PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16451, 19 February 1919, Page 9

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The annual General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zeaiand, which is this year being held in Christehurch. was opened last evening in St. Paul's Church, the retiring Moderator, the Hon. J. G. W. Aitken, M.L.C.. presiding over n large congregation. . The proceedings opened with the singin<- of the "Old Hundredth, - ' and a prayer by il» Moderator, who, after a Scrioture reading, the taking of a collection in aid of the expenses of the Assemblv, and the sinking or the "Church's one Foundation, demorea his retiring sermon.

THE .RETIIIING SERMON

Tho preacher took for the text of his sermon,"Matthew v.. 13. "Ye are the salt of the earth, but if tho salt have lpst its savour, wherewith shall it. be salted? it is thenceforth good tor nothing, but to be cast out, and to HI troddep under foot of men.'One of the Church's duties, said the preacher, was to care, in no superficial way, for her members, to teach them and to strengthen them. A\ere we, he asked, doing all that we should ill that direction? Did the Church never lose any of her members? The Church should "be a hospital to care for the spiritually sick, and a convalescent home to help the spiritually mending, but sho should also be a place where spiritual health could bo obtained by doing healthy work. The morality of tho world was a thing without principle, and it was the duty of the Church to keep the world morally sweet, and to save it from itcelf. Tho preacher went on to speak of the sweet influence of a Christian on a mixed community. Hie greatest service a man could render the community in which lie Jived, was to believe in the truths of God. Another way in which tho Church and her, individuals could become as salt t<3 the world wa6 in their conduct and life. If we were as careful and attentive to tho young Christian as we should be, there would not be so many stunted and decrepit members of society, and so great a falling-away in church membership. Tho Church must r<lso show that she> was the salt of the earth by her manifest humanities. A Divine pity was necessary for all who needed our help and attention. Yet another function of the Church to prove herself the salt of the earth was in the caring for tho young, ■ the religious and moral training of whom' was the Church's bounden duty. The future of this laud was largely in the hands of those who had their work amongst the voung. All should magnify tho work of those who were seeking to get at the heart of the child for God. The preacher also spoke of the need for the Church to work amongst the heathen. It was a matter for congratulation, he remarked, that the Church had not taken any backward step in such work during the war; on the fither hand, British missions had.steppra into the breach, and taken over the work in various parts of Africa of German missions, which found it necessary to discontinue temporarily owing to the exigencies of war. The situation that was about to develop, or was, rather, now developing, was surely a call to the Church to re-examine herself and make sure that the salt that should make the earth pure and sweet was being used in its purest, unadulterated form. The preacher concluded by speaking of tho Church's duty to the men who wore coming back, and expressed the hope that her members would respond to the call that the salt wherewith we were salted would not have lost its savour. Might all ever andwunccasinglv have the savour of salt iir their lives. . After the singing of another hvmnj the Assembly was then constituted by praver. * AN AMENDMENT LOST. The Assembly clerk, the Rov. J. H. 3lcKenzie, explained that owing to tho recent epidemic the Assembly Jiad had to be postponed.from jts fixed date, and he moved: "That the General Assembly in virtue of its nobile officium, and having in view the exceptional circumstances of the influenza plague, resolves to sustain, and hereby does sustain, the action of the Moderator in calling the Assembly as now convened,' and declares all business now to be transacted to be competent, and all decisions to have full authority." The Rev. I. Jolly, of Auckland, at some length questioned the legality of the Moderator's action. For the last six years, he said, the Assembly had appointed a Moderator's Advisory Committee to advise him in cases of emergency. In this instance, that committee iiad never been consulted.; on the other hand, a number of men. had evidently put their heads together and advised the Moderator to take a certain course. Such a procedure was quite unknown in the procedure _of the Church. Mr Jolly went on to instance how a special meeting of the Assembly might have been called in conformity with the Book of Order, and moved as an addition to the clerk's motions: — '•That the action of the Moderator in calling this meeting of the Assembly on his own initiative is not. to be taken' as a precedent." Mr McKenzie briefly replied. to Mr Jolly's argument, and tho amendment was put to th e Assembly and lost, tho motion being carried amidst applause. < Dr. Erwin later gave notice, to move that a committee be appointed to draw up a constitutional method of convening Assembly in such exigencies as had arisen. THE NEW MODERATOR. The Moderator then extended a hearty welcome to the Rev. W. Gray Dixon, of Roslyn, Dunecnn, to the Moderator's chair, in conformitv with the wish of the previous Assembly, and vacated the pulpit in his favour. Mr Gray Dixon feelingly returned thanks for the honour dohe him. and proceeded to deliver his inaugural address.

