grounds of that refusal." Mi; Thompson had spoken of the marvellous quality of the Bible in giving guidance and direction in every stage of human experience, not only for the individual but for the nation. He dwelt on tho long-cherished purpose of King David, whose hands had been tied by the difficulties of uniting the nation. Tn spite of the strange mixture o? good and evil in him, the good undoubtedly had predominated, and David, thojiern of a hundred battles, the nation-builder end champion of his people, was also a man of piety and holy purpose, and it was never more clearly reveled than in the : neompar:tblfi scene in which he had called together his trusted leaders, and had spoken of the unfulfilment of las' great and glorious purpose The grounds of the divine refusal were "an expression of the divine mind as to the sense of the fitness of things, and although David bad been inspired of all that was noble in the justifiable wars which he had waged, he was precluded, in the Divine mind at least, from a special type of reiirfous service.

" Friends,"' said Mr Thompson, "the inference oi' this passage and these remarks is no doubt perfectly plain to you. During these past days the mind of tho country has been and still, is agitated ov?r the question of the military service of the ministers of religion, and strong currents of opinion run in opposing directions, My Church has taken up the position in resolution of Assembly that ministers of religion may justifiably take, up tho sword; but that if in the best interest's of their couptry it is the opinion that they should stay at their post, an appeal will be made on their behalf. If is a. terrible responsibility for a committee of tho Church to assume, but it is a more terrible responsibility that has been'already taken by tho legidators of our land in. decreeing that ministers of religion should take up arinH. Never was the Father's Mouse, the. House of Prayer, so thoroughly desecrated find degraded, no, not even by the buyers and sellers whom Christ in His holy wrath cast forth, as when our national leaders said to the ministers of religion, ' Tho only value we can pliioe upon you in our day of severestcrisis is the mere exercise of material force in tho destruction of the enemy.' Thus is materialism crowned m our high court of legislature in the land, and the spiritual dethroned >n God's court si

"Some churches are taking refuge in an appeal to canon tow," continued the preacher. " True, canon law has no place in the law of our land, trat behind that canon l.a;w, and creating it even, though it) should he some hundreds of years old, was undoubtedly a sense of the fitness of things. Ido not plead the canon law. I plead the law of God that speaks in the heart of the man, and that expresses a sense of the Eternal and Divine iitness of things. It David the King, a, man of piety, sincerity and high purpose was forbidden to build a house of Clod because he was a man of war and had shed blood, cair God approve of the minister of His gospel, solemnly set apart for spiritual service ju the House of God, can He approve of such service on the part of one who is n, man of war and has shed blood? Can our nation in such a time of crisis he so blind to the needs of the Spiritual and to the power of the Spiritual? We hsivo been told that the Church will gain in favour at the hands of the world if its minister shmild serve, My God! has it come to that, that the House of God must pander to the approval of the public. I scorn the Church that would act from such a motive. If this .judgment of the, politicians is backed up by the judgment of the community, there is plainly only one or other of two conclusions left—the nation frankly repudiates the value of the spiritual and crowns the material, or the church and ministers of religion have signally failed to impress on the life of the nation the paramount value of the spiritual. Whichever way, we face a tragedy, and it'is yours and mi.no."