Salem Goldworth Bland - The New Christianity: Or, the Religion of the New Age

TO THE CANADIAN SOLDIERS,
SPEARHEAD OF THE
ARMY OF LIBERTY IN FRANCE,
SPEARHEAD OF THE
ARMY OF BROTHERHOOD IN CANADA

This little book is only a sketch. Some suggestions of the kind that istoo exclusively regarded as practical, I hope, may be found in it. Onthe whole, its aim is, as from Mt. Nebo, to give a vision of thePromised Land. It does not attempt to minutely describe the roadsleading thither. But then, probably, it is not given to any one as yetto map out very precisely the journey before us, for we "have not passedthis way heretofore." It is my hope that these ideas which havegradually grown clear to me may help to increase the number of those whoare willing fearlessly and resolutely to set out to find a way that may,after all, not prove so hard to find as it has sometimes seemed. Thepossible reproach of idealism is one to which Christianity itself liestoo open to be feared.

I have tried to write impersonally. May I, then, here gratify myself byconfessing how dear to me and how strong is the faith that myconvictions and my hopes are shared by multitudes of myfellow-Canadians? I have lived in many parts of Canada. I have tried tounderstand the Canadian temper. Canada, I believe, has not yet foundherself. The strain of the war has revealed herweaknesses,thoughtlessness, irresponsibility, divisive prejudice,worst of all, selfishness, sometimes in the extreme. But it hasrevealed, too, high devotion, quiet, unostentatious self-sacrifice, rareenergy and resourcefulness.

There is in every nation a Jekyll and a Hyde, but not in every nationto-day is the struggle between the two so keen or the possibilities ofits settlement so dramatic. The turn that our church life, our businesslife, our public life, may take in the next few yearswhich, indeed, Ithink, it is already takingmay be decisive and glorious. Canada hasthe faults of youth but also its energy, its courage, and its idealism.I believe it is possible that she may be the first to find the newsocial order and the new Christianity, and so become a pathfinder forthe nations.

This preface would be incomplete if I did not express my greatindebtedness to my friends, Professor W. G. Smith of the University ofToronto, who gave me valuable criticisms and suggestions, and Miss RuthE. Spence, B.A., who kindly assisted me in reading the proofs.

SALEM GOLDWORTH BLAND.
Toronto,
March, 1920.

The Western nations to-day are like storm-tossed sailors who, after adesperate voyage, have reached land only to find it heaving withearthquakes. In almost every country involved in the great struggle,the war without has been succeeded by a war within.

Of this turmoil, industrial or political as it may be, two things can besaid. One is, that no Western people is likely to escape it, andcertainly not the peoples of this Continent. The other is, that even inits most confused and explosive forms it is a divine movement. Mistaken,sordid, violent, even cruel forms it may assume. Strange agencies itmay utilize. None the less no student of history, no one, at least, whohas any faith in the divine government of the world, can doubt thatthese great sweeping movements owe their power and prevalence to thegood in them, not to the evil that is always mingled, to us at least, soperplexingly and distressingly with the good.

If this be so, no clearer duty can press upon all who wish to fight forGod and not against Him than to try to discern the good factors that areat work and the direction in which they are moving. This duty is themore urgent since no one can tell when the clamor and the dust may makeit very hard to discern either.

In Canada, particularly, is this duty of careful analysis especiallypressing. In no Western country, probably, has there been lessexperience of internal turmoil, less anticipation of it, or lesspreparedness against it. The attitude of Canada to life hitherto mightalmost be described as the attitude of a healthy, well-cared-for boy offifteen, full of energy, full of ambition, with plenty of fight in himbut still more good nature, whose only problems are the problems of thecampus and of pocket money.

And yet it is conceivable that in no Western country may the turmoil ofthe next few years take a more acute form than in Canada. Theyouthfulness of the Dominion, the recency and frailty of the ties thatbind the scattered provinces, the deep divisions of race and languageand religion which criss-cross Canada in every direction, the highpercentage of the new Canadians that have come, and recently, from thecountries with which Canada has been at war, the large numbers of menwho have now returned from overseas and who for different reasons, someof them unpreventable, are naturally and inevitably finding it difficultto discover their places in the tasks of peacethese conditions bringit about that Canada is not only not safeguarded, but is peculiarly fullof inflammable material.

It is true that Canada in population is only one of the small nations,but it would seem as if none of the greater nations, since ramshackleAustria-Hungary fell to pieces, faces so severe an internal strain.

But, after all, nations never find their soul except through hard tasks.God educates peoples as He educates individuals, by putting them intight places. This little book is written in the faith that the task offinding the right solution of Canadian national problems is so high andhard that only the deepest and truest soul of the Canadian people canachieve it, but, also, in the faith that Canadians, by the blessing ofGod, will be found equal to the task; and the chief purpose of whatfollows will be to show what are the good and beneficial elements in theturmoil, and how, with the least of strife and confusion, all who haveother than selfish aims may co-operate in the divine movement.

There can be little fruitful constructive effort without hope, and,perhaps, we shall find, when we try to analyze the situation, that ithas even more of hope in it than menace.

The aim of the following discussion is, as the title suggests, twofold:

First, to show that in the unrest and confusion of the civilized nationstwo principles, above all others, are at work; that these two principlesare both of them right beyond question; and that the disturbance andalarm so widely felt are both due to the fact that these principles arefinding their way into regions from which they have hitherto beenlargely excludedto show, in short, that the whole commotion of theworld, in the last analysis, is chiefly due to the overflow of the twogreat Christian principles of democracy and brotherhood.

Second, to point out the only kind of Christianity which is adequate tomeet the situation, or in other words, to describe the Christianitywhich, we may hope, is taking form.