CREDO

With the approach of Easter there are thousands gathering in Jerusalem representing three of the great religions of the world. The Jews are there to celebrate the Passover and the Christians to celebrate their holiday, while the Moslems from the desert will go to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage of Nebi Musa. As a result of this coincidence of the religious festivals the British have been forced to take extraordinary police and military measures to insure the keeping of the peace.

It is an ironic situation where men meeting to honor their faiths must be watched by a police force to prevent them from cutting one another's throats. But whether ironic or not, this is the case, and it is typical of religions in every period. People in the west today are far more conscious of the discrepancy between ideal and actuality in a situation such as this, than the people of a generation or two ago. For the recognition of the principle of religious toleration is one of the developments of modern times and has not yet been fully realized.

A great part of the sectarian quarrels in Jerusalem have no foundation other than aimless religiosity, but there is in addition an element of genuine faith which is rare today. This quality, which has been largely lost in the evolution of religious toleration and scientific scepticism, is one which should not be completely abandoned. Although the world will-probably never return to the limited faith of the past, of which the disorder in Jerusalem is an expression, there must be some adjustment made to modern knowledge and a creed built upon it.