CHRISTIANITY IMPUGNED

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14257, 7 January 1920, Page 5

CHRISTIANITY IMPUGNED

THE KAISER'S FAITH SHOCKED. ON HIS VISIT TO JERUSALEM. MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANITY. i ■ (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Eeceived January 6, 7.50 p.m. LONDON, January 5. The Kaiser sent to Nicky his impressions of Jerusalem, where his religious sentiments received a shock. After describing his emotions in treading the ground where the Savour had trod, he adds: "The manifold different confessions of sects of a common Christian faith has done much in the way of church building on so-called traditional places. It has been something of a race for the highest towers and biggest churches, which do not harmonise.with the sites on which they had been erected, in fact,one could call it an exhibition of church modeis. This also has 'effected the clergy of the different churches who take pleasure in intrigues and political designs, thus fostering hatred instead of love and leading to free fights and ba'ttles in the' churches instead of psalms and friendly intercourse. Worse still they have created a worship of 6tones and wood forbidden in the second commandment instead of Divinity itself. Very naturally this fetish adoration has created a supreme contempt for Christians with the Moslems. I f«lt profoundly ashamed before the Moslems, and if I had come without any religion I certainly would have turned a Moslem. The way our religion is understood in Jerusalem will never convert a single Moslem.

"I return home with the firm conviction that the Saviour's grave is certainly not beneath the Church of Saint Sepulchre, which, in appearance and decoration, compares badly with the Mosque Omar in its simple and inspiring grandeur. The Kaiser believed that the astounding reception he received was due to his friendship with the Sultan because I always employed a loyal policy towards him, the same as I have so often advocated for you too."