The War and Unity: Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918
Religion
The War and Unity: Being Lectures Delivered At The Local Lectures Summer Meeting Of The University Of Cambridge, 1918
Christian sociology; Christian union; Social change; World War, 1914-1918 -- Religious aspects
If we are agreed so far it behoves us to look for the practical
implications of the position. These islands are still the heart and home
of the Empire. This was the rock whence its younger peoples were hewn.
Our nation has produced the men and the machinery that govern our
commonwealth. The lonely places, farthest removed from us, will be
peopled largely by and through the work of children of the Old Country.
There, wherever her children go, is England.
England is a treasure house, where the very stones are eloquent. Her
history, her buildings, her national and civic life, her denominations
and movements are all of them of vital interest to her children. It is a
place of pilgrimage and remembrance. It is more. They find here the
mature growths from which their institutions have sprung. They love our
historic places, they love our crowded cities, they love our seashores
and our quiet country-side, for everywhere they go they find not only
the story of our past, but that of their own. This is their spiritual
home. Our art, our literature, our movements are parts of a common
inheritance, and it is the pride of the Motherland that her children
have never outgrown their love of the old home, their veneration for its
sanctions and restraints, and that on their own homesteads they have
reproduced in new settings and often in fresh forms so much that is
native here.
One would like to see a larger share in this priceless inheritance
offered to our peoples oversea. Think for one moment of our great
Cathedrals, unique and wonderful. They can never be reproduced. They
might be copied; but Canterbury and Westminster, Lincoln and Durham,
York and the rest would still remain all that they are to us and to
them. You cannot transplant history. In the homeland we are but trustees
of these treasures, and we ought to make them the home and centre of our
Imperial Christianity. In every one of them the priests of the Church in
the Overseas lands should not only be seen but heard. Is there no room
in Cathedral Chapters for Overseas representatives, so that in our daily
services in a new and living way we may be linked together in sacrament,
praise and prayer, and in the proclamation of Christian truth? One
Canonry for each historic building would mean more to Unity than many
resolutions at Congress. Perhaps that is as far as one ought to go in
suggestion, but there are other splendid possibilities that one would
love to discuss. No one thinking of Unity in the Empire can fail to
rejoice in the growing desire manifest among Christian Denominations for
Unity. I will not trench on another's subject beyond saying that the way
to Union is Unity, and that it would be tragic if in these momentous
days any stone was left unturned that would lead to better knowledge,
deeper understanding and sympathy between those who name the Name that
is above every name. And our people overseas have much to teach us in
this matter. Over great areas of social opportunity and service the
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