A Faith for War

For five successive Sundays crowds have been turned away from Melbourne's Scots Church. Each Sunday some 1,000 have jammed their way in. Some 2,000 more in adjoining halls have heard famed U.S. Baptist Preacher Daniel Alfred Poling* through loudspeakers.

They have heard one of the most ringing affirmations of Christian faith yet uttered by any U.S. Protestant clergyman in World War II:

"The thought 'Whoever wins the war, God loses it' is a great apostasy. To say we should go back to the old way of living and that our children's children would be called upon to make the same sacrifices as ourselves is a great lie. The cross of Christ taught that life is redeemable and we must, therefore, see that a new world is created, and that old failures are not repeated so that our men would not have died in vain.

"The key word to this world conflict is faith and not despair. . . . Winning the war and winning the peace are one and indivisible. Right now the peacemakers of our time are our sons in uniform, who offered the last full measure. In this war, God's stake is the greatest for liberty and justice. All freedoms are at stake. We shan't win with hate, hate of any man in all the world's wide border. We will win with love, love of liberty, love of home, love of all brave men who will dare and die."

Dr. Poling's eloquent faith has been deepened by a personal tragedy. His son, Chaplain Clark V. Poling, was killed during the invasion of North Africa [TIME, July 5, 1943].

* Dr. Poling, president of World's Christian Endeavor Union, editor in chief of the Christian Herald, is preaching eight Sundays at Scots as 1944 Turnbull preacher. The Turnbull Trust was established (1925) by four sons and a daughter of Scots' parishioners, Mr. & Mrs. John Turnbull. They gave -L-5,500 ($27,500), the income from which is used to invite "eminent clergymen from other parts of the world" to preach at Scots. Preacher Poling allowed Scots to pay only his traveling expenses. Scots Church was built by David Mitchell, father of the late great soprano Nellie Melba, who used to sing in the choir.

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