THE UN I VERSA CHURCH

MODERATOR'S INAUGURAL

ADDRESS

The Moderator, the Right Rev. V». Clrav Dixon, M.A.. delivered bis inaugural address, "The Universal Crisis and the Universal Church." In opening, lie said that it was with mingled diffidence .and elation be thanked them for the high honour conferred on him. His insufficiencv loomed none the less when lie thought of the distinction of character and gifts which made his immediate predecessor such a power andf an ornament,-alike in the political and ecclesiastical councils of the Dominion.

The stupendous events of our time, the Moderator went- on to say. have made clear to me the outline at least of what I ought, to say. The universal crisis calls for the universal Church. The shaking of the nations makes for a new settlement-of the nations, and the right settlement can only be in the Divine unity of the Holy Catholic Church. Bishop ,Brent, c*f the United States of America, pithily puts the case. "'Just, as now is the time to strike for the unity of nations, so is it the time to strike for the unity of the Churches."' Th<*call is clear and clamant for a revival of the spirit of catholicitv and the embodiment of. that spirit in a true, pure, and effective Catholicism. Under the inspiration of that memorable time in July, 1853, when the Bay of Yedo was unsealed and Furthest East and Furthest West met, there originated a movement the magnificent possibilities of which, in renewing the faco of the universal Church and of tho world, are coming more and more to light with the progress of the years. The very name of the movement carries

with it a wonderful vitality and vision— the World's Student Christian Federation. Its founder, Dr. John R: Mott, undoubtedly ranks among the greatest, men of our age. Quickening human life at its best aud in its beginnings in the seminaries of every quarter of the globe, it has wrought marvels such as but. few if anv. could have anticipated in! drawing together in tho noblest of all interests not merely professed Protestants and Evangelicals—a comparatively oasv matter—but Anglicans of the pronounced Anglo-Catholic; type, members of the Holv Orthodox Church of Russia, and other 'Christens of trad.tions more or less remote from what are specifically known as Evangelical. This ment had much to do with the epo 1makin K World Missionary Conference of ItUO. Another movement ot universal aim and name is that emanatin from the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America to promote a World Conference on Faith and Order, an effort which has won the. svmpathv of the Pope himself. * These and other beneficent movenients of a like universal outlook were in_ increasingly active operation, when e fell tho thunderbolt of tho world-»ai. Facility of intercourse has its possibilities of strife no loss than of goodwill. The world, tending, as tho best otl men hoped, to a compactness as of JeruSiiloui, was convulsed, shaken to foundations, distracted, desolated. what manv believed to be tho very mountain-to;i of modern civilisation, "crowded with culture." there burst an eruption of original sin as rank as ages tho most, barbaric eve;- knew. Times and spaces seemed dashed together in a wild confusion. Babylon was mixed up with Berlin, the idol of Rindenburg with the idol of Bel. Universal history became contemporary. Tho newspapeis read like the Bible. Their news was universally human.

Assuredly human nature is one—ono in possibilities of evil as of good,_ all ages and places. Tho difference in this twentieth century of Christ- from tho twentieth century before His coming lies in the vastly enlarged scope given to these possibilities. Tho evil done was unparalleled; but po was the good. From every quarter of the globo the peoples that cherished the instinct. 'or light and liberty rallied in a glorious alliance against the offenders. Not only the great. Christian Powers and the varied tribes under their tutelage, but the great pagan Powers of ancient civilisation, and the obscurest of modern; republics, joined in tho mighty crusado. The battleships <?f Japan escorted to the scene of conflict the troops of their British fellow-islanders in the; Far East. The truo-hearted of mankind came forth, an irresistible unity, againstbarbaric brutality and disruption. Never, had the human race been so much at one.

