LETTERS TO EDITOR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 38, 8 November 1937, Page 7

LETTERS TO EDITOR

AGTTR.

Religion To-day Sir,— The Rev. G. Laurenson's remarks under the above titi© appearing in the Herald-Tribune of Nov. 4 hit the nail on tjho head. • Especially true is the st&tement that, "There are settlemcUts in the country in which child-. ren and young people are growing up who liave never attcnded a church or religious meeting, and have had no training in'the things of God." Mr Laurenson xightly blames our purely secular education -for tdiis stato of affairs, but at the same time, the writer, with a full sense of responsibility for his statcments, f eels that this Is not the sole cause, and that the churches themselves must share the blame for the neglectcd state of these children in these backblock settlementS, Very little re'al effort is made by tlie cstablished cfburehes either to get in touch with these children or their. patents. If the writer's experience is anything to go by, pastoral visitation in these outlying places has hecomo- a thing of the past, and, liowevor it may be ekplained, it is a fact, that in the days wlicn the minister had dnly a horse and buggy to get aboUt witfh, he WdS more often seeir in the Bettlfers' liomes than is his modcrn successor with his motor car. It is not in liuman nature to take much inter est in a church whose pastor is seldom seen except in the pulpit once a month, or even less often. Again, the type of sermon so eom* mon now-a-days that evil thing, a "topical discourse," without so much as a text of Seripture by way of prefacc, dealing witn the news of the week, or the latest craze, already far more ably dealt with by the leader-writers of the daily paper, is neither mentally stimulating nor spiritually edifying, and anyShing but an inducement to children or their parents to attend church or lielpful to them if they do. If the clergy would leave their overshephcrded town flocks to look after themselves occasionaily, and go after the stray sheep and lambs, so seldom even glanced at in the outskirts of their fold, they might awaken some desire for the spiritual pasturage they are expected to piovide. What is to prevent them holding a service one night during the week when they are uhable to give a Sunday service? The children, at least, could be induced to attend such if any real interest were shown in them or tfheir parents, but no interest can be aroused till the minister will take the trouble to visit the homes, and visit them not, as is too often done, in a merely perfunctory' style as an ofiicial duty, but as one who is reallv concerned for the welfare and happiness of those he visitB. If :t be objected that no minister has timo to spare for such work, then one needs no prophet's mantle to prediet that, unless he finds time or makes time for fchat important duty, and at the same time has something better to speak on in the pulpit than "The League of Nations," "The Return of ' Germariy's Colenies," " Psy chology,,• — and the writer has heard "sermons" on all these; then will the churches eontinue empty, the children untaught, and "Iqhabod" be that church's epitaph. — Yours, etc.,

Nov. 5, 1937, Waipawa, H.B.