NOT A PASS TO HEAVEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 751, 26 August 1929, Page 14

NOT A PASS TO HEAVEN

“RELIGION IS A LIFE TO BE LIVED” SHOULD PERMEATE BUSINESS “Religion is not an insurance policy to get a person into heaven, but is a life to be lived. It consists of love to God and willing service to mankind,” said the Rev. W. Walker in the Pitt Street Methodist Church last evening, when preaching on “Religion stripped of its Paraphernalia.” The text was taken from Micah vi., 8, “What, O man, doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” "This, declared the preacher, was the essence of true religion. Some people had striven to make religion the most subtle and mysterious thing in the world. They expounded it as a philosophic system; they had built around it an elaborate net-work of ceremony out of ritual, they have formulated its doctrines and built up its creeds until many people wonder what religion really is. If given a chance religion was the simplest and most natural thing in life, because man was essentially a religious being. “This definition of religion, given by the Prophet Micah, meets the case,” said the preacher. “It sweeps aside the false idea that religion consists in the fulfilment of external duties and makes it clear that it has to do with inward life and conduct. It is meant to permeate business, all the affairs of state, and has to do with the condition under which people live and work. Justice is the basis of moral character. Its foundation lies in the heart of God who is just in all His dealings and righteous in all His acts. Life ought to be guided by fixed principals, and in no circumstances should principle be yielded to expediency. “But along with justice, there should be the quality of mercy. The man who is just is respected, but he who is merciful is loved. Justice and mercy comprise a person’s duty to his fellow-men, but man is stamped with the image of the Divine, and therefore has distinct obligations toward God. To walk humbly with God is to acknowledge His rule and authority over life.” An earnest appeal was made to the congregation to carry the teaching of the Scripture into daily life. Madame Winnie Fraser sang “Hear ye Israel” and “Jerusalem.”