T h e February 1932 LLOYD GEORGE AND THE SECOND COMING ^ "" i* K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
60
“ It is time there should be some new thought, some new idea, and an arresting appeal to some force outside and above the world. I expect our interpretation of the Lord’s second advent might not in all details be the same if we compared notes, but we know that the first advent was to herald the reign of peace, and the second advent will be to accomplish it. “ The twentieth century has seen the greatest war there has ever been, and still the world goes on preparing for greater destruction than before. There is a need for the second coming to put that right. The world has not yet heard the message that was heralded by the angels.' “ I agree with what the speaker has said—that we might have Covenants of the League of Nations, Geneva and Locarno Pacts, Kellogg Agreements among all nations that war shall be outlawed, but we have not reached peace until there is a complete change of heart among the nations, and we want it not only in nations but in the individuals. “ It is by such messages as hers [Miss Pankhurst’s] delivered far and wide, that the cause of peace can be ad vanced, and I wish that the message we have listened to tonight could be delivered to millions here—and in Amer ica—and on the Continent of Europe.
ome time ago , Mr. Lloyd George met Miss Christable Pankhurst and humorously Qbserved that there was not much use in his going to hear her speak, as when he did so, he was unable to secure a seat. Miss Pankhurst replied that she would make sure he got a seat on the condi tion that he act as chairman. This Mr. Lloyd George un dertook. Our readers will be interested in the remarks of this well-known Parliamentarian: “ Miss Pankhurst has addressed a very serious appeal to us on very grave matters—matters of grave moment to us all. I endorse everything she has said. No one contem plating the position of the world at the present moment can be free from misgiving as to what may be in store for us in the future. With great eloquence and force, and great foundation of truth, she has probed the subject. She called attention to the fact that we are moving rapidly on toward the next war. Armaments are more powerful than ever, more men are trained in arms, and the machinery of war is far more destructive than we should have thought possible in the early days of the war. Year by year we were devis ing more machinery till, by the end of the war, the machin ery for human slaughter and destruction was infinitely more powerful than in 1914, and we have been going on devising more powerful methods of destruction ever since. We are spending more money on preparations for war, far more money, in this and every country in the world, than in 1914. ^ T ^ f . ar H enry (also Henrietta) : Because I know you must inevitably encounter the ever increasing atheistic literature, and probably atheists and agnostics among your associates, I desire to enlighten you regarding some plausible tricks by which the unwary may be snared. “ Forewarned is forearmed,” you know. To help you to weigh carefully every sentence that you read and every assertion that you hear, and to enable you to use your common sense to uncover falsities of argu ment and shallowness of thought, I offer a few sugges tions. First of all, confine all your thought and investigation to this one question: Is there a supreme personal God, and is the Bible His inspired revelation to man? This alone is the great question that vitally concerns your character and destiny. In considering the conflicting teachings of atheism and Christianity, resolutely disregard every fact which has no direct bearing upon your indi vidual life, or its effects on present-day conditions. Other wise, you will become entangled in the atheist’s web of utterly irrelevant and inconsequential trivialities, sophis tries, and falsehoods. In an attempt to lead you away from this one ques tion and to muddle your mind, you will.be swamped with literature telling of the martyrdom of hundreds of thou sands during the Protestant Reformation, the beating of Quakers, and the hanging of witches by the Puritan Fa-
“ I would like, on your behalf, personally to thank Miss Pankhurst, and to say with what gladness I have heard the message she has given.” — Q uarterly of the S cripture T estament L eague . A LETTER TO A COLLEGE STUDENT
. . . By JAMES ELDERDICE, Oxford, Md.
thers, the faults and shortcomings of eminent church lead ers, and so on, and you will be challenged to deny these facts. Why should they be denied? Common sense in quires, “What possible connection is there between these historic events and the existence of God and my personal relation to Him?” Is it not also a fact that, due to the influence of pro gressive Christianity and a more perfect conformity to the teachings and spirit of the gospel, that all these things, together with other cruelties and conditions that were once tolerated, are long since buried things' of the past ? Furthermore, it will be demanded of you to explain why the' church has not abolished war, devised an eco nomic system guaranteeing financial independence to everybody, expelled all hypocrites from its membership, and meddled generally with matters relating solely to the political and business world. You will be assured that a God who permits earthquakes, cyclones, and pestilences, and who allows the existence of vice, crime, poverty, and social inequalities is not fit to govern the world. Now, son, don’t get bewildered and diverted from the main question, but still hold fast to the fact that none o f these things have any bearing whatever on the question o f your personal relation to a personal God. I hope you will give due weight to the important fact that atheism is a system of negation, a series of denials of
Made with FlippingBook HTML5