DANGERS OF PROGRESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 65, 18 March 1930, Page 5

DANGERS OF PROGRESS

SERVICE OF CIVILISATION. GHTJRCH'S DUTY TO-DAY. NEED OF SPIRITUAL CONTROL. "To-day in the 20th century we may not have any great outstanding figures in Church State who exert a commanding influence on the course of events," said Archdeacon Mac Murray last eveninng, when addressing the Council .of Christian Churches. "Last year," he proceeded, "I had the bewildering experience of seeing men flying through the air at 300 miles per hour. This year I had the equally thrilling experience in my own home listening to the voices of the King and of statesmen discussing in London, 13,000 miles away, the importance of reducing armaments, as a means to the great end of securing peace on earth. We ask what other marvellous secrets of nature may not be unfolded any day ? Such things prove there has been brought into the service of civilisation forces and powers almost undreamed of; but also with that comes the uncomfortable conviction that the riches of Christ, the unllimited spiritual forces hidden in Him, have not been called forth to keep pace with this* revelation of the hidden forces of nature.

Perils to be Guarded Against. "The peril is this —modern civilisation may easily be blotted %ut by the very forces of nature which it has brought into the light of day, unless they are controlled by spiritual force, and the only spiritual force which has proved efficient to meet and correct the dangers of material civilisations is the influence of Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, an provide the emotional force in human nature which can make the brotherhood of man and the brotherhood of nations realities. Remember the danger which exists from the teachings of nature that the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence is the method of Mother Nature- not' only to preserve life but to develop and' beautify it. But this law of the jungle applied to human civilisation will certainly, in these days, lead to its complete overthrow, and therefore, if from no other higher motive than self-preservation, we must look from whence we can get an arc of safety wherein to take refuge." Christ was that refuge.