Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1909. RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4424, 15 June 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1909. RELIGION AND SOCIETY

This above all —to thine own self be true , And 1 1 must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

Tiie recent annual meeting of St. Mark’s Church, which was reported in our columns a few days ago, evidenced some important factors which concern not; only Te Aroha and the immediately surrounding districts, but the whole Dominion. The cynic may sneer and say : “ Phew ! Can anything: in Te Aroha concern the whole Dominion ?” But that is the old cold sneer of the scoffers who asked with an air of impudent triumph: “ Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?”

In a great war it is most imporfan 1 that not only every company, but even every sentinel should do his duty The final success of a campaign sometimes depends on a sentry’s fidelity or on the faithfulness of a brave few. A little band of heroic Spartans held the pass at Thermopylae, and a handful of brave soldiers saved our Indian Empire in the great mutiny. A few undaunted Christians have held the Cross aloft in spite of martyr flames and the heathen rage. The Anglican Church at Te Aroha is like a sentinel placed here by the undoubtedly great and historic communion of which it is a not unworthy member. Its report evidenced an amount of religious, philanthropic and educational zeal which cannot but benefit the whole district. We are not nnderating or forgetting other important branches of the Church Catholic whose militant life here on earth makes Te Aroha better worth living in. What would Society be without them ? Echo answers, wh.it ? Suppose their ministers were dismissed, the choirs disbanded, the Sunday School teachers dismissed and the church doors locked ? No sound of the Gospel message, no hymns and psalms resounding, and no public prayers ascending as a memorial before the throne of the Eternal. What a clcud would hang over us t It is marvellous to us what a great amount of unselfish, useful, important and indispensiblo work is done by the churches, and done quietly and unostentatiously. Much of it is done under groat discouragement and difficulty, and it would not bo done at all except for Divine inspiration in a noble purpose. Borne of the silent forces of nature are the most potent for good. The sun’s rays, the gentle dew, gravitation and cohesion are very silent. Omnipotent love and wisdom were not heard so dearly in tho earthquake and the whirlwind as in the still small voice.

And is it not so hero and now ? When the faithful I'arish Driest, like a true pastor, visits his flock, ministering comfort to the borenved and broken hearted, helping and cheering tho sick or the poor, and gently warn • ing the impenitent ; or when the church woman goes on her errand of mercy to minister to louio forlorn,

shipwmked sister ; O'* when the Sun* | dnv School teacher i> studying the Holy B< ok to see how, lie cun woo au«l , win young souis into the piths of peace and wisdom, are they not- doing a noble work that is of great value to Society ? When vestrymen, church- . wardens, and lay readers, who work hard in maintaining theraselvos and i their families go and do honest hard work for tho church, are they not to | be commended ? They all help to win the world to a more excellent way. j ilt is not by noise and display, but by quiet persistence and unflagging devotion that Society is uplifted from | the animal and physical to a spiritual plane. That truly is a noble work, and we wish St. Mark’s Church a happy and a prosperous New Year, upon which it has just entered. Society cannot afford to dispense with religion. The sense of the supernatural, which religion awakens in man’s dormant mind, conduces to awe and a sense of final accountability. Amongst some of the cardinal evils of to-day are irreverence, indifference, and indepondance of Divine and human laws. The function of religion is to impress on men the sacredness and solemnity of life’s responsibility. Men have to be reminded week by woek that they ore not their own, and that they are called to social service. They must be challenged by duly appointed ambassadors of the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, to live up to the highest of which they are capable and which Society needs. Neglect of these principles brought about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and some nations of antiquity. If a traveller from New Zealand is not to stand on a broken arch of London bridge and sketch the ruins of St Paul’s, it can only be averted by Britons from Te Aroha to the cliffs of Dover holdiug fast to and obeying the holy principles of the Mother Church and sacred writ. Religion has championed child life, woman’s dignity, the slaves freedom, and the rights of the poor and the insane. Religion carries hope to the despairing, it guides the buoyant, and it is the one indispensable thing in Te Aroha, London, New York, Delhi, and whenever are found any members of that great family for whom the Great Incarnate One was content to be betrayed and crucified.