ATHEISM IN RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 131, 4 June 1923, Page 7

ATHEISM IN RUSSIA.

A large congregation composed of people of many different schools of thought gathered at St. Andrew's Ohurch last night to hear the' Rev. J. Lamb Harvey speak on what was described a≤ a lecture on the subject of "'The Bolshevik Attempt to Dispense with God." Mr. Harvey said that when the Bolsheviks set out to destroy the National Church of Russia, they made the error of mistaking religion tor Christianity. They robbed the church and thought it was their enemy, and so it -was in so far as it departed from the teachings of its founder, but when they got back to the real elements of their Christianity it was their great shield and defender. They could not "do without God, and when they burlesqued religion on Christmas Day people stole away quietly to the churches, which were fuller than ever. The supreme laws of God should be the standard upon which all man-made laws were made. Man had not learnt the lessons of history, and to-day if Russia was the mad dog of Europe, France was the bulldog with his teeth in its victim, which would not let go, and Germany was the whining cur. Man was more than flesh and mind; he was a spiritual being. The preacher quoted Professor Seely and Carlyle to show that without God the morality of the world would land in chaos. "Abbot's Life of 'Napoleon" and "The Student's History of France," showed how one day the people voted God out of the world and the next day voted Him in again. He had no hesitation in Baying that people who denied God were black parasites, because they took advantage of the security which Christian morals gave to a country without subscribing to them, but when they tried to 'banish God from a nation it was like sapping the foundations of the whole structure of their civilisation. They had to get 'back to God, and when that day came they would get to the stage when His teachings would rule men's minds, and the world of goodwill and brotherhood would be ever present with us. It was for us to do our part to ushor in the day. As with Russia so with us, we could not do without God.