WORLD OUTLOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 45, 22 February 1929, Page 10

WORLD OUTLOOK.

GRAVE REASONS FOR ANXIETY FRENZIED PURSUIT OF PLEASURE. PROBLEMS FOR CHRISTIAN CHURCH LIFE IX THE AGE OF JAZZ.

Present-day changes in the social, industrial, scientific and political worlds were broadly surveyed last evening by the Rev. J. F. fJoldie, in his presidential address at the opening of the annual conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand. The assembled delegates numbered over two hundred.

"Many people, seem to think religion is not the power in the world that it once was," the president said. "It would be foolish to deny that there are grave reasons for anxiety in the world outlook. The Christian Church had to face conditions to-day which might well cause the faith of the stoutest hearted to reel and stagger."

Continuing, the president dealt with the situation created by the war. It had been laid to the charges of the Church, generally, lie said, that Christianity failed to shield the shattering impact of the war, and when the Christian nations fell apart from sheer exhaustion, it had been asked whether any honest man could claim that the terms of peace were dictated in the spirit of Jesus. He would be a bold man who asserted that the post-war world with all its bitter disillusionments was a better place to live in, either for our late enemies or ourselves.

Social Unrest. Never had the world been so full of unrest, said Mr. Goldie. The situation in Russia, the revolutionary strike in China, the social upheaval in England which aimed at the complete overthrow of civil government, the international distrust and jealousy, the mad competition in the matter of armaments between professedly Christian peoples, the racial pre judices, the violent exploitation of primi-

tive races bv the more powerful nations, the deep sullen resentment of India and the vehement racial and national demands for self-determination by subject peoples, the social unrest everywhere apparent, and, even in the beautiful southern seas, the bitter class hatred, tl>e. fierca struggle for social supremacy, the tragedy of a world without God— all lent a semblance to the truth of the statement that the Church had failed.

"Coincident with all this is the insane and frenzied pursuit of pleasure and prosperity as the chief aim in life," Mr. Goldie continued. It was strange indeed, he added, that, in spite of all the tragic happenings of the last few years, the world had not been sobered by its awful •experience. It seemed as if the world

had lost its balance, and people were impatient with any serious view of life. The great majority appeared to be living in what appeared to be the age of jazz. Business men were finding that what might be called the "jazz industries" were prospering most.

Industrial Depression. The film business, cigarette and tobacco making, the organised professional sport and other industries catering for the recreation and pleasure of the multitude were active, whilst the great basic industries, such as coal and steel were in a depressed condition in many parts of the world. Accusers of the Church declared she had not a message that would adequately meet the present need. They said the Church was a decadent institution and religion a spent force, that in her fussy absorption in trivial matters she had shown timidity and lack of enterprise in the things which were important. "While we must confess that the outlook gives ground for anxiety, the charges made that the Church is discredited and religion at a standstill are most certainly not true," said Mr. Goldie amid applause. "Apparent failure may be merely the failure of adaptation to the rapid and violent changes which are taking place. So rapid have some of these changes been and so great and far-reaching the consequences that a breathless society has been utterly un able to keep pace. The unrest and confusion are inseparable from the loss of equilibrium inherent in an age of change."

A Time of Change. The readjustments consequent on the social upheavals, the scientific discoveries. tire general advance in knowledge, called for time, wisdom and patience. Tn all other departments of life conditions were not what they should be, and, of course, the same might be true of the Church. Critics and pessimists must be reminded, however, that the world was sometimes very slow to recognise ils srreat obligations to the Christian religion. This religion had so penetrated and influenced the structure, of the existing civilisation that there was a danger of confusing the two. The world was apt to imagine that the structure could endure without religion, and would, if possible, dispense with the very thing which had enabled it to rise to a position far exceeding that of any older civilisations. . "I insist there is no alternative to the Church," continued Mr. Goldie. "The remedy for the dissipation of power and energy is to infuse new life and power into the Church itself." Racial Strife.

The fi"ht between modernism and fundamentalism. he said, went on. and the extremists on both sides were, sometimes very bitter. What was necessary was a new perspective and a new sense of values. All over the world inter-racial antagonisms were growing intensified, and this constituted a chalfenge to the Christian belief that all men were the children of Ood.

Mr. fioldie concluded: "Xn better investment of Christian influence, wealth and scholarship can he made, no harvest gives better results than the wooing of the dark-skinned people for Christ. There are dark-skinned people in their thousands who bow in loving reverence before His Cross. The Mother Church must not turn a deaf ear to the cry of her offspring in the islands yonder. The lusty infant for which we are responsible must bo cared for. must bp nursed and nourished and educated. The strongholds of darkness in the yet untouched portions of our field must be assailed and the people brought to the family of God."