The Dominion. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1910. PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1910. PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY.

The deliberations of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, which is at present sitting in Auckland, will be followed with interest and sympathy by a.very large section of the community. No religious body in . the world demands or provides a higher educational equipment for its ministry than tho Presbyterian Church, and in tho debates of the New Zealand Assembly one can rely on finding keenness and candour, and marked ability in tho handling of difficult and delicate questions. The outline of the reports to bo presented, which has already been published in The Dominion, is a record of good work and steady progress, and that simple statement of a few salient facts and figures, is a complete answer to those pessimistic people who tell us that tho days of all the Churches are numbered because the people are ceasing to-take an interest in religious matters. One of the most important questions which the Assembly has been called upon to discuss is the relation of tho Church to organised Labour. Tho alienation of a'large proportion of tho_ working classes is at present receiving the earnest attention ■ of nearly, all the religious bodies, and in its determination to grapple with the position the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand is following the example. _of the Presbyterian Churches in Scotland and the United States. _ That the existing state of affairs is far from satisfactory no one acquainted with the true position is likely to deny. No progressive Church can bo content to .live a secluded life among its own members, and let the great world outside work out its own salvation, or destruction, in its own way. "The common people heard Him gladly" we are told of the Founder of Christianity, and the Church of tho twentieth century can never rest until its relations with the mass of tho manual workers can be described in similar terms.

It ought not, however, to bo forgotten that the negotiations for a better understanding with Labour, altogether praiseworthy though they be, are beset with perils and requiro to be handled with great wisdom and caution. The dangers of the position have been excellently stated by Professor G. A. Smith, who can speak with the combined authority of a distinguished Presbyterian minister, an earnest social reformer, and a great Biblical scholar. Ho writes:

Tho truo test of national religion is sensitiveness to the national sins. This was the test between tho false and the true prophet in Israel; it is our test as preachers to our own day. ... Wo have nothing to dread from the fear of kings which once made so many prophets false; but wo have all the more to watch that we do not become flatterers of the common people. If we are to defend their rights we must be bravo to declare their sins; tho offico of tho prophet and tho' demagoguo are absolutely irreconcilable.

Theso wise words of Dr. Smith put tho case fairly and squarely, and they deserve very special consideration at the present time in view of a movement in certain quarters to obliterate the distinction between the pulpit of the Christian minister and the platform of the party politician. The Christian Church seems to have a well-marked tendency to oscillate from age .to age between two extremes. At certain periods of its history it has by its preaching and teaching'laid so much stress on the spirit of "otherworldliness" that it has almost lost touch with the average man who has a daily life to live here and now in a world which is always with him and very real to him, whatever it may be to the saint, tho mystic, and the philosopher. From this over-emphasis of "otherworldliness" the pendulum gradually swings to the other extreme, and then the danger arises of the spiritual message and mission of the i Church being lost sight of in hysterical clamour for improved drainage, better housing, higher wages, shorter hours, cheap amusements, and a multitude of similar matters. Theso things may all be most desirable, but, as Dr. Gibb reminded tho Assembly, "tho Church's true duty is a spiritual one," and it may well be asked whether it is tho business of the ministers of roligion to become the special advocates of such movements. Should they not rathor, in their official position, deal I with tho broad principles of Ohris-

tian ethics which bear upon these problems, and leave their detailed application to the layman in' his capacity as citizen and voter 1 If the work of the world is to be done elficiontly there must be division of labour, and it is better for everybody in the long run that the Church should concentrate its efforts as far as possible on its spiritual functions, and leave social and economic problems to those specially qualified to handle them.

In a recent article in the Nation, Professor Kiksopp Lake, of Leiden, declares that tho present generation is spiritually more delicate than its predecessors, and there is great need for a ministry that will give "individual attention t-o individual souls, recognising tho infinite variety of religious experiences, both healthy and diseased, of which the human soul is capable." He urges that the lesson for _ the clergy to be derived from' the investigations of the late William James, the eminent psychologist, is that their first work is the "euro of souls," and that the downfall o.f a Church is at hand if it neglects this urgent duty. In the scientific treatment of the spiritual side of man's nature in the light of tho best modern thought on the subject the clergy will find their time fully occupied, and, says Professor Lake, "if we are to make theology live we must study life." It is a very significant fact that just at tjic present time when so much stress is being laid on the social aspects of the Gospel, the most advanced English and German Biblical critics arc bringing to light in a new and striking way tho important place occupied by tho eschatological or apocalyptic element in Christ's' teaching—that is, that part of His messago which deals with things past, present, and to come as they appear, not! from the human, but from the Divine standpoint. As.the Dean of St. Patrick's (Dr. Bernard) recently stated, this latest school of criticism may do good service by making us examine afresh those spiritual things which have been set aside in the interests of what we have regarded as more practical matters. He goes on to state that

The Kingdom of God, we are accustomed to say, is not only in the future. Indeed, that the Kingdom of God was set up on earth and has to do with the present is a fashionable catchword. But ifthat means that the Gospels have mainly to do with the practical needs of this life, and that their outlook to the life to come is only secondary, then tho statement is quite untrue. We must make no mistake about it. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, nor is it even good drainage and tho housing of the poor. By leaving out of account the oschatological teaching of Christ we may reach a kind of bourgeois religion, capable of discharging a useful social function, but we shall loso the priiuitivo Gospel, and wo shall dissolve the Catholic Creeds.

It is quite startling to find the claims of the unseen thus suddenly brought to the front by. the investigations of modorn psychologists and the _ most thoroughgoing German critics. This new development should not, however, drive the Churches back to a policy of unpractical "otherworldliness," but it oughtcertainly to Avarn them not to allow the fundamental reasons for their very existence to be set aside by illconsidered outbursts of political partisanship or unbalanced zeal for social reform.