MORAL AND SPIRITUAL RE-ARMAMENT

'The point is this,' Buchman continued. 'Are the Christians going to build a Christian philosophy that will move Europe? Are you the kind of Christians that can build that revolution? If you are not going on that battle front, I wish you well. I am not going to quarrel with you or criticise you. You do exactly what you like in the way you like. That's your idea of democracy. I don't say it's true democracy, but it's the popular practice of democracy ... Somewhere on the battlefront we will have the real revolutionaries.'

Beyond revival and revolution, he went on, 'There is a third stage, renaissance. The rebirth of a people, individuals and the rebirth of a nation . . . Some people do not like the idea of nations reborn, or of reaching the millions. They deride such a programme by calling it "publicity" ... All the publicity must be for destruction - or must it? Gospel means "good news", front-page news. But people object if it gets on the front page.'

One of the events which had generated this onslaught was an article in the important Stockholm daily, Dagens Nyheter, which mentioned 'the movement's loud-mouthed propaganda methods' and 'advertising about world revival'.11 Buchman felt that many present, including some who had found personal help through the Oxford Group, were sheltering behind the criticism in their desire to have a safe, restricted movement which would avoid public ridicule; and that some were also looking for a movement which would reassure them about their souls while allowing the pattern of their lives to continue much as before.

'I am going to promise you one thing,' he concluded. 'I am not turning back. I am not turning back, no matter who does, no matter what it is going to cost. If you join in this great crusade, you will get the way of the Cross. I am not going to lure you by hopes of material success. I am not going to lure you by saying you are going to be heroes. I am not going to lure you, although I believe that these lands can give a pattern on how to live. It is a personal experience of the Cross. It is not I, but Christ. It is not I at the head, but Christ who leads.'

He then suggested that people should not attend more meetings but should think it out alone. 'The thing you have got to decide is between you and God. Do it alone. Write it down if you want to. It is a deed, like the transfer of property - so you turn over your life to God, for full and complete direction as a fellow-revolutionary.'12

As a result of this speech, some decided to cease working with Buchman. Some even decided to kill his work if they could. Nils Gosta Ekman, who later became an editor at Svenska Dagbladet, records that some reacted against Buchman's challenge 'as against a personal insult or an espionage into their private defence secrets'.13

266