LENTEN ADDRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 69, 21 March 1919, Page 2

LENTEN ADDRESS.

"THE FUTURE OF RELIGION." The Lenten addresses were continued this morning, when the Rev. W." G. Monckton spoke during the luncheon hour at the Chamber of Commerce, on the subject of "The Future of Religion." In his preliminary remarks the speaker ■said that a cursory glance into tbe history of the past few years tempted one' to ask what hope existed for the future. He particularised the war and the present peace conference, and emphasised that in the latter hardly a single point had been dealt with which was an echo of the causes for which the nations took up arms. Dealing with the proletarian • war which was universally manifesting itself—the creed of Bolshevism—"Which denied religion altogether, he main-, tamed that the cause of religion in the future, notwithstanding such ominous shadows, was one of hope and rjromifie. The fact that the efforts of men towards social reform were tending towards bankruptcy had only emphasised the point that the solution lay in the Gospel of Christ, and those who controlled the internation destinies of the world were becoming more and more convinced of this fact. It was the scorning of God's love that ultimately won men to religion, and he referred to Wordsworth in whose works the keynote was that God gives us of Himself through the ordinary things of life. A tremendous revolution was overtaking the world of scientific thought, and the power of God's Holy Spirit, so neglected in the past, would be realised more andmore in the future.