The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-05

tan Lie. Jonn l.So.ot. ASes
16:1S-34.
1ne Great Enlistment.
As an electric storm clears the at
SO this war is driving away
many intellectual fogs and clouds and
smoke waves and dust storms. There
never was deeper or straighter think
ia in the world than is now going
on. despite the temptation to let pre-
jadices control the mind Never be-
fore were SO many average men and
women graphing with the basic con-
siderations OF religion. A Character
istic of these days is that people drive
straight to the heart of things. We
are thinking in basic terms.
So when the question Is newly
raised. as it is in the present Sunday
school lesson, What is Christianity.
Christian" we do not expect an an
swer in the stereotyped theological
phraseoiogy of the churchmen. That
sort of shop talk is now as dead as
Choctaw. The professional lingo of
religion is now intolerable. Life's red
realities have come too near to most
of mankind for US to be any longer
content with mere phrases. however
well worn and venerable. We do not
want the answers of the catechisms
to the most living of questions. We
want to hear, in the straight-flung
speech of the world stripped for
action. so plain and clear that it is
understood by the fighting man, what
it means to be Christian.
AS Tie ChapIains See 1t.
Out of the trenches. especially thru
the medium of British and Canadian
chaplains, is coming a new body of
literature, freshly restating religion.
Much of this writing is shockingly
candid. I would not dare quote 1t in
the average pulpit or ministers meet
ing, for our people in the homeland
do not yet understand. Nevertheless
the very fact that these clergymen
have been so fearless in finding out
and stating the present-day difficult
ties of Christianity IL eloquent testi-
mony to the truth that the church is
not really afraid of new light. however
much the unknowing may sneer at her
for so being. 1t is a chaplain who
says: 1T is awful to realize that
when one stands UP to preach Christ
the soldier feels that you are defend
ing a whole ruck of obsolete theories
and Anticipated muddles. 1t is all so
much barbed wire thru which one has
to climb before one finds his heart"
This misconception of what Chris
tianity really Is recurs frequently in
all interpretations of the mind of the
soldiers. "They have not connected
the truths with ordinary life. Life is
lportant. The creed Is another thing.
very excellent in its way, deserving of
a certain respect, but belonging to a
different region, not concerned with.
or at all bearing upon practical af-
fairs"
Another chaplain says-and these
quotations are \ taken from THE
Church in the Furnace" by Church of
England Chaplains-'It is startling,
no doubt. and humilating, to find out
how very little hold traditional Chris
tianity has upon men. 1t is not only
their confounding ignorance of the
elementary, Christian facts-not one
in ten, should think, has a clear idea
of what our religion is or implies or
offers-but that they fail to see how
1t bears upon or helps them in our
present circumstances. And very many
have an honest feeling that it would
be "A positive handicap. So far as i
am able to estimate, we are now faced
with this situation. a Christian life,
combined with a pagan creed
One of the greatest difficulties we have
to face out here is the superstition
which prevails, chiefly with officers
and N. c. O.'s. that If men begin to
turn religious they will at once be-
| gin to get the wind up"
From the Soldiers Viewpoint.
AS if to support this structure upon
| a self-centered type of Christianity,
men praying in the line when wished
| they would swear instead, because
| their prayers, which were purely self
| ish. expressing nothing but a broken
will and the horror of death. 1t is a
dreadful thing to see men whimperins
| out prayers for personal protection in
| time of stress. The hard-bitten man
beside him still unhroken and un-
beaten. swearing thru his teeth puts
such a man to shame One can
| not afford prayers for personal safety
| In times of stress; 1t Is not what one
| ought to be thinking about.
That is the very essence of the Spirit
| of Christ: His job first, His pals next
| and Himself last and, compared with
the other two. nowhere" This par
| son drops into verse:
1T amt as 1 thinks Ell keep me safe
| While the other blokes goes down,
And 1t amt as ] wants to leave this earth
| 1t amt for that as l says my prayers
| When l goes to the attack;
But l pray that whatever comes my way
| ! may never turn my back
| I leaves the matter of life and death
An ~ the r. Lord Id, as knows kts1, whats best.
avg Wbetbeay nat faIn. ssiis may play the man
I'd sooner that It were East. We know,
To Blighty and my girl Sue.
Ia sooner be there, wi the sun in 'er air
And the summer skies all blue.
But grant me, God. to do my bit.
And then, IL ! must turn West,
|
And I'll find a soldiers rest"
| The Worlds Super-Qucst.
Clearly. every teacher of religion
has responsibility to state the es-
sentials of faith In unmistakable and
livable terms. All the unreal phrase
ology of the pulpit, the language of
| Canaan" as it has been called, and
all the righteousness of thinking, and
the general tendency to substitute
| lessons" for truth and facts, must
give way under the pressure of the
new day for genuineness and simpH-
city. We are bound to state Christian
ity in terms that anybody can grasp.
That is exactly what these two great
| passages from the New Testament do,
| If we let them have their own way and
meaning. Becoming Christians means
becoming disciples of Jesus Dis
ciplss" were simply learners and fol-
lowers. That is to say. the people who
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