CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 74, 8 January 1930, Page 8

CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT

AUTHORITY IN RELIGION. ADDRESS BY THE REV. A. WATSON. The Student Christian Movement Conference was continued yesterday, the mid-day* address being given bv tlie Rev A. Watson, who spoke on “The Seat of Authority in Religion.” Not until the Reformation; said _Mr Watson, had this become a religious problem. Clean logical thinking divided men into schools: “What shall I believe?” “Where shall I find certitude?” These were common questions and implied the existence of something infallible to be sought for. Authority in ethics, politics, religion, was axiomatic. "W® need some authority in our life, to whom should we turn tor authority. What is the authority that reveals truth ? At e acknowledge the right of someone or something to inform us as to what to believe. “AVhy does evil exist in Cod’s world?” continued Mr AA T atson. God was all powerful and all loving—the Creator of the world. AA'e are so made that we can achieve freedom, and this implies a possibility of failure —of sin. God could have made creatures completely subordinate to him. The wonderful tiling in life was that God had created man, who had individuality and powers for freedom of action. Man adapts himself to the unseen world, which is his environment and goal. There is some ultimate standard but the real problem is not to discover ultimate authority but to discover the channel of this authority. Two authorities were held in religion l —one that authority was external to the individual, and the other that it was internal within the individual. In the first, Christianity was a supernatural religion and a revealed doctrine. But who was to interpret the supernatural? This implied that, in such a church, the Church is superior to the Bible. One must reject such a dogmatic ruling or authority in religion. AVe reject the claim of the Church to infallibility on historical and on psychological grounds. _ The individual has the right of private judgment. Even in accepting the infallibility of the Church the individual exercised a judgment—an authority within himself. Protestants had claimed the Bible as the sole authority, but no Protestant had ever practised tins. The Protestant approached the Bible with an already formed system in his mind. He has thus interpreted the Bible along the lines of his own thought. Protestants had taken one paid of the Bible and then interpreted the rest in relation to that part. In reality the Protestant' had therefore fallen back upon an internal standard—Jesus Christ. It was the task of every man to find the requirements of truth and love in his own circumstances. In the back of our minds we are clinging desperately to the few recorded sayings of Christ.

Address By Mr Ramsay Howie. The evening address was on “ ATocation,” tlie subject being taken by Mr Ramsay Howie. The subject, he said, was one which required a fairly wide knowledge of life, and hence there was great value in open discussion in such a subject. The term was simple, but very fundamental ; all life was associated with activity, and vocation was the particular channel of this along which your life was chiefly directed. There was something magnificent in this idea that you were directing your life along one of these characters'. There were thousands of these, but a disquietingly small proportion could absorb both body and soul —selling stamps, laying bricks, could not give enough in exchange for your best activity. Yet these seemed necessary jobs. It has never been easier to earn comfort than it is to-day, and it has never been so ’ easy to lose one’s soul. The bricklayer or' stamp-seller would have to fulfil their destinies in spite of their Work. AVe all had to fulfil our destination 1 . The student had more opportunity for leisure, and thus in the trimmings of their time had a chance to make life fuller. Student'*, were fortunate in having a wide choice of vocation. Some had a clear call to a particular work; these were indeed lucky. For most of us romance of that sort did hot come that way. There is a choice between the joyous and the uncongenial. There is success in both, but it is a different success in each. The joyous type is the true choice. 'lf, however/ wfc regard a vocation as fundamental, wo are wrong. It is more fundamental to be a human being ana have a bond of union with others. It is essential to study the technique of ( your .vocation, but it is also essential to get into touch With the loftiest. The two had to be combined. Behind your work there must be an ideal. Your work will be as the quality of your point of view, of your philosophy. The speaker went on to point out how the greatest vocational activities had been achieved by people with a religious quality in their vocation.