THE PERFECT GOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 9

THE PERFECT GOD.

A SENSE OF HUMOUR LACK OF CHURCH GAIETY. STRIKING VIEW FROM PULPIT The place of daughter in religion was tho. subject of a sermon given at the Unitarian Church last evening by the Rev. Wilna Constable.

Taking as her text from Job the words "when the morning stars sang too-other and all the Sons of the God shouted for joy," the preacher. asked, how many people realised that m reunion to be a full, all-round affair, happy, human laughter had to have its place? If God were perfect, and included in his nature all the graces, then Cod included in his make-up a sense of humour and the joyousness that came of laughter. Mrs. Constable, said that the Church through the ages had emphasised too much"the. sadness of life until people had the idea that God was very near to the man who wept, but not to the man who laughed. "We.are suffering in Church life from the results of that teaching," she said. "That teaching is dull, staid, solemn and respectable. In church itself it is thought sinful to laugh outright. The literal rendering of .Scripture in the past has been unfair to God, as it refers to Him as a sinister being with the exception of St. Luke, who says, 'Blessed are ye who weep now for ye shall laugh.' Index to Character. "Tilings that people laugh at are -a good index to the character of a nation," said the preacher. "We don't laugh to-day at what previous generations laughed at. The old generation laughed at drunkards and imbeciles. Our humour has grown subtler and kinder, and must go on growing until fully humanised. Where could they see that happy, human laughter had a place in the mind of God? 'When God created the camel He laughed, and laughed and laughed' was an old rabbinical saying. Man should be able to keep a sense of humour to the end of life, and possibly after. Saints and heroes had always laughed in the face of adversity. The Waihi miners joked in the face of imminent danger." If that laughter was not begotten of God, she knew not whence it came.

Mrs. Constable said that the minds of tho middle ages found it easier to think ol God with a sense of humour, as was shown by queer carvings and gargoyles and humorous incidents introduced into miracle plays. Tho Protestants and the Puritans had changed all that, but a certain amount of ribaldry had crept in, and in consequence a severe amount of pruning was necessary. It wanted saying in plain words that there was an absolute incongruity between gloom and ugliness and what was so often confused with reverence in Church life. Cheerful Reverence. "Reverent let us be," said the speaker, "but let it be a happy, cheerful reverence of those who know that their religion is tho best news ever given to the world —the happy, good news of the love of a happy God and his redemption of man, not only from evil, but from sadness and gloom as well." They had thought so much of Jesus as tho Man of Sorrow, she added, that the other side was forgotten. The humour in the stories and parables proved that Jesus had a sense of humour. Tho parable of the rich man trying to get into heaven being like a camel trying to pass through tho eye of a needle was very funny.

In conclusion, the preacher said that the Church had suffered from a lack of gaiety.