PUBLIC WORSHIP AND CIVIL LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 896, 16 August 1910, Page 8

PUBLIC WORSHIP AND CIVIL LIFE.

WHAT HISTORY TELLS US. . '. 'SERMON BY REV. T. Hi SPROTT. 'In,the course of a ; very interesting sermon at St. Paul's Church on Sunday evening the Rev. T. H. .Sprott said:— ■ . One result I am hoping .for from the approaching General Mission is that Cliristian people may be led to put a little niore conscience into their attendance .at public worship. rlt'g<}es without saying that a-great laxity has come into this 1 of late years.; Yot.it is'an essential part of the Christian religion—l say Christian religion,; lor there may be much reverential feeling that is religious and genuine,.but which is not specifically Christian.: "I,am very, far from saying: that'attendance at public worship is all' that is demanded from one who .would follow Christ. Following of Christ has demanded from men the sacrifice of all they held-dear, even to the giving;up of life itself; yet nevertheless, attendance at public worship was part of the example of Christ. It is essential to the end He •sought. He states repeatedly iu the Gospels that He -camfe to. establish a king,dom; now a kingdom .implies -subjects,, and a social life, and bonds. In -the so-; ci'oty which Christ founded there is the. religious bond v of ; adherence to one King: and Father always and everywhere a&; cessible to every- member of it,, and of fellowship and'brotherhood towards each other, The social aim of Christianity, brings it into line with .tho great .movements' of .human history.' What great movement has been, and is still going on?. Is it.not.theprogress of civilisation? 'By whioh we' mean,.as the word civilisation itself shows us, the perfecting of civil life. Christianity seeks to'bring into this tendency the spirit of brotherhood and to remind all men of their. common life and privileges as members of one family, with one common Father. Our civilisa-' tion sadly needs this lesson, for it is constantly being dragged back by our ani-'. nial ancestry, which shows itself in our race hatreds, in the' enormous preparations for war, in the way in which men, such' as fraudulent company promoters, (take advantage, of'the credulity of widows and orphans; and parsons, and such like feeble folkj and in. other, ways. I suppose there never was a time when war preparations .were on such a huge scale, over four hundred millions being spent in a year in , : Europe. alone,. 1 Then,, too, look at the Tace antagonisms in the world.. Think-how in/America and in Australasia men live,-iu: constant fear of other races. Think, too,. of' those vices .'which poison life, our heritage from the: ape and the tiger, all these things'show, us how. far we' are from perfect civil life. Now it , is the task—the absurd and impossible task, unless; we believe it is endowed with Divine Power—of the Christian Church' to assist mankind to rise out' of this! slough' of animality to a truo human life; and one way by which it. seeks to do this is to bring all men aid all races together in common worship, that they may there realise- that they have a common sonship with one Father; and so to help'each one -to realise that he is no isolated animal, but that he shares with others in the past and in the future.. It seeks to win men from indifference to love, from selfishness to unselfishness, that it may establish among .individuals a sense of service. If this common worship 'wore established, would it not be marvellously effective in promoting this truo civilisation? I am sure it would. Even better would it bo if all met week by week at the one Table in the one common Feast. Think you they would then be able to go on in mutual bitterness? No. I am sure they could not. History tells us that'when a nation loses its common religion, the divisive elements assert themselves, and its civilisation falls. Many people tell us that our civilisation, is falling, and certainly we can see in it some of the greatest signs which marked the fall of the Roman Empire. "Certainly we see"—l am quoting now from a leading historian of our day—"the same : growing burning militarism, the same unsettleinent of religion, the same vague and lenient moralism, tho .same impotence of governments to cuto immorality and •■ greed- in all classes; these are some of, tho things, which marked the fall of Rome." Do wo not see among ourselves■ the same uneettlqmcnt of religion, thn same vague and lenient moralism? Do ' not these characterise us to-day? Wo have not had 2000 years of Christianity for nothing, but.if we aro to bo saved, hem and : now we need a deep and radical change of society and a revival of public Worship; and among the most useful members of society will be found those who. remain faithful in "not forsaking the assembling of themselves together."