WHY GO TO CHURCH?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19475, 9 May 1925, Page 2

WHY GO TO CHURCH?

Written for the Otago Daily Times,

By the Rev. D. GaedniSs Miller, Napier. How far is it true that men neglect public worship because the parson is always twanging the same string? What percentage of business men retain their attachment to the church merely as an example to their families? The church is for many out of touch with life. The church that does not relate its distinctive message to the harsh facts of life is unworthy of the support of serious men. Why associate worship with dull walls, wheezy organs, hard seats, mournful and oftentimes stupid hymns? Why should the message from the pulpit be divorced from dramatic art and artistic treatment? Worship should be a happy exercise, not a mournful rite.

“I’m tired of hearing twice a Sunday that Jesus died for mo.” The man who made that remark was a stranger to me. We had foregathered at an auction sale, and between the “items” had insensibly slipped into a discussion about religion. I generally find that men, given the slightest opportunity, will speak freely about religious matters. I don’t know what “persuasion” this particular man followed; I didn’t ask him. But his remark made me think furiously. How far it is true that men neglect public worship because the parson is always twanging the same string? Later, I approached a well-known business man and asked him why he went to church. He though for a moment and said deliberately: “I go for the sake of m.v family.” What percentage of business men retain their attachment to the church because they feel it would be bad for their young folks if they were deprived of the church “atmosphere”? I am aware that thousands of men and women attend church for reasons that are as wide ns the poles from the two I have mentioned ! But the fact that men refrain from going to church because of a twice-told tale, with which they have been familiar from their infancy—and which they believe —and the fact that others go for the sake of example only, prove that for many the church is

OUT OP TOUCH with the facts of life. lam not a supporter of the notion that the church should be a clearing house for all tho questions that agitate society just as I am against the conception that the church is confined to a wretched and narrow-minded dogmatism. What I contend for is that the church that does not relate its distinctive message to the harsh facts of life is unworthy of the support of serious men. Why should men attend the church? What is there about the church that attracts some men . and repels others ? Why should tho church make any claim upon a man’s allegiance? What is there behind all the differing doctrines, tho false emphases, the narrowness of outlook that makes the church .an absolute necessity in tho social organism ahd lays its spell upon the minds of men ? It is the fact that the church stands for THE UNREALISED IDEAL. That may not be aparent to many. The fact that one, man is tired of the motonous twanging of tho average parson and another attends church for tho sake of others, and that- many attend for no other reason. than that it has become a habit, 1 does not prove that the church has lost | the sting ot her witness. Men may bo dissatisfied with the church as she is, but if they have eyes to see they will realise that behind tho dullness, there is a shining ideal to which she is committed. This ideal corresponds to the restless urge within the hearts of men for something other than | themselves. Tho church was launched on the wave of an onthusism for an ideal which, though as yet unrealised, is not unrealizable. Man seeks tho “good” instinctively, and the church was meant to guide his footsteps into the realm of realisation. When the church - ceases through dullness or degeneration to keep her ideal burnished, men miss the mystery and the challenge of tho seeming impossible. Man is an adventurer, ho longs (o follow the gleam that beckons him “ o’er moor and fen. o’er crag and torrent,” and when the Church, which should bo his guide, realises more fully that longing locked up within tho most passive exterior, and boldly steps out in front, she will never need to complain of the “non-church-goers.” But deeper than the urge of the questing spirit of man is hia INSTINCT FOR WORSHIP. I care not whether a man calls himself an Agnostic or a Christian, deep down in his innermost being there is a craving for worship. He longs to get in touch with “ somebody,” even though he cannot give that “ somebody ” a name. He may repudiate the dogmas of the Church, but he knows that the Churoh alone of all institu-' tions can 1 satisfy to some extent his craving. There is a largo, and, I am afraid, an increasing number of people who profess to satisfy this instinct in nature. How many men cover their excuse for not going to church by saying that they worship in “green lanes.” It is a paltry excuse. They don’t worship—they only laze. Nature at its best is only a garment shrouding a personality. Man is a social animal, and worship, even tho worship of God, is more real when it is shared with others. It is just hove that, the Church niak.es a fatal mistake. Why associate worship with dull walls, wheezy organs, hard seats, mournful and oftentimes stupid hymns? The Church should lie the brightest place in the community—not, as it frequently is, tho dingiest. Why should the reading of tho • Bible—the most glorious piece of literature in tfg wcrld —be slovenly? Why.should tho message from the pulpit, be divorced from dramatic art and artistic treatment? Worship should 1)0 a happy exorcise—not a mournful rite. When tho Church awakes to the fact that men will respond to brightness in worship, then she will turn over a now page in her history. There is too much “ demanding ” on tho part of the Church. When she is prepared to lead and to give she will not find men unresponsive. Man by nature is akin to the Divine. Ho never will know peace until he finds it in God. And when tho Church, by skill and wisdom and humility, faces the facts of life, gives men the vision of the ideal, and strips worship of its sombre cloak, she will be the medium whereby God and man can keep company together.