186 



THE REV. CANON JAMES O. HANNAY, M.A.^ ON 



the Greeks wlio came to Philip, " Sir, I would see Jesus/' He 

 has said, most plainly for those who have ears to hear the silent 

 speech of acts : " Sir, I would trust God/' Of this I am as sure 

 as I can be of anything. It seems to follow certainly that he 

 already does trust God, and thus has the beginning of religion in 

 him. 



But his religion is an imperfect thing. Christ and the Cross 

 are not in it. That is the second of the two things which seem to 

 me clear. The Church has failed to bring the average man into 

 any kind of real touch with Him Whom we believe to be the 

 Saviour of the world. 



So far then the Church* has succeeded. The souls of men are 

 not asleep. The spiritual faculty is awake in them. Men who 

 do such things and are such men as these, declare plainly that 

 they " seek a city.'"' It is something. 



So far also the Church has failed. Her children have not found 

 what they seek. The Church has not given them sure and strong 

 faith in the great simple truths which she exists to teach. Nor 

 has she brought them to Jesus, the Master, who dwells in her. 



I suppose that I should o£Eer you some kind of proofs of these 

 two assertions which I make so confidently. I do so with the 

 uneasy feeling that the only proofs I can offer will strike you as 

 unconvincing. They are the results of my own experience. 

 Others have had wider experience than mine, have done more 

 work and done it better. They have been led to different con- 

 clusions. Some, I know, will be inclined flatly to contradict 

 what I have said. I have heard it asserted more than once that 

 the average soldier, that is the average Englishman, has no 

 religion at all, nor wishes for any. I can do no more than tell you 

 the things which I have seen and heard. But, at least, I am not 

 going to fall into the mistake of basing my judgment of the mass 

 on what I have seen of exceptional men. There are men, thank 

 God many of them, in our armies, just as there are at home, who 



* I use the word " Church " because I can find no other. " Organized 

 Christianity" is a stupid phrase. " The religious world " is a contradiction 

 in terms. Besides, even if we take "the Church" to mean simply the 

 Church of England we shall not go far astray. Three-fourths of the men 

 in our Army, that is to say, three-fourths of the men of the Empire, are so 

 far members of the Church of England that they prefer to enrol themselves 

 under her name rather than any other. The Chui'ch of England is 

 responsible for them. Hers is the praise and the blame for what they 

 are. 



