RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

MISCONCEPTIONS OF COD. A MAGNIFIED BROTHERS CHEERYBLE. SERMON BY DR. GIBB. - Continuing his scries of sermons on "Signs of Llio Times" at St. John's Church lust Sunday evening, Dr. Gibh discoursed on yet smother of the prevalent misconceptions of God. Did it seem to any of them that he was dwelling too long on this phase of his subject? He replied that these were the things they must know if they would read the signs of the times aright. As Hector Macpherson, in his admirable book "A Century of Intellectual Development," had said: "Man's intellect is mainly occupied with the great problems—Gotl, the Universe, and Man. Tho controlling fact, however, in the process' is mail's conception of God, the unseen power upon which all things rest. Not only philosophy 1 ,- science, literature, but oven the social order are moulded by, and permeated with, man's idea of God." What man thinks of God, man's attitude to God, is ii question of life or death for the world. Popular as were tho conceptions of God they had already studied, they must yield place to the notion that God is a Being of < molluscous geniality, or as he had phrased it in the title of the sermon :i kind of magnified Brothers Cheeryble. These brothers as they all know were pourtrayed in Dickens's novel "Nicholas Nickleby." Alike in personal appearance and temperament, they were represented as a living embodiment of the genial, the tolerant, tho compassionate. Their hands were never out of their packets, their tears were always ready to overflow at a tale of misfortune. They served the part of a protecting providence to the hero of the story and his friends. The-pidturo lacked verisimilitude. But that might pass ; the poi«t was that they were an incarnation of the genial. And of God in whom many believed to-day was something like this—a magnified Brothers Cheeryble., Or, perhaps, Ho might bo likened to tho Good Fellow of one of Omar Khayaam's verses: "Folks of a surlv tapster tell, ,And daub his visage with tho smoke of. hell; They talk of some, strict testing of us —tush! He's a Good Fellow and 'twill all be . well." That was God as conceived by multitudes of God's creatures at that hour — a genial Being who regarded mankind' with much toleration—too kind-hearted to make thein suffer; sorry for them in u different way when they brought suffering on themselves. In another world He would make it all right foi everybody. The God of the Bible was an exploded fallacy. "Fear," said so competent an interpreter of the times as Dr. G. A. CV, "lias practically ceased to be an influential factor in religion." Perhaps this was going too far, but unquestionably there were vast numbers who had no fear of God before their eyes. Why should they? He's a Good Fellow. Poor fools, poor fools. 'The wise Tennyson had written no wiser lines than these: "Wo arc. fools and slight; We mock Thee when we do not fear." Dr. Gibb in the next place traced the causes of this attitude to God: — (1) The disappearance, or at least the decided lessening, of the sense of mystery. _ Man had lifted the veil of the creation and gazeili at nature face to face. He had dared to know and had been ::lastcd for his curiosity, and henceforth nature for him was simply so much pliant laboratory material. To the profoundest minds, indeed the universo grew'only more mysterious with each advance of knowledge, and, as a matter of fact, they know no more of what things were in themselves than did the aborigines of Australia; but unquestionably the notion was prevalent that man knew or would soon know almost everything that was to bo known, and this arrogance was in part responsible for the prevalent conception of God. (2) Evolution in its baldest form was also in part responsible Even so wiso a writer as Sir Oliver Lodge had said in his recent book, "God and the' Universe',: "So far• as I can judge it is not likely that ii Deity operating through a process of evolution can feel wrath at the blind efforts of His creatures struggling upwards in the mire." Lodge was, however, inconsistent, for a little further on he admitted the extreme probability that the Deity was angry with some kinds of sin and with sinners of the unco guid type. It came to the Deity was angry with the hypocrite and tolerant of the adulterer. To such devious shifts were men driven who rejected the testimony of Christ and the Scriptures. (3) The humanitarian temper of the day was in part responsible for the degraded conception of God they were considering. They had learned humanitarianism from Christ,- and yet they were turning it as a weapon against Him. Pity was the touch of God in the human heart, but pity which was blind to the everlasting