MEN AND RELIGION. 



■:> I 



of message and method is so applicable 

 as in this great Commonwealth ot Aus- 

 tralia. Here, as in no other living 

 nation, legislation has done everything 

 that the fondest dream could ask. 

 Taken as a whole, Australia represents 

 a nation well fed, well housed, well 

 clothed, well educated. As contrasted 

 with other nations, there is no such 

 thing as destitution, and yet, notwith- 

 standing all this legislation and protec- 

 tion, the marks of moral breakdown are 

 exident. Men are wandering far from 

 the path of virtue and moralit)'. Gross 

 evils are as manifest here as anywhere 

 in the world. Here, too, class distinc- 

 tions are severe and bitter — unneces- 

 sarily so. Here, too, men are unhappy, 

 discontented, restless, still seeking to 

 find something to give them peace. By 

 all the evidence of history, plus the evi- 

 dence of personal experience, the Chris- 

 tian religion is needed in the life of this 

 people as intensely as anywhere, for it 

 becomes a mesage of moral protection. 

 It becomes the message of a real bro- 

 therhood which wipes out the caste line, 

 and it becomes a message of happiness 

 in unselfish service rendered to others. 



PATRIOTISM AND RELIGION. 



The 3, [en and Religion Forward 

 Movement is vital to the United States, 

 Canada, England, Japan and China, 

 but certainly no nation of men living 

 needs it more than the Australians, and 

 I beg the privilege in my parting 

 message to you to say that the men 

 who are going to rank biggest in the 

 history of Australia are those who will 

 do most in making religion an essential, 

 indestructible factor in the lives of the 

 men and boys of this Commonwealth. 



H any other argument were necessary, 

 it could be found on the ground of 



patriotism. Australia is in every ele- 

 ment essentially British in tradition. H 

 this Commonwealth lives up to its 

 opportunity, it becomes the British Isle 

 of the South Sea. But no nation can 

 claim to be in truest sense British in 

 spirit which is not intense in its expres- 

 sion of Christianity. That which will 

 remain as long as the world lasts as the 

 supreme expression of the British spirit 

 will be the memory of the great Queen 

 Victoria, her devotion to the Bible and 

 the Church. No man is in the highest 

 sense a British patriot if he fails in his 

 loyalty to Christianity. 



Australia as a nation ov/es much to 

 Christian patriots of the past, and those 

 who would send the streams on down 

 to the coming generations pure and 

 strong ought to build the hres of devo- 

 tion to God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ 

 and the Church hotter than ever before. 

 Therefore, Australia is a place where 

 the Men and Religion Forward Move- 

 ment ought to have a vital place for 

 years to come. 



In writing a message to the Review of 

 Reviews, I am profoundly impressed by 

 the memory that its great founder, W'il- 

 liam T. Stead, was one of the men who 

 gave up his life for the message of the 

 Men and Religion Forward Movement. 

 Just one year ago he was en route to be 

 one of the speakers at the great Con- 

 servation Congress of the Forward 

 Movement held in Carnegie Hall, New 

 York City. He was a passenger on the 

 ill-fated " Titanic," and yet, while he 

 closed his life so tragically, he left a 

 living message, very much of which is 

 embodied in the Men and Religion For- 

 ward Movement. Those upon our side 

 of the sea will never think of this cam- 

 paign without remembering the part 

 the great Stead took in it. 



WHAT MUST BE DONE. 



Fred B. Smith, at the dinner given to 

 the visiting team, stated that there were 

 in his opinion too many organisations 

 and societies in the world. He would 

 only join one other, and then quit, and 

 that society would be one to see that 

 no others were formed ! The Forward 

 Movement was to help on and vitalise 



the existing organisations, the last thing 

 it aimed to do was to start a new one. 

 Those who heard the burning words of 

 Smith, who shared the social wisdom 

 of Robins, and felt more than ever be- 

 fore the need of getting out and doing 

 something and doing it quick, ought to 

 bear the object of the movement ever in 



