PULPIT MESSAGES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 99, 21 January 1935, Page 14

PULPIT MESSAGES

Wellington Churches

CHURCH’S CRITICS

Achievements of Christian Peoples

The Rev. Lawrence Rogers, M.A., o’ Christchurch, preaching in St. John's Church on “What is Christianity Doing?” took as his text Rev. 4:8. “I know thy works: behold 1 have set before thee an open door, ami no man can shut it.” There has always been, be said, a ready, if not an eager, criticism of the church’s life and work; and this criticism the church has sometimes heard with patience and profit, while she has always at her best been ready to criticise herself, On the other hand, Christians are often prone to accent criticism as just, even when it is unintelligent. A common criticism is that lhe church is out-of-date, that she needs to adapt her message to the modern world. Now that has enough truth in it to make it plausible. Of course the church must adapt her message to this present day; if she lives in the past she must die.

But this is not what the critics mean. Their argument really is that the church must not be old-fashioned in her moral and practical teaching, that in order to live she must accept the world as it is, and suit her teaching accordingly. The answer to this is that rhe church must not. Her task is to change the world, not to allow the world to change her: to lead the world, not to be lead by the world ; not to conform to the world, but to be transformed that she may prove wh’at is that good ami acceptable will of God. It is not what the world wants God to be like, but what God is and what He wants the world to be like flint must be the heart of the church’s message. The Practical Question. Now the really practical question which becomes oftimes a criticism is “What is the Church doing?” God lias set before her an open door. Has she entered the doorway? Is she in any way succeeding at the task to which her Lord has set her? The easy answer to these questions is that the Church is doing nothing, that her people are content to stand still and look up with pious eyes and clasped hands thanking God that they are not as other men arc. Is this answer true ? Let us look around the world and see. One thing that stands out at once is that throughout the world the great protagonists for peace are Christian men and women; that the nations which most truly aro seeking for peace and for the abolishing of war are Christian nations. We can surely never forget that when the belligerent war lords of Japan sent their soldiers across to China it was the Christian Japanese who wrote to the Chinese people expressing their shame at their country’s action. It is the Christian nations of the world who are free from tlio curse of slavery, and who pursue an active programme against it. A pessimistic writer recently pointed out the great growth of Mohammedanism in the Union of .South Africa, when there are now 50,000 of that faith when a century ago there were none; but he forgot to state the other side of the picture, for in that same country in the same period the African Christians have grown from none to over ft million. . This is true wherever Christian missionaries are preaching the Gospel. Fifty years ago the propagation of the Christian message to heathen peoples was wholly undertaken by European missionaries, whereas to-day the work has so succeeded that not only are native teachers sharing much of the leadership in their own churches, but many of the Eastern peoples in particular are making definite contributions to the Christian thought and life of the West. Sadhu Sundar Singh, of India, and Kagawa, of Japan, are outstanding instances of this. In these Eastern countries of India. China and Japan we have the almost astounding fact that the outstanding figures in the progress and life of their respective communities are Christian men and women. The courageous spirit of these men and women of our faitli sets a high example to us in New Zealand when perhaps the greatest fault of the average man is the lack of courage for his convictions. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE “Life” was the subject of the lessonsermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, yesterday.

The golden text was 1 John 1:2, “The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us.” Among the citations which comprised the lesson-sermon were the following from the Bible, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth m.v word, ami believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life.” ( John 5:24). Also the following passages from the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” hj’ IJarj' Baker Eddj', “The continual contemplation of existence as material and corporeal—as beginning and ending, and with birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages—hides the true and spiritual life, and.causes our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting-point whatsoever, then the great lamis a myth. If Life is God, as the scriplures imply, tlien Life is not embryonic, it is infinite.” (P. 550).