The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1920. CHURCH’S CALL TO A CRUSADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17778, 29 January 1920, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1920. CHURCH’S CALL TO A CRUSADE

The President of the Australian Methodist Conference, the Rev. Join' G. Wheen, commenting upon the momentous event of the inauguration of the League of Nations, said that it gave to the Church a greater opportunity than ever before for the propagation of the ideals of Christianity, and it was greatly to be desired that without delay every Christian leader in Australia should call his people to pledge themselves to this holy crusade. The League of Nations came as a challenge to the Church in every Rind to be up and doing. The possibilities of lasting good to the whole world which be hidden in the Covenants of the League of Nations, said Mr. Wheen, were untold. How far those possibilities could be realised remained to be seen. The war had made us realise in these southern lands how intimately we werb linked up ’ with other peoples. Prior to the war we were in danger of developing an insular and parochial spirit. We regarded ourselves as a self-contained entity, which need not be disturbed by the social revolutions and other movements which were passing over Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. The delusion has been swept away for ever, and we knew to-day that our safety and our progress must be hindered or promoted by movements which originated and strengthened In other lands. It was of the highest importance for our well-being that the League of Nations should becolne a permanent factor in the life of modern civilisation. Even though America should continue to stand aloof, it behoved Australasia to march shoulder to shoulder with Great Britain, Franc.. Belgium, Italy, and all other nations and dominions which had entered into this League with a view to making wars of aggression and exploitation impossible, for cultivating the spirit of human brotherhood, aud for paving the way to a permanent, equitable, and universal peace. There were few men among us win would tail to recognise that the Christian Church should play not merely an important but leading part in educating the public mind, instructing the public conscience, and developing an intelligent and sympathetic public opinion which would be unmistakably friendly t wards the League, and which would make it easy for our national, commercial, and industrial leaders tc guide the life of the community along the lines which the Covenant foreshadowed. The Church held tenaciously to the belief that the forces which must ultimately assure success to the league were moral and spiritual forces. The document was a human document; its proposals were the product of human genius, but Mr. Wheen believed that those who compiled the document werh Divinely led in much that they did, and was satisfied that the Hand of God must guide the league if It was to accomplish lasting good. The sagacity of the statesman, the enterprise of the merchant, the heroism of the pathfinder must be guided and energised by a spiritual power if true progress was to be achieved and the real good of man. was to be advanced. The ethical note must be soundgd unceasingly, aud it devolves upon the Church to sound

that note. ■ The Spiritual Vision must be revealed, and it was the Church that is. the God chosen vehicle for the revelation of that Vision. And the League of Nations came as a challenge to the Church in every land to be up and doing. "It is both the privilege and the pre- i rogative of the Church,” said Mr. Wheen, “to keep before men of every class in the community thoso great Ideals of truth and of righteousness which have found expresIsion and Illustration in the teaching and person of Jesus Christ, an which she holds to be at once the basis and the inspiration of all-abid-ing character either for the Individual or for the nation. The commencement of the League of Nations gives to the Church a greater opportunity for the propagation of these ideals than she has ever known before. It is greatly to be desired that without delay every Christian leader in Australia should call his people to pledge themselves to this i holy crusade. Along that way may be found the solution of many of our modern social and political problems, and in a service such as this there may be discovered an unanswerable argument for the closing up of the Christian forces in a great campaign for the moral purification and uplifting of the whole community. While statesmen and merchants are making ready to take their share in the enlarged movements of civilisation as an outcome of the League, the Church must take her place in the very forefront of the movement and bid all men 'follow the flag’ on which is emblazoned the golden rule.”