COLLEGE CHRISTIAN UNION

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2181, 20 June 1914, Page 3

COLLEGE CHRISTIAN UNION

ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR PICKEN. At a meeting of the Victoria University College Christian Union, held in the Students' Social Hall, a largo number, of interested listeners heard two important addresses. Tho first was a stirring description of tho peoplo and their doings at the World's Students' Christian federation's Conference, held last year on Lake Mohonk, in tho United States; Somo forty-six nations wero represented, and only picked men and women wero chosen. Miss Alexander, who represented Australia, vividly pictured the scene, and dwelt impressively on tho power of the Christianity which must have been behind such a hugo delegation. Dr. Mott's famous remark, "I would rather live in the next ten* years than in any twenty-live of the past v " was echoed by her, and hor enthusiasm roused the students and others to a keen sense of tho value to Christianity and to tho world of these next ten years. ■Miss Alexander is one of tho travelling secretaries for tho Australian Students' Christian Union. . Professor Picken, speaking on tho "basis" of tho Christian Union, said tho present basis takes tho form of tho declaration: "I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my only Saviour, as my Lord, and as God, according to tho Scriptures, and promise to abide by tho constitution of the union, and to unito witl> it in its activities." The Professor explained that the ,whole bent of ltis own mind wag. against for- • mularies on religious subjects; that it would have been quite impossible for him, in his own' student days, to sign this declaration; and that ho still did tiot think i-t sound practice to have the basis put in the form of a declaration. He described,- the basis as a sort of a creed, and expressed the opinion that the greatest.blunder of tho Christian Church has, been.the insistence upon strict allegiance to the words of its creeds, instead of encouraging constalit re-statement of the elements of the Christian faith. He then proceeded to discuss the terms-of the basis in detail. He touched upon tho repugnance of youth to such words as Saviour, because of their dislike of tho sanctimonious: but went oil to show how very real the dangers arc from which man needs to bo saved. He discussed particularly tho need to bo saved from self and from worldiness, and in the latter connection dwelt on the inter-action between tho claims of :liomo and the breadwinner's attitude to tho commercial system, resulting too often in a great fnlling-off as life advanced from the high aspirations , of youth. From theso dangers, as. from tho nearly-related snares of Cynicism and Despair, he affirmed that Jesus Christ does actually save those who give Him an unstinted faith. -The fact of which the. phrase "Jesus Christ as God" is an attempt at expression was described as being.at tho very heart of tho Christian religion, and at tho same time as raising the supremo theological question of Christianity. Tho theological problem was stated to bo a colossal one, of which the solution is probably not yet in sight; but this is comparatively unimportant, since the problem onlv shares abstruseness with almost every other fundamental problem of knowledge. Tho description of Jesus Christ as God must be taken as a modo of expressing . thft Christian , !! experience- of Jesus Christ: the fact that nil his ideas of God circle round tho human .lesus of the New Testament, and that the. whole; of his life has an intensely real relationship to the present existence of Jesus Christ in God. The acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as. Lord was affirmed to be the ruling law of the Christian life, and the most vitally important practical clement of the Christian religion. The meaning of the phrase was analysed, and it was explained that surrender to tho Lordship ■of"Jesus Christ is something of quite a different order from surrender to any merely'human person, however great: that this surrender is riot tho abrogation of the 'human will, but its fulfilment and tho winning of free operation for it.. Objection was taken to the typo of pulpit rhetoric which overemphasises'the element of suffering in the Christian lifo: "More abundant life" and "Fulness of joy" are promises to bs read literally- It *. a■matter, of course, that God will give His children the "good gifts" which arc necessary for the full development of. j their nature,' the only condition being that the desire for "these things" be | kept strictly subordinate—the Kingdom ] of Heaven (i.e., life after Christ's pat- | 'ieriO being unequivocally sought first. Christ's, service may take us >ight 'atiiwar't the vested, interests of the world; but He is also able to save us from the world, and to bring us through victorious, if only our faith do not fail. The clause "according to the Scriptures" was finally discussed, .and the importance of emphasising Biblestudy, strong approved. But a warninc was sounded against the danger or making of tho Biblq a fetich, or a prison for Him Who is caiird "Lord and Master " It must bn clearly realised that tho Son of Man is Lord also of the Bible, and Himself to-day by far the Imst source of knowledge of 'Himself. The address closed with some constructive suggestions of a changf in the t.vDP of basis! to be accompanied by a declaration on the part of tho active member of his wish so to study and to live as to attain to a deeper knowledge of, and .i fuller fnith in, God through Jesus Christ: nnrl with a criticism of the folly and faithlessness of spending effort in the direction of guarding a religious cause against nil sorts of imagined dangers to its wellbeing. '