While tlie-r had seen the hiding of God's face, they had seen also His restoration of health and cure—tyrannies have crashed and fallen, and nation?r that had long brooded over the tombs of their corporate life, had heard the trump of their resurrection, and were free once more to enrich mankind with the special thoughts of God which made them nations. But the powers of hell again break loose, original sin vomits forth its fury and folly in other forms, and for multitudes the horrors of autocracy are succeeded by the even deadlier horrorß of anarchy. Antichrist looms largo and awful, for lawlessness breeds the false sovereign, the caricature of the Christ. Never was kuown the like since chaos first yielded to cosmos. And a great cry goes forth for the King—for the King who proclaims in the Psalm, "Tho earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved : I bear up the pillars of it." The pillars aro the members of the Church. The Church is the one social institution that can sustain true order, tho pillar and pendulum of equanimity, sanity, serenity; salt of the earth, light of the world; "in earth there is no stability," declared John Knox in his dying words, "except in the Kirk of Jesuri Christ, ever lighting under the Cross." St. Augustiiie saw the 'glorious fabric"bf tho.City of God arise from the ruins of ancient Borne; shall it be. given to us to see! the Church Catholic emerge in fresh unity and "beauty and powpr from the devastation of modern civilisation? For the wellbeing of mankind three conditions are' essential —nationalism., international-; ism, and supernationalisni. . Prussianism means nationalism over-riding internationalism,; Bolshevism means internationalism over-riding nationalism; the Church intervenes with her supernationalism, conserving both. Prussianism and Bolshevism agree in making for the intolerable tyranny of a superstate; the Church conserves the State and glorifies it, and links it to all other States in the beneficence of. universal brotherhood.

The leading statesmen of- the world a.ro at present discussing the question' of the reconstruction of the world after the war. What appears on the face of it a very noble ideal, that of a League of Nations, has been approved by them. But even if some beneficent scheme of international brotherhood is formulated and accepted, who is to guarantee its observance? What safeguard is. forthcoming against one ,or more of the contracting partiesi treating it as a mere "scrap of paper"? When tie Abbe de Saint Pierre submitted to Cardinal Fleury his "Projet do Pais Perpetuelle;" that shrewd critic leplicd, "Admirable, save for 'one omission: I find no provision for sending missionaries to convert the hearts bf princes." Who is to supply this omission but the Church ? The supernationaj[ authority which is 'to crown • nationalism and internationalism is found in the message of heart-renovation which is brought from God to the international Church. The Holy Catholic Church is the custodian of the HoJv Catholic Book in which speaks the Holy Catholic God, who has created, and who must command, the nations. Tho emergence into clearer, fuller, more authoritative visibility of the one Church of the living God is tho most clamant need of this tremendous crisis, "the establishment," as Mr A. B. Keay, a business man of the United Free Church of Scotland put it. "of a universal Church of Christ on a world "tl'f restoration," ill the words of Bislioi) Gore, "into prominent- emphasis of the two most fundamental and original elements of the Christian Creed —tho Lordship of Jesus and the Mission of the Spirit to constitute Die visible Christian Church, His Spirithearing l>odv. His nrenn and instrument for self-exprr. : ; !c;i lid action ill the world."

In thrt lirrht of this need nnd of t.ho no v.- disposition towards unity .'which tbo consciousness of it is awakening within the detached ranks of tho so nnhapoily divided Church, it is of cardinal importance that we should consider oiir inherited view of the Catholic Church, and of the relation of our own particular Church to if.

The Moderator then dealt at noinp/ length with the historical aspects of the divergences in church government, stressing the point that the .Reformed Church repudiated sectarianism and individualism, citing in support thereof the following from the words of the Westminster Confession: "The visible Church which is also catholick or universal tinder the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children; and is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the House and Family of God. out of which there is no ordinary possibility of saivation."

Continuing, he said the presence lately in the mother city of such hosts of men drawn from every part of tiio Kmpire by the mighty moral enthusiasm of the war ; testifying so vividly to the essential unity of the British peoples, has rightly inspired the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Charles Wakefield. with an impassioned io,ii,:ng for the realisation of one great British Church. "Just thiak," he aptly tays, "what would have happened in this

