CHRISTIANITY HAS NOT FAILED: IT HASN’T BEEN APPLIED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 75, 30 July 1948, Page 7

CHRISTIANITY HAS NOT FAILED: IT HASN’T BEEN APPLIED

“The harvest is past, the summer - is ended, and we are not saved.” Jeremiah. 8:20 Extracts from a sermon by the Rev. Walter .Parker, Minister of the Mt. Albert Methodist Church: We live in momentous days. We do not know what a day or an hour may bring forth. The times demand a strong “God intoxicated” inspired church whose leaders fear men so little because they fear God so much. Pierpont Moyes, speaking of the warfare by atomic bomb, says: “The whole thing will be over in two days. A large number of the population won’t be here when the two days are over. The whole solution is a spiritual solution to save what’s left of the world. For the spiritual solution, you get back to Christ’s saying, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Mr Churchill warned us some time ago, “There is no time to be lost! Let us stop fiddling and dabbipg and bring our mighty evangelistic message to bear upon the world,” General Douglas MacArhtur, speaking on the battleship “Missouri,” said: “Today the guns are silent. Men from., the beginning of time have sought'peace, k but military alliances, balances’ of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed. We have had our last chance. The problem is basically theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character. It must be of the Spirit if it is to save the flesh.” Jesus Christ put it all in five words, “Ye must be born anew.” The challenge to the church is to give fearless leadership. Humanism, the idea that man can save the world without God, has received its death blow. Communism with its godless teaching; drink and gambling; two of the greatest foes of our nation, open their jaws wide to swallow up our youth, and are doing it overnight. These evils challenge the church to stop fiddling and dabbing. To stop useless controversy* and bring its mighty evangelistic messages to bear upon the world, or the cry will go up, “The Harvest is past and the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” But the church which would lead upward and challenge the evils of the day must be a savegi church. Who would dare to say that the church is truly saved, fully given up to the mind of Christ? Christianity hasn’t failed; it has never been courageously applied. God has not failed us, but we have failed Him. The world will nevqj* accept Christianity from us, or believe it, unless it can be proved by the reality and richness of our own experience.