MISS BEGG AND THE CHURCHES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 79, 27 December 1929, Page 11

MISS BEGG AND THE CHURCHES

Sir, —At a meeting of the Council of Christian Congregations, held at Auckland on December 11, Miss Jean Begg is reported to have said some hard things about the churches-y—e.g., “If the more interested girls considered the importance of prayer, its value to them was only the peace of mind whieh it miijht give. Does Miss Begg mean that “interested girls” listen to the “rambling prayer” of their ministers as a matter of duty, which, if neglected, would cause them a twinge of conscience, or that they are on the level of the Gentiles, of whom Christ said: “They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking”? I have a higher opinion of our “more interested girls than that , , .m. “It was an important duty of the church to give young people a sense of belonging to it; but this was not to be compared with possessing them body and soul.” I never heard any Protestant minister teach that the church has a right to possession of the bodies and souls of her young people. “The sermons are tedious,” etc. 1 do • not hear many sermons now, my hearing being subnormal. The last sermon I heard every word of distinctly was preached by Rev. R. J. Howie in St. Andrew’s, Auckland, on what is popularly known as Assembly Sunday. The whole service was plain, beautiful, and dignified. In September, 1928, I was present at a service conducted by Rev. W. F. Nichol (Waimate), in the schoolroom, Glenary. The service was intellectual, spiritual, uplifting; the sermons for youth and adult were good theology, irresistible reasoning; simple enough for a child, and profound enough for the learned and 1 believe we have many such preachers todS Mr. Drew said: “What the young man wanted to-day was something that would conform to the changed conditions of the present time.” One answer to that is that no matter how times may change, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. ~ What does the Y.M.C.A. want the ministers to do? Take cream puffs and chocolates into the pulpit, and distribute them? They would get the crowd; but it would have the same result as when Christ said: “Ye follow Me, not because ye saw the miracle, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Why tells us that the young men do not like compromise, and that they think the church has lost its dignity by stooping to all manner of means to gam their interest, and in the same breath tells us to conform to the changed condition of th ßev.' E. P. Blamires put M» finger on the sore when he said that the. young people were just as the old people had made them; and the church needed a spiritual Plunket movement to deal with the young people from infancy. That s it, and the Plunket movement should be back to the home, the Divinely-appoint-ed way. Less Cream puffs, socials and rallies, and more of the blessing and joy of religion depicted in Burns’ “Cotters Saturday Night.” Then shall the church come forth, fair in the moon, clear ir. the sun, and terrible as an army with ban-ners-I am, etc., JOHN McCAW . Wellington, December 15.