RELIGION

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 2, 2 July 1929, Page 10

RELIGION

"THE DRIFT. AWAY"

BISHOP SPROTT'S ADDRESS

CAUSES ANALYSED

■ The synod of the diocese of Wellington was opened this afternoon at the: Sydney Street Schoolroom. In his presidential address, the Bishop of Wellington (Eight Rev. Dr. T. H. Sprott) dealt at some length with the religious situation as it exists in the Church and the world to-day. ■ "The most obvious feature in the situation, is the drift away from organised religion as that is expressed, for example, in public worship," said Bishop. Sprofct. "Differing perhaps in degree in,different places, this'drift is, I think, to be observed throughout Christendom. Sonic.of us can recollect a. quite different state of things, when churches were generally well-attended Sunday by Sunday. I do not, of course, mean that in those days all who could attend church did attend, or that all who attended were devout and earnest Worshippers; such an ideal state of things ha 3 never existed in any age. But certainly attendance was far more general than it is to-day. To Christian people this drift is perplexing, distressing; and alarming; but I sometimes think we fail to perceive wherein its real, gravity lies. It is not merely that habitual absentees from public worship deprive themselves of the present help and uplift and inspiration for life they might obtain. The really grave thing is that they' are incurirng the inevitable extinction of the'instinct of worship that is innate in human nature, according to the well-known law that instincts, ■ functions, and capacities become atrophied by disuse. They may imagine that this disablement of the highest part of their nature—for surely man's'capacity for the Divine is the highest part of his nature—is a sign of progress, and that they have grown superior to religion. As well , might a man who has grown deaf imag me that he had become superior to music. "The situation is plainly a matter for most earnest thought on the part of those who, like ourselves, hold office in the Church and must have at heart the purposes', for which the Church exists. I.therefore make no apology for asking you, who are in Synod assembled, to consider "with me the probable causes, or some of them, !to which this widespread defection from organised religion may be duo. To know the causes may show us that we are not faced ■with an inexplicable mystery and that the.position is not entirely hopeless." Bishop Sprott mentioned the inordinate; love of pleasure as one of the causes of the present situation. His comments on this question are given under another heading. UNSETTLEMENT OF CONVICTIONS "Within the past seventy years or so men's religious and even ethical opinions and convictions have been shaken to their foundations. Perplexity and doubt are in the air. And just as in the life of the individual suspense enervates the energies, so in the lifo of communities does religious suspense weaken the force of religion. This is, iii;my humble judgment, the ultimate' cause of the present religious situation. Keligious conviction has been weakened, if not annihilated, in the minds of. multitudes. Hence public worship is no longer regarded as an obligation or a privilege; and, seeing that Sunday is by law. a holiday, men not unnaturally spend its vacant hours in amusement. For this reason I personally count it quite futile to scold people for not coming to church. CAUSE OF UNSETTLEMENT. What is the cause of this vast unsettlement of religious conviction? Is it like some mysterious epidemic of which no account can be given? I do not think.so. I think the cause is to be found in the deluge of varied knowledge and still more varied hypotheses with which, during the last seventy years, the world has been flooded—a deluge -which .for volume, is surely without parallel in any other period of like duration in human history. I think that of this nei- knowledge four departments have specially contributed to the unsettlement of which I speak , —The Natural Sciences, Biblical Criticism, the Histoy of Religion and Ethics the Psychology of Religion. 'After emphasising the importance of distinguishing between what we must regard as assured knowledge and what are mere hypotheses, the speaker said that the clash between science and religion had been, at least sometim&s, a clash not with what was essential in religion, bnt with what was unessential; at. times, perchance, a clash betwoen things that were unessential in both sciencel and religion. Proceeding, Bishop Sprott dealt with the'four departments of knowledge he had mentioned as being relevant to his subject. • - ■ • "Personally, I do not expect : that stable equilibrium* will be restored in my time," concluded Bishop Sprott. "I remember that it took full twice sev-. ■itnty years to restore equilibrium in the Reformation era, itself largely the result of the revival of learning. You ask. What, then, of the multitudes of people Who cannot themselves solve all the problems raised by the new knowledge and who may not live to see them i solved? Are they to put religion aside and' seek to live, their lives upon other principles and by other aid? I do not think the position is quite so hopeless. May I.turn yoiir thoughts to the first great-defection from Christianity, that which happened during our Lord's earthly life, when many more or lesa loosely attached disciples went away and pnly, tho Twelve remained? Do you think that that defection had no effect upon the Twelve; that they did not feel its pull? They had been more or less than human if they had not. Rather were they like bathers struggling to keep thoir feet amid tho backwash of breakers upon a steeply-sloping beach. The Master knew their difficulty. He said to them, "Will yo also go away?" Peter, their spokesman, answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal lifo." That reply tells us the spcret of their steadfastness. , They had been always earnest about .religion: tho highest life had ever been their quest. Among those •who professed to teach the art of living, they had found none who could teachit so well as He. They had companied with Him and had felt the spell of His personality and had come to love Him. "All this is possible for ordinary people like ourselves in these days of unsettlement. One result of tho new knowledge, as applied to the Gospels, is that it iB possible for us 1/o know the Christ as, perhaps, He has never been known since the first age. We can understand His teaching better and have a truer apprehension of the 1 objects for which He lived and died. The Gospels arestill ■with us, and wb can study them tmtil we become familiar with His works and words, and a true image of Sis character is formed in our minds, begin to understand His spirit. We can, if need be, begin where tho first disciples began, and take Him, in the. first instance, as Spiritual Teacher, Cfmd.e, Master, till perchance, from the experience of 'following Jesus in the •way, 'we may at length reach .tho. fuller ,-knowledge .-which those first disciples •ttwmed."" . .