NEED OF FAITH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 383, 18 June 1928, Page 14

NEED OF FAITH

“FORMLESS POPULAR THOUGHT” The Rev'. Morrison-Sutherland, of Mount Albert, was the preacher last night at St. Andrew’s Church. The subject was the man referred to by tho prophet Isaiah, who had the seal of God before his eyes, and gave heed to the preachers of his day, but yet saw no light. He was a type, said the preacher, of agnostic. These people might not be found among the brotherhood that came together at the Lord’s table, but they were as brotherly a set of men as one could wish for. They might not think of God as the Heavenly Father, but no earthly father had better sons. They might not often kneel in prayer, but the needy seldom asked in vain. There were many in the ranks of God’s army who had never consciously enlisted, and many disciples were unconscious of their position. Speaking of faith, Mr. Sutherland quoted a remark of Lord Lytton that if the principle of faith were struck from men’s minds, the history of mankind would be the same as of a flock of sheep. Further, life would cease to exist. “We are trusting to a remarkable extent," he said, “in some ways—trusting to the ballot-box to produce a statesman, to a competitive examination to produce a great soldier, to the routine of civil service to give us chief clerks of the Empire. Society and government, the whole fabric of the Empire, was resting on the formless ways of popular thought." No honest-minded man or woman could know the effect on the heart and. conscience of their neighbours of the Bible without being impressed deeply. Every Christian we meet and see, said the preacher, is an argument in favour of the truth of the Scriptures and the fact of Christ.