HOME AND CHURCH LIFE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1916, Page 6

HOME AND CHURCH LIFE.

WITNESSING FOR GOD. SEED FOE TRUE (DEALS. An analogy between .lome life and church iife was drawn by the Kig'lit Kev. A. W. Averill, D.D., Bishop of Auek land, in the course of an impressive sermon delivered before a large congregation iu St. Mary's Church oa Sunday morning. The Bishop took for his text the words, "My home" (St. Luke IV., 24), and. said that the anniversary of a church's opening should be a day of retrospect as to how ibhe privileges that had been bestowed upon the people had been used, and a day of prospect as to how the people intended to use those privileges. There was something analagous between church life and home life, the Bishop proceeded, and it was often the absence of true and real ideals in home life that accounted for the absence of true ideals in char' 1 ! iife.

A PERMEATING PRESENCE "What was it that made a home?" he asked. It was not brick and mortar and wood. It was a presence, a pervading presence of love, n permeating presence. God's house should be a home, and there should always be associated with it a 'Presence. God had been pleased to associate himself with the Tabernacle and with the Temple. One thing the preacher loved about his church when he was a parish priest was that everybody called it "home." The presence of Jet-us in a house, 110 matter how humble it might be, made it a glorious and delightful place. He reminded his hearers that the apostles loved to return to that upper room in which Jesus used to sit. The place where that room stood afterwards became the site of the first Christian churel). Elevating thoughts were conveyed to us when we said those beautiful words in the Communion service,

-Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven we laud and glorify Thy holy Name." Do we think of the presence of spiritual companies there? God had promised to reveal himseif in the house dedicated to His honor and glory, and Jesus had promised that when two or three were gathered together in His name He would be present. Dr. Averill asked whether we realised the presence of God in the churches. People must seek God presence of God, a presence that was sweet and real.

REVERENCE IN HOME LIFE. There must be reverence in home life, for home life was a divine institution, sanctified by Jesus on the Cross when He said, "Woman behold thy son." It was the atmosphere in the home that distinguished a home from a mere boardinghouse, where the inmates had little in common and took little interest in each other. There could be no real reverence in the church unless there was a real conception of God. It had been said that one result of the war was the re-discovery of God. Dr. Aver ill hoped that this was so. Certainly men had been losing their conception of God. He reminded the congregation that) young Isaiah learnt to realise the conception of God when he saw the I'herubim whose attitude taught him the meaning of reverence, self-efface-ment, activity, and how to wait to serve God. "Oh, that our churches were really places of worship, that we could realise the privilege of worshipping ill tile presence of God!' exclaimed the Bishop. There were some churches whose environment and atmosphere assisted devotion. St. Mary's, New Plymouth, was one of these. The congregation, therefore, had greater privileges by reason of this. The church had about it an atmosphere of sanctity due to the fact that year after year real prayers and real worship had ascended from it.

ST. MARY'S COMPLIMENTED. Dr. Averill said ne was in a. church not long ago and learnt that the great "attraction at the church was a solo singer from Auckland. He. pitied God and he pitied that congregation. Templc-defilcrs should be kept out oi the churches. Reverent music and singing were important features of a church service, and the preacher said he had never been in a church where the Psalms were sung with more devotion and more reverence than at St. Mary's, New Plymouth. Important as singing was, he said, it was far more important to think of the words that were being said. To worship God with heart and understanding was infinitely more important than worshipping Him with our lips. RELIGION IN THE HOME.

There was no real home life where there was no ohme religion. He felt that the absence of family religion and family prayers had had a very serious effect on home and 1 social life. "Shall we go back to a simpler and better home life after the war?" he asked. "God grant that it may be so." The Bishop went on to emphasise the importance of religion from a social standpoint. In a family where God was honored each member contributed to the happiness of another. So it was in church. An individual's prayers and worship and Communion were not only helpful to himself, but they were helpful to others. We would be poor Christians and poorer patriots if our religious duties concerned only ourselves. We were witnesses for God, and we must pray and worship together so that the liie and witness of the church might be made strong. There was a great danger of family selfishness, and a misconception of life and duty. Parents often put before their boys and girls the ambition, "Success in life" and "Get on" as the highest ideal they could attain. He was afraid many boys and girls in New Zealand were brought up with this idea before them. Few indeed were taught that sacrifice and service were the noblest and best ideals ill life. Thousands of people had given their sons to the service of King and country without suggesting to tliein the highest service of the King of ICings. No wonder men had strange ideas about the church. No wonder they regarded it as a club for the spiritual and social ■benefit' of its members. The church was the body of Christ, the medium, of His manifestation to tile world. Offertories to missions retlected the spiritual life of the church, and without these the church would be a lifeless corpse.

CHURCH OPEN TO ALL. A home was not a series of compartments. It was the common property of all. There was the reception-room where guests were welcomed and entertained. The true ideal of (iod's church was that it should he free and open to all without price. The maintenance of God's house should be met by free-will "ffsrinss and not by rent*

l)r. Averill recounted a disconcerting experience he had when he attended a certain church. He had not finished his prayers when the owner of the seat appeared and he was turned out. The preacher said be wanted to see churchpeople rise to the true conception of what was needed in God's house. lie thanked the congregation of St. Mary's, New Plymouth, in giving' a lead in the direction of allowing all seats to be free. Their action meant self-dci:ial and self-sacrifice, hut it was an action that would reap God's blessing. Concluding, he exhorted his hearers to help God to strengthen His church and to be witnesses for Him. He appealed to them to do their best to make the beautiful church in which they worshipped a home in the real sense of the word.