BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 310, 24 September 1908, Page 8

BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

THE CHURCH ANDispCIAC CONDITIONS. CONGRESS SERMON BY REV. J. 'J. ' . . , NORTH. - " . At tho first Australasian. Baptist Conference, . opened, in .Sydnoy on ,Tuesday (vide cablegram), " the Rev. J; • J: ; North,, of ' -Wellington,' ; preached . K the ; • Congress Iserinon, ...taking, . as. his text tho potitiori'in the.Lord's-Prayer "Thy will he done:, on "earth." No'petition of the six, he said, was, sp ; maltreated as.-.this. : If a minister announced.it as his text a settled gloom fell: ori .his l congregation!' Polk bent across, and-whispered •"'Who is dead?"- For- that Tile calumny was resident in Christian minds as well -as in the- minds: of the multitude— that religion was .the .distilled essence of gloom, and that God's will is the cruel frustration of human hope and lore. "Thy will he done" was .prayed in Gethsemane, it was true. But He, prayed it among the . lilies, as, well as "among the olives. Moreover, it belonged more completely to • the lilies than to the olives, for Gethsemane was an* incident attendant not on God's direot will but on tne tangle .which sin created.' God's will/ was radiant, and was set. in the most, jmple' !life of each mari' and'.of each' star. Christians Must bo Optimists.

"Tho gloomy interpretation of the petition, however ,(said. Mr. .North),' is - not .our only. .'••••• fault. . The prayer.is JThy will be.done on ; earth.''' Christ roots religion 'in this. brave old 'earth of.;ours, .makes it. very...human, inits.care, and very human l in its outlook. He made;it:an-essential feature of all true prayer , that men should , beseech that God's will be .embodied in'.the system, , ,the'politics,.'the empires, the homes, , the. hearts of earth. 'Thy will be done on earth.' , That .religionists', have not absorbed this peti-, tiori, need, not be'said.The.fact;is.,writ largei npon the 'face of 'the religious literature of '. tho past, nor js our own ago blameless." •' !'. Christ taught us to : pray for-!' this " thing , . because it would arrive. He-did not mock;Christians must. be. optimists. . .To Jesus :'* heaven and'earth'were not'- the crudely • separated places we supposed. The future of earth,was not.a thing apart'from. Heaven., ■ We should-yet .see.'the holy city; New! Jeru-! . salem, not ml other, worlds", but in this one. God's will, wouldbe, done; on ,this;very, earth' ; /. which sustained the cross of Jesus, arid which, had been watered ' with the -blood, of innumerable martyrs. The Lord's Prayer taught us this confidence. .

Let them dwell , on the, comfortable fact .< that ;. God had; a will concerning, his! earth. • "The , earth is thrilled . with purpose as a; magnet,is with.electricity;! Brents.;are harr. ■ nessed to; His : car. Our. veiled Gdd- inoves; amid, the, milleniums! ■ 'He has a will • which •is to -be 'done on earth. Atheism,. with its fluky evolution,! has gone out'. Haeckel is the voice of a lost cause.. " 'Thou mangy atheism,' ...-.take thyself away;,wilt.thou!?'• 'cried furious .. . Carlyle. , It has_taken itself .away. Its, re- - emergence' is as improbable as. the re-emer-gence ;of-the. moa..' in. my, own country. • The, >- clear recognition of this jubilant'fact steadies!a! • ! man'-,in the:dust :of :events.".;.What''seems.the,

purposeless clash '.of opinions,- 'shrieks:., of: ■ Nihilists,' to'-the,.far. more criminal tyrannies and debaucheries of millionaires; yellow pro- ' ' blems, .black probleins;.'sex problems, . all become. incidents: in His campaign.. j Through■ the 'and deliriums, of it all, His will; rides in-triumphantly. It .will-be .doiio on . earth.";.. .. -V.V-It;.was-not. for-nothing, the preacher said,' . that-Christ .worked .-in the ..smith's shop at, i ... Nazareth. It was to illustrate. the ■ reality and : the', possibilities -of-, that ..side -of 'man. --Ho-healed the sick and fed> the multitudes ■ -he.felt thevcomplexity of tho human . problem., He knew th'at-man, being flesh as ■. -well .as.spirit, needed: a double movement for his redemption. ;Jesus'sent hand in hand v. " before, His,- face,the .two -messages, the mes-'-v.; material uplift. and..the; supreme mes- ; /Sage of spiritual ..emancipation,. . He did riot deny the circumference (earthly needs) in his • -. ardour : for •,the -thing-. (God's will,, Godliiclaimsy.'God's fatherhood) loVtvEThercir- , Bumfcren<sS' was very, real/to Him.'v But' it ■ ?n.ly. existied for the sake "of "the centre, and . ' .in His view was only capable of regenera- -:. tion from that centre. ■.

