The photo in the heading is mine taken of F. O. Salisbury's portrait of 1938, Memorial Hall, London, Congregational Library.
There were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever. - Revelation, xi., 15.
THAT is the statement of the Christian belief about the future of mankind and of all the institutions in which the life of man finds organised expression. All the kingdoms of this world, with every motive, aim and aspiration they express shall find, their unity in the one all-inclusive Kingdom of our God, and of His Christ. To the Christian man that is more than a flimsy hope to which he clings with pathetic tenacity, when all the facts of the world today shriek their contradiction to it. There is a hope which has courage at the heart of it, which men refuse to abandon at the dictate of realism, and hope of that kind wins a kind of admiration from us. But the courage of that hope is not far removed from what we call the courage of despair. The soul of it is the refusal of men to surrender their ideals to the tendencies of the hour and of the age. They may seem to echo a spiritual aspiration which reaches us from a distant past, but if the world has swept on wildly, carried by a tide which seems resistless in its power, those who cherish the Christian hope will still lift up their hearts. Some men will praise them for their courage; others will mock at them for their futility; but unless hope has behind it the confidence of an assured faith in God and in His purposes for the world, it must seem a weak thing, the ringing bravery of a human voice from the heart of a storm which threatens to engulf it.
There is more in my text than that. It is a belief - not a mere hope. It comes not of fidelity to an ideal which seems to be losing ground; it comes rather from an understanding of the will of God, as His will has been revealed to men in His Son, Jesus Christ. We stand here, not on the ground which man may resolve to defend at all costs; we stand on the ground which God defends. Despite all appearances to the contrary, any other foundation than this is like shifting sand on which nothing permanent can be built. All the loud assertiveness of this age of ours, all this confident challenging of one school of thought by another, all national pride and glory, is weakness and destined to accomplish nothing. No spirit, in this world, however strong it may seem, can prevail against the will of God. It may raise its voice as high as the heavens in defiance, but the still small voice will outlast it. It may build its towers of proud confidence, but they will prove nothing stronger than the childish Babels of the early story of humanity, if they cross the design of the Great Architect of the Universe. That is where the power lies, and in this fear-ridden age, with all its temporisings and compromises, the only refuge of the heart is in God and in His will. Over there is the Sovereign Will of God, guiding the destinies of men and of nations, turning the wrath of men to His praise and glory, over-ruling their cleverly-laid plans, and bringing to nought everything which sets itself against His purposes.
There is much in our world which gives a handle to the forces of disappointment and doubt and misgiving. The tide of reaction is flowing swiftly and strongly, and it seems to have left many men stranded on their little sand-castles of hope and dream. Some cry out plaintively that then dreams have been shattered others are inclined to take the path of rebellion, with bitter disillusionment as its driving power. Neither of these ways offer anything to the creative power which the world needs for its up-building.
The call today is for men of vision and of faith - men who cannot be turned aside or baffled, because they build on a foundation which is not of their own devising. Strength and consistency come from that mystic background which Christian faith supplies, and that is the need of this hour. Everything tells that this is the deepest need. We are lost without it. We are merely pathetic if we have to try to invent a faith to support our hopes. The growing revelation which shines from the pages of the Bible shows beyond a doubt that God wills for mankind a kingdom in which every part of the human race is included, a kingdom which is the gift of His Grace to a world divided by its tragic separations. It is that Divine purpose which the guiding star in the sky to all the who set themselves to find a way of unity. This growing revelation moves from primitive beginnings in the conception of tribal gods up to the supreme truth one God and Father of all mankind, a Grace which is strong enough to conquer all human sin and to cast down every barrier of separation which men their folly can raise. That revelation shines clearly enough in the pages of the Bible. It is there for everyone to read. It is no invention of men to meet the needs of this age. We do not play with fancies in speaking about it here. We remind ourselves humbly of the greatest truth which has been given to us in our Christian inheritance - something given, not invented, a light which flashes out of the darkness of past ages and which is the one true light in the world today. God wills that all men shall be brought into one family, under the Lordship of Christ until the kingdoms of this world shall become the one kingdom of our God and His Christ. That is the revelation which shines upon us. That is the faith which is the gift of God to our failing hearts.
