The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1906 DECAY OF WORSHIP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3732, 15 December 1906, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1906 DECAY OF WORSHIP.

In the course of a sermon at Lyttelton last Sunday evening Bishop Julius said “ that at the present time there was a great decay of worship. ’ ’ He continued “Had worship lost its life? No* but the spring of worship had to some extent failed. Tw© things lay at the bottom of worship—first a profound sense of need. Then, again, people were very self-sufficient —he did not use the word in an offensive sense. They had in these days such a mastery of Nature, they could do so much ior themselves, they were not the prey of Nature as they used to be. A disease spread over the country but they knew what to do with it, and whereas formerly it might have carried away half the population, it was met and stamped out now. That was only one case. They had wonderful theories about the relation of crops, and the weather, and could command Nature much better than their fathers did. They helped themselves. But it was only skin deep. Just below it they were as utterly helpless as their fathers. They could do very little. They understood a lot and then in a moment were helpless. His mother used to tell him that when she was a girl in Nottingham, a comet appeared, and many curious reports got about that its passage would bring it to the earth. Half Nottingham immediately went to church. It had been spending its time in the publichouses, but it gave them up for the time. When the comet was near they prayed hard, and when it was gone they went back into the publichouse. At the present day, they would know ; all about that comet, and there would be no terror about it. Pray? They would not pray at all about it. The sense of need was not so apparent. Their fathers J worshipped because very often ‘ they felt not spiritually, but actu- ,

ally physically, afraid. It was a sad bu'siness because down in the depths of it there was the same tremendous need, the need of the human soul that wanted a Saviour. If there was no sense of need, there was no worship, and if there was no worship there was no religion, for worship was the expression of the true sense, and the true thought of the heart itself. If these failed there was no religion : how could there be?”