Evening star., 1937-02-14

-Copyright, A. P. Wirephoto.
in order to try to help somebody in
distress.
The creed of the oxford group is
very simple and rests in Christs ethi-
cal teaching in the sermon on the
mount There are four things to which
the groupist must subscribe: l. Alb
solute honesty; 2, absolute purity; 3,
absolute unselfishness; 4, absolute love.
And he must put himself wholly under
Gods direction.
Individual Is Responsible.
Beyond that there are no rules or
requirements. Each individual works
out his own scheme of life. His con-
science, under the control Of God, is
his guide. No other groupist tells him
what Is right or wrong. Indeed, what
Is right for one person might be wrong
for another.
An astonishing thing about the Ok
ford group is that there is no organi-
Zation in the accepted sense of the
term. Ask If you can join and you
will be told that you can't, since there
is no organization. but you can be
long
In seeking to "join" you find your
self in about the same position you
would if you tried to "join" the group
which consistently drinks orange
Juice for breakfast You can attach
yourself to the orange juice drinkers,
but you can't find a president or
treasurer, or any other signs of organ
ization. Anybody can belong" to the
Oxford group. and there is no
entrance fee.
So the oxford group is much like
little TopSy-"I 'spect I growed.
Don't think nobody never made me-"
1t is not known how many persons
belong. excepting that they run into
big numbers. An idea of its strength
can be seen. however, in the fact
that $4,000 from all parts of Great
Britain met in Birmingham, England,
last Summer, and a similar number
of Danes attended a meeting at about
the same time in Copenhagen.
1t is true that members of the group
do get together, as in the case of the
meeting at Great Malvern, and the
American National Assembly of 10000
at Stockbridge. Mass, last Summer.
But these sessions are not the out
growth of any regular organization.
They are planned from time to time
by the workers in various countries.
How do they finance the work?
They tell you: Where God guides,
He provides" The individuals finance
frequently. such sacrifice being part
of the code. Sometimes groupistS of
means step forward and contribute to
Q mission.
Communes With God.
In any event, the groupist says he
always starts out to try to do what
God tells him to do, and there is no
worry about money. The first thing
a groupist does on awaking in the
morning is to commune with God in
silence for perhaps an hour. Many
groupists sit in bed with note book
and pen and jot down their instruc-
tions. During the day there are sew
eral other periods Of communion for
fresh help.
Apropos of the communion, one of
the oxford group related the fol-
lowing:
IAN American who belongs to the
movement is a travelling man, and his
business takes him all over the coun-
try. On one occasion he arrived IN
a Midwestern city in backsliding
frame Of mind; he was contemplating
doing something which he knew was
wrong. At this precise juncture he
was inundated with letters from group
ist friends in many parts of the United
States. Each writer said God had
told him to communicate with the
traveller and help him withstand
temptation.
There was no question of collu-
sion among the writers, but the really
amazing thing was that nobody save
the travelling man himself knew what
he had in mind. AS a result OF the
letters he abandoned his project and
got back into the fold"
JdTLu bcdu IOlU iIlC Va OAiS AuAiioAO Ooo
incident in London. One of his
friends, q newspaper man, came
round to one of the oxford group
meetings to see what it was all about.
The groupists engaged in their usual
period of silent communion. This was
too much for the visitor and he left
the room.
He encountered Garth Lean at the
door and, cooking his hat over one
ear, said: MY very definite inStruc-
tions are to go to the nearest pub and
drink a pint of beer" The nom
drinking groupist merely grinned at
his friend and replied: THAT being
the case, old chap. you will find a
decent spot in the White Horse Inn,
Just around the next corner" Shortly
after that the reporter became a
groupist.
So far as I personally have observed,
the above incident is a fair illustra-
tion of the way the groupists carry on
their missionary work. There is no
effort to thrust the movement on any
one.