MOUNT ROSKILL SERMON

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 975, 19 May 1930, Page 10

MOUNT ROSKILL SERMON

BELIEF WITH THE HEART REASON’S SHORTCOMINGS At the Mount Roskill Congregational Church yesterday morning. Pastor Reuben E. Dowle spoke on “The Evidence Within and Without.” taking ; tor his text Romans x., 10, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” In this passage we have a complete refutation of the attitude of those who hold to the absolute supremacy of reason in everything, the speaker said. Materialism is the tap-root of most modern brands of unbelief. Mind was of vaster importance than matter, but. the lesser could produce the greater. 'Both were distinct entities. Materialistic dogmas and the myths attaching thereto were the prolific sources of confusion and untold misery. “Things that are, seen are temporal, but things that are not seen are eternal,” declares St. Paul. St. Paul, in this Epistle to the Romans, is dealing with a tyne of people who, “professing themselves to be wise, became fools.” Their ignorance of Divine matters produced superstition and mythical “complexes.” Mind, great as it was, would never produce, for instance, a workable and beneficial system of morals. Mind fetish or mind worship disclosed selfrighteousness and a form of mental conceit whiclmwas dangerous. The tendency, on the other hand, of the teachings of Christ, was to produce love, joy, peace, and, of necessity, usefulness of life. Heart culture was the remedy moderns needed today. Intellectual improvement and growth in grace would dispose of the evils of society. Belief in a loving Redeemer, purified and ennobled all who accept Him and His teachings. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SERMON “Mortals and Immortals” was the tobject of the lesson-sermon in First. Church of Christ Scientist. Auckland, yesterday. The golden text, was from 11. Cor., v.. 16: “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh.” Among the citations which com--1 prised the lesson-sermon was the fol- ; lowing from the Bible: “But unto | every one of us is given grace ac- ; cording to the measure of the gift of Christ. Till we all come in the unity ! of the faith, and of the knowledge of ioe Son of God. unto a perfect man. unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The sermon also included the foli lowing passage from the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Ilealtb with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy: “Human capac- ! ity is slow to discern and to grasp God s creation and the Divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man ana reach the spiritual image and likeness .... How shall we declare Him, •HI, in the language of the apostle, “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Sou of God. until a perfect man. unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ V*