A GREAT RISK

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 26

A GREAT RISK

CHURCH AND "DEFEATISM"

RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS

"One of the greatest risks of the . Church militant today is the spirit cf ~ defeatism," said the Rev. H. H. Bar- ' ton, M.A., Moderator, in his address o to the Presbyterian General Assembly c last night. " j There were certain evils that were . spreading abroad :n the world like a ; . prairie fire. But it was not impossible for the Church to hold its ground c and, when the time came, to move, forward. The Church had passed v through such experiences before today, j The Church of their fathers was the f Church, of the martyrs. It had suffered heavy blows, but it was an. anvil 3 that had worn out many hammers. To . face difficulties in a right spirit had ever been the way to higher and nobler experiences of things divine. \ AFFAIRS OF OUTPOSTS. £ Many of the old conflicts fought £ with great bitterness, were, after all, .only affairs of outposts, said Mr. Barton. "What does it really matter, c from the point of view of evangelical c Christianity, whether we hold, with j the great majority, the doctrine of ( evolution or not? It is not to aban- « don the faith once delivered unto the < saints for us to believe that God has 1 revealed His truth in this sphere j through the patient labours of the ( scientist, nor to minimise His power and His wisdom if we accept this as the method of His working. And if it should turn out that what still seems to most the assured scientific position is abandoned or modified in the light of fuller knowledge, that would be no more a victory, for the faith than , the acceptance of it is a defeat. As j Hubert Simson says: 'No longer must ( the Church seek shelter within dog- , matic positions, many of which have, j one after another, to be evacuated under the reducing f.re that is brought to . bear upon them. She must not seek ', refuge in sullen retreat from one un- ' tenable outpost to another." One of the great needs of our time was a clear understanding and appreciation of the real fundamentals of the faith. That the world today was interested in religion ws evident. But too often its interest manifested itself in an ill-balanced enthusiasm for some fantastic modern cult. Was it not possible that the Church was failing to teach a sufficiently clear and authoritative doctrine? Because people did not know where they were and did not clearly realise where the Church stood on some of the most vital points of. doctrine, they were easily carried away with the most absurd theories. He pleaded for a more determined and earnest endeavour to make known to their people in language that they would understand and in ways that would appeal to them the truth concerning those things that were most surely believed among them. There was and had long been a foolish tendency to decry theology. They could no more do without theology than they could do without thinking. What people really meant when they objected to theology -vas that they disliked having unintelligible theological terms hurled at them from the pulpit, and could at the best feel only remotely interested in a discussion conducted! in,a thought atmosphere that was too rarefied for them. Such expressions had their rightful place in the 'study, but they were an offence in the pulpit or in any other place where they arrived to make known to plain, ordinary i ~n and women the ways of God.