SIGNIFICANT TREND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIGNIFICANT TREND.

MORE THAN SECUXARISM. Dr. H. R ins ton, princlpar of Trinity College, hoa the following note, in the current number of the "New Zealand Methodist Times":— A most significant trend of thought among some of our profoundeat modern religion* thinkers is illustrated by two ■ Inotations from recent books. This Iroiii Professor John Baillie:—"Perhaps wcularlsm is beginning to give way to xomething oven more disquieting—to woriiothing which, instead of being merely human, w actually demonic. Perhaps I'u' struggle of Christianity in the next • : ■> will not bo so much against religionl -iiiiw as against falso and evil l-i'llxlnnn." And this from one even more widely known a« a clear and deep thinker— l>r, .T. H. Oldliam:—"lf we have to war against a destructive principle in the universe itself and against stiporhuman pmvors of evil, the struggle assumes a grimmer and sterner aspect. We cannot in our own strength contend successfully against sntanie powers. The fellowship of the Church gains a new and deepened meaning, since only in the might of that fellowship and of the Divine redemption which is Its source can we become victors over all the powers of darkness." After rending th<«g©. Immediately floncral Booth onmc into the mind: — "Vou can get the devil out of theology, but you can't get him out of the world." Then at onco the words of St. Paul followed:—"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. .*• (Tlphcsians, vi.. 10-18). Much serious thinking is needed ns to whether our flffht Is with only the ignoraneo and perversity of our fellow men or witli a someone far more sinister, ■wlioso suggestions iinregenerate human ! nature flnd« fatally attractive.