CHURCH AND FUTURE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20733, 17 February 1939, Page 9

CHURCH AND FUTURE

MODERN CALL TO ACTION MORE CHRISTIANS NEEDED ADDRESS TO METHODISTS (Special to Times) CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday “We are living in an age of'disillusionment, bewilderment and dread,” said the Rev. Angus Mcßean, president of the New Zealand Methodist Church, in his Inaugural address at the annual conference of the church, now in session at Christchurch. “In the year just past, the heart of humanity almost stood still with horror, confronted as it was with the awful fear that the monstrous dogs of war were once more to be unleashed upon a troubled and afflicted world. And a cry of thanksgiving, universal, and almost too deep and poignant for words, went up to the Almighty, because forsooth the swordclenched hand of an arotrant Dictator was held in check, and he was allowed to take without resistance what he had resolved to seize by force and the horrors of war. “We must pay tribute to Mr Neville Chamberlain for the initiative, courage and determination he showed in his pursuit of the way of peace—or at least the avoidance of war. But this is tlie world in which we live to-day —a world in which the nations were so recently on the brink of the abyss of war. It is a troubled world'and a world full of rapid changes. But if the Church is really alive it need fear no change which the future may bring. No power on earth can destroy a church made up of people whose religion is real, but a church which is only an outward shell, containing none of the great forces which produce the IFnest things in the world, will go down before the blasts of persecution and the onward sweep of godlessness in high places like a jerry-built palace before a hurricane.” Terrible Fear The president quoted a letter received recently, written from the centre of Europe at a time when an awful fear held tlie smaller States in a paralysing grip. The writer said that, just as a little child, confronted with a terrible fear, turns instinctively to his father, so he thought perhaps the world would turn to God to-day. “I think,” he wrote, “that out of these days something really fine may in the end come. The persecution in Germany has struck the Church; but it has produced a vitality ami a heroism among many which has indicated where the real strength of the Church lies. The Church must change its emphasis. Formalism must be dropped. The vision of what, can be must be presented to the people.”

Mr Mcßean claimed that the conclusions of this writer were being borne out by what was happening in other spheres. Humanism was losing its vogue. Mr Middleton Murry had once written a book in which he had abolished God and dismissed the churches. But he had now become a candidate for the Christian ministry. He had said, "the last five years have really convinced me that nothing has power to withstand modern paganism except the organised Christian Church.” “How shall the Church meet the challenge of the times?” asked the president, “There is need for a positive faith, and an experience that is deep, satisfying and triumphant. Too often, in place ‘of this we see little but perplexities and problems. In some places everything is turned into a problem, even Jesus Himself. It was not so with the apostles, once they knew Ihe risen Christ. I know that even then they had some difficult questions to face; but Christ was not a problem. He was a wonderful Reality, and lo live with Him was to find abundant grace and victorious fife. Questions for Church “People outside the churches today have problems enough of their own. There is little use in asking them to come in and share ours. We must have something better to give them. And we shall not get far with them by saying something like this: Look, at us; we don’t get drunk, we don't swear; and we don't buy tickets in art unions or sweeps. That simply doesn't impress them at all. For it is not what we don’t do that matters much; it is what we do that counts. Are we more generous, more dependable, more unselfish, easier to live with and work with; is the natural tendency to selfishness, greed, selfseeking being overcome; does our presence on a committee add sweetness and graciousness to it? How is it that year after year passes without any change in the personnel of many congregations by the winning of an outsider?

“We need more Christians in the church to-day. But a greater need still is ihe need for Christians of a better quality. We need a renewal of the thought that the church is the Lord's army, and that lie is leading it. onward in a mighty and triumphant oaiiipa'gn. We have been too full of fear. We have been satisfied to assume the defensive in the fight; and that is a poor defence. Example of Foch The fine example of Marshal Foch at the Marne is worthy of remembrance. He reported from the field: •My right is turned; iny left is threatened S’ Would lie therefore fall back? Listen: 'I propose to attack at the centre with all my force.’ That has always been good strategy in the spiritual‘warfare through the ages. The Church is an army—it may well be a mighty army, an army on the march, and going forward to victory. The objective is set before us in our hymns and in our prayers: yet many lose sight of it. ’Thy will be dune!’ 11 is a call to action: it is more than that, it is the Divine programme for mankind. Your old men shall dream dreams,’ said the prophet. But they will not he dreams of the long dead past, ‘lnc good old days.’ For these men! whose eyes have been opened to the. g.<tv .it’ God and Mis Kingdom, the c‘,o!;Un Age lies in the future, they dre.m A great days yet to he. But those who think the h.-sl is gone, and who face the future without hope and without courage. these are already old. more* Gian I went y five or thirly. Armed with a dream ’. Let Ho -.- laugh who will. bul. boliexp nn*. this is the one impend,-abb. armour- in the world. No enemy can e\er break a people who are armed with a dream worthy to be

believed. "Here then is our dream. Christ’s divam: The kingdoms of this world are the kingdom* of our Lord and of Hi* Christ: and lie shall reign for ever and ever.' There lies the goal. To fulfil His sublime and matchless dream is our campaign.”