THE CHURCH AND RELIGION.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19159, 16 November 1927, Page 5

THE CHURCH AND RELIGION.

PRESENT AND FUTURE. CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENCE. A thoughtful discourse on the present state and future prospects of religion, and of the Church, was delivered by the Rev. James Aitken, Moderator, in his address at the opening session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand last evening. The speaker also added a valuable contribution to the controversy Over the mutual relation of science and religion"l suppose we are for the most part agreed that the fortunes of the Church are at ebb just now; and they are so because the fires of religion burn low,"' said Mr Aitken. "The tono of society in these days was materialistic; men measure things according to their material value; prosperity means always material prosperity, and progress material progress. Attend the meetings of any public body from Parliament down to the pettiest town board, and the discussions open no vision beyond material things. I was present some weeks ago at the opening of a new school. No prayer was offered for divine blessing; not one word was spoken by the chairman of the committee, representative of the Education Board, Mayor of the town, headmaster, or any other speaker to suggest that the end of education was anything higher than physical health and economic advantage. Character, the quest of truth, the service of God—these things were not even mentioned. A very large proportion of the community simply ignore religion in their private lives; its considerations do not as much as make a formal appearance in their scheme of life, or in any degree affect their plans. God does not enter into all their thoughts. Children are brought up without religious influences, strangers to the very name of Christ. Lost Enthusiasm. "It was little wonder," he said, that the Church, in all its branches," is experiencing..great difficulty and perplexity. The Presbyterian Church could boast no exemption. There was never a time when her ministry was more devoted, yet everywhere men's hearts were broken for lack of response. The , mists crept in from the world outside, and chilled her life. Her members had lost enthusiasm, if they still had faith in her- Her services were poorly attended, and her weekly witness for her Master was weakened accordingly. The manning of her congregational organisations was a perpetual anxiety. Her missionary activities were harassed for want of funds. There was a widespread, if not universal, weariness about the Church, which everyone who loved her must grieve to see. If the lamp of her faith was not dim, the fires of her zeal burn low. It was no use shutting our eyes to these facts, or seeking to maintain our courage by merely concentrating our attention on whatever brighter elements we might discern in the immediate situation. . The cure for pessimism was not to make light of difficulty and disappointment. It was rather to account for them, to trace them to their source, and try to understand them." Is Science Impregnable? The speaker went on to trace the growth and changes in thought throughout the centuries, and showed how with the end of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of this twentieth century a striking change was to be observed in the attitude and temper of thinking men. The change might best be described atf an access of very wholesome humility. Science was by no means so sure as she was that her methods of observation were- perfect, or that her conclusions were final. She had grown conscious that the period of her activity, stretching over some three or four hundred years, constituted but a moment in the age.-long history of the universe, and was far less confident that the so-called laws of nature were inviolable and universal.

The physicist and 'hemist to-day were i forced to abandon their faith in' the "irreducible brute matter" with-wbich they formerly used to deal. The atom in their hands had become a planetary Bystem, in which electrons circle with unimaginable speed round their central proton. The notion of mass had lost its j unique pre-eminence as being the one I final permanent quantity. It was no longer mass, but energy, which remained constant. . j Doctrine of Evolution. "Matter is more and more being conceived in terms of spirit," continued the Moderator, "and perhaps nothing has contributed more to this new way of regarding matter than the doctrine of evolution." It was curious now to refleet what panic the doctrine aroused in religious circles a couple of generations ago. For the truth was that a thorough-going evolutionary philosophy was inconsistent with materialism, and friendly to belief in God. The aboriginal stuff which the old materialism presupposed was incapable of evolution. Its atoms could not change. They might enter into new arrangements and new combinations; but such new arrangements and combinations did not constitute evolution. You might pull down one building, and with the stones build another; but the second was in no sense evolved from the first. Evolution implied organisms. It was the development of more com--1 plex organisms from simpler forms. Scientists realised that the fundamental ideas which science found so useful from the time of Newton till almost the present day had served their pur- | pose and must now be revised. They | had broken down, not under criticism from without, though that had not been lacking, but under the weight of scientific progress and discovery. Science had herself found out the insufficiency of her own firmly trusted metaphysics. Eecognition of Spirit. "The point which I wish to emphasise is that the 'climate of thought'— to use an old and expressive metaphor —is undergoing a radical change in these days," continued Mr Aitken. A great body of evidence could be produced to show that the movement was all in the direction of a spiritual interpretation of the universe- It was becoming increasingly evident that the ultimate reality was spirit. The old materialism was gone, and the atmosphere was becoming more and more favourable to a revival of religion. Duty of Church. But the Church must be wise to discern the signs of the times. For the new conditions would make; —were already making—new demands upon her. If she was deaf to those demands, ehe would miss her opportunity, and who knows T—-it might be the kingdom would be taken away from her and given to another. The changing "climate of thought" required on the part of the Church an attitude towards science different from that which has characterised her in the past. Hitherto, she had been afraid of science, and her fear has constrained her to adopt an atti- ! tude of hostility. She had imagined t herself the defender of truth, and had I regarded the progreis in torn of aitron-

