POLITICAL LEADERS AT CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 298, 13 September 1937, Page 10

POLITICAL LEADERS AT CHURCH

Wellington Service

VISCOUNT GALWAY READS THE LESSONS To mark the opening of Parliament, a special service wars held at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Wellington, yesterday morning. The lessons were read by the Governor-General, Viscount Galway, and the service was attended by members of the Ministry, many private members of Parliament, members of the Legislative Council, and holders of public office. The preacher was the Rev. J. R. Blanchard.

His Excellency was accompanied by his three daughters and by Major and Mrs. A. F. Purvis, and Lieutenant Sir Standish Roche, A.D.C.

Among the congregation were: The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. W. E. Barnard; the Minister of Health and Education, Hon. P. Fraser; the Attorney-General, Hon. H. G. R. Mason; the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. W. Lee Martin; the Minister of Defence, Hou. F. Jones; the Hon. Mr. Justice Smith; Lieut.-Coionel A. J. Manson, Wing Commander T. M. Wilkes.

Preaching on the text, “This word . . . signifieth . . . the removing of those things that are shaken . . . that those tilings that are not shaken may remain. Wherefore . . . let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebs. xii, 27-28), the Rev. Mr. Blanchard said: —

"The words were those of one who lived in a time' of world-convulsion, when wise and sober men feared that the fabric of society was breaking up and the world reverting to barbarism. But the writer did not despair. The philosophy of history, whicli he hud learned through waiting on God, came to his rescue. Purpose of Upheavals. "He says that there is a world which is visible; the world which men make,” said Mr. Blanchard. “There is 'also a world which is invisible; the world which God intends. The former is meant to be a copy of the latter; but what au imperfect copy it invariably is! Its imperfections breed catastrophies. God allows such upheavals, in order that men’s eyes may be opened to the awful contrast between the world they make and that which God intends ; iu order that presently they may see and desire a world which cannot be shaken because it is formed in accordance with the will of God. Things are shaken that they may be removed, and that the things which cannot be shaken may stand out clearly and win man’s reverent aud godly service.

“The world is being shaken to-day. That is not surprising, for it is in the very nature of things that nothing is really settled until it is settled rights. But whatever the disturbances, it must never be forgotten that something always endures. Ancient Greece has gone, but the song of Homer lives. Imperial Rome has passed, but Virgil still speaks. Medieval potentates are forgotten, but Wie song of Dante is heard to-day. “Amid the downfall of kingdoms aud the passing of ages the dreams of prophetic spirits endure. God, who dreams in such spirits, endures. We cau, therefore, be confident that, while this age of ours is being shaken to its centre, only that whicli is right in it as God sees right, will endure. We may expect trouble and travail, but out of it will come something finer and juster, with more scope for truth aud goodness and beauty, than the world has hitherto seen. With that insight into the things which cannot be shaken, let us serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Destiny of the Unselfish.

“There are in this world two human successions. One is composed of those who live for self. They consent to the actual and have no concern to improve the world. But there is another succession, composed of persons who live not for self, but for the Kingdom of God. They do not consent to the actual. They live by faith in the ideal. We may choose to be in the former of these two groups, living only for self, trying only to save ourselves and letting the rest of the world go by. M e shall find it an illusion. “We can no more do it than individuals, on a raft escaping from a sinking ship, can be saved by each one thinking only of himself. No nation can do it nowadays; for we have reached a point in human evolution when for no single one of man’s major problems is there a purely parochial or national solution. No people can enjov security, for example, unless the whole world is made secure. What is impossible for a nation is not possible .for an individual. We may choose, however, to live not for self, but foi the Kingdom of God. We ought to be in that succession; not consenting to the actual, but living by faith i u the ideal; believing in the possibility of a society so just and friendly that it cannot be shaken; and doing all that lies within our power to hasten its appearing. Thus may we serve the things which cannot be shaken. Triumph of Jesus.

“For Christian people, Jesus is the author and perfecter of such a faith. A Japanese student recently said, ‘The strange thing about Jesus is that you can never get away from Him.’ That is true. People can call Him what they like and do with Him what they wish But the one thing they eanhot do is to get away from Him. He was slain and buried, but ‘it was not possible.for Him to be holdem’ •■Time and again that has' happened in centuries that have! followed,” Mr Blanchard said. “He has been buried under policies that have denied Him. social conditions that, have shamed Him, world situations that have crucified Him. But He has risen and gone before humanity into revival and reform. The things in our civilisation under which He has been buried are being shaken to-day, anu He goes before us into that new civilisation to which His faith and His spirit are giving birth. We cannot ever get away from Him, because the universe is behind Him. “The future therefore belongs to Him. His triumph may be delayed, but nothing can finally prevent it. So we may follow Him amid this shaking world, looking and labouring for that world which God intends this one to become; and in doing so, we may know that our hopes are not groundless and our labour not in vain."