CHRISTIANITY’S IDEALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 479, 8 October 1928, Page 14

CHRISTIANITY’S IDEALS

CHURCHLESS WORLD VISUALISED “What would the world be like today if Christianity had not come?” asked the Rev. D. D. Scott, in the Onehunga Presbyterian Church last evening. What would the world have been like to-day had there been no prophets of Israel and Judah and no apostles of Jesus Christ? It was not impossible to ascertain what a churchless world was like, he said. We had a tolerably adequate idea of what the pre-Chris-tian world was like. Religions were there in abundance flourishing side by side with the most hideous customs. Human sacrifices were common, and nothing that occurred in the late war approached the devilish treatment meted out to the women and children of the vanquished ancients. The records of Egypt and Babylonia as portrayed in their pictures and inscriptions revealed sights that made one shudder with horror. The Old Testament itself provided ample evidence of the barbarity and savagery of the preChristian world. In regard to the non-Christian world to-day, there is plenty of reliable information to show what were the practices of such races as the Australian aborigines, Melanesians and Polynesians before they were touched with Christian principles. It was unnecessary to detail the evidences of savagery that prevailed. Even when we rise to higher levels and take into account such venerable types of civilisation as India and China, the one noted for' mystical leanings, and the other for its code of morality, we note great defects in their social and spiritual state, because they had no gospel. The great ideals men were standing for to-day have all been taken over from Christian teachings. It was true that in some respects the Chinaman and the Hindoo were ahead of us. When we come nearer home we have to doplore the sickening sight of men staggering out of hotels on a Saturday afternoon and the appalling evils gambling and vice. These are defects that Christendom has not yet been able to repress in its great cities. We had to acknowledge all this, but at the same time we must acknowledge that great things have been accomplished. A light to humanity, Christianity rose over barbarous Europe, just as the sun seems to leap into glory over the crest of a mountain range on a clear summer morning. The light of the gospel had been the guiding star of our civilisation. No other church or religion, ancient or modern, had taught that sublime ideal, the philosophy of brotherhood. It was true that Christianity had been at times brought under a cloud and made hurtful, but never by those who understood its teachings. When the captives of Judah beheld the destruction of their holy city, their temple in ruins and the throne of David trodden underfoot by the heathen, it was a momentous trial—a bitter sorrow. Bound together as were their religious services with the city, it might have been expected that the crash would have involved their national religion too. But they saw only the visible emblems going to ruin. They did not lose their spiritual faith. Their songs show their affection for the city, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning.” “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper who love thee.” So it is with Christianity. Instead of flinging a stone at the church, let us stand by her and love her as the ancient Jew hallowed the memory of Jerusalem. She was the agency through which man had been uplifted, and the Lord and* Saviour of the world had been made known.