Christianity. Owing to local circumstances for a time a persecutor,
our great ally soon became too enlightened to follow a policy of
persecution, and when, later on, an alliance was concluded with
ourselves, a natural admiration for the great Western Power which
had become its ally led to at least a respectful attitude towards
the religion which that ally at heart nominally and officially
professed.
Then occurred the War, and here you might have expected the
intelligent and clear-sighted watcher from a distance to have
discovered the _flaw_ in the religion which its great ally
professed. It is an open secret that it has had the precisely
opposite effect; never were the Japanese more favourably disposed to
give a hearing to Christianity than they are to-day, and the reason
is not far to seek.
_They saw a great nation act up to the principles of the religion it
professed._
If in those critical hours when the decision hung in the balance
we had decided to abide in our sheepfolds and hear the bleating of
the flocks; if we had decided to remain encircled by the silver sea
and the mightiest navy in the world, and watch at a safe distance
Belgium ravaged and the coast of France harried by the German
Fleet, Japan would have assessed at its proper value the Christian
sentiments which we officially professed.
But when it saw its great ally, practically unprepared, in the
cause of the weak against the strong, in the cause of international
honour, to defend the freedom of the world, fling itself into the
battle, then it bowed its head in respectful admiration of a nation
which did not wholly in vain profess to follow One "who, though He
was rich, for our sakes became poor," and who, again, to use the
striking phraseology of St. Paul, "being in the form of GOD, thought
it not a thing to be snatched at to be equal with GOD, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon the form of a slave."
It may seem a paradox to say it, but Japan was clear-sighted enough
to see the truth of it, that with all our inconsistencies and
imperfections, the good old British race never did a more Christlike
thing than when, on August 4th, 1914, it went to war. And surely
Japan was right.
The fallacy of the argument with regard to the breakdown of
Christianity from the War lies in the words "_Christian nations_."
_Is_ a nation a Christian nation which adopts as its governing
policy a pagan doctrine? There may be plenty of individual
Christians _in_ the nation, as no doubt there are, thank GOD, in
Germany, but no one who has ever cursorily studied Treitschke or
Bernhardi, or the utterances of the governing class of Germany, who
have imbibed the teaching of such leaders of thought, can imagine
that the nation which has prepared for this War for forty years,
which has prayed for this Day and longed for it, is really in this
sense a Christian nation.
We are getting tired, terribly tired--at least I am--of hearing of
these wretched men who have succeeded in indoctrinating a great and
powerful and efficient people with a virus which has turned them
into a curse instead of a blessing to the world. I only bring them
in as part of my defence of Christianity. I say it is a _monstrous
misuse of language_ to talk of the breakdown of Christianity when
what has produced the War is the _exact contrary to Christianity_.
There is no such precise contradiction to the doctrine of the Cross
as the doctrine of the Superman; there is no such absolute contrast
to the principles of the New Testament as the German War Book.
You can say, and justly say, that in failing to convert the German
nation, Christianity has so far failed in its world-wide mission,
and this I readily admit; but so has it failed at present to convert
the wild tribes of Central Africa and the millions of Chinese. All
that we claim is that the principles of Christianity, _when accepted
and lived up to_, change the face of the world; and we Christians
protest in the strongest way that a nation which avowedly acts at
a great crisis on anti-Christian principles is not in this sense a
Christian nation at all.
(2) But we go further than this; the progress of the War has opened
the eyes of other watching neutral nations besides Japan, as to the
value of Christian principles in the _conduct_ of War.
No one, I suppose, would deny that the whole idea of the Hague
Conference, and the rules which it issued for the conduct of War,
were a product of Christianity. It was thought two years ago that,
while the Christian religion might not have so far progressed in
the world as to render War impossible, at least that it would never
be disgraced by the murder and violation of women and children, by
ill-treatment of prisoners and non-combatants, and the sinking of
innocent merchantmen and trawlers.
Just as in the origin of the War Christianity justified itself,
so it has done in the _conduct_ of it. Mr. Washburn has described
the humanity with which the great Russian advance in Poland was
conducted--not a church damaged, except by accident, not a civilian
injured; whereas, while the world lasts, the names of Louvain,
Aerschott, _Lusitania_, Cavell, and Fryatt will cry shame on the
apostles of mere Kultur.
(3) But, on the other hand, let it not be supposed for a moment that
I am speaking _as if our own nation had no national sins_ to repent
of and no open sores to cure in this great Day of GOD.
I am myself "Chief of the Staff" of the great Mission of Repentance
and Hope which has already begun.
Short-sighted people ask to-day, "If we have a righteous cause,
what have we to repent of?"--but the true answer is, "_Because_ we
have a righteous cause, _therefore_ we must repent." I have spoken
of metaphors from the Old Testament, but there is a fine simile to
which I have not alluded, the simile of the _polished shaft_. "He
has made me like a polished shaft; in his quiver hath He hid me."
I fully believe that we are such a polished shaft in the Hand of
GOD to-day; that He feels down for the polished shaft which He has
prepared by years of discipline and dearly bought freedom, in order
that He may save through us the Freedom of the world; but _what
if we break in His Hand_, as nations have broken before? What if
our drinking habits, curtailed, it is true, for a time by drastic
regulations, but still producing a drink bill of 181 millions, what
if the ravages of lust in our nation, as shown in the statistics
published by the recent Commission, what if the constant neglect of
GOD Himself, so rot the polished shaft that it breaks in the Hand of
GOD?
