MORE RELIGION BY THE PEOPLE• GENERALLY. [To TES EDITOR OB
THE " SPECTATOR."] lInt,—My friend Dr. Russell Wakefield's War Sermon in the Times of the 1st inst. put tersely and well the Bishop's case in support of the high military authority's expressed want : " to see more religion put into this war by the people generally." May I as a layman get a little closer to the heart of things and to some underlying causes ?
First, then, we may hopefully recognize that amongst all classes, civil and religious, there is an increasing nutnber of men and women who hive " the feeling that the war is something which we should regard as a Iblemn crusade,? to which they must give every power they have, for which they consider every sacrifice a high privilege as trustees to God he their own lives. Those who are animated by these standards of We include most of the Bishops, a majority of the junior clergy with mime of their eldora in all religious denominations, and a multitude of the laity, all of whom have experienced this feeling with poignant bgansity. They realize, they know and grieve at the absence of awaken- Lag leadership still to be met with in God's House throughout the lend, irrespective of creed.
Everywhere with notable exceptions convention rather than the spirit strikes the predominant note of the services and the pulpit. It will hardly be credited that on Hospital Sunday, 1916, there were churches and places of worship in London where no special effort was put forth to awaken the people to the effects of the war on the hospitals, to send ahem a special letter from their pastor, or to distribute the literature which was placed at his disposal free of cost. In how many churches has there been systematic teaching on the subject of the testing for the religion a Christ through which we are now going ? To what extent are the allergy and ministers prepared or preparing for a crusade and continuous Insistence upon the responsibility which rests upon all churches, all =Caldera, and all congregations for the future, in preparation for the D atum of our awakened and spiritualized warriors after the war ? In bow many cases and to what extent are the junior clergy restrained by their seniors from frank and direct utterances from the pulpit in the & arches they servo ? In how many places of worship is it feared, as I have heard it expressed, that if the preacher spoke out straight to the congregation the consequences would be rebellion and an empty church ? It passes my comprehension that this view should be held, but it is held, I know, with tenacity by some who should exhibit more spirituality, store courage, and a deeper sense of their responsibility as trustees LT the souls of the people.
And what of the laity ? At the beginning of the year throughout the Metropolis, and I have little doubt throughout the country, unbroken Intercession during the working hours of each day has been organized during the war in places of worship on one or more days in each month, when members of the congregation are afforded an opportunity to devote half-an-hour to prayer. In London the menfolk, most of whom mould make the time if they had the spirit to attend, are conspicuous by their absence.
Yet the workers of all and every class, who have become recreated be vital force since the war, demonstrate that, if every House of God is henceforth dominated by convinced and active spiritual leadership horn the pulpit and in the services, the people will respond with joy and the declared want of more religion put into the war by the people will be met.—I am, Sir, &c., HENRY C. BURDETT. The Lodge, 13 Porcheeter Square, W.
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