EASTER CHURCH SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 165, 10 April 1944, Page 4

EASTER CHURCH SERVICES

Message Of Hope

BISHOP’S SERMON AT ST. PAUL’S

Special Easter Day services, held in Wellington churches yesterday, were well attended in spite of inclement weather. Preaching in the Cathedral Church o£ St. Paul in the morning, the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. 11. St. Barbe Holland, took as his tetx the words "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” "To us who live in a dark and terrified world there is one ringing ki'J’-note in the Easter message, and that is ’hope,’ a ’living hope,’ ” said the Bishop. "All the dark and vexing riddles of life come to the surface at a time like this. ‘What is God like? ’What is man, where is he going, what is his place in the universe and what is his end'.'’ 1 have in my own mind a definite conviction that yuan can only be saved from moral despair in trying to answer these questions by working them out in the light which the story o£ Good Friday and Easter Day sheds upon them. "We who live in a period when great hopes have proved to be liars are tortured by the question, ’What is the significance of the history of man, has it any purpose and does it make for any good? Think, for instance, of world-fellowship today—what a hope in a world seemingly rent by what have become unbridgable chasms! In the next few weeks and months we are expecting from the flower of British and American manhood the utmost which they can give. The outcome of their gift will, under God, be victory. But the more they give the more we shall have to give if their victory is going to prove to be not merely teh defeat of the Axis, but rather the beginning of the precipitous climb which lies beyond, the climb toward a renewed civilization. "There are hosts of planners and superplanners at work on affairs national and international, but are we not aware in our heart of hearts that thetje can be no world order, no cosmic planning, which relies solely on human science and technique? It is the false humanism of the late age—the age of policy without morals and of planning without spiritual vision —which has led to the rise of evil ideologies. There has been a marked discrepancy between technical advance and moral development —a discrepancy which has led to the immoral exercise of power, both politically and economically. Man has been driven to a life of intense activity, fraught with political and economic consequences, but he has no clear ideals and deliberately shuts his eyes to the spiritual issues. Human society has taken ‘social security’ as its slogan for the new civilization. As a Christian, 1 cannot do anything but want social security for everyone, but. where is it going to lead us if divorced from the creative work of God’s Spirit in men’s souls, making them fit and eager to use it not as an end in itself, but as a means to the making of a Christian community. Without that, social security will become just another avenue for human greed, for the demand from this quarter and from that for more benefits, more security, more opportunity for side-stepping work, as devastating in its effects on the common well-being as any of the evils associated with unbridled or unprincipled private enterprise. . , “It is becoming plain to more and more non-thinkers that there can be no renewal of civilization without drawing from a well of deep and supernatural resources. The Christian’s deepest conviction is that Easter guarantees for man the possibility of new life. New Orders are man-made, new life is God-given. Easter tells us of the erection of a beachhead on the coast-line of the huge area of human life, a beach-head manned at peril by a handful of men and women conscious of a new life which made them set their affection on things above, truth and honour and love and beauty, all that make life worth living, and not on things on the earth, the material things which are to be enjoyed but never loved; conscious, too, of a new life which could conquer the evil and selfishness within them, which could spur them on to service and unlimited sacrifice to the end that under the leadership of their living Commander, the battle against evil might be fought and won. And ever since.that clay ‘new life’ columns have been striking out from the perimeter of the beach-head, ever widening the area under their eon- ; trol. ' "After each rebuff has come the I counter-attack, nod by the ‘new life’ column advancing straight from the beaeh-head created on the first Easter Day. And that is why today we can lift up our hearts. No power on earth or in hell can drive through the perimeter. "Of course no power can break the forces of ‘new life,’ because they are rooted not in the realm of ideals or wishful thinking, but in something that God actually did when Christ, through His invincible love, conquered the power of evil and proved that man’s true and destined place is in the Kingdom ot God, and not in that of the devil. “So ats once again on this day, we stand on the beaeh-head under the inspiration of His eye and hand, our hearts beating with a 'living hope,’ dedicated to any service while lie demands of us in the great counter-attack. He ’ s at Fi.is moment leading against the forces of evil, we are strong in our confidence, and renewed in our loyalty, because He has given us, and we have accepted the best of all His gifts, new life.” The service \v:is conducted by Canon D. J. Davies and the Rev. C. H. Isaacson. The Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, read the lesson. The organis was Mr. A. Bryant. 'The preacher at the evening' service was (’andon Davies. A solo was sung by Airs. C. Manning. Auckland. Removal of Fear. V Ihe morning service in St. Johns Church Hie. RYv. Gladstone Hughes said that without Ihe Resurrection the Cross would lose its meaning and its power. The Gospel was a triumphant proclamation of the Resurrection. Man had a passion for Hie eternal. In a thousand ways he expressed his longing for the abiding. He sought, to create something which would live on. He gave his loyally to flip things which he believed would survive. "Convince man that whal he strives for is something which Ihe hand of time will mar and destroy ami you deprive him of the verv nerve ol his life,” be said. The one haunting fear which a real Gospel hail io remove was Ihe fear that death had the last word. Let them bring the issue to a more intimately personal test and ask whether “some they loved, the loveliest and the best,” when they departed from them, started "for the dawn of Nothing.” as Ilnar Khayyam said. The Easter message dispelled that tragic, paralyzing ami devastating fear and brought the light of immortal hope fo all who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death. At the evening service Mr. Hughes said thai Jesus Christ shared to the full mini's wonderful urge to lite. He knew Hie seerci of the full and abundant lite which was io do the will of God. If I here was it supreme will and purpose then outside Ibal purpose there would be linal friislraliou ami death, while within it there could be noitliei* t rust ration nor (|e:ith. it \v:is because (,hiisl »s will was ill with the will of God ihnt "Death could mil hold Him. brom the citadel of the Last. Evening lie clinic to give to His followers the Easter niessmri' ••Death is swallowed up in victory.” Mrs. AV. Dunean sang "Resurrection” In Other Churches.

