THE FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 10

THE FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH.

A MATER OF EMPHASIS

At tlie annual public meeting of tho Metropolitan Free Church Federation, held at Crouch Hill Presbyterian Church, London, on December 5, tho new president, the I lev. liichsird Roberts, deliveitd his presidential address. "It would be idle," he Raid, "to hide from ourselves the fnct that things are not well with us. It would bo equally idle to suppose that any ono man's diagnosis o£ the disorder would be complete or his prescription for it effectual. Wo require hard collective thinking and faithful fellowship in prayer if we are to discover tho way out of our present confusion of futility. Wo have not yet begun to face the facts as a whole; wo have not yet begun to gather them in any systematic way; and no one has any right to speak upon tho situation of tho Free Churchcj in London who docs not approach tho problem in this scientific and painstaking way." Mr. Koljorts proceeded to ask whether Freo Churchmen had not in theso last years tended to lay more cmpliosis upon tho adjective "Free" than upon tho substantive "Church." He profoundly believed in freedom, but at the same time it was possible, and it luid in some measure happened, .that the emphasis upon Irccdom liad somewhat dulled and obscured what should bo tho larger and clearer emphasis upon the Church. It would be an interesting inquiry what the precise connotation of that word "free" was in tho minds of Free Churchmen. There was a good deal of confusion arising from looso and shallow thinking about tho idea of liberty in general. The very existence ~of"'society "ifcpenided ujwii tho ncoeplunce by every individual in it of certain limitations; and a man was only free, and only felt himsolf to bo free, wlw>n he voluntarily and cheerfully acquiesced in those limitations. "I lijavc some misgivings," continued Mr. Roberts, "when i begin to ask whether, in our present emphasis upon freedom, wo have not been thinking more of our common rights as againSt a privileged Establishment than of the crown rights of Jesus Christ in His Church. .... There may bo a' h'nrshness and a lack of charity in tho assertion of freedom, which aire a contradiction of tho spirit of the King wliaso crown rights we wish to pre- ' servo. Wo may forget, and we liave sometimes forgotten, the crown rights of Jesus in our own minds and hearts in asserting Uwm for the Church. . . . The passionate and complete acceptance of tho crown.rights of Jesus over ourselves by us who constitute His Church is'alono the weapon by whioh we shall establish His crowii rights in His Church in tho world, and the only condition upon which we are worthy of liberty. . . . We shall not become wholly free by merely fretting at our bonds, but simply by bursting them by tho sheer mightiness of irresistible moral vitality." They must look to themselves, continued Mr. Itol>orts, and see* to it that in the Christian communities to which they belonged the spirit and tho will of Christ wero paramount; which meant that they, must recover a. view of the Church other than that into which thoy had insensibly drifted in their day. From various causes they had come to accept a loose and low view of tho Church which was wholly incompatible with the New Testament. It was probablo also that lack of clear thinking upon that question of freedom had led them into a temper of individualism in religion which had militated seriously against that note of catholicity which was essential to a true Church. .Loyal Churclunanship was an indispensable element in a genuine personal Christianity. ■ : ""-Tho-Church was not a mere string for holding together a number of organisations, but the Body of Christ, a gToat sacramental mystery. To bo loyal to the Church was the integral part of loyalty to Christ, and it was idle to talk of the "crown rights" of Jesus Christ, for they would not begin to understand what was meant until thoy understood it was not a mere institution but a living organism , ;v|,\ich (Ifra rat its inind, its conscience, its will, and, its vitality from the living Lord who was enthroned in its heart.

"When, we comc into this region," con-' tinued Mr.. Roberts, "the externalities of ' tlio life of 1 the Church assume the secondary dimensions which are proper to them. . . . Our need is to ceaso bothering about the circumference, and to rolate ourselves rightly to the centre. Wo shall not need to stoop to methods of sensationalism to attract the people, for we shall bo performing that perpetual miracle of Redemption which the Church ekists to perform, and laying tho spell of it upon the whole nation. We are eaner for a revival of religion, but that revival must begin just here—in tho recovery of the overwhelming consciouKnass of tho presence of Christ in His Church." -. In-hiS.closing!'passages Mr.'Roberta 3fc-.cufise(|;V-the...j means-possible ..t0..-, the Churches to achieve that recovery of Christ—a new apprehension, ho said, not merely of the doctrine, but of tho fact of the Royal Presence."