From Inter-varsity, Lent 1942
"Fading Light" By Canon T. C. Hammond, M.A., Principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney. (Marshall, Morgan and Scott. 3s. 6d.)
This book consists of a series of teaching talks given to lunch-hour audiences at St. Philip's Church, Sydney. Their subject is "The Tragedy of Spiritual Decline is Germany," but what the author sets out to prove is that this spiritual decline is responsible for the power of Nazism which has led to the world tragedy of the present hour.
In his customary penetrating and able way Canon Hammond retraces the steps in the spiritual apostasy of the past hundred years with its rejection of the authority of the Bible, its exaltation of man and his opinions, the utterly dishonest use of old terms which have been evacuated of all real meaning, the evolution mania, etc. Then he goes on to show how all this having undermined the true basis of life and living has in turn led to the new paganism and all its actions. The book is in effect a treatise on St. Paul's words, "Evil communications corrupt good manners."
He has many pertinent things to say, specially to those spiritual fifth-columnists who have, with such avidity, swallowed the German philosophy, and also to those who, in their innocence and ignorance, are tempted to regard the Church of Rome as a bulwark of the Christian faith. Everywhere he emphasises the paramount importance of sound theological knowledge and the danger of saying that nothing matters save that one should be "a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ." But at the same time the subject is handled in a popular manner that makes delightful reading and is illuminated with flashes of Irish wit and anecdotes.
It is a book that every evangelical should be compelled to read. It is also an ideal book to pass on to those who are only just beginning to realise that there are spiritual factors behind the present world scene.
D. M. LLOYD-JONES
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