Why Chiang Believes

Few heads of the world's great states are notable as practicing Christians. China's Chiang Kai-shek is. Last week a new testimony to the Generalissimo's faith was circulated in the U. S. It was a translation of a radio speech, Why Believe in Jesus?, which he made last Easter eve.

Identifying China with the Jewish nation of the time of Christ, Chiang Kai-shek compares his own aims, and those of Dr. Sun Yatsen, with the teachings of Jesus. His reasons for believing in Jesus:

"He was a leader of national revolution ... of social revolution ... of religious revolution. . . . How daringly and with what utter abandon Jesus endeavored to rescue the church and society of that day from its myriad ills and to awaken the masses from their ignorance! . . . Struggle and sacrifice are a revolutionary's duty. This also was the attitude of Jesus. This was my meaning on a former occasion when I said, 'Until peace has become hopeless, never forsake peace; when sacrifice has become necessary, then sacrifice without reservation.' "

Declaring that his own New Life Movement ("when pushed, it moves; when not pushed, it stands still") has need of a new spirit, Generalissimo Chiang concluded:

"The spirit of Jesus is constructive, sacrificial, holy, true, peaceable, forward-looking, full of eager striving; and it is revolutionary throughout. In this critical time for our nation, there comes the holy Eastertide, which is also a testimony to 'deathlessness of spirit.' My fellow countrymen, let us cherish the idea of a 'new- birth'; let us maintain the resolution of 'sacrifice.' Let us hold Jesus as the goal for human living; let us keep the mind of Jesus as our mind, the life of Jesus as our life. Let us bravely go with him to the cross, to seek the everlasting peace of mankind, and the renewal of our nation of China."

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