RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK.

OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES.

CIVILISATION'S NEW PHASE.

The following passage is taken from a. sermon on the above title preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on Whit Sunday by Dr. Inge, Dean of St. Paul's. Our civilisation is passing into a new phase, the scientific, and the whole framework of Christianity belongs to the old ways, classical or humanistic. It is no wonder that the results at present are discouraging. But there is no reason to be despondent or to lose faith. Only we ought to understand what is happening, and to keep our eyes open, yes, and keep them fixed on the future rather than on the past. We all know what liappeped to Lot's wife. The arid deserts of theological controversy are strewn with these melancholy monuments. What the Church needs is not to adhere nervously to the decisions of a council, but to attempt the more difficult task of stating Christian truth in terms of all those studies which have become more and more the staple of education in this country.

The new knowledge has as good right to hear and speak the wonderful words of God as the educated Christian in the third and fourth centuries had to formulate the Catholic faith in terms of the existing philosophy. This the Church succeeded in doing with the help of able thinkers, from Origen to Basil and Augustine. I should be the very last to disparage or dispute the apparent value of this achievement, but in the future it will not be the most intelligible of presentations of Christianity even for the educated. We are not training our young people in this kind of philosophy. We are training them in the exact sciences. What philosophy was then, science is now, and we need a jrreat construction of Christian theology which should make the faith intelligible to satisfy those whose education has been of the modern type.

May we not look for tie guidance of the Holy Spirit to steer us through what must necessarily be a difficult and dangerous strait? It is work which quite obviously must be done. The building will stand on the old foundation. Other foundation can no man lay save that which is laid even Christ. But the super-structure will .be, in part at least, something new. The unwisdom of trying to silence or crush honest attempts in this direction by the heavy hand of authority ought to be apparent to aIL You cannot kill an idea with a bludgeon. The modern man wants to be a Christian. He wants to hear the real Gospel of Christ from the pulpit, but he must hear it in the tongue in which he was born, and not in' the tongue of fifteen hundred years ago. Remember, there is no Scripture against pouring old wine into w bottles. We have not yet found out how to do it, nor shall we perhaps until 'we remember that the Holy Spirit is working through many channels, and not least through the young. Our sons and our daughters, our grandsons and granddaughters, may prophesy to some purpose if we are willing to listen to them.

CHURCH THAT WAS CROWDED

Mr. Albert Russell, who was formerly prominently a leader of community singing in Wellington, and who is now a well-known Auckland business man and director of community singing in this city, has recently returned from a world tour, and among his many reminiscences of cities which he visited are some jottings about Boston, the principal city of Massachusetts and the recognised centre of American erudition and culture, states the "Dominion." "One of the outstanding features and great attractions of Boston," wrote Mr. Russell, "is the Mother Church of Christian Science, for it was in Boston that Mary Baker Eddy—the discoverer and founder of this, religion, which has spread all over the world, and undoubtedly has done wonderful work—carried out practically all her writings and messages to , the world. "The Mother Church .is a magnificently imposing building, and the actual auditorium comprises the ground floor and three galleries, and seats 5000 people. lam not a Christian Scientist, but am keenly/ interested in anything which increases the good and harmony in the world, so on the Sunday morning Ave attended a service which was also attended by numbers of readers and practitioners from all parts of the world who were then meeting in convention at Boston," Mr. Russell continued. "We attempted to secure a seat, and eventually landed in the top. gallery, which was also packed, and we were about .to go outside again, when, someone from the platform said: 'We have a great many visitors to-day, and our space is taxed to the utmost; therefore we ask any of our church members, and those who attend regularly, kindly to give up their seats on this occasion.' This brought an immediate response, numbers of people quietly filed out, and we were able to enjoy the service. "Besides this big church, all the other activities of the Christian Science movement are housed in Boston. There is an immense printing works and publishing house whence is issued all the literature, and also- the 'Christian Seienoo Monitor,' the daily paper which is internationally recognised as an efficient and clean journal, and is noted for its constructive dealing with any subject, and for its splendid articles of an uplifting nature as well as for its unique service of world news.

"The impression left upon one, no matter what his individual beliefs may be, is that of a well-thousht-out organisation and practical working."

Professor Trevelyan says in his great "History of England" that "the effect of the continual ijomestic study of the Bible upon the national character, imagination and intelligence . . . was greater than that of any literary movement in our annals, or any religious movement since the coming of St. Augustine."

Mr. Ernest Brown, M.P., Minister of Klines in the Home Government, and one of the most eloquent speakers in Parliament, says that St. Mark was the keenest-eyed reporter who ever attended a public meeting, or interviewed a public man, and that every young man and woman taking up journalism, should read and study his Gospel.

A prayer: Gracious God. have mercy, we prav Thee, upom the parents \\ !io by their lives are leading their children astray, and the men and women to whom the name of Christ is nothing but an oath. Open their understanding. Deliver them from the bias, of evil. ''ranso the animal to die out of them. And send into their hearts the Spirit . of Thy Son. Amen.