WAR AGAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20917, 23 September 1939, Page 6

WAR AGAIN

BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT EVEN WORSE CATASTROPHE UISIIOP OK WAIKATO'S LETTER "What can a Christian minister say to Christian people at this time? Frankly, 1 do not know. The mind is stunned," writes the Bishop of Waikato, the Ht. Rev. C. A. Cherrington in this month’s issue ol' tlie Waikato Diocesan Magazine. “We are overwhelmed with the bitterest disappointment. The answer to our prayers, our work, our hopes, has not been given, and we are again plunged into a catastrophe even worse than the one we thought was going to be the end of lighting and was twenty-one years ago. “We thought and were taught and told that the ’Great War/ so called, was a war to end war: that countries would then settle down side by side in peace. Well, now we have found out our mistake, and a great deal of what is happening now is the result of our fault then. When you have punished anybody, justly and rightly, as you think, you cannot leave the punished one to find his own feet; you have to try and help him to see that the punishment was remedial—for his own good—and bring him back to a happy and conteuted state again. “Country’s Feelings Have Rankled" “It is easy to cry out when the milk is spilt; but the Allies—English, French and American—should have sat in Berlin and Jointly helped Germany to recover on right and true, and really democratic, lines. There is no doubt that that country’s feelings have rankled ever since under a sense of injustice and wrong, and the Government of it has fallen into worse hands than those of the Kaiser. “And now we have to do it all over again, and only those who were in the last war can tell or guess one thousandth part of the horror of it. 1 am not going to harry your minds with any attempt to describe it. But the memory of it, all over again, bows one down with groaning and disappointment. Clergy Have Offered Bervioee “Well, our country calls us, and all of us have got to come in and help in whatever ways we can. All the clergy of the diocese have offered their services: naturally we would alj like to be chaplains: we cannot, for not many of us will be wanted for that work. The authorities will choose those of us who are suited for it. “Some of my younger brethren, in spite of the fact that they may sene in the R.A.M.C. in the Church Army huts, in New’ Zealand or at the front*, may say: ‘I am not going to let my young brothers of the laity risk their Jives and I take a softer job’: If that be so, Bishop, or no Bishop, 1 shall say ’The Lord be with you.’ “The pity of it is the younger men have got to go and risk their lives and lose them. We others who have had the best part of our lives have got to stay. They are the flower of our flock, the pick of our country and they have to offer the greatest sacrifice a man can be called on to offer. “Help In Every Way" “We others then—let us see to it that We are going to help in every way we can. Let us give of our time, our money, our ease and comfort, readily and willingly. It is all we can do, and compared with the other it is nothing. “Can we pray for peace? Yes, when the time shall come. Can we pray that it will be soon over? What is soon? Three years or thirty? “Let us pray that God will accept our sacrifice, whatever it may be, on behalf of humanity and freedom, if He will accept such a prayer."