SEMI-JUBILEE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 December 1931, Page 6

SEMI-JUBILEE

BAINBRIDGE MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH CELEBRATIONS STIRRING SERMON BY DR. LAWS The semi-jubilee of the Bainbridge Memorial Methodist Church was celebrated on Sunday, when the Rev. Dr. Laws, of Auckland, preached morning and evening to large congregations. The choir rendered several anthems under the baton of Mr. J. T. Dixon, and in the evening Miss Grant sang with much feeling, "But the Lord is Mindful" (St. Paul). Both services were deeply impressive, and were greatly appreciated by those present. The subject of Dr. Laws' sermon at the evening service was "Modern Tests of Christian Effeetiveness," based upon the words, "The men of Issachar, which were men that had knowledge of the times to know what Israel ought to do." 1 Chron. xii-32. The preacher gave an analysis of the features of our modern life in the course of which he said that while on the one hand the Christian Church had never been so highly commended, so faithfully served, so keen to know her work and to do it; on the other hand she had never been subjected to such widespread disparagement. This disparag^ment did not spring from the investigations of modern science, nor from the criticism of the Bible, but from the conviction that the Christian faith ought to be proving itself the remedy for the ills and injustices of modern life, by great deeds, great co-ordinated polieies by the ehurches, undertaken in the spirit of venture and confidence. The address then took the form of an examination of: (1) The movements of Modern Thought; (2) the social and industrial unrest of the life; (3) the deep though largely concealed spiritual hungers of men. In each case the preacher, after settinff out the facts of -mndfirn lif a

showed how the Church, as the religious leader and instruetor of the people, might more effectively play her part in preparing for the new age which was at hand. In her reaching the Church must be a living voiee speaking the truth openly, candidly, fearlessly, with a modern aecent. She must guard against making her teaching a series of unwilling eoncessions to advancing knowledge. As an agency for human betterment she must keep in touch with the spirit of the times and be true to the vision of a brotherhood that shall overleap all class distinctions, all differences of creed; all barriers of nationality. The one test which she must apply to modern civilisation was the quality of the men and women it is producing. ' Finally, in meeting the thirsts of

human hearts for spiritual good, the Church must make the old evangelistic appeal in modern terms. She must combine the scientist's passion for truth with the evangelist's pas.sion for men. So doing, she would find that, despite the seemingly adverse times, there was something in the human heart that would respond to her message and her greatest vietories would be ye.t to come.