PULPIT MESSAGES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 187, 7 May 1934, Page 2

PULPIT MESSAGES

Wellington Churches VALUE OF WORSHIP Moral and Spiritual Strength “Why Men go to Church," was the subject of a sermon by the Rev. W. Gilmour, 8.A., in the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church. “The question of men not solns to church," he said, “is noi a new thing. The Apostolic Church had the same trouble. One can imagine that some of the Hebrew Christians asked Paul: Why should men go to Church? What does the church do that appeals to all that is best in manhood and national life?’ “Before we answer that question, let us ask: What is the Church? The Church is the school of Christ, where men and women who wish to follow Him come together to be trained by Him in Christian character and for Christian service. The Church is the only institution on earth that affirms the existence and insists on the culture of the human soul. The deepest thing in man is his spiritual nature. When the Titanic sank, the name of God was on every lip. When Captain Scott was facing death in the frozen south, he wrote’ to the people of Britain linking country and family to Godl Some of Tennyson’s last words were: ‘I hope to. see my Pilot face to face, when I have crossed the bar.’ Man has a soul ; he is soul. Business of the Church. “It is the business of the Church to insist on the supremacy of the soul. If men are not attending church, it means that they have flung away the reverences of their souls, and are ignoring the higher functions of their own lives. Their capacity for worship has been killed by neglect Their soul has been starved to death, and they have become pagans of the twentieth century. A man doesn’t need to be a worshipper of idols to- be a pagan. It is possible to be a pagan in the midst of a Christian community. That is the tragedy of this age. “The Church points men to God and cries. ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? You cannot live by bread alone. The life is more than meat, the soul is greater than the body.’ Gladstone cared as much for the Church as he did for the State,- and John Morley said of him: ‘The world has lost its great citizen.’ “Men go to church because it is the place of worship. The Apostles knew the value of worship when they established churches everywhere. Worship is the highest act of the human soul. And if man would be the right kind of a Christian, he will not ignore the Church, where Christianity is expounded, and Christ proclaimed. The Church is also the great training ground of moral character. Ramsay MacDonald said some time hgo. ‘I candidly confess that I can see no hope for the people of the future, unless first of all character is established like a bulwark in our midst.’ The chief • object of the churches is to produce that very thing; to train men in the character of Jesus Christ, , and send them out to do His work in the world. If the Churches Closed.

i “What would, the’ world be. to-day wfthout the Church? It's bad enough now, but close the churches, and every agency of the Devil would be set going with double pressure for the corruption of our society, and the ruination of our manhood and womanhood. Every man who turns his back on the Church is helping along the degradation of his couptjy. God forgive the, fathers and mothers who block the doors against their sons and daughters, and deprive them of the moral and ~ spiritual strength the Church can give them, when the powers of evil rush to their undoing.” In closing, Mr. Gilmour said the Church was the mightiest force on earth to protect boys and girls against every agency that planned their destruction. and yet many would not let their boys and girls see them enter the door of the Church. A redeemed world could not be made by political action, but only by the redemption of the characters of men.

“The Church,” i he said, “stands to help men and women and little children make the most of themselves; to develop the spiritual life that links them to God, and to give them a grip on the band of Jesus Christ. Let us not bar that door in the face of our children by our careless Godless example; let us thank God for the Church, and give it the support it justly deserves.” PUNISHMENT FOR SIN Christian Science Churches “Everlasting Punishment” was the subject of the lesson-sermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, yesterday. The golden text was from Genesis xviii: 25. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Among the citations which comprised the lessonsermon were the following from the Bible: "Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sowefh. that shall he also reap. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: . but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” (Gal. vi: 7. Prov. xxix: 13.) Also the following passages from the Christian Science textbook. “Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures.” by Mary Baker Eddy: “The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the sinner’s punishment here has been insufficient to reform him. the good man’s heaven would be a hell to the sinner. Divine Science reveals the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after death, to quench the love of sin. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.” (pp. 35. 36. 497.)