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bas become dulled. We shrank from speaking of the punishment
of sin here or hereafter. We had almost lost the fear of God.
and so could not persuade men.
And now we have been brought face to face with evil in its
most hideous form. The noblest achievements and the darkest
crimes stand out before us in glaring contrast, which we cannot
fail to see, and are never likely to forget. What is it which has
compelled thousands who had no liking for war to take up the
sword? The knowledge of intolerable wrongs committed; the
conviction that true peace can only be attained by vanquishing
evil, that there is not and never can be any agreement
between light and darkness.
No, the great principles of the Church are not discredited.
They receive fresh confirmation from all that has happened
since last August, and it is upon them that we must build our
hopes for the future. Whatever the military issue of the war
may be, spiritual forces will rule in the end.
What then must we hope will rise out of the ruin that is all
about us? The old world as we knew it ten months ago has
passed away for ever. We are face to face with a new world,
and never had the Church a greater opportunity than she has in
that new world which is arising. Perhaps we have not for the
most part realized how stupendous a task we are called to
undertake, and that methods which were suitable enough for
the days of Queen Elizabeth or for the uneventful days of our
youth are utterly inadequate for the great times in which we are
living, and for the world-wide claims which the Church is called
to meet. A new world must mean new methods, and these will
be very startling and painful to some of us.
But if our Church is a living Church she will respond as all
things living do to their environment. She must make her
choice, either to grow and develope in those new conditions, or to
be left on one side as a fossil belonging to an age that is past.
Therefore, let us not be in a hurry to denounce as dangerous
innovations these new developments. It may be that they are not
50 new as they appear to be. In any case it is advisable that
those who desire to follow “ Catholic practice ” should be quite
clear as to what the practice of the Catholic Church actually has
been and is.
Out of the impenetrable darkness which veils the future of
the world from our eyes one fact seems to be emerging, It is
that which concerns us most closely as an assembly of Churchwomen.
 Women are called to take a much larger and more
responsible part in the life of the Church than they have been
wont to take in modern times. And the largest part will
necessarily be taken by the younger women. The new world
upon which we are entering is their world. They will see it