It was not a Bishop--it was one of our leading Admirals--who
wrote: "Until England is taken out of her self-satisfaction and
complacency, just so long will the War continue. When she looks out
with humbler eyes and prayer on her lips, then she can begin to
count the days towards the end."
It is to bring the country back to GOD, _because_ it has a righteous
cause, which is the object and aim of the National Mission, and I
bespeak for it your co-operation in Birmingham, as well as your
earnest prayers.
What we aim at is a new England, a new British Empire after the
War, with all its old characteristics, with its old humour, and
its love of life, its vigour and its brightness, but sober, pure,
GOD-fearing; and beyond the Empire we look for a new Heaven and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Why for ever shall we have bitterness between class and class? Why
for ever, when this accursed Prussian spirit of militarism is laid
in the dust for ever, shall we have the constant menace of War? Why
should there not grow to be a spirit of brotherhood in the world,
when not only class and class, but nation and nation, shall agree to
share the good things with which GOD filled the kindly earth which
He has provided as a home for His children?
(4) But it would be impossible to leave the subject of the War and
Religion without alluding to the part religion plays in throwing _a
bright light on Death_. I have no doubt that I am speaking to many
to-day who have given their best and brightest in this greatest
cause ever fought on earth, who, to paraphrase the famous words
of Ruskin, "will never see the sun rise without thinking of those
graves it first gilds in Gallipoli, and who will never see the
flowers bloom in spring without thinking over whose dear bodies
bloom to-day the wild flowers of Flanders." When I, an unmarried
man, think to-day of my own spiritual sons, dear to me as if they
were my own boys, who have month by month gone to their death, or
come home maimed for life, it is almost more than I can bear, and
I can do something more than merely sympathize with the father and
mother who have given one, two, three, and I have known even four
sons in the same cause. I do more than sympathize: I feel with them;
I suffer with them.
And so with all the young widows whose life's hopes have been cut
short in an instant. I live in the midst of the mourners every day.
But could I do any good, ladies and gentlemen, _without religion_?
I am absolutely certain that I could not. It is a mistake, even with
religion, to speak as if death was not death, and pain not pain. One
of the most touching things ever said to me was this: "We come to
you, Bishop, because _you do not underrate human sorrow_."
Underrate it! Why! my wonder and admiration is that they bear it as
bravely as they do. Never again to have the cheery letter; never
again in this world to see the dear face; never again to feel the
loving arms around them and the strong embrace.
But, while religion does not pretend to do away with pain and
sorrow, it is the one thing which makes it tolerable, which lights
up the darkness of death.
"As CHRIST died for the world, and my two boys have died in their
humble way for the world, may I not consider," wrote a brave Colonel
who had lost his two boys in one week, "that CHRIST looks upon them
as His comrades in arms?"
I need hardly say what my reply was. Why! to my mind, the world is
being redeemed by precious blood again, and this precious blood
mingles with _the_ Precious Blood which flowed on Calvary, and
becomes part of the redemption of the world.
Nothing really cheers the mourners as much as to feel that their
beloved ones have made a noble sacrifice, and have not made it in
vain. And with that, religion brings in the blessed hope, nay,
certainty, of _seeing them again_.
How many have I cheered this year with Miss Katharine Tynan's poem
called "The Flower of Youth"?--
"Lest Heaven be for the greybeards hoary,
GOD, who made boys for His delight,
Goes in earth's hour of grief and glory,
And calls the boys in from the night.
As they come trooping from the War
Our skies have many a new gold star."
* * * *
The poem is too long to quote in full, but it ends with these
beautiful lines:
"Oh! if the sonless mothers weeping,
The widowed girls, could look inside
The Country which hath them in keeping
Who went to the great War and died,
They would rise and take their mourning off,
Praise GOD, and say, '_He has enough_.'"
But we have no certainty of this without religion, and, as I
am conscientiously bound to say myself, without the _Christian
religion_.
It is very interesting and very helpful that scientific men, one of
whom is so leading a light in Birmingham, believe that on scientific
grounds they have reason to believe in an existence beyond the
grave, and in the continuity of personality. It used to help me
greatly in contesting the assertion that all scientific men were
opposed to all the tenets of religion; but as one who has often to
be with the dying, as well as the mourners, I should like to bear
witness to the extreme value of the belief in a real resurrection
from the dead, such as the Christian Church has commemorated for two
thousand years at Easter.
I should feel it quite out of place, of course, to argue with regard
to its truth here and now, but to a simple mind--and, of course,
religion has to be adapted to simple minds throughout the world,
which largely outnumber subtle ones--a single great _Event_ has ten
times the power of any amount of theory; and there cannot be a doubt
that it is a belief in the Central Fact of the Christian religion
which is as a matter of fact redeeming the world of mourners from
despair to-day--nay, more than that, filling them with a bright and
radiant hope, and a glorious fortitude to hold on with the courage
of their own soldier sons or soldier husbands "until the day dawns
and the shadows flee away."
Well then, I must just leave the matter there. I have never written
such a long address in my life, and don't expect ever to do so
again; but then it is only once in one's life one has the honour of
being President of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
I hope that I have made at least my main points clear. We who
stand for Religion are not afraid of a discussion on "The War and
Religion." We do not for a moment think that the War has disproved
the truth of Religion, and still less of the Christian Religion;
on the contrary, we believe that it has demonstrated its value and
brought into clearer light its hidden depths; and we go further--we
say, that if War is to cease, we must have not less but more
religion, for we hope to see an old prophecy one day fulfilled,
"They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountains, for the
earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters
cover the seas."
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN FOR WELLS GARDNER, DARTON AND CO., LTD.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as
printed.