NO CUSHIONED PEW IN NEXT WORLD

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 307, 23 September 1944, Page 6

NO CUSHIONED PEW IN NEXT WORLD

Meaning Of Christian Order Campaign CHALLENGE AND APPEAL “This is no call to selfish salvation or the offer of a reward in Heaven, with a nice cushioned pew in the other world. Those who commit themselves join themselves to iEternal forces whieh cannot be destroyed and will never be overthrown,” said the Kev. W. S. Lowe (Auckland), speaking at a midday assembly of citizens in the Majestic Theatre, Wellington, yesterday as one of the features of Christian Order week. He added that it was a great ideal: it was a challenge —an appeal to sink self in the great Divine drama. At the core of this was personal responsibility. “There is something extraordinary about of this campaign,” said Mr. Lowel “It has been criticized in no calm terms <by representatives of all political groups and by individuals of the most differing views. That is an indication of the fact that the Church is doing, its job'; it is attacking, without fear or favour, injustice, dishonest and unworthy practice and inhumanity wherever they may be found. The Church has been hitting hard enough to hurt and get into the consciences bf people of every shade of view.” Perhaps the Church had placed so much emphasis on the personal acceptance of Christianity that it was considered to be concerned only with the soul of man, said Mr. Lowe. It went far beyond that. No one could live a Robinson Crusoe existence on his own special island in the community. The whole of one’s personal life and relationships bad to be christianized and revolutionized and come under the sway of the Church if a new Christian order was to prevail. People who raised the cry that it must keep out of everything but individual piety were wrong. The purpose of God was not concerned with plucking Individual people out of an alien world, but with the fulfilment of that, grand vision and prophecy: “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth.” It was fallacious to think God was concerned only with our inner thoughts and motives; He was concerned with all our conduct, activities, relationships and the whole social set-up. Christian Order meant the application of the ways and purpose of God to all the relationships of men. It was not suggested that Christianity had no individual or personal message, but that must -be combined with the social messages. If man was going to maintain a good social ord'er he had to be christianized and converted to the structure of Divine purpose. Self-seeking motives had to bo discarded, and man was to seek not only for his own good, but that of his neighbour. Both in family and inteij-sex relationships, said the Rev. A. A. Brash (Wanganui) man had been pursuing blindly a selfish policy, helping the creation of wars and drawing nearer to race extinction. Despite all his cleverness, mankind had failed to create a happy community. j. Many people were content to go on their -way seeking the little things —personal wealth and their own security—despite the tragedies taking place in the world. To seek after selfish -ends even for one’s own family in days of such tragedy was not only evil, but a supreme blasphemy of the love of God and a denial of the brotherhood of man. People must shake off the lethargy into whieh they were falling as they blinded themselves to what was happening beneath the surface of their individual and .community life. The greatest ministry in this world should be to the needs of others —the doctrine of serving one’s neighbour. The strength for this selfsacrificing work sprang from a daily and an hourly trust in God.