192 RT. REV. BISHOP J. E. C. WELLDON, D.D., ON THE INFLUENCE 



meeting, but I hope I may reply to it when I next visit the 



works. It ran as follows : — 



Sir, 



You are announced to address the workmen of these works 

 to-morrow. A number of us would like to know. What has 

 Christianity done to benefit humanity ! After 1,900 years of 

 Christianity. Christian Europe is at present a veritable hell. Lord 

 Bryce said some time ago that Christianity had not done what was 

 expected of it to prevent strife among nations. "We have seen no replv 

 to that serious charge. Can you give any explanation to-morrow ! 



The letter is signed by " A workman in behalf of several 

 workmates." It is, I think, indicative of a danger which the 

 Church will be called to meet, not only during the war, but still 

 more when the war is over. What will men in Christian 

 Europe think of the Christianity which allows or fails to prevent 

 the intinite cost of bloodshed, horror, and anguish in the present 

 war among Christian nations \ What will men think of it in 

 heathen lands, e.g., in India, where the Hindu and Mohammedan 

 natives see Christian missionaries interned and deported as 

 enemies of the Christian Government under which they live ? 

 Xo doubt there is a difference which must never be ignored 

 between Christendom and Christ, between the Christian nations 

 and Him Whose name they bear. If Christendom has failed, if 

 organized Christianity has failed, He has not failed. The war 

 rages, not because Christian nations are fulfilling His com- 

 mand, but because they are disobeying His command : not 

 because of the Christian spirit, but in spite of it. The 

 new society which will be born after the war will rind no hope 

 of security or felicity except in allegiance to Him. But is this 

 the lesson which critical observers will draw from the present 

 state of Christendom ? and can they be honestly and forcibly 

 blamed if they do not draw it ? 



It is evident, however, that, if the war. in its origin and 

 character, may be regarded as a defeat of organized Christianity, 

 yet, while it lasts, it will naturally incline the hearts of men to 

 religion and to the Cross of Jesus Christ. The paradox of 

 human nature has become in effect a truism, that men are less 

 religious in prosperity than in adversity. The Psalmist of old 

 could say, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have 

 I kept thy word": and again, " It is good for me that I have 

 been afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes." Every chaplain 

 who hast visited the trenches in France or Flanders or in 

 Grallipoli, must have noticed the simple faith and penitence, the 

 spontaneous impulse to religious worship, among the troops. It 



