SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1917, Page 6

SUNDAY READING

"THE TRAIL OP TUG SERPENT." SERMON PREAC'IfED BY REV. A. IT. COLV.ILE, jr.A., at St, Mary's Church, Xew iPlymouth, on Sunday, February 11. ''Evorv good gift and every perfect gift is from above."—James i., 17. 'Now the serpent was more subtle."! —Gen. ii., 1. I Mj ! words to yon tliis eveninc naturally eome out of the thoughts of last Simday evening'? sermon, for the teaching of Scxagesima Sunday (as this one is called) follows hard upon the heels'of Septuagesima. We think of the majesty and wonder and beauty of creation, ni'd then comes the thought that seems to deny the majesty, despire the wander and blur the beauty of God's handiwork, the thought of the intrusion of evil. I may say at once that lam ■lot going deeply into the question of l.he origin of evil, nor am I going to discuss that aspect of ho subject presented to us in the third chapter of Genesis, and which we refer to as "the fall of man." T have been specially asked to speak to yon on a practical matter which is of interest to most- of ns, and which illustrates the real nature and method of -allack of that power of 'evil which (whether we believe in the personality of Satan or not) we are forced to recognise as a very real and very terrible onomv. Therefore 1 have brought these two texts together, widely separated as they arc in the Bible, because they seem to me to fasten on and illustrate just that point which I want to make this evening.

Mav I just briefly remind vow of what [ said last Sunday night? We were thinking of God as the Great Artist out of Whose thought came this beautiful world and all the good things in it we enjoy—"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above''; and I reminded you that God was not only created, hut creates, and that man, in whose soul is the breath of God, is himself an artist, a creation real or potential, and that bis highest privilege is to work with God here and now and find fellow-

ship with Him in the making of a new alnl move beautiful world. God has involved in man those faculties- which enable aim in his turn to evolve beautiful things, so that we sec man in the earliest dawn apparently the weakest and most defenceless of all created things at the mercy of the monstrous animals that warned the world in thosi days, yet given the potentiality of dominion, and not only protecting himself bub winning to that dominion by the use of the faculties God had given him and enjoying that dominion to-day. W; who are not wise in our own conceit! thank God for that power and feel thai we are right when we sing the words: "And every virtue we possess And every continent won. And every thought of holiness Are his alone." MAX'S CREATIVE FACULTIES.

Yes. "cvorv eood gift and every perfect gift is from above," and the gift of creation is the most wonderful of Micm all. Modern life is full of good + '<inars for which man's creative faculties are responsible, good things of which our ancestors did perhaps dream, but never realised. I spoke of some of the discoveries and inventions of to-day. We have, for example, to realise the marvellous strides that medical science has made, the discoveries that have led to the lessening: of the torture of pain, the iiope brought to so many sufferer', that has softened even the horrors of war, to lift up our hearts in thankfulness to Him AA'ho has involved in mar this wonderful creative power; and who »an doubt that many of us will live to see still greater wonders in the days to <-ouie, and that despite the terrible handicap of war, life will be, on the surface at any rate, fuller and richer for our Children than it lias ever been for jis? Of what, then, njust- we -be afraid, upainst what must wp be on our guard? My friends, the creative faculty brings with it tremendous responsibility. The author who is writing a book, the editor who is composing a leading article, the artist who is painting a picture, the scientist wno is working out an invention, the preacher who is preparing a sermon, the mother who is teaching her children, just; think of their responsibi; iitv. They are creating that which by God's will and His power will help and uplift others, and will contribute to the beauty and enrichment of life. Of what, then, must they be afraid? AA 7 hy, of tbo trail of the serpent. pent," we read, "was subtle." Y'es, that is just the trouble. Have you ever thought of the significance of the serpent as the personification of evil? The Sanskrit- word for serpent is "ahi," and alii means "the throttlor." The Sanskrit word for evil is "ankas," that which throttles, and I believe the French word, "Angoise," a cramped place, is from the same root. Evil is that which throttles. It is the cramping of man's powers and the narrowing and belittling of life, rlt is, for example, the cowardly after-thought, "Oh, perhaps I'd better not," which chokes up some noble impulse. It is the sordid idea, "Yes, tliis will pay me better," that nibbles away at the root of some fine talent. It is the slack feeling, "Oh, I won't take the trouble; too much like hard work," that weakens perhaps a whole life's teachill gaud example.

ON OUR GUARD. It is against tills narrowing, cramping process that we must be on our guard trie evils of the ser- t pent. Anil more, evil is that which seeks ever to defile and degrade what is beautiful and useful. Mark the subtlety—to poison the wells, not dry them up; to sow 'the open sea with mines, not to make the sea impassable; to turn God's good gifts to man into instruments of temptation. That is the method of evil, and so we seem to see the trail of the serpent over all creation, and we always seem to be facing the problem—- '■ Shall we do awny utterly with everything which lias been defiled or may be defiled by the trail of the serpent, or shall we strive to cleanse and to guard? Shall we make life purer by making it thinner, or shall we with much care and patience seek to preserve life in all its fullness by guarding watchfully the gifts of God ami endeavoring to free them from the evils that attacked them? If, for example, you had a fruit tree which was being weighed down and <rushed by some noxious weed, you wor hardly cut down the tree; v'ou wou.d tear away the coiling weed, so as to give the tree new life. 'Otherwise you might turn your orchard into a desert, and it would-bo foolish thei) to go about brag-' ging that you had "cleared your land." Round many of God's good gifts there grow noxious weeds, owing to man's own and neglect which, ha" given Uw jgower &f « c:i