How does this faith come home to us in this place and on this occasion? It silences every voice which speaks in accents of discouragement about the future of the League of Nations. There are such voices, and we are all too familiar with them. They seize upon ever failure to attain the ideal of full international co-operation They point out the strength of the forces which move outside the boundaries of the League. Bu when you inquire as to where the argument is leading, you can get no better answer than the vague statement that the times are not ripe, that the ideal of this League is obviously right, but at present impracticable. When you press still further as to what that means in the terms of actual practice, you are left with the uncomfortable feeling that it means a reversion to the old situation before the League was called into existence, with the result that any sane observer can predict. The Christian man dedicated as he must be by his faith to realise the conception of the whole family of mankind, cannot follow such guides. The time of reaction is the very time when he needs to be clearest about his faith and purpose.
There is a tendency to speak about the League and its work as though it were an organisation far removed from us, and criticism is passed upon it as if it possessed the power to achieve all that we, as Christian men and women, want to see done in the world, and which as yet has not been brought to pass. That is the most mischievous error of all. The League has no power save the power that we as different nations give to it. If we are not determined and strong ; if we are not prepared to back it to the end - how can it be expected that the League can achieve great things? The forces arrayed against a peaceful world order are immense, and many of them have an easy appeal to the hearts of men and women of different nations. That is the terrible danger - the ease with which the heart of a nation can be stirred, the way in which the nearest and dearest love in human life can be played upon, until all the natural sentiments feed the fires of distrust and suspicion and hatred. Is it not there that the spiritual forces of the world have their greatest work to do - to call out an equal, nay, a greater, love and loyalty for a world unified in one mighty spirit of peace - not one nation, but the whole family of nations and races? Is that beyond our power? Have we ever really set ourselves to the task?
When we face the facts of the situation, it is clear that the only way in which our hopes and prayers can be fulfilled is by the League proving that it represents the interests of humanity as a whole, rather than the standpoint of its constituent members, and that it is sensitive to some of the injustices which are keenly felt by absentee nations. The task of making friends and of inspiring confidence is long and slow, and the only way of hastening it is by the spirit of complete sincerity in understanding, and as far as possible meeting the sense of wrong and frustration which exists so widely today. This again is a work which must be felt as a special responsibility by Christian people. The only possible way forward lies in making a bold experiment which to the ordinary man of the world would seem fantastic and foolish. But is it not increasingly clear that the old methods and standards are of no avail, and the only hopeful way of overcoming the obstacles and crossing the barriers of the world today, lies in the gospel of reconciliation carried out in practical terms? A courageous movement along those lines would achieve more than long-continued and tiresome bargaining which never gets to the heart of any situation. I do not pretend that even such a movement would meet with an easy and sensational success. The habit of suspicion and distrust is far too deeply ingrained to be dislodged quickly; but none the less I am convinced that this is the only way which offers any hope of a solution. What the world needs now is a new urge on the road which leads to fellowship and peace, and the motive for that must be found in the things which we all learn when we sit at the feet of Christ - the love which takes not account of evil, the strong patience of those who are determined to understand and to help even when their efforts seem to meet with scant success.
Tile success of the League and its appeal to the heart of men will depend upon the measure in which it expresses the mind of Christ and has His touch upon it. It has been customary to regard Christ as the far-off mystic and His teaching as too high for a world like this. "True but impracticable" is the verdict which has been passed upon Him. Is it not time that we pushed the analysis further and deeper, and in the spirit of a nobler realism challenged the accepted ways and methods of the world as impracticable? What can the prevalent spirit of the age produce but violence and war, or at least the sullenness of spirit which threatens them? The League carries with it the hopes and prayers of the peoples of all nations and races. It is a sacred trust placed in our hands by men who suffered and died in past years; and it is also a trust which is held by us in the interest of those who are yet unborn. Beyond that sacred human trust there is something which is yet more sacred. It is the will of God that every separation which divides His great family shall be destroyed, that the violence which inflicts agony and death on His children shall be abolished from His world; and that every pride which sets itself against His purpose shall be brought low. It is His decree that all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Fortified by that faith we must go forward without doubt or fear, as men dedicated to the greatest purpose in the world.