CHRISTIAN AIMS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21289, 8 October 1934, Page 12

CHRISTIAN AIMS

TROUBLES OF THE WORLD TO-DAY OLD BOYS' SERVICE AT CHRIST'S COLLEGE The usual old boys' service at Clirist College during the sports weekend was held in the college chapel yesterday morning. Bishop Williams of Waiapu preached the sermon, taking as his text the fifth verse of the second chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Philippians: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

"It is difficult to express the full force of St. Paul's words in an English translation," said the speaker, "it seems, however, legitimate to assume that what he intended was that wo should acquire and practice the habit of mind exemplified -by Christ, of making our own aims and objects subordinate to the welfare of other" While much of St. Paul's writing is abstruse and mystical he is eminently practical—in his epistles to Rome and Ephesus he has some very plain speaking on honesty, truthfulness, and clean living; and it is worthwhile to look for a practical bearing of the text before us.

,Vo are living in troubled timesfinancial depression, stagnation in manufacture and commerce, international suspicion and hostility, and industrial antagonism. Various nostrums have been prescribed to cure the" evils, from drastic communism to ™i Cler ,^°. r u ts j n restricting production and distribution, to tinkering with currency and exchange. That such remedies are not regarded as above suspicion we may judge by recent cable messag s which cite increased production a s evidence of improved conditions ,n Great Britain. Roo<ovplt* National Recovery PI,-„i -m U < similar schemes, have proved o>aphoviTn ° I V Present-day economists of Mmf lll * s ". largely into the mistake of Mill and writers of his day in ignoring man himself, for hum S&o d ' d "* l a "« accordi„ R m ',i;

False Standard? of Worth

It is friii? that, more attention j, i'-w paid to psychology, but this Ho,'--not akc into account the mind" o? T, '7 s, '. v i h ]- h is ol,r Present concern n feudal times, the lord and his twiners were one family, and there was a dose brotherhood in the ancient trade guilds. Those conditions have tefr'v ay w hal we call organised industry-most of ft run by limited companies, in which the human sou. counts for I.ttle. The manager has get all he can out of the machine, and the men employed become part of the machine.

"One effect of all this j.,- a false M-m dard of woi th--unc-,nseiou.-lv prw'-iblv we get into the way of measuring •> mans worth by Ids ability to mare money and acquire property. After all ■ here are no sacred rights of property'. \ve hold property on sufferance, by tlio ,:ooci\vi 1 of the community, and are aiiowerl to make money bv what we may call the unwritten rules of the ,yunc. But, too many, j„ f o !lowi>i" hose rules, have one eye on the rerf.rfw'l 8 . 0 '° ' SPCDk - bCi "'" mOrP COII-i(-i nec to escape his whistle than to Keep the spirit of the rule;;.

"Hie lUmci of Christ" 'This is not in accord with the mntn of Chn,( Methods «,uded bvlh P e.-eiit dls. As Christians wo arc £ ? f }° Cast's mind -and!'com 7 11 om a school dedicated u, His Name ™r responsibility , s emphasise! You J,^ 11 ™ 115 "' courso. and would ..ol> Kwd Cimstian. But ,-,, a thm.ehtCr •„";''■• :: " d ' a good <- n >,y. M js a.oout as UiftuJ as a mod-tiH-I'md';^^ t ,h;it:itm - 11 -''- hotary-thcugh non-religioos-i, on Christian principles. Toe R and Ihe Group Movement are delink v -'id essentially Christian. Th" latter funs the matter within its four .oints-: Absolute love of God and onft- low men. absolute honest-/ with ou>--M-lves and God, absolute' puritv In Gods standard,-, and absolute urisoltshnoss—really three points as (,', last is included in the first. This ir?,rVc? V dc i ctrille: il is thLa teaching of Cm Ist, and we need not wait for the Croup Movement to make it the : mg principle; of our lives. "As an old Christ's Colic e bov .'PcaKing to old boys, f wish to "remind you ol om- responsibility to the name Le a Christian! Bear y c one anothe-'s burdens, and so fulfil the law o( Christ.