V', Quarrel,, with .Socialism.,.,,.-. .: -; It is just thtere; that- Christian' faith' di-' •• verges sharply •from modern-Socialisms.' ■To t many, of .them; X not' say to all,' the" problem' is economic. Economics will bring v''. in the Kingdom.jand conduct man! to his . goal.' The will of that ' dull, protoplasmic : world-soul,- which was V Herbert Spencer's r ' nightmar.e,':.but : which-is : ,the'gdd of too.many of ,11s,-. is fulfilled by a shuffling . of the , ■ cards and a rearrangement -• of distribution and exchange! ;We ; differ profoundly,' and'; we differ in this' sense: To'lis' economics is : not an-essential- factor. ; It. is, ; '-howeT'ef,'''a minor factor!-It is>tb' : us'the : sheathing of. the electrical' cable. :•;Without' it„" the'' Father's spirit may be ' ruined • and /it's 1 .vital 1 voices * -\ i lost; 'But economics exists only:for what it' endorses. ' ! - "Unless a "mantis no' more" than 1 ' what he'eat's'tho 'is "economics and"-somethihg very' much'' more.' This 'is ' Christ's 1 view. : -.-' When theymake 'Him -'a Socialist of the type I-deplore,^tliey demean the- Man'of-'Nazareth-- The' cleavage'is toodistinct; to''be'.''slutred .'over. ; When 1 -' 'they • define progress' in terms' of 'majorities and', ..' machineries, it is .blasphemous for them to commandeer'the name' of' Jesus.'-' •"•No Christian can be_ content-'''with the 1 present'social system. His discontent' should be very, profound indeed. ' Thei glaring, contrast between' -the Fatherhood and'brotherhood of'which lie sings and prays; and, the commercialism with which-he rubs shoulders' in the market; 'offends his nature at' the base. Our creed requires us. to lend . sympathetic . .. ears and eager hands to aIL schemes.'of'social .' amelioration.. ' But weput' first and keep . first the moral andlspiritual impulse. - God'sKingdom is not 'eating'and drinking! If is righteousness. • When righteousness is'; kept' first things fall into place as minor figures ao ■in processions :■when the' Bang's carriage' moves. . Christ, opposes the present and'will '~ ./oppose any future social system so far as it ... impedes'the.march of righteousness."

■ Man's Allies. But"- men despaired \of Christ's method. "Too slow," they cried, and turned to politics as a swifter means. .To cry "slow" against Christ's programme was to forget the Eolemn pressure of His purpose, which was felt in human life as tho ocean felt the silver drawing of the moon. ' -Man's co-operating effort was necessary—necessary ; as. sparks were to -'ignite the stores, of . dynamite . that v shattered "Hell's Gate" in . the world's waterway. It was for them not to be crying "slow," but to be.oxulting.in the,vast con-, geries- of laws, forces, and, .mercies which movecl to .the music of'.the will of God, which was .yet to, bo done .on earth. It , was for them'also-to supremely, romembor that, man's glory was co-operation with'those great and; glorious powers which wrapped him round. , :The . consummation .could be hastened. It coulcl also.bo frustrated and postponed. Hand' in hand ,the spiritual voice and tho social service must go. Tho namo Baptist/ given to .their .Church by. its critics, was. a caricature.... Their doctrine of' baptism'was a simplicity compared with tlje mysteries that surrounded the! rite'in' other folds. Christ, limbered His church' to so few forms ?.s ! . might be, and. they, maintained tho simplicity. .They had no creeds. They were among: Churches cumbered !wii,h creeds," with 39 Articles, and with-th'o fruit, of. the dry vines of Westminster—all extremely clever. Their lack of creed was more than counterbalanced by , the _ Lord's ordinance of bap- ■ tism. What had impeded the mar,ch of God's will in time past? .Formality in religion, tho substitution '.of a mild morality'and'creeds -. conversion, the transference' of . emphasis from inward devotion to outward observance. But"' put' baptism; in ife right placo as the utterance and profession of. utter change in a man's life, and formality had received tho death-blow, and the blow slew the mild morality heresy'at. tho saino instant.' Yot for them for ever baptism was ,bui a means. Tlie 'end was thd Kingdom; tho accomplishment of God's' will on earth. ,