“A SHALLOW AGE.”

Hokitika Guardian, 23 March 1926, Page 3

“A SHALLOW AGE.”

MINISTERS’ HEARTS BROKEN. AUCKLAND, A larch IS. That starvation of religious life by the continuous search for pleasure is Uv characteristic of the age was the theme of a discourse by the Rev. Lionel R. Fletcher at the concluding rally of the Congregational Union. Th > problem of the city church had to he faced in the last generation, said Mr Fletcher, and necessitated the creation of central missions, hut to-day it empty suburban churches which break so many ministers hearts. This was because the motor-car brought the beaches, the mountains, or the churchealmost to the doors of the people, and now wireless was entering f»*’ thoso who preferred to stay at home. Til this age pleasure was easier to secure than ever before. Children had almost unlimited liberty, authority had been dethroned, and materialistic political ideas were existent. AA'e wore living in an age far removed from the age of cnir parents, with the result that depression, which was appalling, had Ixion cast over the majority of the churches and of Christians, many of whom had settled hack into a hopeless or perplexed lethargy. Better methods, higher education, and more scientific treatment- had been tried with disappointing results. “Christ faces us in these daye, and if ive accept His challenge, w? shall ho revived,” said Mr Fletcher. “Ale have in our midst ■ clerics and others who advocate Sunday games and amusements as a means of meeting the need of the hour and the temper of the tim, but no church ever purified, no soul unlift had ever come hv compromising with the demands of a shallow ago or a pleasure drunk community.”

Tie speaker declared that religion diil not consist of merely going to church and having communion on Sun. davs. It consisted of life lived on a higher plane than that occupied hy the surrounding community, showing the world an example in Christliness. “Our God,” he emphasised, “is not a, joss to I e appeased and mollified by a muttering of prayers and an offering of sacrifices.”