TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20346, 10 November 1937, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

A League Sermon “ There are voices which point out the strength of the forces which move outside the boundaries of the League,” said Dr. Sidney M. Berry, secretary of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, in his League of Nations Assembly sermon in St. Peter’s Cathedral, Geneva, recently. “ But when you inquire as to where the argument is leading, you can get no better answer than the vague statement, that the times are not ripe, that the ideal of the League is obviously right, but at present impracticable. When you press still further as to what that means in the terms of actual practice, you are left with the uncomfortable feeling that it means a reversion to the old situation before the League was called into existence, with the result that any sane observer can predict. I mention these things because they are being, commonly repeated in the ordinary talk of men, and announced in certain newspapers as the ripest fruit of political wisdom. “ In certain quarters there have been signs of weakening loyalty. Controversy among Christian people as to methods to be adopted to give effect to the League’s decisions has undoubtedly been one of the reasons for such weakening. In the present world situation it would be tragic if the Christian forces were divided on the one essential issue. The is the practical expression in international life of the Christian idea. It has, of course, many limitations at present which prevent it from embodying the fullness of that ideal, but if it failed now for lack of support what is there left round which the forces of peace could gather ? The Christian, who should always be the true realist, cannot discuss the future of the League in a calm, detached academic fashion. It is a life and death question for him, life or death to the thing for which he ought to care most—the nearer fulfilment of the will of God for mankind. What can the prevalent spirit of the age produce but violence and war, or at least the sullenness of spirit which threatens them? I believe that all the pride and vainglory, this hard division between nation and nation and i different schools of political thought, is an illusion.”