omr, of geology, of biology, as so many . assaults upon her territory. She would have sprung to arms no doubt to oppose the doctrine of relativity, if she ! had been able to make head or tail of j Einstein. But again and again the re- i sistance she offered had been overborne j Much of the discredit under which she j suffered to-day could be traced to hei ; repeated defeats in the past. The world was more than inclined to regard her j as the champion of superstition and the ; enemy of truth. Sho must bring her- , self to breathe a humbler spirit, and j even to learn from science a profoundcr j faith in truth itself and in its. pro- i gressive revelation. She must cease to ' regard herself as possessed of the last j word in revelation. Science, in studying the universe was studying the mani- ! testation of God. I The Church must learn to accept and ,• assimilate the assured results of scicn I tifie investigation. Xot satisfied with | what she already knew she must be eager to grasp and make her own every fresh vision of God and His ways in the universe and with men. She must so adjust and develop her own peculiar doctrine as not to lose the old treasure, but to incorporate the new. Religion and science were the two strongest influences that played upon the lives of men, and he was probably right who warned us that the future course of history depended upon the decision of this generation as to tlio relations between tht-m. Further, science had much to teach us in regard to the publication of our message, and the vital importance of accuracy and intelligibility. The Church must set herself to speak to the world in modern language and under modern forms of thought. No scientific teacher would dream of expounding his subject in the terms and under the concepts of a bygone age. So the Church must rid her mind of the confusion between her historic statements of faith and the faith of which they were the statements. Religion Not Understood. To many men to-day, religion seemed a myth, and its experiences imaginary, simply because the terms in which they had heard them described conveyed no clear meaning to them. There was no use speaking to twentieth century men in the language of the first, or the fifth, or even the seventeenth centuryThat was simply to be not understood, or worse, to be. misunderstood. "The gospel of the grace of God," must be translated, not only into the language ' of every people, but into the language of every age, if all men were to have the chance of hearing and believing it. The old truths would not be lost by being restated. On the contrary, they will come home to the minds and hearts of men with more power to redeem and save, ts comfort and sustain. The restatement of the message of religion was not merely the putting of it into modern words; it was the putting of it into modern forms of thought. Much preaching was futile, so far as the world about us was concerned, because we used categories with which it was utterly unacquainted. Forms of expression, ways of conceiving things, which might be familiar and in some degree intelligible to those who had been nurtured within the pale, were obscure, misleading, and sometimes even repellent to those without. Educated Ministry Needed. In view of the responsibility which confronted us one thing stood out clear, stated the Moderator. The demands which had to be met in these days, and would have to be met in the future, rendered it imperative that our Church should pursue with ever more earnestness and loyalty her ideal of a thoroughly educated ministry. A well-informed and cultured mind was needful. The work of translating and presenting the gospel to the modern world was a difficult and delicate task. It v involved, above all things, a clear discernment of what was essential in our religion, and a faculty for lucid and accurate statement. An ignorant preacher would make ignorant statements; an untrained mind would confuse the fundamental issues; and the effect on the world about our- doors was to produce a false impression of what Christianity really was.

There was an immense amount of misapprehension abroad to-day, and the Church was not free from blame in the matter. She had been far too ready to assume that any preaching was better than no preaching. There were questions which must be faced. Possibly they had too much preaching. Possibly modern conditions call for, not different ranks, but different orders of ministers; some teachers, some pastors, some organisers, and administrators. Be that as it may, it remained an abiding response bijitv upon the Church to see to it that those who are charged with the duty of preaching Christ wero properly equipped' for the task.