THE CHURCH AND THE AllMX . 



181 



stripped from them. They have been set naked, face to face 

 with the stark realities of pain and death. We ought now to be 

 able to see, as never was possible before, just how much and in 

 what directions the Church's presentation of Christianity has 

 affected them. 



This is a big matter, enormously difficult to see honestly, 

 sanely and whole. It is far too big for me. Yet I make no 

 apology for approaching it. " The lion hath roared ; who doth 

 not fear ? The Lord God hath spoken ; who can but prophesy ? " 



There is a story which used to be told rather frequently a 

 couple of years ago. It is about two young officers in billets after 

 a particularly trying time in the trenches. They talked to each 

 other, as young officers do not often talk, about religion. " Well,'' 

 said one of them, " the war has convinced me of one thing : there 

 is a God." 



" That's odd," said the other. " The war has convinced me 

 that there isn't a God." 



I do not suppose that story is true, though it may be. But, 

 true or not, it represents two lines of thought, or, perhaps it 

 would be better to sa}^ two kinds of hope. There were those 

 who expected with som^e confidence that the war would produce 

 a tremendous revival of religion, an awakening, both at home 

 and abroad, of the religious spirit latent in the nation. " When 

 I was in trouble," said the Psalmist, " I called upon the Lord and 

 he heard me." It seems natural to suppose that the coming of 

 great and terrible trouble — danger, pain, anxiety, bereavement — 

 would have just this effect, that men everywhere would call 

 upon the Lord. There were also those who expected, with equal 

 confidence, that the war would finally chip away the veneer of 

 religion which made the nation appear to be Christian. They 

 argued, with some show of reason, that since Europe, nominally 

 Christian for some 1500 years, is still capable of the barbarous 

 crime of war, the failure of Christianity is proved. Its Founder 

 promised peace and goodwill, love and gentleness. The promise 

 has not been fulfilled. 



It might have been interesting — before the war began — to 

 discuss which of these results were the more likely to follow a 

 catastrophe such as that which has come upon us. I can imagine 

 that a good case could have been made out for either side. But 

 such a discussion would be fatuous now. We have had more 

 than three years' experience of the war, and we see that it has 

 done neither the one thing nor the other. 



