At a country funeral this week, amid the heavy foliage of a late English summer, we sang the hymn \u201cO God of earth and altar\u201d\u009d. It is not directly socialist, but it is consistent with socialism.
\nThat was the context in which it was sung when newly written \u201d\u201c after a meeting of the Church Socialist League in 1912, for example, when civil war was suggested as a solution for the nation\u2019s ills. There was a miners\u2019 strike on, and the meeting marched with a petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury, singing (perhaps to the tune of \u201cThe Church\u2019s One Foundation\u201d\u009d):<\/p>\n
O God of earth and altar
\nBow down and hear our cry,
\nOur earthly rulers falter,
\nOur people drift and die.
\nThere is resonance between the next stanza and the feeling of the world now, 100 years later:
\nFrom all that terror teaches,
\nFrom lies of tongue and pen,
\nFrom all the easy speeches
\nThat comfort cruel men,
\nFrom sale and profanation
\nOf honour and the sword,
\nFrom sleep and from damnation,
\nDeliver us, good Lord.<\/p>\n