"While men slept the enemy-, came and sowed tires among the wheat—-and the work before God's servants is to cleanse first and then restrict and guard, not to call out for abolition, or prohibition, or a clean sweep of the gift itself, not to "create a desert and call it peace," Once you let the n.bolit iuuNt spirit loose you never l,now when it will slop, and as at Hie time of the Reformation many good things are swept away together with the bad. and I think you will gather from our Lord's teaching in the parable of 'the tares and the wheat in the 13th chapter of -St. Matthew that God cannot afford to lose good things out of lite, even though fcvil things, perish ;wit!i them. And as it is with the good things of life that come from above that God has bestowed on us, so it is with those things, those modern inventions, as we call them, that are the result of man's own creative faculty of the power God has given him. Xow, here is one: I am going to take

it as an illustration. »c is what I have been asked to speak to you about tonisht — THE 'PICTURES. Thafi modern invention which we speak ef as "the pictures'' interests so many people, and the "picture 'habit," as it has been called, influences so many lives, particularly children and young people, that it is quite impossible to be indifferent aboijt it, or to think it beneath our care and attention. Now the '■' moving picture" invention is without doubt a great one. wringing a great deal of interest and pleasure into the lives of many people. I suppose that many of us who are in church to-night go Occasionally or frequently tol the pictures, and enjoy going. I do myself. In most of our big towns picture palaces are as thickly planted as churches, and much better attended. A wet night, which would not allow the most robust to come to church, will see a picture house crammed. W'lien the first picture palaces were built people talked of "a passing craze,'* hilt they were wrong. This modern invention is going to be a permanent institution, with tremendous inlluence on the mental and moral life of the entire race, capable of much that is good, capable also of almost incalculable evil, .just as was the invention of printing. Indeed, Mr. Bernard Shaw has given the opinion that the ':picture" is a more momentous invention than printing, because it is an intellectual and moral leveller. To be influenced by a book or a newspaper you need at least some sort of education. You need none to be influenced by the pictures. It is really a ne.w language. I have heard it railed "The Esperanto of the eye," and it is a language that all, the illiterate and educated alike, can hear and understand. Tt is a language spoken everywhere. Films travel from one end oE the earth to the other. All the world is not reading the same books, or listening to the same music ,but all the world is looking at the same pictures. Who, then, can doubt the power of this invention over the lives of the young, and what a splendid power it might be? Picture palaces are not as a rule now the Huffy, unhealthy places they used to be. Certainly they are not in this town. Many of the films shown are really excellent, those, for example, depicting historical events or events taking place now at the other side of the world, nature studies, studies in bird and animal life, and those depicting customs and icenes of other countries that most people will never visit. All these are excellent, and makes one realise what a power for good the pictures might be Moreover, I have witnessed many most amusing comedies rousing much healthy laughter, and laughter is a grand tonic, particularly in these days.

"THE STAR TURN." i'o, it is as a rule when we come to tlie second part of tlie programme, to what is called "the star turn," a melodrama with some notorious woman as the leading character, that one also comes across the trail of the serpent, that one recognises the danger to young people and children. I Does anyone honestly think that reVlistic pictures of murder, abduction and debauchery can be anything but demoralising for young growing boys and girls! It is not that ■such pictures teacli a bad moral lesson; virtue invariably triumphs in the end; but vice is given such a long and realistic run for its money that in the excitement of watching it the perfunctory and artistically foolish "finish up" is forgotten. The" impression left on the mind is, that produced by the realistic scenes, not by the artificial finale. Here is the danger: the slimy trail of the serpent o\er yet another of God's good gifts. Arid here we are, responsible, and faced by the same'problem, abolish, ignore or reform. The first is impossible, the second cowardly, the third difficult. We know that we couldn't abolish the pictures if we -wanted to. It is no use wildly denouncing them. It is no use sneering in a superior way. We want to set free this good and useful invention from the coils of the snake that arc tightening round it. Prohibition? Well, I would certainly prohibit very young children from coming to evening performances. It is miserable to see little things of four or five kept up late at night because of the selfishness of parents, and even older children can hardly be bright and fit for school next morning under such conditions. ■ THE REMEDY. But we want something more than prohibitive measures. The root of the problem is the supply of good films. There is not much use talking to the proprietor of the pieturc-houso. He is very largely in the hands of the filmproducer. We must go to the source. And to my mind the central reform to aim at is municipal picture houses, backed up by a nationalised production of films. Newspapers ought to be in this matter our guides and guardians. They ought to be in a position to warn us of vulgar or demoralising pictures. This the newspapers can hardly bo expected to do it they are direc-tly connected with and commercially interested in the picture houses. At present, newspaper comments on the pictures are merely advertising puffs. No matter how crude, vulgar or immoral a film may be, it always receives the benediction of the newspapers. This cannot 'be right. The Press ought to be perfectly free in this matter to praise or condemn fearlessly. Yes, we want a free critical Press, and we want special films suitable for children at matinees, and we want women to interest themselves in this matter—a mother, for example, ought to be more careful of the nature of the picture her daughter sees even than of the books she reads—and we want some power of control, of censorship given to women, r.nd, above all, -.ve want a sound, healthy public opinion. For here we have, my triends, a marvellous good gUt, .produced by the creative faculty of man, the ' faculty given him by God, and therefore a gift from above, and, like many others, a gift threatened by the subtlety of the serpent. Aijd w K-ially those of "" """"" ■.«, arc l'ts nuardians and pro'Wftk mm md sympathetic