Bishop Julius on the "Rising Tide."

Evening Star, Issue 8279, 26 July 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

Bishop Julius on the "Rising Tide."

Preaching at Christchurch last Sunday from the 38th and 39tb verses of Acts, cb. v.. Bishop Julius alluded to the advance and retrogression of religion, and appealed to the people to have faith in the living God. He spoke of the changes of custom and of faith hateful to the Pharisee, yet pleasing to the Saddnoee, who believed in religion as necessary, as respectable and profitable, and pictured the scene in the Temple at Jerusalem when the Apostles were forbidden to preach, and when Gamaliel warned the men of Israel upon their action. The significance of this scene was that in the present day we were in just such a condition. Daring the past fifty years there has been a decided retrogression of faith and religion. The forces of destruction and criticism had been let loose upon the old faith of tho world, and the faith of Christendom had been scarce able to withstand this. The influence was felt everywhere, and as he looked upon the Great congregation before him he asked himself sorrowfully how many men had living faith in Jesus Christ. The tide of Christianity had receded, until it had reached its last point, and, gathering strength and fresh force, would overleap its foremost lines, overwhelming criticism and scepticism, and inch would be as was called In the Scriptures "the

fullness of time.” There had been an instance of this in the sixteenth century, and now we were in the midst of another. If we looked around we should see the scene at Jerusalem was We should see the Pharisaic party (he did not mean it in an offensive sense) to whom no change was possible, and all change was evil; then tbe Sadducee party, who would argue that we must love religion—it kept the children alive and it amused the women ; it recognised the distinction between high and low, and prevented the rights of the upper class being trodden upon; it was profitable, and it brought in a certain amount of emolument. Then there were those who believed in something better, who recognised that our rightful position in such times as these was to be such as to show we were earnest men, working through difficulty and trouble, and never going back from the work which Christ had entrusted to us, exercising patience. Our religion would be but a poor thing if it were made to include, as some would have it, the Jew, the Gentile, the Greek, and the infidel. We should not cut down our faith to every newfangled idea. How long would Agnosticism last, and where was the Deism of the last century ? It was gone, and clean forgotten. We should have patience, and tbe tolerance of him who believed the truth we had was not the whole truth ; we should, like Gamaliel, have faith in the Living God, and wait for the rising tide. —‘ Press.