Welsh Journals

"Come ye over and help us! be made to those within the walls. Already the cry of the starving children in Europe has brought Papal Legate, Anglican Bishop, Salvation- ist and Quaker, into the joint work of pity under the Pope's benediction. Already British and German, French and Austrian ex-soldiers have met together in the fellowship of their common sufferings to make a solemn covenant against war. Already the Pope has proclaimed the primal Christian duty of forgiveness for injuries and brotherly love as the healer of the world. Already the Catholic Bishop of Ross has proclaimed in Ireland (at the risk of life) that to shoot policemen and soldiers is as much murder and a denial of Christ as for policemen and soldiers to shoot Sinn Feiners. At last the law of the Kingdom is being proclaimed ON COMPROMISE IN WALES. A contemporary observer scanning hastily the religious life of Wales, might conclude that a period of comparative quiet had set in; nay, if he were to regard solely the outward manifestations of that life as embodied in Churches or Chapels, a period of infinite promise, an era of long-deferred peace between sects which augurs well for the advancement of religion in the Principality. The passing of the disestablishment con- troversy has bridged the gulf between Nonconformity and a rejuvenated Welsh Church; the leaders seem prepared for a rapprochement in order to confront the problems of re-construction. In the realm of religious organisation the ideal of preparedness has been ap- proached as never before; the Church presents a solid front. Yet a Welshman is impelled to look beyond the form, and to consider the real condition in substance of the religious life of his country. May not the thought occur to such that the lesson of history is being repeated in his own land, and that the perfection of form is coincident with the decadence of the spirit? He cannot be unmindful of the heights to which the religious life of the community rose in the nineteenth century; the leaders of his country's spiritual progress must ever shine as a brilliant galaxy in his firmament. If our Welshman be of the people; he may have ob- tained proof in his own kin of the glorious stirring of the social conscience and the elevating efficacy of the '59 Revival. Even in these latter days the frequenter of our Sunday Schools may be privileged to enjoy the presence of one exhibiting the strong rich traits of a believer who has passed through "conversion," and who has troubled to give his religious profession earnest and careful thought. These are the true guardians of a religious tradition which produced men; however far our revolt from that tradition may carry us, their sincerity and their conviction will always command respect. But the mass of the people are not of these; no hard- again on earth after the terrible five years moratorium of the Gospel during the war. Every war, every blockade, every treaty imposed by force, every strike, every lockout, every sectarian feud and alienation, every prison, every human condition determined by fear or unfairness or indifference — there is the human wilderness awaiting the pioneers of The Kingdom, the doers of The Word. And only when the new affection," the divine compassion, has entered the hearts of the souls in Churches, will they become again places of prayer, of centri-fugal power, driving out their ministers and mem- bers to the tasks of human reconciliation by the spirit of Jesus, in farm and in factory, and in foreign policies no less than in foreign missions. Barns would be temples then, And every common meal a sacrament." By 1. Jones Roberts. won faith sustains them. It is pathetically true that the greater number adhere to the religious observances and customs handed down from a better age. Indifferent to religious crises, and apathetic to the disturbing calls of their more progressive leaders, they yet preserve a decorous regard for outward forms of the traditional beliefs. Such a condition of indifference and apathy renders the majority of the people fatally open to exploitation by the most retrogressive and conservative elements in the national life. The abiding pride in the traditional glory of religious life in Wales is successfully invoked by ignorant and interested prejudice in order to repress the faintest glimmerings of a new life. Indeed, owing to the vague, listless acquiescence in the acts of its spokesmen, these zealous upholders of the status quo present the appearance of far greater force than they actually possess. However that may be, these self- appointed defenders of the faith, who are themselves often lacking in conviction, are at present waging a bitter and incessant war against any who dare challenge the regime with the maintenance of which they feel their own prestige to be involved. For a new life is becoming manifest in Wales. In this present generation it is gathering strength. Signs are not wanting of a silent revolt against the empty form which is sought to be imposed by those who fondly imagine themselves to be the heirs of a tradition, whilst in truth they know it not. Strange would it be, indeed, if, whilst the Anglican Church at long last seeks to bring its doctrine abreast of the scientific teaching of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the religious thought of Wales should be content to flow evenly in the channels of fifty years ago. Yet official opinion in certain parts of Wales, as represented by the conclaves of our spiritual censors, could scarce forbear a howl of execration when a highly respected minister of religion declared in an elementary handbook that the tales of the Pentateuch