THE WORLD CRISIS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 90, 13 October 1931, Page 11

THE WORLD CRISIS

WHAT IS THE CUEE ?

CHURCH AND REVOLUTION

The Vivian Street Baptist Churcli was crowded last evening at the concluding session of the annual conference of the Baptist Union of New Zealand. Speaking on the subject, "The Cure of the- World Crisis," tlic 'Rev. J. K. Archer (Christcliurch) said that (lie present world unrest was not solely, or oven mainly, tho effect of the war or the slump. It was the groaning and travailing of humanity for a new and better social order. The present social order, like its predecessors—savagery, slavery, serfdom, household industry, and the government of a, community by a clique—had marked a stage in the evolutionary process by means of which God accomplished His purposes, but was now becoming obsolete. Everywhere, though with varying degrees of intensity, there was at work a leaven of discontent which was both human and divine. WHAT IS THE REMEDY? "Have we a remedy for the situation? If we have, where is it, and what is it?" asked the Rev. Mr. Areh«r. "It is the Bible —the whole Bible, studied, believed, and put into practice. So far as public questions aro concerned, and the great? problems lying behind public questions, we have never yet seriously consulted the Bible. We have used it as a guide to Heaven, but not as a 'law of life, and judgment of tho hind;, not to be chosen and pieced, and dogmatised, but lived up to; the whole and not a part; alive, not dead, ohe spirit in new forms.' " After referring to different bodies of Christians in the past, the Rev. Mr. Archer asked: "What of the present? Are we Bible Christians —men and women who are trying to build our personal life on a Bible ' foundation? Do we know enough of the Bible to do it? And, if we do, would it not revolutionise society, and cure the world's unrest?" CHURCH MUST ADVANCE. The speaker then referred to usury, land monopoly, competition based on self-interest, colour conflict, etc. He asked where the Church stood on these matters. Was it antagonistic to social change? If it was indifferent, it would be ignored. If it was antagonistic it would be swept aside. That was the lesson of the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and tho Spanish Revolution. Whatever might bo true or false in the statements which were made about Bolshevism, surely it was indisputable that it was the child of a professedly Christian church, and a professedly Christian State. The Czarist Governrnolit waa its father and the Greek Church its mother. . "What is the use of spending our time criticising the progeny and. keeping silent concerning the progenitors? Never in tho history of the world has there been a people more devoted to their rulers, and their religion, than the Russian people; but even a worm will turn if you tread on it long enough aud heavily enough; and when it turns it may cease to bo a worm, and become a roaring lion, tearing to pieces all who have crushed it beneath their feet. 3Tor as the moral may be pointed by a few impressive words from Joseph Mazzini, the great Italian patriot and prophet: 'If the church does not advance with the peoples, the peoples must advance without the church. Against' tho church? No. AYe will advance from the church of tho past to the church of the future; from the dead' church to tho living church—tho church of freo men, and. equals, wlierciu ho shall be first who best has served his brothers, and where the seat of faith/needs not be upheld by force!" THE LAW OP LIFE. Speaking on "Love, the Law of Life," the Rev. J. J. North dealt at some length with the life, teaching, and work of Kagawa, a Japanese reformer, who, ho said, had transformed slums in parts of his country, and had organised depressed labour. Kagawa wrote with tho eloquence of a seer. Kagawa's immenso influence was explained, said tho reformer, by his contact with that love which- was the inmost secret of Nature. Ho had committed to a book, dictated from his sick bed, this great proposition, and he- supported it with adequate scientific and philosophic material. He held that the whole reason of human misery—domestic, commercial, and international—was the stubborn refusal to recognise the elementary fact that "Love is the Law of Life." Tho speaker dwelt upon the wonderful changes for good brought about by Kagawa in the status aud lives of the people. Kagawa, in contending that love would heal the. woes of the ■ world was making a great affirmation with which everyone- would agree,, differing only on the possibility of securing such love; and there, of course, Kagawa's Christian outlook emerged. -