’l’lii' l(i‘V. Ashleigli Pi'tcli peraelied at Weslev < 'liiiri-li. Ids subject in Hie morning being,' "Tin: Witness of the Burning IleaiT” nnd in Hie evening, “The Cross of Weiiin-." While Hie Cross did not offer an intellectual answer to Ihe problem of pain and sull'eiiug, he said, d did niosf offiudi vely answer the question of how l<» deal with them. A solo was sung by Aliss Doreen Bennell. 'file peracher at the Central Baplist Cliurcli was the Rev. D. A. North, Fotins sermon in Hie morning he took as his text the words, "Who shall roll away the .stone?" lie referred to those experiences in life which seem to spell sorrow and defeat in human hearts —such experiences as bereavement, with its separating power and Hie shateriiig of hopes, with resultant loss of faith nnd euiliitternieiit. Such experiences had Hie etl'ect in some lives of shutting Hie man in with his sense of loss or disappointment, he

said. Easter Day spoke of release into the larger life of faith and service. Tliis was so too with Hie Church, wherever she was largely impotent through being crusted with convention or hound in habits of thought which were once a liviii"- creed but were now only g'raveelollll's about her. Thy risen Lord called His Church back to n living faith and a vital activity in the world of men. A number of visiting servicemen were among Ihe coiigregaliou. In Hu’ Cambridge, Terrace Congregational Church lasi iiighl the Itev. C. G. 11. Bycrofl preached on "The World's Must 'stupendous Event —the Resurrection of Jesus Christ." That event, he said, stood aloof in lonely grandeur Iroiu all that had been imagin'd by human philosophy or science, mid the realization of tile event changed Ihe whole outlook of life. Christians believed in the Resurrect ion on several grounds. First, if. was Hie only siitisfnelory explanation of certain great religious institutions and dost fines, for example, the origin and continuation of the Christian faith. Secondly. it was impossible Io understand the faith of members of the Christian Church without the Resurrection of Christ. Thirdly, the substitution of Ihe first day of the week for the seventh day as a holy day could not be explained if the Resurrect ion was ignored. Christ rose on the first day of the week, and every Sunday after the llesiirreetion Christians gathered for worship. “Christ's Resurrect ion is the greatest exhibition of God's trowel —a power we can all experieiiee in our own hearts and lives,” said Mr. Bycroll. In the Terrace Congregational Church Hie preahcer was Hie Rev. R. L. Challis, Rarotonga.