NEED OF AWAKENING
TO REALITIES OF SPIRITUAL LIFE
deeds, charitable behaviour and respectability of character, with the result that responsibility to God, absolute obedience to His laws, and trust in Christ for salvation have been allowed to slip into the background. “A number of contributing causes has created this position. First there has been the influence of modern science. When the Church became aware of the appalling conditions under which so many of the human race, even in so-called Christian lands, lived, she began to lay emphasis on the need of paying attention to man’s temporal well-being. Modern science came to her aid in a most remarkable manner, placing at the disposal of mankind a whole new world, so that the amenities of life -were multified a hundred fold. The resultant delight and satisfaction made man satisfied with this present pleasant world. “Further the scientific method has been responsible for undermining the certainty of the beliefs of many people. Much of what was taught dogmatically as essential by the Church was proved untrue, and so a doubt was cast over the great, central, essential truths of Christianity. “Again, in the face of the terrible happenings in the world many people have difficulty in appreciating the fact of the Fatherhood of God. If God is a Father of love why does He allow such things to happen? they ask. The great war was responsible for much of this attitude of mind, and although most people, who had experienced that' shock to their faith, have since died, yet the effect of their attitude has been handed down to us and is being reinforced by worse happenings today. NEED OF QUIET THOUGHT. “Added to this there is the fact that the pace at which we have to live is such that there is no time for quiet thought. In a world of rush and danger there is a strong tendency to grasp whatever is passing, especially things calculated to give diversity of sensation. With the world in a whirl of emotional upheaval, quiet is necessary if the soul is to keep its poise and God His throne in our lives. - “In the face of this the Church, instead of being the ambassador of Christ, has been swept off her feet in the rush and has allowed herself to become a server of tables. At the time when the voice of the Church should have rung forth with no uncertain sound declaring the supremacy of spiritual things, and that whatever be man’s lot, he is responsible to a righteous God, before whom he must stand I and be judged, she joined the popular movement which maintained that something must be done to advance man’s temporal well-being, especially cf those who were being left in the race of life, and through over-empha-sis she lost her spiritual emphasis, and gradually lost her influence and power. SELFISHNESS SUPREME. “When God was left out of man’s reckoning it was inevitable that selfishness should become the supreme motive of life. Contrary to expectation in view of the humanistic teaching of the age, there .was revealed an absolute lack of consideration for others, self was raised to the Godhead, material good became the objective towards which the struggle for life was directed and the end, as we now. are able to see it, a war more all-embracing, destructive and appalling than the last. War is not the cause of our crisis, it is but the inevitable outcome of man’s manner of life. It is the goal of a life governed by selfishness and directed toI wards material good. Man made mam--1 mon God, and today we are payingI the wages mammon demands. The Church, which should have known better, and should have stood against such prostitution of the purpose of God for man, was caught and carried along in the flood of humanism and hereby lost her prerogative of leadership, her [ power to witness effectively for God and to champion His eternal laws.” AN OPPORTUNITY SEEN. After stating that the very existence of Christianity was threatened, Mr Davie said a programme indicating the way out from total devastation had been formulated by Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt, but such a programme was a dead thing until it was put into operation and energised with a spiritual dynamic. This provided the Church’s opportunity. Everywhere outside Nazidom, world leaders were looking to the Church for spiritual leadership and dynamic at the moment of her greatest impotence. The Presbyterian Church, because of her democratic form of Government, her virile moral teaching and the care taken in the training of her ministers should be in a position to contribute fully to the great forward movement that must take place if the best in their civilisation was to survive. The Church was the only organisation that had latent within herself the power to be adequate for this colossal demand. She was not adequate at the moment. She needed to bejpurged of all unchristianlike things found'within her, puri-' fied fey the love and strengthened by the spirit of her Founder. The first move must be taken by the ministers, Bible class leaders, Sunday School teachers and all active Christian workers. They must put more abandon into their consecration and service. The first part of the Church’s task was to revive the drooping spiritual life of church members. Most members had a wrong idea of their relation to the Church. Most of them were looking to the Church to get something for themselves, they did not appreciate the fact that they formed part of the Church and that the chief function of every Christian was to be a “giver,” not. a “taker.” When the Church had put its own house in order it would be in a position to provide the atmosphere and environment for the men who would be .returning from the upsetting experience of war. After the last war the Church and the returned soldiers failed to get together and this time that catastrophe must be avoided and : now was the time to begin their plan- • ning. ( PROBLEM OF INDIFFERENCE. < Even if the Church people were 1 prepared to do this there was a great 1 section of the nation which was not ] moved by Christian motives and had c no interest in anybody but them- i selves, said Mr Davie. There was the 1 dead weight of paganism', materialism < and indifference caused by the pre- 1 sence of 155,000 souls of their commun- £ ion who existed in their land but were 1 not known to their Church. Only 21.8 j per cent of the Presbyterians in New (
Zealand attended places of worship (89,572 out of 367,000). If the proportion held for the other denominations there was a very serious problem awaiting solution at the hands of the leaders' of the churches. His suggestion was that they should go after the children. A total of' 28,954 of their children of Sunday School age were receiving no religious instruction and 25,331 of their youths and maidens of Bible Class age were not in their Bible classes, an army of 54,285, all of whom, if not opposed to Christianity would be indifferent to it. Hitler had left God out of his reckoning and because he did he was doomed to failure. They should learn from his mistake and have a plan to teach and save their young people and be diligent in advancing it.
TO REALITIES OF SPIRITUAL LIFE EMPHASISED BY RT. REV. J. DAVIE. ADDRESS TO PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY. (Special to the “Times-Age.”) TIMARU, This Day.. Problems that confront the Presbyterian Church and all churches in these days of world cataclysm were discussed by the incoming Moderator of the Presbyterian General. Assembly, the lit. Rev J. Davie, of Masterton, at the- opening session of the assembly last night. Dealing with the nature of the Christ- < ian message and its applica- . lion to human affairs, Mr A Davie maintained that an opportunity for the quickening of spiritual life should be found in the world crisis. “Mankind is suffering from a spiritual malady which can be cured only by spiritual remedies,” said Mr Davie. “Deflection from God and disobedience to His laws have created the present crisis. The word from which our word crisis is derived means to separate. A crisis occurs when a point is reached where the way bifurcates and a decision has to be made. Today we speak of a world crisis. Mankind has travelled along a way of life which has been defiant of God’s laws and which has brought with it an ever-increasing ratio of misery, distress and destruction. We have reached a point where we are threatened with total destruction, when a momentous decision has to be made; either we must choose to continue in the broad way of godlessness which leads to enslavement and death or the narrow way of love and sacrifice which leads to freedom, liberty and life. Unaided man is unable to leave the broad way. He requires a spiritual motive and dynamic. These have been provided by God when He gave His son Jesus Christ to save the world. The incidents of that plan of Salvation, the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and His gift of the Holy Spirit are such stupendous conceptions that man has always had difficulty in accepting them. Nevertheless they are God’s plan and there is no other way of salvation. FAITH & PROGRESS. “For a number of reasons the Church has allowed herself to slacken her confident assurance in these cardinal facts of God’s plan, with the result that she has called unbelievers to salvation with an uncertain, unconvincing voice. The Church has swung from the position in which she demanded clear cut belief to the position ; where emphasis is placed on good \
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 4
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1,631NEED OF AWAKENING Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 4
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