After the War Religion.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume VII, Issue 9, 1 June 1917, Page 92

After the War Religion.

In an article m the Church Envoy, Diocese of Dunedin, the Editor says of " After the War Religion " ;— il When they come home ! " Into that shoftsentence is packed every emotion of which the human soul is capable. And it also constitutes a problem for Church and State. Will they be able to settle down ? After the vivid and appalling experiences of modern warfare it will be very difficult for them to adapt themselves to the humdrum routine of ordinary secular life. But what of humdrum religion ? This has to be faced. What of the lad who, alas ! was never seen at the altar at home, who tells us that he never misses a chance of making his communion now at the Front? And the many who have grown accustomed to freer and more direct methods of religious expression than are m vogue with us m normal times ? We all know that the Church must prepare somehow for the new wine, but how ? One. thing ; is certain : Nothing must be surrendered —nothing must be given up. Multitudes have learnt the value of theSacraments and have tasted the joy of the sacramental life. Multitudes have felt the appeal of the majestic liturgy of the Church. Practically everyone of our chaplains writes of the difficulties of dealing with the continual stream of Confirmation candidates ; and one chaplain m a Scots division tells us that the Anglican Church parade is much larger than the Presbyterian, although the latter have two chaplains to our one. So any change we may make must be m the nature of an enrichment, an extra, not m pruning down. First of all we shall need aggressive mission work. An officer of the Salvation Army recently read out a letter which he had received-from a priest. The clergyman, dear man, tried to point out certain defects m " Army " religion ; he tried to. show

what a great work that organisation, might do if it regarded itself purely as a missionary organisation to draw benighted sinners into the Church The writer had failed to recognise a point which is sufficiently obvious— namely, that while the " Army " claims to be extra-denominational when it is appealing for public funds, it is m fact the closest and most tyrannical religious society m the world. It exercises a moral and religious pressure over its adherents such as the monastic societies exert over their members, minus the wise safeguards which monasteries employ. Its .doctrinal basis may be, m our eyes, unsatisfactory ; but it is far more rigid m its demands and vigorous m its anathemas than Roman Catholicism. In this we do not criticise the Salvation Army, but only its simple-minded critic who imagined that it would ever rest content with ihe position of a " franctireur' force, to do the rough work of an advance guard for the regular body of Christ's Church. We do not criticise so much as covet the spirit of enthusiasm and devotion which public patronage has not yet killed among the rank and file of the Salvation Army. We desire to capture for our Church that sense of the inherent romance of Christianity which we have so largely lost. We need somehow to sap and mine the hideous outworks of " humdrum " morality which at present hide the glories of evangelical Catholicism from our eyes. We have to be our own Salvation Army. Here is our call, then. This is what we have to do to prepare for the great home-coming : to transfuse everything that we have got with missionary energy, resolutely scrapping everything whiclfwill not yield itself to the great call. We have no time, we are overworked, under-manned, the future is so uncertain, the present so inopportune for any extraordinary effort. Yet man's extremity is God's opportunity, and we shall have time enough and hands enough if we . are only sufficiently drastic m the " scrapping" process and if we will only learn to conserve and direct the energy which we have into the right channels. : A correspondent calls our attention to a pronouncement made at the Salvationist conference, referred to above. The writer raises a point upon which we have not touched i Our people contribute large sums to Salvationist funds because of the social work which is done by that body j they do aot realise

that the greater part of the money so raised is devoted to. religious propaganda. Nor is it sufficiently realised that such propaganda is not only not ancillary m any way to the Church, but it is definitely opposed to our own religion at many points. > This was made clear by the speaker at the conference m question. He said boldly and clearly what many Protestants declare more indefinitely — that Sacraments do not matter; only, faith m Christ matters. This is bewildering to anyone who takes the trouble to think about religion. Our Saviour's dying command to His friends was : "Do this m remembrance of Me." The Salvationist says : " Don't do this ; it is quite unnecessary." ■'.:•'■■ Our Saviour's last injunction to His Church before His Ascension was: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them m the name of the Pather, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. ... ." The Salvationist says : ' ' You need not baptise ; you need not observe all things that Christ has commanded." Now we claim that m these matters the Christian has to make up his mind. It is not a question as between one religious body and another: it is. a question of whether we are going to follow Christ or Salvationism; whether we are going to have faith m faith — that is, m our own emotions and senti-ments-r-or faith m Christ. Our Lord Himself has described the former type of religionism m very clear terms : " And why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Modern indifference is inclined to accept earnestness and zeal as a substitute for obedience. This our Lord will not do ; and, after all, it is His decision which matters first and last.