war if tho British Empire had teen. id fl tho same condition as tho Uritisn churches,'' and lie* pertinently "whero are the churchmen corresponding to such champions of Imperialism as Cecil Rhodes, Joseph Chamberlain, and Rudyard Kipling"? _ Concluding and summing up nis views on tho subject of Church unity, the Moderator said: It would bo intensely interesting and .not a little profitable to exercise tho imagination as to tho character and influence of tho restored Catholic Church, but I have already sufficiently taxed your atten* tion. Suliico it to say, to begin uith, that that Church would certainly not be Papal. The Kaiserism of the Vatican would-bo as alien to it as tho Kaiserism of Potsdam to tho League of Nations. In policy it would probably bo at onco Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational, embodying tho excellences and avoiding tho defects of carfj «f the contributing systems, three forms ct libf.,- ty—tho hherty of authority, tho ' liberty of order, and tho liberty of local autonomy and iiiitiativo. Its worship would be beautifully full ai.<l varied, affording the utmost scope for B spontaneity on the one hand and liturgical dignity on tho other. Its priestly functions, liable to under-emphasis by the Presbyterian, and its prophetio functions,, liable to undor-emphasis bv tho Episcopalian, would: aliko roceivo duo attention. No one would, have to say, with the convert- from llonum to tho Reformed Church, "There is one thing I miss; 1 miss adoration"; and such a confession as that lately made with noble frankness oy the Anglican Committee of Enquiry apDointotf to' deal with the teaching office of the Church would be unknown: "Tho Church, has failed to attain tho end which it set before itself at tho Hoformation—namely. that tho laity I should bo really instructed in tho Christian faith and practice." And what of the doctrine, wrenched P Of this there can be no uonbt, «Jid 1c is reassuring to noto that in - tho recent conferences it occasioned much less disI cnssion_ than the question of polity. The historic universal Church will i maintain the historic universal Faith j embodied in the oecumenical creeds oi the Church early and undivided. There ! is no call to the Church to tone down her testimony; tho call is emphatically—never more emphatically thai: now—to tono it up. The unies y-jarr for an ampler and not mi utt?nuuteri creod, not for less churchmanship bul for vastly more. The world-war wuf largely tho nomcsis of a watered creed and a weakened discipline. "Wo liave !>=on altogether too anxious to make, the mysteries of the faith easy of in-' tollectual acceptance, and ' altogether , too ready to defer to passing moods of : tho modern mind. Tho happy dictum of Vincent of Lorins must find fulfilment: ''Eqolesia dicens.nove, nunquanW dicit nova." In .a new way the Churchy n.ust needs speak, in tho way understood uf tho now times • and fitted besfr, to influence tho now times, with renew-' ed unity, norvo, and authority, but never now tilings is.her*deposit ■of .truth; is eternal. ■

The ljrilliant Greek statesman, Veni J zelos. lia.3 suggestod Constantinople as, the _eapital of the proposed League of | Nations. What a happy inspiration!; How thrillingiy significant! The first' Christian metropolis restored to her< original function as the nursing mother! of- the Universal Church! The City! of tho Golden Horn and tie Golden! Gate and the Golden Month; ushering) in at last the world-wide Golden Age!! (Is it but a dream? Well, wherever! the League of Nations may find its centre, that centre must be a Church evln more than a City,.for, unless there! go' forth from it tie catholicity ofi Christ, there is no "virtue in it what-; ever for the healing and reconciling of' the nations. Its' principle must bo that: of Constantine, wno, wlien stepping tlio boundary-line of his new city, declared,, "I must go on until Ho j stops who goes on- before mo." The reconstruction.of the world; and,-, as essential to it, the reconstruction of the Church —can it bet-that our age has. been summoned to such colossal service P.' And yet there are the'facta writ laraem I every morning's paper. What will avail but a now creation, a day of .the right, hand of God as mighty as -thaton/which He moved upon the face.of the watora, ) sis mighty as that on which He cam© down upon men in tongues of firePi Creation is ever in progress, Pentecost is ever in progress, each aMay of "thousands of years; but there are special epochs of Creation, special, epochs ofi Pentecost. Creation* in unprecedented power, for Pentecost is unprecedented power for the Peace Conference, for ever v Conference and Assembly of the Universal Church—what Joss dare wo cry aloud for to God our King?' I see ten thousand at a time. calling for this amid the sacramental beauty 6" the Co rrbeiland hills. I loot back four hundred yean*, and in the Hall of tho Castle of Plessenburg I see a representative gathering of leaders of the time, conservatives and progressives, medievalists, and men of tho Renascence. The.v kneel down together on the floor of the great Hall and sine. ,'Veni, Sancte Spiritus." Three times the 'ancient appeal rings, put ..to the Creative Spirit. God's answer, was;the Koforination. " Tho crisis to-day isnot less, it is .even moro momentous. Wo may well utier Tauler's conviction as men never uttered it before: "We are created and called to great. things: therefore we must give God room within us that Ho may bring them to pass.", OTHER, BUSINESS. -

The ministerial changes returns for the jjoriod since last Assembly showed 7 ordinations, 15 transfers, 6 inductions " 8 resignations. and 4 deaths. ' Sessional and other • committees as previously suggested were appointed. The reports of the Arrangements Bills and Business Committees woro * adopted.

Ihe Rev. R. M. Rylrarn was ap- . pointed convoner of the Bills-and Busi- ; neas Committee in place of Dr. Erwin •' resigned. . '

The Assembly then adjourned "till 10 a.m. to-day, when proceedings will commcnce with devotional and communion service.