distinction between right and wrong had degenerated into a maudlin sentimentalism. The passion for comfort, though as tho poet told us comfort was scorned of devils, and the word itself w r as saturated with materialism, was well j nigh universal. What God moro fitting I for such a temper than tho magnified | Brothors Cheeryble? The preacher wont on to say that oven apart from Christ and the rei'u- | lation of God in. Him, the Good Fellow j conception of God was to him utterly unthinkable, and even monstrous. Far easier was it to believe with Professor James that the God of this universe was a cosmic and tragic Being. Did they remember Huxley's picture of the game of life being played between a man and a strong angel, whose face btetokenod something of compassion, but who never forgave tho least false move his opponent made. Nature revealed no Brothers Cheeryble, but rather a stem, inexorable being who rendered to each man according to his deeds. Let them think of life—man's life throughout the ages, or as pictured ill the wonderful night meditation of Tuefelsdrockh in Sartor Rcsartus. What a welter it all was! If God was a Brothers Cheeryble, if He could survey such a world genially, and with only an indolent pity, then cried the preacher: "Ho shall not be my God, and I shall disown Him now and forever, and take what fate may bring me. I can imagine a God stern", inexorable like His own laws. I can imagine a God overwhelmed at having brought such a universe into boing.. But the Brothers Cheeryble— away with it!" Over against this debasing conception of Godj the preacher set the God who is made know to us in the Bible and by Christ-—"just, merciful, holy, eternal in being, infinite in wisdom, unchangeable in purpose, adorable in majesty, ineffable in perfection." Holiness was the master note of the Old Testament; of the New Testament, tho master note was love. In Christ 'they found Hie holy love of God energising, struggling, venming, dying for onr redemption. The love'of God was manifest not in a srntimentalism which blinked the horrible reality of moral evil, not- in a sham pity which refused In brand iniquity with its right name and to punish the evil-doer: but in submitting tn ignominy, shame, desertion, death that man might be cleansed from

tho guilt and redeemed from the power of sin. In some lights Christianity was a terrible* religion, as indeed it ought to lie, if it was to be of any use in this tcrriblo world. Which was the true God? The genial, indolently, benevolent God, not strict to mark iniquity, and Who does not punish sin either here or hereafter, or the God whom they saw in Christ, whose love for us because it has ever been a holy love has been His pain, and brought Him at last in tho person of His Son to ihe cross of Calvary?, BAPTIST UNION. SOME STRIKING ADDRESSES. . There were 1200 delegates at the spring Assembly of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, held in April last. Some stirring addresses were delivered, and particularly when the ailments of tho Church were under discussion. An outstanding figure of the gathering was Rev. W. W, B. Emery, of Coventry, whose robustmanner and straight and practical talk were a revelation to the assembly. He is described by a writer in the "Christian World" as a,"coming man." Mr. Emery had some . home truths for his brother clergy, especially on the temptation to idleness. Considering the conditions of minisieria! life, he said, their time was at ther own disposal, and it was difficult to train themselves to do the duty of the hour—to-brace themselves to carry through a plan of study; to order their time methodically and use it well. .There was always the temptation to idleness. So much of their work was undefined. It had. a sort of double that was like it, but was not it, and if they diverted time to the double, it was easy to fall into the jiabit of mental vacancy or mental, vagrancy. It was pleasant to drop in on the most pleasant people and call it visiting. They must realise the distinction between reading and study. . It was not study to spend a- morning over the literature of the day. There was such a thing as busy idleness. Nothing worth speaking of ever came to' an empty and a rusty mind. It was the mind that was full and active that got the inspiration. In these days when everybody else had to work hard for a living, it must not go abroad that the ministry was a soft job. The one unpardonable sin of the minister was idleness. The Churches would forgive their sins, but 'they would not forgive their idleness. The "apathy of the pews" was the subject of an address which was gloomy in tone at tho same sitting by Mr. W." Goode Davies. People in the churches, he said, did not