CHURCH MILITANT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 21, 6 November 1935, Page 8

CHURCH MILITANT

THE MODERATOR’S ADDRESS. PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY OPENED. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, November 5. The Moderatorial address at the opening of the General Assembly of tne Presbyterian Church of New Zealand was given by the Rev. H. H. Barton, M.A. Mr Barton said there was a good deal of justification for the common remark that in our day the Church was “up against it.” Church attendances in many instances had declined considerably. The religious observance of the Lord’s Day was neglected by multitudes. Some of the important organisations of the Church had a sad struggle for existence. Family religion, in the sense in which it was known in the past, had largely disappeared. There was not the former deference to the Church’s authority or the old-time fear of her rebuke. The motor-car, the cheap railway excursion, and the radio, as well a.s other interests, competed with the Church, and there was a distinct lessoning of interest in the serious side of life. The- position of the Church in this land was not so. satisfactory as it once was, and the Presbyterian Church needed to give serious consideration to its own section of the battle line. The so-called trinity of evil—impurity, intemperance, and gambling—(Still offered their deadly challenge. Russian Bolshevism was far from being tne only, though it was the most virulent, opponent of Christianity to-day. Extreme nationalism had an entirely different scale of values from Christianity. More serious still, however, was the weakening of Christianity by the insidious inroads made upon it by the forces of materialism. It was being realised that the supreme antagonist of Christianity to-day was secularism.

Two Gfeat Interrelated Factors. They were bound to recognise that there were two great interrelated factors which threatened the overthrow of world order. The first was the thrust directed against the peace of the world, which might result in the final collapse of the League of Nations and; another great world conflagration. The second was an economic situation of acute difficulty. The moral chaos of their generation was perhaps the most formidable challenge ever offered to Christian ethics, and there was no assault fiercer than that delivered against the institution of permanent monogamous marriage and the family. How was the Church to face the peril? One of the greatest risks of the Church militant to-day was the spirit' of defeatism, but it was not impossible for the Church to hold its ground, and when the time came to move forward. The Church of their fathers had suffered heavy blows in the past, but it was an anvil that had worn out many hammers. Many or the old conflicts, fought out as they were with great Bitterness, were after all only affairs of outposts. One of the great needf of the time was a clear understanding and appreciation of the real fundamentals of the faith. He pleaded for a more determined and earnest endeavour to make known to their people, in language that they would understand, and in ways that would appeal to them, the truth concerning those things that were most surely believed among them. They could no more do without theology than they could do without thinking, but people disliked having unintelligible theological terms hurled at them from the pulpit, and could at the best be only remotely interested in a discussion conducted in a thought atmosphere that was too rarefied for them.

Impatient Theorists. The Church was in danger of interesting herself and using up her energy in too many departments of human life. Every now and again some theme came to the forefront and impatient theorists who fondly imagined that they had arrived at a solution of some of the most difficult problems of the day were aggrieved at the Church because she did not cast in her lot with them. H!e felt that much of the spieirdid energy and keenness which certain religious leaders devoted to some aspects of economic problems seemed to be misdirected. The Church’s main task, whatever subsidiary duties might be placed upon it, was to preach Christ as the Great Physician, and by His grace and the power of His spirit to change hearts. He believed that the future was at “bright as the promises of God.” In the domain of higher scientific thought men were being led to: a. realisation of the supremacy of the spiritual. He ventured to hope that the calm judgment of future days would look back on this period as a surpassing evidence of the power of the Christian Church. How much would the European world have been concerned a century or two ago by the butchery of some thousands of dark-skinned Abyssinians in a, war of territorial expansion ? It was not the responsibility 'of the Church to devise plans for economic recovery. That was the task of men of affairs,

and the experts in the economic realm. ' It would be realised in the future that the Church by her teaching and spirit of Christian' brotherhood had consecrated membership. The history of the past had shown that a handful of devoted men and women were north w'hole armies of the half-hearted, the careless, and the indifferent. There could he no question of retreat. There was only one safe move for the Church of Christ, and that was a forward move.