BRANDED AS FOOLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 703, 1 July 1929, Page 14

BRANDED AS FOOLS

TRIALS OF MEN WF PREACH WHOLE GOSPEL SUGAR-COATED RELIGION “If any preacher in this enlightened age dared to preach the full gospel and plain truth of religion and its honest application to life, although he may not be driven from his church he would become unpopular and in all probability labelled as a fool,” said the Rev. C. G. Scrimgeour, Methodist city missioner, in the Strand Theatre last evening during a * sermon based on the film version of Channing Pollock’s play, “The Fool,” part of which was shown to a large audience. In introducing the picture Mr. Scrimgeour explained that the story centered round a young minister who was driven from his fashionable church because he dared to preach a gospel in which the poor were defended and the idle rich condemned. “I am afraid that the greatest factor in the Church’s ineffectiveness is the sugar coating at the expense of the tonic,” said the preacher. "It is easy l to support a popular cause or preach j a popular truth, but the pinch comes when Christ demands that the unpopu- ] lar cause be sponsored. The man who ventures to do so is branded a fool. I know from personal experience how easy it is to receive the plaudits of public opinion for doing social work among the poor, but I often wonder how I would last if everyone could read my mind when I see the glariing inequalities that make my work I necessary ... A recruiting sergeant has a popular task and is hailed as j a great patriot, but let the man who has courage enough ask: ‘Why this recruiting?’ and he is told he has ‘cold feet.’ ’ "The Christian had the hardest part to play and unless he had backbone enough to hold sincere convictions and be prepared to abide by them he was better out of the game of life. Jesus Christ enjoyed public favour for a year. But in the next year He was crucified. The apostle Paul was said to be mad and was frequently branded a fool. In fact, all history including that of the Church, was tainted and they could trace the trail of blood from the hearts of people who were prepared to die rather than compromise, or water-down their principles. Twenty thousand people were butchered in the name of God during the Roman Inquisition because they dared to believe differently. Isaac Newton, Pascal, Milton and hundreds of notable Christian men have been branded the anti-Christ of their day. Abraham Lincoln was ranked with the heretics, yet he brought about the emancipation of every slave in the U.S.A. President Woodrow Wilson was jeered at because he thought the war was not necessary and endeavoured to bring about peace when the popular thing would have been to have sent his subjects to slaughter. Fools every one, but fools for Christ’s sake. “Let us be honest,” appealed Mr. Scrimgeour. “We are not half as Christian or civilised as we profess. Preachers of the Gospel are still ostracised if they dare tell the whole truth. Young men of good character and with a deep sense of their duty to God are decreed by the court of ‘God's Own Country’ to be not worthy of the rights that are granted to others. Let us get away from such hypocrisy and live as Christ intended, even if we are branded as fools.”