recognise that their church membership imposed on them any individual responsibility to further the religious interests of tho community, It was even difficult in some cases to induce men to accept the office of'deacon, once a coveted prize. They need not be amazed tiiat money was not forthcoming for the larger evangelistic campaigns .of the Church when there was such an appalling apathy of the. people in their own churches. They were absolutely and ruinously miscalculating and misjudging the whole scheme of life by putting the last things first and the first things last. He was convinced that they were suffering from their increasing prosperity and luxury. There came a point when every Christian man should ask himself whether lie was justified in further laying up for himself, and whether it was not his Christian duty to give not merely a tenth, but it might be a much larger proportion, of his income to the service of God. METHODIST "ARCHBISHOP." The Australasian • Methodists assembled in conference -at Adelaide recently were informed that they had an archbishop in -their midst. The Rev. Dr. Fitchett had moved that the thanks of the conference should .be tendered to the retiring president (the Rev. W. Williams, F.L.S.) for tho judgment, fidelity, and distinguished -.success with which he had discharged the manifold duties and responsibilities of the office. As president lie had been, as it were, an archbishop, but ono with a greater diocese, measured geographically, than the Archbishop, of Canterbury. Indeed, there, was no ecclesiastical figure in the - world, except the Rope of Rome, who stood for a greater geographical area than the Methodist "Archbishop" of Australia. The latter did not draw a great salary as he (tho speaker) knew from his own experience. (Laughter.) They 1 did not adorn him with strange ecclesiastical titles or garments, or titles such as Very Rev.,- Right Rev., or Wrong Rev., for that matter. (Laughter.) Ho was just first amonghis brothers, an interpreter of thenlaw, a spokesman on great public occasions, and one who stood for union among them. Mr. Williams had been a solid man in every way. In his football days he would not like to have bumped up against such a mall as Mr. Williams, who was a minister strong mentally and physically, one who was never in a hurry, and never committed tho faults of men who were, who never spoke inadvisedly with his lips, who had a matchless knowledge of the Church laws, and understood the genius of the Church.' Li' his presidential address ho had upheld their .spiritual ideals, and if |hey perished'what else was worth remembering? The president had had tho absolute confidence of tho Church, and accorded to him were the grateful thanks not only of the men assembled there, but of the great Church behind them. (Applause.) The Rov. W. Ready, of New Zealand, who supported the motion, said that to have the honour of- doing so was worth having made a journey »f 2500 miles ;o Adelaido almost with tho speed of the comet. (Laughter.) JOTTINGS. The Bishop of Newcastle (Dr. Stretch), in addressing the Newcastle Synod last week, said: "This diocese has come to lean far too much on expectations. It gives a curious illustration of the risk which a minimum wage hits of becoming a maximum. There arc parishes which have been for years receiving tho fullest aid from our sustenance ,fund, and have, built churches aiid rectories, and show with pride credit balances on various accounts. But they have never done anything towards raising the stipend of their clergyman, which is allowed to stand at a 'minimum of £200, though tho evidence of wages hoards unanimously agrees that the expense of living has been raised by 15 to 20 per cent., and a 'reluctant Premier is .going about scattering stipends ..to the servants of the people on tho merits of the case only." It has been decided that the centenary of Congregationalism in Australia shall not after all be celebrated this year. There is no doubt that a church after the Congregational order was formed in the year 1S10; but there is a hiatus between that year and 1833 which cannot be filled' up; and as the jubilee was observed in the year 18S3 the "Onion Executive has resolved that in the absence of documentary evidence showing that the services were continued from 1810 onwards to 1533 it is better to recognise tho latter date .is the foundation, of tho order in New South Wales. In commemoration, however, of the small church founded by Mr. W. Pascoo Crook in August-Sep-tember, ISIO, it'has been agreed that ;i communion service shall be held in the corresponding period of the year. Congrcgntionalists will, therefore, have to wait another 23 years before the centenary will be celebrated.