VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 293, 7 September 1931, Page 2

VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

SERMONS FROM WELLINGTON PULPITS

GOODNESS TRIUMPHANT Overcoming of Evil The triumphant of goodness has always been a very definite part of the Christian creed, said the Rev. L. J. Boulton Smith, at Vivian Street Baptist Church. The very conception of God upon which our whole faith is erected, and without which it is impossible to conceive of it as existing, drives us to this conclusion. The pageant of evil which the outward world often presents may make some cynical as to the outcome of things, but to those who have the vision of God and a sense of spiritual values there can be no doubt as to the ultimate issue. We are all apt to have our davs of doubt when things partly slip away from us, but when faith is in the saddle \ve go forth in the spirit of conquest. The command has gone forth, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good,” and deep in men’s spiritual constitution there is something that rises to respond to this call. Faith is the greatest factor in life. Reason by itself .often reaches some very dismal conclusions, until aided by faith it takes the leap into what appears to be the dark. Curie finishes his book, “Today and To-morrow,” by. saying, “There will be no millenium. Nature, with all of its cruelty and caprice will see to that. The world can’t be cured.” Ti e prophets and seers, however, with their dramatic clairvoyance proclaim the coming of a new Heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Faith goes deeper into the nature of things than reason can ever penetrate. It goes beyond external phenomenon into the heart of great spiritual phenomenon into the heart of great spiritual realities. It can say of those who would undermine it, as Hamlet said of his enemies :, .

. “It shall go hard, But I will delve one yard below' their mines.”

Among the first items of his creed the Christian has written in his own soul’s blood, “I believe in the triumph of goodness. And no calamity, however crushing. no mood of depression, however gloomy, can obliterate it. The triumph of goodness has been witnessed all down the centuries. They are mistaken who tell us that man is the victim of dark necessity, for with our own eyes we have seen deep-seated evil overcome by good. An outstanding example of the triumph of goodness in Christian experience is to be found in the life story of William Penn, the Quaker. In 1862 he received a vast tract of land in America as payment for a debt which the Crown owed him. This area afterwards became known as the State of Pennsylvania. According to British law the whole State was his legal possession, and by virtue of this he became proprietor Governor. Penn made the noble experiment of governing this considerable State by taking the Sermon on the Mount for the basis of bis administration. Under this all were to enjoy equality and religious liberty. All governmental dealings were to be devoid of intrigue, and based on absolute hones’ty and justice. And what for those parlops times was most astounding, the position of military non-resistance was adopted. This in the laud of the fierce Red man ; whom the whites had often cruelly misused, was a roost daring thing. Unscrupulous adventurers and traders had b.V their dealings made the Indians their deadly foes. Penn’s first act was to draw tip treaties protecting the natives, and where they had been defrauded, to repay them. Further than that, the slaves were released, and upon the decision of the Quaker i community were paid certain sums for services rendered by them in their days of bondage. The settlers lived on their farms, and in small hamlets, and although surrounded by wild Indian tribes, were entirely unarmed. Whereas in all other States the settlers were frequently raided and massacred by the Redskins, yet in Pennsylvania for thirty years they lived in peace, and not a single Quaker was molested. During this time the Indian was told by these men “with clean i hands” of the great Father of all. These men who so wonderfully trode the way of peace, made their conquests by “overcom-1 ing evil with good.”

THE COMING OF CHRIST Confirmation of Prophecy “The World Crisis and the Coming of Christ,” was the subject of the monthly prophetic address at the Tory Street Hall last evening. The address was delivered by Mr. H. Yolland, lecturer from the N.Z. Bible Training Institute, of Auckland, who has been conducting a week of special meetings.

Mr. Yolland said that present world conditions were a striking testimony to the essential unity of the human race. “To-day as never before the national and racial barriers have been swept away by the economic interdependency of the nations,” he said. “The student of Biblical prophecy finds in this fact a wonderful confirmation of what is there so clearly and definitely foretold. The Scriptures disclose to us a God of purpose and .design both in creation and government, and it is this fdet that serves as a sheet-anchor for faith in days so dark and difficult as these are in which the world finds itself. Mankind prides itself that its history is one of tremendous progress, and none will question this fact.

“There has been a wonderful progress in civilisation, doubtless, but it has been accompanied no less clearly by a regression fnorally. Such has happened in the P, as .t> a® far example, the marvellous civilisation of the Roman Empire, which, weakened morally by its luxury and license, was finally blotted out by the overwhelming invasion of the Gothic Lords.

We to-day stand in danger of a similar eclipse of our civilisation from the same root cause, which is all too evidently at work to undermine the foundations. 'But the Scripture clearly sets forth the characteristics which were to become so universally self-evident, and" likewise foretells the crisis which is to ensue. “The personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ is the dread event which is to bring to an end the misgovernment of men which has so manifestly been the cause of plunging mankind into the present abyss. That Christ will return in person has been the Church’s belief from the very beginning, and is still expressed in her creed, which, speaking of His Presence now in Heaven goes on to say, ‘From whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.’

“We have, moreover, in the very words of Christ Himself, the forecast of the moral and political and religious conditions which are to mark the days immediately preceding that dread event. Morally they are summed up in His reference to the days of Noah and the days of Lot, which respectively are marked by the curse of carnality and the curse of commercialism, each in their own way dominating the lives of men; a satisfying in the one case of the desires of the flesh without restraint, and in the other marked by the scramble for wealth which has been so manifest of late years, “Politically the forecast is no less startling and is self-evident in the distress of nations, the perplexity of leaders well-nigh at their wits’ end to know how to set their house in order. “The religious world is no less disturbed. The New Testament most definitely asserts that the old faith would not be attacked, but that a large proportion of the leaders would turn away from the old beliefs, and such is all too apparent.

“What is to be the end? Here again Scripture is” definite and plain. Christ's personal return is to be the final consummation of the Divine Plan. He Himself affirmed that the ‘Son of man’ should come again with Power and', great Glory, and so at length the misrule of men shall give place to a rule of righteousness by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

Between Jupe 1, 1929, and March 16, 1931, 1037 schemes for work on unclassified roads of a total estimated cost of £3,441,000 had been approved for grant on the recommendation of the English Unemployment Grants Committee. Of these, 903 schemes have been completed or are in operation.