But we have no certainty of this without religion, and, as I am conscientiously bound to say myself, without the Christian religion.
It is very interesting and very helpful that scientific men, one of whom is so leading a light in Birmingham, believe that on scientific grounds they have reason to believe in an existence beyond the grave, and in the continuity of personality. It used to help me greatly in contesting the assertion that all scientific men were opposed to all the tenets of religion; but as one who has often to be with the dying, as well as the mourners, I should like to bear witness to the extreme value of the belief in a real resurrection from the dead, such as the Christian Church has commemorated for two thousand years at Easter.
I should feel it quite out of place, of course, to argue with regard to its truth here and now, but to a simple mind—and, of course, religion has to be adapted to simple minds throughout the world, which largely outnumber subtle ones—a single great Event has ten times the power of any amount of theory; and there cannot be a doubt that it is a belief in the Central Fact of the Christian religion which is as a matter of fact redeeming the world of mourners from despair to-day—nay, more than that, filling them with a bright and radiant hope, and a glorious fortitude to hold on with the courage of their own soldier sons or soldier husbands "until the day dawns and the shadows flee away."
Well then, I must just leave the matter there. I have never written such a long address in my life, and don't expect ever to do so again; but then it is only once in one's life one has the honour of being President of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
I hope that I have made at least my main points clear. We who stand for Religion are not afraid of a discussion on "The War and Religion." We do not for a moment think that the War has disproved the truth of Religion, and still less of the Christian Religion; on the contrary, we believe that it has demonstrated its value and brought into clearer light its hidden depths; and we go further—we say, that if War is to cease, we must have not less but more religion, for we hope to see an old prophecy one day fulfilled, "They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountains, for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas."
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Preached at St. Giles's, Cripplegate. The argument in this sermon, stated shortly during dinner-hour in a City church, is developed at length in the lecture which comes last in this book.
[2] Browning. "Rabbi Ben Ezra."
[3] Trench.