CHRISTIAN LOYALTY. CONGREGATIONAL POSITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 31, 6 February 1908, Page 3

CHRISTIAN LOYALTY. CONGREGATIONAL POSITION.

THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. The Congregational Union Council, after transaction of routine business yesterday, met in the Terrace Chuich last evening, when the president, Rev. D. Hird, M.A.. delivered an address to a crowded congregation. The subject was '"Christian Freedom and Denominational Loyalty." This question was one, said Mr. Hird, that every denomination felt nowadays in a greater or lesser degreo ; but it pressed w ith_ peculiar weight upon Congregationalists.' They had never been much in the way of denomination-! lists, however, for their Christian liberalism had usually saved them from parochial partisanship. They might claim that they had sought to see with "larger and other ey«" that looke4 beyond church and cieed to Christ and His Kingdom. There had been about Congregationalism a freedom from mere denominationalism in which they might find good reason to rejoice, and for which they ought to be thankful. • It was un-Christinn presumption for any church to say in effect: "We are the people, and wisdom shall die with us." All that could be done was to deplore and do their best to iremove denominational differences that issued \n suspicions and unworthy rivalries. SELF-CONGRATULATION. He deplored the ''way in which we congratulate ourselves when representations of different denominations meet upon a common, platform is sadly significant. \\c> indulge in language of effusive congratulation as though something very wonderful and specially creditable had happaned, instead of counting it a reproach that that should not be the normal attitude and relation of our Christian service. Ths way in which the unusual impresses us is a sad commentary upon th^ want of a deeper senss of Christian brotherhood, and a practical co-operation against the , forces of evil. Let us hope that the time may speedily come when, instead of marvelling when we find ourselves uniting upon a common platform for common s?rvice, wo shall marvel that anything else should ever have been possible." CHURCH POLITY. Referring to church polity, the rev. gentleman said it might b3 possible for the different churches to find a justification for their polity in apostolic pi-actico, although it might well strike Congregationalists as curious that the same new testament teaching should be the authority for so widely divergent politics as those of the 'Anglican and Congregationalist, Presbyterian, . aud Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Plymouth Brother. Bnt he hsld that Congrcgationalists no longer felt bound to believe that the polity of the chunh in the twentieth century was a thing that was fixed for it by the church of the fivst century. As a matter of fact. Christ said nothing about any particular form of organised Christian society, nor was there- any indication that he hit nny definite 'instruction? to his disciples as to ths form and organisation that his church would and should assume. It was evident that Christ meant to leave this matter an open question. There was no valid reason why they' should take it for granted that tho practice of a church in Corinth in ths first century should be of itself an infallible guide for a church in New Zealand in the twentieth. Apostolic precedent proved nothing sane itself, and committed men to nothing. "Would it not be a gain," asked Mr. Hird, "if the churches were to take the position, say, of the Salvation Army, and recognise that the church's polity is to bo -tbimuined by itß value for the church's life and the church's first and final purpose?" THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. As Congregationalists they had reason to' rejoice in the hope and confidence that the essential spirit of Congregationalism would hz the spirit of the church of the iutura. "What the precise form of the coming church will be who," he asked "can say?" But that its spirit would bo the spirit of their own church ho did , not think many would deny. Ths church of the future would be from dogma that indentitied 1 creed with faith and life. There would be the spirit of intellectual hospitality, the spirit that recognised that God had not cea&ad to speak or to work in the world and that his truth was noti exhausted in the- foimulae of the past. They were mindful of the bssons ths past had taught them, le-mc-mbering how thu heroyy of to-day became te orthodoxy of to-morrow ; how their orthodoxy heroes were once heretics and martjrs, nnd they felt confident that the spirit that had characterised Congregationalism would characterise tho church that is to be, whatever might bo its organic s form. The Pope's recent encyclical against modernism might servo as an extreme illustration of the spirit against which Congregationalism had ever had to strike, but it, was a spirit that existed all the same in many quarters that would prof »s to the liberal and progressive. "A MERE SHIBBOLETH." Speaking with come warmth, the president Giud : "I am weary of hearing 'of course the old truths must be statod in torms of, modern thought.' I am weary of it, not because I do not believe' it, but because siuh an ultoranre is .-o olten the mere shibboleth of a religious conventionality that would pacts liberal thought. Let some of thoco who use language of this sort about bo stating the old truths, bo good enough to make- some attempt to do it, and I venture to predict thau (he Now Theology will not bo the only storm-rantru 01' our time. What men are foiling ailer m all this quest is reality — tho assuranfe that their faith and beliefs ha\o something to do with the clement jl truth of things. Whather we call ouisehes old theologians or new is not in itself aa important matter; but it is important whether wo be in real sympathy with the spuit of progress in religious thought and life." They must seek, added the speaker, to make their theology real, rooted in living experience as well as in historical fact; and not be too ready to quarrel with, or to repudiate, these whoso quest was for reality and not, as some would suggest, for mere novelty. Us held that where ' a church had a definite creed its ministers should be loyal to it. There was too much ecclesiastical juggling. "A CREDAL TIGHT ROPE." It was not a spectacle calculated- to beget faith in the Church or even lespect for it, to see a church trying to balance itself on any credal tight-rope with the wand of freedom in its hands. It was not meant that they should practice ouch gymnastics, but to walk on the solid 1 ground of truth. Yet much as the disposition of to-day may be against heresy-hunting where there is a creed as the exposition of the Church's belief, prosecution for heresy became a duty that the Church owed to herself and her own standing. "No honourable man." Mr. Hiid continued, "will feel himself free to play fast and loose with beliefs that he lias pledged himself to uphold. Whatever changes the years may bring in the relation of certain churches to their crodal statements, and iurh < hangnn nro historically inevitable, it 16 for us to

manifest our loyalty to the spirit of truth by being loyal to our own genius and ideal, and to our polity as these seek to find expression through it." (AppldUSß.) "RELIGIOUS TRAMPS." Concluding, Mr. Hird exhorted his hearers, in avoiding the extreme of denominational parochialism, not to fall into that of a false superiority of denominational interests and obligations. "One church is as good as another," was sometimes intended to indicate a kindly feeling towards all Hie churches,, and to be an evidence of tolerance and liberalism, when it was in reality only a subterfuge fjor the want of enthusiastic loyalty towards any. There were those' who said aiily that they belonged to all churches, and these wero never a souice of strength to any." They are almost always humbugs and religious tramps. ' (Laughter.) Like the more familiar fraternity of that name, they seem to prefer a roving life 111 which they are always wondering what they can pick up, to the settled life with its claim upon their hard work and generous service. (Applause.) The Eov R. (To Kuiti) condUCted the devotional portion of the proceedings, and the choir was under the direction of Mr. Horace Hunt, Mus. Bac.