THE CHURCH AND PRESENT WORLD CRISIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2483, 21 September 1922, Page 3

THE CHURCH AND PRESENT WORLD CRISIS.

Speaking the local Presby-

terian Church on Sunchiy night on the .above Subject, the Rev. Prank McDonald took for his text I. Timothy 3.15: “The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of faith.” .Mr McDonald said the present'world crisis is not the fault of the Church; but of the people who have turned their backs on the Church, and rejected her teaching, Had the professed Christian nations been true to the faith they nominally held, the world would have been saved from the great war, and from the present and future strife and unrest. It is very cheap to say that Christianity has failed —when it is the fact that Christianity has never yet been tried. The war, the revolution in Russia, the class war between capital and labour, are not evidence of the failure of the Christian Church, but of the failure of the peoples to accept and practice the teaching of the Church. Does anyone dare* to affirm, said the preacher, that individuals or nations have been made belligerent, brutal, savage, by accepting the teaching of Christ and living under His rule? The whole tendency of Christianity is in the very opposite direction. The past years of worldwide suffering and sorrow are a condemnation, not of Christ, but of Anti-Christ, The trouble and anguish of our times has been the most powerful sermon God has ever preached on the blindness and depravity of the human heart. All through the centuries the Church has been calling men to Christ. The Church knows that the only solution of the problems which have and do trouble the world, and which must be settled rightly, or the world will be plunged into the abyss of rebellion and anarchy, is just that Jesus whom the nations of the world have practically rejected. “God may have other words for other worlds; but for this world the word of God is Christ. ” Now, it- is part of the tragical history of our race that we are so swift- to “stone our prophets.” And so to-day we find the Church regarded scornfully by many. The market, the publichouse, the racecourse are prized before the Church and the school. We spend more money in improving the breed of cattle than in the instruction and •training of our children. Many a man who would cheerfully give. 300 guineas and more for a prize ram would not give a ten pound note towards the Church. And in this country the Church is the sole institution for the religious instruction of our children; and the'Church is the one institution which stands for righteousness, which sustains the morality of the community, and produces , its chivalry, its pity, and its hope. The preacher asked that they endeavour to envisage a world without a Church, a world from which the distinctively Christian virtues and graces are withdrawn. The Church stands in the midst of our world as “the pillar and th* ground of truth.” Her message to our age is the old message. We have no new gospel, though we are discovering wider applications and deeper meanings in the old Gospel. But the ChurcJtj stands in the midst of the darkness and confusion of our times, witnessing, as she has ever done, to the reality of the Unseen and Eternal, to God and to Christ, and to the Infinite Spirit, and to man’s constant need of God. The Church opens for man a window towards the sky, a door into the infinite. It reminds man that the things that are seen are but temporal, and that the real and abiding things are unseen. “I never see a tall spire pointing upwards but I give thanks to God for the silent witness it bears to another world above that busy world which strives and wins and sins and weeps at its feet in -the street below.” The Church reminds man that he is greater than the world he lives in; amid the thousand voices that tell us we are of the earth, its voice proclaims our heavenly origin- and our immortal destiny, and bids us be true to it. It is a heavy task that is laid upon the Church to-day. ' She is called to persuade men back to their allegiance to Christ, .the Saviour of men, so that His commands shall be obeyed in all things. It is the..work of the Church to make the Spirit of Christ pervade the life of the corn-

ifmnity, and of the nation, in every 4 department. Tliere is call for wide vision, and for consecrated service. There can be no place for narrowness or bigotry. We must realise that Christ'is the Saviour of all men, and of all that there is in man, body and soul. In this age a Church that never meddles in politics is a Church without a vocation. We have - been praying “Thy Kingdom come” for long weary, years, and the devil overran Europe with fire and sword because .the Church was afraid to meddle in tians should work together with sword girded on thigh, and trowel in the right hand, to build the walls of Jerusalem and to establish the Kingdom of Christ on the earth. We must live and work even as we pray, and must show to men that the application of Christ’s teachings to statecraft means the highest and greatest good for the greatest number. Yet we must ever remember that the beginning of all social reformation is with the individual. We cannot build tbe Holy City until, we make holy men. A sane evangelism is supremely the need of our tithes,-and to do this work the Church must get right with God. In conclusion, the pre- • eaetyer said; “Here, then, is. my

appeal to you, and here is your opportunity. That you should support this Church, or any particular Church, matters little to me — so that you do heartily support some church, and seek to extend Christ’s Kingdom. Let us put the broad shoulders of .our redeemed manhood beneath the burdens of the Kingdom of God. It is faithful service on the part of each and all with God’s blessing which will bring us a happy issue out of all our present troubles, and will make this world a saner and a better and safer place for all succeeding generations.