THE CHURCH’S NEED

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 36, 6 November 1933, Page 10

THE CHURCH’S NEED

Full Measure of Faith A sermon on “Faith” was delivered by Mr. H. V. Roberts, New Zealand secretary for the Pentecostal Church, at the Alexandra Hall, Abel Smith Street, last evening. . , , “If ever there is a need m the Church of God it is for a full measure of faith,” the preacher said. “Sin, sickness, infidelity, and modernism abound, and the fundamentalists are now receding from their old stand of ‘a whole Bible. “The difference between a modernist and a fundamentalist is this; A modernist does not believe in miracles at all, while a fundamentalist believes there used to be miracles long, long ago, but there are none now-a-days. The Scripture tells us that ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.’ The fundamentalist stops at the comma after yesterday, so a new name will require to be coined signl* fying a whole-souled belief in the entire Word of God. “The study of faith is an entrancing one, but possession is a thousand times better. In Hebrews, chapter xi, we find in the glorious galleries of the Hall of Fame that God Almighty has hung living pictures of the ‘Faith notables’ of past ages, for our instruction and inspiration. I am not sure in the limited time we have to-night whether we can examine any of His masterpieces, each unrivalled in beauty and unfading glory, but we must be careful not to niiss the wonderment of each picture, which should command our fullest time and most earnest attention. Before beginning the examination of the portraits, we should know why the Hall of Faith is there, and what these men and women have done to gain a place of honour, for there is no honour so great as to be a friend of God, and have Him, the Divine Artist of Heaven and Earth, paint your picture. “Notice the opening word in this chapter, ‘Now faith is . . There are three tenses, past, present, and future. To have faith in God is to find that He is a very present help in a time of trouble. It is not hard to believe that God used to answer prayer in olden days; it relieves the trial to expect an answer next week, or next year, or in the dim future. Ah! the burden lifts now But the Scripture says, *and so you have not because you ask amiss.’ True faith .is to ask God, and believe ‘now’ for the answer. ‘‘Let us go a little further.” concluded Mr. Roberts. “‘Now faith is.’ That little word ‘is’ gives present tense again. So then faith is a present tense, living reality. By faith, rivers flow, heaven opens, glory falls, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ; is-manifested the same to-day as yesterday.”