PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 306, 19 May 1913, Page 8

PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY.

ADDRESS BY BISHOP CROSSES*. Bishop Crossley was the speaker at tho ; || men's service ut St. Mary's Church yes* terday afternoon. He took for his sub- jjm jeet. -What the Church Stands For." ,8 The Bishop couched his remarks in very ; 1 simple yet forceful language, and ffM most attentively listened to. What the church stands for, he said, meant what did Christianity stand for? A lot of *l. men would be somewhat put about it I they were asked what Christianity stood.'*3 j for, and would have difficulty in replying. He would therefore get down to ■ | bed rock and explain straightly and ,-jA i squarely what Christ, Christianity and J| the church stood for. What he regarded -"l as the A B C of Christianity, or the first, principles, i.e., its very first food, its life and liquidation, might be divided into 'lf six heads, viz., repentence, faith, baptism;. S laying on of hands, the resurrection and the judgment. The first two, repentenee ,3 and faith, no bishop could give, no priest rnuld bestow; they must be one's ( lj own. They must be within the heart

and aoul of man. Begarding repentence, J he said that every man in his best and | most honest moments knew of some -"is thing in his life that he would be glad .% if he could get up and say he had not j done. For repentence to be true there I should, be four things—saved, sorry, stop , | and satisfied. Men were sorry for lots of ' sins, but were not repentent. For in- *'' stance, they might be sorry merely because they were found out. That TO not repentence. They might stop the ein for a time, but it was not repentence it they committed it again at the first ! opportunity. To repent, the sin ipu»t .>• be satisfied. So also if a person know- <-1 ingly slandered another he was just as ~ bound to put:it right as.he wasto return | a stolen purse. For true repentence, the f [four things were necessary. I'aith'WM , believing that God was what He said He 1 [ was, viz., "Our Father." God sent Hi# only Son into the world for the sake of man, a world far more rotten that it was to-day. To believe that God still loved us was faith. Love, however, lie i continued, could not use compulsion, but I only attraction. God said: "Come, unto I me," but if they went to Him tb% had ' |to go His way. They could be sure that. ' i Christ knew what was best, and His way | was by baptism and by laying oft of hands. Baptism was a command bi Jesus Christ.. One could not be a Christian without beincr baptised . Originally only adults were baptised. Symbolically It meant that immersion under water, death in sin, and raised again to new life, or, symbolically, a cleansing. Christ invented the form of baptism now in use in the church. All sacraments were arranged in heaven. Some wonld argue they were . baptised when they were babies and,, knew nothing about it, so how could that do them any good? To these he < would [eply«that Jesus took little babies in his arms and blessed them. "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Then there was the laying on of hands, or, aa they called it, "confirmation." Without this no baptism was complete. This had descended to them from the apostles. The church had always had the laying on of hands. No one, he said, j knew what the resurrection or the judgment was like. It did not matter whe- , ther a man believed in it or not: it was coming, and all would have to face it. Nothing, he thought, was so inspiring as to know that God was going to commit all judgment to His Son., who knew all about the world. There could be no Christianity without these six things.