NO SUBSTITUTE FOR CHURCH.

Shannon News, 28 February 1928, Page 3

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR CHURCH.

POSSIBILITIES OP PROGRESS

“We do not judge the Church by whaft she is so nuu-h as who-; she me; become. . Her aspiiai'on counts i'. e than- her aeh (’Yemeni, sou! in Rev. W. J. Elliott in his p o-n?-n;'a address to :he MeibUhu Ct-im-.i oon “Moods and Change-! of -Mini Life.” “But change and <P- ay or.; not be ignored, and whs.eve:' . the Chinch has ro i a-jd. : as '.''-iy r -lie must call into fu.nei unh-y life .iid a dve.-i.. a: e, a dap. a ' eon and exp'-:.-nirnt. coinage and a larger v s e 2 .. Those ih'-ngg. ecnt'nuod Mr. Eboti wen? iad ssable. He did nor beiiev.-. that her erganisati- n ivas in fended to be p.r '•mauc.in. “No c- ii u • b.' l,e sard, “as it exists to-day bee nuich : i jcm'dauee to the Chuirli in he. (•ally beg cent;'. WCdo'! Ot fc W wlicth Hie Methodist Church was the Auo>voiic cue in the begiiiurng.- or whether it will be the oeeumemcai one >n the end. The same thing applies to every ether . elraich, because the strangely external and median'ea. thing we call Apostolic Sacecssxoii is a sombre coat of shreds and patches and not a seamless rcbe. Therefore, we have no hesitation in asserting that the ministerial orders of. the Methodist Church are as valid and divinely sanctioned as those of any ether Church in Christendom. 'Where, then, shall we find the Catholic Chinch? The only answer to. that question is found n the iiHallible woids of .he Sup erne Head of the Church. He defined His own Church In the-great utterance —‘Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.’ ” The Church was largely in a state of flux because no fixed rules had been laid down for all places and times. Only the necessary principles had been laid down, and, these had to be adopted to meet changing circumstances. The Church was invested with a great power, and she could face the universe with unbounded possibilities of progress. “There is no substitute,” he said, “for the Church in either naturalism or science.”