CHURCH UNION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 43, 20 February 1931, Page 9

CHURCH UNION

NEED OF THE AGE

A METHODIST VIEW

GOSPEL OF LOVE

(By Telegraph,) (Special to "The Evening Post.") DUNEDIN, This Day. "If there is one thing that condemns the Church of the past it lias been her failure to keep Christ's central law of love. Never can the Gospel of love make its full appeal to the world until it is convincingly and conclusively manifested in the household of faith within/ stated the Rev. E. D. Patehctt, the newly-elected president of the New Zealand Methodist Church, in the course of his inaugural address last night at the opening of the Church's annual conference in Duuediu, in dealing with tho subject oE Church Union. All barrievs, and they were but flimsy barriers to-day, continued the speaker, were ready to break down before the touch of the finger of love. Surely the world needed, as never before, the witness of a united Church. His own belief was that if the churches of this land would take their own cherished traditions and church loyalties, and lay them at the feet of Christ in v spirit of sacrilical love, in order that they might rise up as one, the effect of their .witness would be immeasurably increased, and the Church would shine with renewed slendour. , LITTLE LOVE FOR THE CHURCH. "We live to-day in a world,"' said the president, "which confessedly has little lnve for the Church. That does not mean that the world is to be roundly condemned, I nor the Church unduly-pitied. Men to-day have fallen eagerly in love with the wonderful new life and liberty which are theirs. Hence their neglect of the Church. But the Church knows that her day is coming. Man's nature is such that it is bound to come." It -was true, Mr. Patchett continued, that a pre-oecupied world was to-day captivated by the glamour of its own achieve•ments and ambitions. It hurried past the Church's door], not with, execration, but merely forgetful of the Church in the feast of life,. It turned a deaf ear to the £hurch'a message, not because it believed there was no God to worship, no Divine 3ftw to keep, but /because it was carried forward on the flood tide of a new and captivating experience. Within the lifetime of the present generation the world iad accelerated to such a degree that it .(teemed to have been projected centuries into the future. What wonder that many tad been carried off their feet. But while .the outward conditions of life had greatly changed, the heart of man was still the 1 euine. and because the Church of God 1 .thought long, long thoughts, it could afi.ford to look with a certain calmness and f courage upon the present tendency. A SUBTLE DANGER. ; Theja was, however, a subtle danger -.jbo the Church in an indifferent age— 1 ;£hat of accepting herself at the -world's ■ valuation, of being . intimidated by the I indifference of men. Seeing the world [■flowing past her doors in ever-increas- | "ing flood she was apt to trail her faith as a .broken -wing. Yet the chief peril "of the Church had never been the i'presence or absence of the multitude; her 'chief peril had been that her own light ! should grow dim and her spiritual fervour abate. Let her hold on her high way of unselfish, service to God and man, and great would be her reward. The more her message was scorned, the more necessary it fcecame; the more difficult her day, the greater the call -for her devotion. He ■urged that they should believe in the future of their church as earnestly and Jiopefully as they believed in God, for the temple they built could never be destroyed except, Samson-like, they pulled -it about their own ears. Reminding themselves continually of the Divine origin of the Church, and her Divinely-ordained purpose' of bringing in the reign of God on earth; they should not be too disturbed by the prevalent criticism that the Church had had its day, that institutional reJigion was dying—a false prophecy. The i only possible ground for a paralysing i pessimism concerning tho future of the ■ .Church .-was the unthinkable fear that j.Christ had changed His purpose concernicing her, or withdrawn His presence from I'i-her. Their thought of the Church should i frot be governed by the uncharitable i prophecies of the world, but by the word i'of Jesus, Who had promised that the i gates of Hell should not prevail against jit. ■ j THE METHODIST WITNESS. j Tha Methodist witness was of great bailie in an age of spiritual declension. It ■supported the view that the heart of man, underneath its modern - veneer, is incurably religious, that human life is marvellously redeemable. In assessing the I .Church's problems to-day, had they reckoned with the Great War, and made allowance for tho historical verdict that the harvest of a great war was always a bitter harvest? As the Church shared in :the crime of war, so she must surely share 3n its curse. It was no exaggeration to say that they lived in an age when nearly .every moral and spiritual ideal had been tainted by the foul breath of war. That ,ivas part of the price they were called iipon to pay for the world's madness. But the price would be paid, and an unencumbered future emerge, for the dying of nature to live was a parable of the Church. 'As a living organism the Church, of course, must adapt herself to new conditions, proving not only that she has an jinc.hanging foundation, but an expanding •life. Then would come the fulfilment of the whole law of social brotherhood and love, the final outlawry of evils such as ,ivar and the licensed liquor traffic, and righteousness for all. CONCORDAT WITH CATHOLICS. Ife urged that as a necessary condition cif tho application of the Gospel to the needs of the new age they must give more attention to an educated evangelism, and to tho spiritual nurture of the young, who presented such splendid material to Svork upon. In this connection, believing in the inalienable right of every child in the land to grow up with a knowledge of God and His Word, their church ardently supported the work of the Bible-in-Schools League. They rejoiced in the concordat the Roman Catholic Church, believing that this amicable understanding had brought the promised land in sight.