DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 42, 13 November 1940, Page 8

DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Address To Presbyterian General Assembly

NEW’ MODERATOR SPEAKS

Dominion Special Service.

PALMEKSTON N„ November 12.

The General Assembly of the f’resby-

ferhrn Church of New Zealand met in

Andrew’.- Church. Palmerston

North, tonight Public worship having

been conducted by Hie retiring moderator, lit. Bev. .1. Lawso.i Kobinsou. the

Rev. G. H. Jupp. Anderson’s Bay, Dune-

din. was unanimously elected modera-

In his muderatorial address, Mr. Jupp

spoke on “Some Thoughts on Divine

I’rovideiice.” The cry that, unless God

intervened in some spectacular way to stop the war. Christian faith would be lost, had been heard by most people. The virtual denial of God could not lint result in that despair which urged men to deny Him altogether and to abandon hope completely. That was the opportunity for Christian people to renew their call to all nominal believers to abandon their half-hearted allegiance and give whole-hearted obedience to their Master and IjOrd.

’l’ ■ popular conception of God was that of a Supreme Being who gave good things. “’The Lord will provide seemed to be the favourite text ot most people. But there was, no place given to the purpose ot God in history and in the lives of individuals. Men must admit God as absolute demand as well as absolute succour. God not only provided; he was a consuming lire also. The pattern of life which lie was weaving could not be discerned in full by us, but if wo could see it we should be satisfied. Problem of Moral Evil. "The most difficult problem in the world is that of moral evil,” said Mr. Jupp, “and it. is one on which any light or superficial thinking is reprehensible in Hie highest degree. Nor has Christianity made this problem, it would be there it Christ had never lived on earth. His life and, death simply intensify the dark situation because they cast a stronger light on the character of God and the glorious view Taken of man. From tlie Christian point of view sin is that which ought not to lie in the world. Man’s present suite is not his original one. nor is it an advance and an improvement on that. Sin is not a natural necessity. The Church is not called, on to offer an apologetic for tlie evil aud guilt there are in the world. She proclaims that, it is something which ought not to be at all and points to Hie Christ Who is the propitiation for the sin of the whole world. “The Kingdom of God can come only bv the Church of God, but the Church which will bring in that Kingdom must be united and independent. Au, effective federation is the best form, indeed the only form in which the Church can be independent enough of the democracy to bring it tlie blessing of God and to gain its interest. It is not easy to see how the denominations, working apart, can make headway against a non-Christiau democracy. We speak of the Church influencing tlie world. The reality is that unless we close outranks we shall not be able to stand up to the world at all. “The Church must have a might of its own, that note of moral majesty which was our Ixird’s, a unity which does reflect the Gospel. Our divisions mean a Christ divided, even though we assert a Christ in common. The fact is that the democracy has no quarrel witli tlie humane .Jesus: but with the supernatural Christ, the Christ who reigns, who humiliates, who regenerates, with tlie Christ who makes tile Church it can have no relationship. That is the root of tlie decline in church-going of which we are told so often. If we are to influence the world at large we must have a unity which fakes a definite appeal to the popular imagination. Appeal to tlie Spirit.

"To approach humanity with a sect is to offer the world a prosaic Christ. God must be presented under the attributes of the Divine Majesty so as to summon forth a heroic effort of the soul to come to its own in Him. If He be not so presented, religion is reduced to the ordinary standard of honour, perhaps even below that. There is no appeal to the higher spirit which is the natural temper of a free citizen in a free state.

“The darkest, the deepest, the most difficult problem we have to face is the presence of moral evil in the world. We do well, when we think of it, to be careful lest any light or superficial view of God's character and purposes gain a place in our minds. Moral evil is tl fact in the universe and would be so even if there were no such thing as Christianity.'The teaching of Jesus, the life and death of Jesus, intensify the problem of evil because they cast a stronger light on the character of God and the glorious view they take of men. The' fact of the presence of evil in the world would be immeasurablv dark if we did not know that behind all the horror of our day there is an infinite righteousness, and a love whose length, breadth, height, and depth are greater than all the power and malignity of the Prince of Evil. The very presence of the righteousness of God and His love in Christ are the solution of our difficulty if we will but accept it. Christianity does nor take any light view of sin. Indeed, the Christian view of sin is infinitely deeper and more earnest than any conception of it apart from Christianity. “There are a few great things left in the world and the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, is infinitely the greatest of all. Some will think at once that the relevance of the Church, is decreasing. It has little or no weight in world-events. Yet to such a seemingly powerless group Isaiah says: ‘O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thv foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and tliy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children 1”