PULPIT VOICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 190, 13 August 1928, Page 3

PULPIT VOICES.

ANGLO-CATHOLIC INFLUENCES. FORCES BEING RESISTED. VIEWS OF CHURCH LEADERS. \ iews of church leaders 011 modern influences and tendencies were heard in a number of Auckland churches yesterday. Excerpts from the sermons show that criticism of social and religious movements was voiced in a number of paign will continue until July 19, 1929, Anglo-Catholic influence in the Church was the subject of an address by the Rev. A. Macdonald Aspland at Knox Presbyterian Church, Parnell, last evening. Included in the large congregation were 200 members of the Loyal Orange Lodge. "Whatever Anglo-Catholic* may say to the contrary, the Church of England is still a Protestant Church," said Mr. Aspland. "There is still a strong army of avowed Protestants in the Church." Continuing, the speaker said that there were strong forces at work, but the Protestant belief in the sacraments still prevailed. Justification by faith still held its place in the Church, but there was a strong challenge being made by forces that aimed to destroy Protestantism and restore the ideas and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The societies which were seeking to undermine the Protestant foundation, he said, included the Society of the Holy Cross, the English Church Union, the Kilburn Sisters, and the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament. Regarding the rejection of the Prayer Book by the House of Commons, Mr. Aspland said that members had detected the thin end of the wedge towards the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation. To have passed the revised Prayer Book would have been a retrograde step. Its rejection showed that the English people were still a Protestant nation, and that Protestantism was advancing in the world. In concluding, Mr. Aspland urged the members of the Orange Lodge and Protestants to protest against doctrines that were false, and to assist iH spreading the light of the abiding Christ in order to dispel the darkness. SALVATION ARMY. ' . Salvation Army officials from other centres will speak in Auckland this week in connection with the centenary year campaign, in honour of the founder, General William Booth. The campaign will continue until July 19. 1920. each month being devoted to special work. In New Zealand this month the Salvation Army is engaged in evangelistic work. The Auckland work commences to-day. and each evening there will lie meetings in the city and suburban halls of the Salvation Army. Prominent speakers have arrived from the South to take part in the evangelistic effort. During September the centenary year campaign will be continued by the appointment of additional officers to the army corps. In October a prohibition campaign will be carried on, and in November the work among the young people will receive special attention. CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE.

Present-day problems were touched upon- bv the Rev. Leonard B. Dalby, at the*Pitt Street Methodist Church, last evening, in preaching on the subject "Is Civilisation a Failure?" Trie speaker said that the church was more interested in its rituals than in social service and was self-centred, smug and dying of decorousuess! Society failed to win the approval of the thinker, and its passion for amusements, sport and gambling distressed and worried all who were interested in human progress. Modern writers did not satisfy the people, and there was much ambiguity of thought. The question was whetner too much importance wa*s being attached to plav and sport. Economic methods and the position that the primary industries occupied in the Dominion, he said, appeared to be misunderstood in the attitude of c-itv dwellers.

PACT TO OUTLAW WAR. Speaking on the "The Pact to Outlaw War," tlie Rev. \V. Law son Marsh, M.A.. said at the Devonport Presbyterian Church last evening that there were two primary obligations on any scheme which aimed at abolishing war, that- it should be practicable; that it violated no inalienable right of independent nations. Judged by this test, even the League of Nations was only a hope, not a guarantee of peace, for it allowed the right of the ordeal by warfare if its pacific machinery failed to adjust the dispute after nine months' delay. This was the weak point in the case for the League. It was a splendid instrument for peace, but it failed or might conceivably fail at the last pinch. The proposal to outlaw war would, if carried, provide what was lacking in the Covenant of the League. It was the complement of the league, not the rival, or substitute. It was the keystone of the arch and provided a sure exit from the impasse in which the world had been blindly groping these past years. Further, it commanded the support of those who. on the deepest moral grounds, had to oppose pacifist propaganda of a kind which in the horror of war «hut its eyes to our collective responsibility. As applied to international affairs, the proposal to outlaw war. continued the speaker, meant that the contracting parties should renounce war absolutely as an instrument of national policy; should agree to settle all disputes by pacific means; acquire the necessary machinery for the process of International Law (League of Nations); and retain the right of self-defence, when attacked, until the arrival of the •"police," but not pursue their military resistance after that. for. by article (1), war as a national policy had been renounced. The objection might be made that it was too simple and too easy a way out, to which he replied that all moral imperatives were simple in themselves. It was the carrying them out which proved a life task demanding unrelenting perseverance. The mere signing of the Pact might be, as Sir Austen Chamberlain implied last week, only adding another "'scrap of paper" to a pile sufficiently large already. But let us not unduly minimise the significance of the fact that the great Powers, Great Britain, U.S.A., Italy, Franca and Germany, were prepared to give the plan a trial. If they were backed up by public opinion then the renunciation of war would be no longer a mere agreement on paper, but the greatest moral achievement between civilised nations since history began. ,

"ANKLE-DEEP CHRISTIANS." A crowded congregation at the Methodist Central Mission listened attentively to Rev. C. G. Scrimgeor in his sermon last night on "Ankle-Deep '•Christians." Mr. Scrimgeour said that the great difference of religious experience very often confused the seeker, who could not reconcile the various views with his own idea of things spiritual. "Such a seeker," said Mr. Scrimgeour, "was only ankle-deep. He was assisted in the wrong conclusion by the fact of there being so many different churches, with the correspondingly different ide-as and 'ways.' " EDENDALE PRESBYTERIAN. Special services were held yesterday to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Presbyterian Church at Edendale. The congregations were large, many old members attending. The Rev. \V. Lawson Marsh, of Devonport, preached in the morning, and the Rev. T. H. Roseveare. Moderator of Auckland Presbytery, addressed the gathering in the afternoon, and the Rev. W. Gilmour conducted the service at night. Suitable music was rendered by the choir, conducted by Mr. G. T. Lee, the organist being Mr. H. Davis. PLACE OF THE SACRAMENTS.

OVER EMPHASIS REGRETTED. ißy Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON*, this day. '"The sacraments should not be the first consideration in Christian worship," declared Archdeacon E. M. Cowic, when preaching in St. Peter's Cathedral last evening. Archdeacon Cowic said there was a tendency for church people to base their worship on the sacraments, when they had never studied the Scriptures or formed an accurate conception of Jesus Christ. The sacraments were necessary and all right in their place, but church people should never tire of trying to unite their will with God's will. This unity and oneness could only be obtained by conversion. So much attention was given to the sacraments nowadays that the real meaning of conversion was apparently lost sight of.

The archdeacon emphasised the need of recognising <iod in the qualities of goodness, truth and love. The definition of < >od was embodied in these virtues, each of which was a given name of God'

"If this was realised and carried into effect," he added, "we would have cleaner politics and purer business, and the nations would recognise the futilstv of war."