RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 187, 9 August 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK.

THE CHURCH'S OPPORTUNITY.

BETTERMENT OF MANKIND,

The following is from a sermon preached recently in St. Matthew's by Canon Grant Cowen on " The Church's Opportunity": — " Christianity never has been and never can bo popular, for the teaching of Christ means self-sacrifice. The Church Of Jesus Christ was born crucified, and, as Jesus suffered, so His body, the Church, will be in agony until the end of the world. The way of the Church must ever be the way of the Cross. In every age there have been critics of the Church who, with gloomy prognostications, have prophesied the decay and destruction of organised religion; yet there are always those who, like St. Paul, see and feel the presence of Christ, and realise that there is always open a great and effectual door, and that tho Church is a Divine institution.

"Whilst every age has had its peculiar difficulties, yet the last 50 years has been a period of special difficulty. A century ago tho Church's authority was accepted without question; now men and women refuse to accept alone such authority. They have greater opportunities of reading and travelling, and they prefer to think for themselves. A century ago the Bible was accepted from Genesis to Revelation as word for word inspired. The teaching of evolution and science has shed new light on it, and many of its beautiful stories, instead of being interpreted literally, are now accepted • for their spiritual lessons. 'Science,' wrote Professor G. Watkin, •'has been a destroying spirit and has gutted the Temple of Truth with ruins, but tho things which she has destroyed wero only idols. Religion she has placed upon a firmer throne than ever.'

"At the rise of the industrial era the Church stood aloof and lost touch with the masses, and the breach has widened. If the Church is to win back the men who have drifted away, she must become more human, and show greater sympathy with the needs and aspirations of labour. She must bring home to the hearts of men their need of Christ, not only as their Saviour, but as the Great Social Reformer. The war, resulting in the destruction of millions of lives, was the result of a materialistic theory of life, and it is the Church's duty to set before men the teaching of Jesus with regard to war between nations and in industrial life. The Church has many obstacles before it—it always has had and always will have, but it must keep before v it (the vision of the open door. "We are living in a state of change. The old is always dying and the new being born; there is no breath of continuity,, and 'we are called,' as Bishop ,Westcott said, 'to unfold a growing message and not to rehearse a stereotyped tradition/ If the Church is to avail herself of the open door she must be more tolerant and broad in her vision. She must practise the spirit of Jesus, which is the spirit of love, and not develop , sectarian quarrelling about shibboleths. . She must be intimately bound up with the lives of men, and welcome all who work for the betterment of mankind and the establishment of Christ's kingdom. Let us pray, that she may have a clearer understanding .of the age and its problems."