WORK OF THE CHURCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 121, 18 November 1936, Page 9

WORK OF THE CHURCE

MODERATOR'S ADDRESS

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

CHRISTCHURCH, November 17.

The Rev. T. H. Roseveare, in the course of his Moderatorial address before the Presbyterian General Assembly, which elected him this evening, said:

"We are deeply concerned in these days about the decline in church attendance and in the lack of influence of the Church upon the world. May the cause not be that, as a church, we have not been sufficiently definite and aggressive? The primary work of the Church is evangelism. There is a temptation to be satisfied if our churches pay their way, and do not decline more rapidly than other churches. We are satisfied to tend our flock and so feel we are doing all we can. It was to a church with such self-satisfaction as this at Laodicea that the Spirit spoke scathingly. The Pharisees were rebuked by Christ for their formality because they were content to be a respectable religious community. There is much, perhaps overmuch, organisation in our church life. But we are in danger of losing sight of our spiritual objective in our institutional activities. Our real objective is evangelism; and if our church workers would direct their energies to that they would discover such a new zest in church work as would give us all new life. The best defensive is always the offensive. "Evangelism has always been an important factor in saving the Christian faith and keeping alive Christian zeal, often in the face of keen and bitter opposition. Nor has it been possible in the past to dictate what form the new evangelism would take. Its novelty has often created a prejudice against itself. Yet it has left its permanent impression upon the religious life of the country. THE PLACE OF TOLERANCE. • "The Christian message is unique. It is wise for Christians to exercise a wide tolerance, but not such a tolerance as weakens the effectiveness of the Christian message in its vital elements. The unique and definite message of Christianity has given a new sense of God, a fresh ideal of personal devotion; it has created a social conscience, has called forth the presentday missionary enterprise, and is giving us a new vision of amicable international relationships. We must be ready for still further unfoldings of these implications, and we must courageously proclaim them. The preacher of the Gospel in these days has occasion to be very positive about his unique message. To evangelise is to preach the Gospel. That is our business, and every minister of the Gospel is endeavouring to bring the evangelistic spirit into all his church activities; but we must aim not-so much, at the man within the Church as the man without. THE MODERN RIVAL. "It is stated that evangelism is out of date and antiquated. There has grown up in our day a rival of evangelism which may be called national humanism. It consists of a belief in. education, and in the ennobling influences of culture, a friendliness towards all kinds of uplift, a disinterested social service, an encouragement of philanthropic effort, support of peace movements, and so on. I do not set up evangelism in opposition to: or even to the exclusion of these lines of activity. Oh the other hand, these activities must not be pursued to the exclusion of evangelism, which must be our main emphasis. The New Testament seems to many unsatisfying because it is so little interested in art, in politics, and in economics. But it is concerned with tt ? centre' of them all, the destiny of men and the new creation through the Spirit of Christ.

"It is. using the vocabulary of the past to say that salvation is for the lost. And yet it is as true today as ever. Men are without a guide, without certainty, without an inner peace, without a sure direction of action. Indeed, the world is more evidently lost now than ever before. Our Church is not merely a civilising agency.^ Its first aim is to win men and women toChrist. This is the one business of the Church which is supremely worth while. To undertake it, the throne of heaven was emptied, that the mansions of heaven might be filled."