VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 209, 1 June 1931, Page 5

VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

ESSENTIALS OF EMPIRE Three Great Principles

Overflowing congregations attended the celebration of Empire Day at the Presbyterian Church, Seatoun. At the morning service there was a full parade of the Scoots College Cadets, in charge of Lieut. G. E. Vercoe. The College Pipe Band, under Pipe Major Frazer, played the boys to church. The chairman and members of the Board of Governors, together with the principal, were in attendance. The Rev. A. A. Armstrong conducted an inspiring service, preaching froin the text, “Fear God, Love the Brotherhood, Honour the King, Honour all Men." All great inventions when . analysed were the outcome of the application of very simple yet profound principles, said the preacher. This applied equally to the construction of life, individual and national. While apparently social organisation was a very complex thing, yet investigations simplified it down to the basis of a few essential indestructable principles. In speaking of the British Empire, one 'was awed for instance by the spectacle of its size and material strength. It was correctly described as the mightiest and most glorious Empire ever made by man. Upon it the sun neversets. Within its borders were many nations united in a wonderful Commonwealth of Peoples. “One thrills with the thought of its unique design, its marvellous development, and its dominating influence for good in the world,” he said. But the substance of the Empire, was even more amazing. When the political systems, the social organisations, the industrial orders, the legal machinery,. the educational facilities, and the religious idealism operating within the Empire were thought about, the wonder of a great life of astounding variety and power had to be recognised. “However, it is not on its size or substance that British glory rests, but on the type of spirit that has made and moulded the Empire, and given it as a trust to the citizens of to-day and to-morrow,” said the preacher. “Taking the broad principles of sacredness of life, justice and freedom, and comparing the British interpreter of these, with that of past and other present Empires, the British attitude stands as distinct ,in its application. The Empire spirit is the practice of civil and religious liberty for all mankind, justice without Class or colour, and mercy for the weak and oppressed.” This spirit was the general result of what Carlyle called “The essence of a multitude of biographies.” Common citizenship stamped its soul upon the character and conduct of the Empire. When one tried to reduce all this vast size substance and spirit of the Empire to stipple essentials, up from the midst of everything three great forces came into view as the real makers of the Empire’s greatness and lasting glory. These were the principles of the text :. “Fear God,” which spoke of religious history, and all that God meant to our forefathers and mothers. The great personalities and the great periods of our history were Godinspired and God-influenced. “God consciousness” was the plainest and most powerful fact of the part—out of this come our noble citizenship and our finest achievements. It was no longer held to be a sign of intelligence to say: “It doesn’t matter what a man believes” —for history and experience confirmed the plain fact “that in order to do greatly men must believe greatly.” Instead of repudiating the Divine, to-day we had come to such a crisis in the Empire's life, that we needed to enlarge our capacity for God, and seek to embody in greater measure that strength and spirituality of life that enabled the Empire to gain ita triumphs over part difficulties. The social progress of our Empire was built up in the everwidening application of love and brotherhood. Every political and social reform sprang from a clearer vision of what these two mighty terms implied. To-day youth was faced with the heritage of the Empire, and the call to them was to new and grander application of these essentials of love and brotherhood, not only to the immediate problems of our national reconstruction, but to the international problems related to world peace and progress. Together with these two principles ran a third, embraced in the terms: “Honour the King; Honour all Men.” The King symbolised law and order, and “all men” stood for the wider social and humane ideals of Christian service. Our Empire had grown by way of law disciplined lives and devotion to higher duty. The State had been respected, and the Sovereign honoured for those principles of law and order which made possible civilised life. But in the full Christian view, all men were to be recognised as equally sacred with the King. They had their rights and responsibilities, as well as the Sovereign. They were to be served with sympathy, and in brotherly loyalty, as well as the ruler of the state. Thus the evolution of our Empire had come to a great forward step to-day. The very changes ■ and strife about us today were evidences that though the King may be no less honoured, humanity the masses of the people must be honoured more. The duty of Christian citizens to-day should be directed toward applying in new and amplified ways the three great essentials out of which the Empire had grown, and upon which its future existence depended. To youth was given the special privilege of continuing the leadership that would ‘‘Fear God, Love the Brotherhood, Honour the King. Honour fill Men," until from our Empire, spiritual and social reconstruction would spread to all the world.

NECROMANCY DENOUNCED Christian Science Churches “Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, denounced.” was the subject of the lessonsermon in First and Second Churches of Christ, Scientist, .yesterday. The Golden Text was from Jeremiah 20:13, “Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.” Among the citations which comprised the lesson-sermon were the following from te Bible; “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this, world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. . Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.’’ (Eph. 6: 11-13.) “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me’shall be ■written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise.” (Jer. 17:13, 14.) The lesson-sermon also included the following passages from the Christian Science text-book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy. “Christian Science goes to the bottom of nwtal action, and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of all divine, action, as the emanation of divine mind, and the consequent wrongness of the opposite socalled action—evil, occultism, necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism.” Question: “Does Christian Science, or metaphysical healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmerism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?” Answer: “Not one of them is included in it” “The Christianly scientific man reflects the divine law, thus becoming a law unto himself. He does violence to no man; neither is he. a false accuser. The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is honest and consistent in following «the leadings of divine mind. He must prove, through living as well as healing and teaching, that Christ’s way is the only one by which mortals are radically saved from sin and ■ sickness” (pp. 104, 484, 458).