VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 221, 15 June 1931, Page 2

VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

SERMONS FROM WELLINGTON PULPITS

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS At St. John’s Church yesterday the Her. J. R. Blanchard briefly referred to the proposed “Religious Instruction in Schools Enabling Bill.” He said: — “For many years opposition has been growing to the purely secular of the system of national education in New Zealand,” said Mr. Blanchard. “The conviction has been gaining ground that such a system is incomplete in that ft does not take into account the whole nature of the child and inadequate in that it docs not prepare the child for all the demands which later life will make upon him. In other words, no system of education which leaves religion out of account can be regarded as satisfactory. As we are not a nation of atheists our national education should give due recognition to God. That principle is admitted, and that recognition made in our secondary education, but not in our primary. Why in the one and not in the other, no one has yet been able satisfactorily to say. The anomaly is entirely without justification. “As things are the present system operates unjustly in this matter. Thousands of parents whose conviction it is that religion should be given a place in their children’s daily education are penalised because of those who do not share that conviction. Repeated plebiscites have demonstrated that in this matter the many are being overborne by the few. Justice requires that this state of affairs be remedied. "None but prejudiced minds would question the fact that ‘the Bible is the most majestic thing in our literature, and the most spiritually living thing we inherit,” said Mr. Blanchard. "This being so, a grave injustice is being done our children in denying the Bible a place in their daily education. Mr. John Buchan has said: ‘For us, the British people, the Bible is a kind of national testament, a kind of national confession of faith, for it is the key to all that is worthy in our character and famous in our history.’ Yet, in New Zealand, we exclude it from our primary schools in our system of national education I Under such circumstances, our educational system cannot truly be called ‘national,’ is open to the grave charge of being pagan in spirit, and deprives itself of the greatest instrument in existence for combating tendencies toward .materialism in thought and conduct. “Many efforts have been made in the past to introduce the Bible into onr primary schools. These efforts have not succeeded largely because of ■ the differences between the various churches. At last, however, a Bill has been drawn up which has secured the approval of all the churches, and which docs equal justice to those who desire the Bible in our primary schools, and those who do not. By carefully-worded clauses, the Bill so safeguards the i>osition of all that no teacher, scholar or parent will have cause to complain that any principle or matter of conscience which they may' bold is being violated. If the Bill becomes law, a period of long and often acute agitation will come to an end at last, and that will be provided in otir system of national education for lack of which it has been defective for over half a century.” ALL THESE THINGS “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things shall be added.unto you.” (Matt. 0:33). This was the text taken by the Rev. 11. W. Newell, AI.A., in The Terrace Congregational Church, last evening. •“All these things’ in (he text means things like food and drink and clothing,” said Mr. Newell. “What Jesus says is, ‘Give God a chance, and He will see to these things for you, in a very wonderful way’; but they are not your chief concern. To put them first is to put the cart before the horse. Your business is to seek God's Kingdom, and these other matters will come along as a by-product, so to speak.’ “This is Christ’s message, aud it is

clear, opposite to what we ordinarily think. What we say is, ‘Seek the things you need, and the Kingdom of God will come of itself.’ ‘No,’ replies Christ, ‘not only will you fail in reaching that Kingdom, but you won’t even get the things you do strive after, happiness, comfort, plenty.’ “From the beginning, man has had to fight, and fight for his life, against all manner of foes—against the elements of nature, against wild animals, against other men. If he hadn’t fought, he and his helpless children would have perished. But by fighting for his own did man advance from his poor beginnings? Thi» teaching of Jesus is only possible in a smooth civilisation where the policeman does all the fighting for you, and where you can afford to sit back and talk about loving everybody. “Jesus never pretends to change or eradicate any instinct of the heart, least of all this particular one, pugnacity. Christ’s very aim is to keep the race going. and to win still mote ‘life’ for the sons of men. The point of His teaching is that He shows us who our real foes are, and where the big battle is. He tells us we are fighting where the battle is not raging, and that we are idle in the place where the blow most needs striking. And so things go wrong. Arc you out for life, for all the good things, so that the beauty and mindliness you crave for may flourish in your safe homes? Well, just look around you. The world has always been governed for the most part on principles of selfish seeking, where these very things have been most directly aimed at. Yet you see, and always have seen, poverty and misery, in a world of plenty and of light. . And how much real happiness is there in the hearts of the men who are consciously seeking it? No, you are on the wrong tack. Your real enemies are the ‘spiritual hosts of wickedness.’ pride, Just, selfishness, and for that fight you need other weapons, ‘the whole armour of faith.’ The other fight you are so concerned with, that will be won along with this bigger warfare.” “PRESERVER OF MAN” “God, the Preserver of Man,” was the subject of the lesson-sermon _in the First and Second Churches of Christ, Scientist, yesterday. The golden text was from Psalm exxi., S: “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” Among the citations which comprised the lesson-sermon were the following from the Bible: “Preserve me, 0 God: for in Thee I do put my trust. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: “Thou maintainest my Jot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not bo moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall . rest in hope” (Psalm xvi.; 1,5, 6, 8. 9'. The lesson-sermon also included the following passages from the Christum Science text-book: “Science and Health, with Kev to the Scriptures.” by Mary Baker Eddy.” “Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be Tost or separated from its divine principle. When the evidence before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the Apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from God. from the sweet sense and presence of life and truth. It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and goodness. Understanding this, Paul said: ‘Neither death, nor life . . . nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature. shall be able to separate us from the love of God.’ This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result In death. The perfect man —governed by God. His perfect principle—is sinless nnd eternal.”