TIME OF CRISIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 January 1931, Page 11

TIME OF CRISIS

CHRISTIANITY AND WORLD PROBLEMS

SERMON BY ARCHBISHOP JULIUS

“We may rest assured that if our Civilisation, built up upon years and years of progress, should fall, as it is in danger of doing at this time of crisis, the Christian faith will survive the catastrophe.” Archbishop Julius expressed this conviction in the course of a sermon at St. Luke’s Church, Christchurch, when he dealt with the growth of Christianity from a historical point of view. Through such disasters and such world-shaking revolutions had the Faith emerged in the past stringer and yet stronger, said the Archbishop. When the church of the Jews was swept away

and Jerusalem destroyed, still the Faith of Christianity had gone forward with increased vigour and strength ; when the barbarians poured into Italy, and the great civilisation of Rome was swept away, still the Faith was untouched, and Christ stood supreme in the conquest. ERA OF MATERIALISM And so when the world entered upon the era of scientific discovery, people asked themselves whether the Faith was to be lost in the wave of materialism and spiritual unbelief that followed. “Yet I believe that the Christian Faith is stronger to-day than ever it w'as; stronger than it was fifty years ago. Christ, perhaps, is leading us by ways that are strange, and which we know not. Perhaps this era of scientific discovery with its accompanying unbelief is just another of those manifestations by which Christ has revealed His strength through the ages. “Every thinking man and woman will

realise that a time lias been reached in the history of tire world that contains a crisis of unparalleled importance. There is trouble and strife throughout our civilisation, and our wisest and best men are puzzled and weary wtih searching for the answers to the manifold problems that confront mankind. CHANGE INEVITABLE “If we meet conditions with that uncompromising attitude which the Pharisees, devout and zealous though they were, greeted Christianity, we can expect only to provoke destruction. Change is inevitable, and we must neither despair nor bemoan our miserable state. If we cling to all our petty privileges and rights, we can expect revolution, but although there is no answer at present to the question of the day, we must bring our lives into conformity with what we think is the ideal of Jesus Christ. If we look to Him and trust Him, His Hand will lead us to the light.”