Thursday 21 August 2014

Peasants at War: Part 5 - the Hell into Wealth

The editorial of the final publication of the journal The Vineyard (September 1914), edited by Maude Egerton King in Sandhouse, Witley, Surrey ends on a spiritual note:

The Vineyard
September 1914

"One last word, and not the least.  Soon we shall have broken men, English and foreign, coming on our charity for home or hospital, and just now all hearts are eager for the service.  Let not even this sacred and instant duty make us, the writer and readers of the Vineyard, forget another that is surely entrusted to those who uphold ideals like ours.  Out of the whirling fury, into which one nation after the other is being swept, will be cast shattered bodies indeed, but shattered spirits too.  All the strengths which the Governments of all lands have trusted in to make life good for the people - industrial wealth, territorial expansion, unfettered scientific invention, all purely non-spiritual progress - have failed of their end already, and landed them in universal anarchy.

"For those whom this failure and betrayal - for such it is, for victor and victim alike - will leave bewildered, hopeless of any sane and happy future for the race, we must be ready and keep open house.  We have an unshakable Faith that God has a greater destiny for His men than this they have sought: we have a passionate Hope, that the hell into wealth, this progress, this science, have driven them blindfold, will open their eyes to their madness as alone such experience can.  Our Faith must be constantly replenished at its Source, our Hope bravely and consistently uttered, if our Charity would have ready the hospitality most desperately needed by the human soul in that hour.

The Editorial Committee of the Vineyard"

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