CHURCH'S WITNESS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 130, 4 June 1931, Page 19

CHURCH'S WITNESS

VITAL POWER OF FAITH

NEED FOR REVIVAL

In bis address at Tuesday's o|u.'iiing of thorProsbytcrian General Assembly in St. John's Church, the Modern toy, the Ecv. Professor .T. Collie, chose as ..his subject "Tlie Witness of Ihci Church," "If there is any "worth in the choice of such a subject," lie said, "as we meet with the near memory in our hearts of a great national calamity, it is this, that it is in a way a. call to reality in religion. , Sucli :i time of economic distress and national sorrow, as has lately been our portion is a searching test of what our faith is. It is a time when" no "religions platitudes will suffice to meet the. tragic needs of men's lives, but only such a faith as made those who hold it of old more than conquerors in the face of trials as dark as any that meet us to-day." . •

After dealing with the witness, of the Church in the past, the Moderator .went-on to say:—"We1 must not yield to the temptation of comparing our own time, disadvantageously-with every precoding age. • There is .a more earnest seeking after God.and.a richer..volume of Christian service.' to-day than hostile critics are disposed to acknowledge. xViul there is a Christian leavening of society that extends far beyond the limits of openly-avowed Christian belief. But there aro also obvious signs Hint the religious-beliefs, onec taken for granted even if not made a part of living experience, are, losing .their hold, and that .no tradition;; however sacred and venerable, can1 long act' as a restraint on the individualistic impulses of human nature!' Authority, as such, is at a. discount. New vision is needed to enlist a now allogianeo in the hearts of men. "We need to make a new discovery of the moaning of. Christ for human life, so that men may see Him for themselves, and, believing, find life in His name. Let us not think that this. will be easy. We have boon living too long on our spiritual capital, on the truth received t'rom our fathers, and on the moral principles embodied in our Christian and social customs and institutions. We have been content to live up to the standards we have inherited without trying to make them living forces for further advance. Our belief has been in a teaching about God without that deep sense of God Himself and His working, that made the Church of the first century react with such vital power on all tho social problems of its time. A Church, the large majority of whose members contribute nothing *o the fuller practical unfolding of the Dhristian revelation, is living on its inherited spiritual capital. And the longer it does that the harder will it be to. make up the fatally disabling leeway. ■ ■ ..... CONFLICT AND VICTORY. "In all this there is cause for concorn, but not for despair. There have been in the past ebb-tides of faith as marked as that which now causes us disquiet, and ebb-tides with less of moral earnestness.. And we find reassurance in the revival and deepening of faith that, have always followed them. ..." The' historical attesta- ■ tion of Christianity was never/stronger than it is to-day as regards "the cen-. tral fact. The extreme negative positions of a generation or two ago now form the stock-in-trade of only the comparatively uneducated. Neutrality on questions of. religion may still ,be the pose of science, with often a tacit assumption that there can be no real j knowledge beyond what is- communi—j cated by the senses. But it is a pose j more hospitable 'to spiritual conceptions than it used to be. With openminded men it is easier to gain a hearing for the reasonableness of Christianity than it was a generation ago. "Let me express my conviction that tho conflict and. tho victory of Christianity in our day must ,be :in all essentials the.same as in the first Christian age. In spite of outward differences and the wide ■ range of discovery in modern times, thcro is a wonderful similarity in the general situation. There is the same breakdown of in: herited faith, though not so utter in our case. In' the vivid words of Psichari, Kenan's grandson, wo are 'the victims of a civilisation that has lost its bearings.' ' Life, is loosed from 'its old moorings of faith. In many quarters we see the: same conflict of competing cults as marked the first century and tlrß same wistful longing, amid much that is dilettante or bizarre, to find some foothold and some comfort for the heart. Christianity won the victory in that early day by the sheer power of the truth with which it was charged. It had no antecedent claims to tho recognition of men, no reputation to which to appeal. It prevailed simply by its power to save and to satisfy the soul, and by the witness in men's hearts to its eternal truth.. In this fact lies a great reassurance for us as we faco our task of a witnessing Church to-day. Our deepest conviction is that the revelation of God given in Christ is adequate for every need of human life in.every age. lint the meaning of that revelation must lie brought out in living relation to all that most deeply concerns tho life of the world to-day. We have yielded too much at times to the temptation of trusting to the prestige of Christian-, ity for holding the loyalty of its adherents; and we are wakening up to find ourselves in a world in which that prestige has lost much of its old-time appeal. .We must renew tho vital .power of Christian faith if our witness is to be akin to that of tho early Church and such as our Lord requires of us."