Y.M.C.A.

Evening Star, Issue 16211, 5 September 1916, Page 1

Y.M.C.A.

MEN’S MEETING,

The meeting for men only held under tao auspices of the Young Men’s Christian Association at the Empire Picture Theatre on SJunday evening was addressed by the Rev. W. Grocnslade, u’ho spoke on the subject ‘ Will Men Continue to Believe in God.’ •Mr Greenslade said that a few years ago a book was published containing the greatest correspondence of its kind in the annals of literature. This correspondence was printed hv one of the big daily papers in the Old Land, and reached ,tho enormous number of 9,000 letters. The author of the original lett i'i ' u - ver dreamt that his letter I would lead to such a mighty £ correspondence. Tho writer gave many old and some new reasons why men diet not nolleve in God and the supernatural. Many of them desired,- so they said, to believe, but there were so many difficulties in the way that belief to them vas impossible. il We admit iroely that there are difficulties associated with belief in divine things, but wc emphatically declare that they are not to be compared with tho difficulties associated with unbelief. It is often said that if we. could cast away belief in theologies and divinities, wo should be. rid of many intellectual and moral problems. If, however, wo look at the position squarely, we shall see how misleading it is and far from the truth. Tv lifUK wc think of it we find that all men are believers, and that the so-called unbeliever is sometimes the I biggest believer of all. Ho believes as orthodox believers do, only he differs tiom teem iu this, in the creed he accepts. His beliefs, too, are based on mmsicr foundations, and require iufiintely greater faith than he imagines. -1 uproot of this, consider the first great affirmation'of the Christian faith ‘I believe in God.’ Does it not require more tauh to reject than to accept the existence of a supreme being? Unhehevers are fond of enumerating the (amenities associated with faith, and ive nanut there aro difficulties. It is • n £ as i v , sa .v ‘ I don’t believe m God, but where does it lead us? Ue cannot believe in the existence of an old shoe without the shoe-maker and to affirm that this majestic system flooded with mind has no designing rniml, that it sprang uncaused out of nothing, is the wildest unreason. If the letters of the alphabet cannot make Hamlet without the mind of cjhakespeare behind them, how certain it is that tile forces and elements of this physical world must have an infinite mind using them before the worlds can exist. You need not, therefore, be ashamed to say; 'I believe in God. maker of Heaven and earth!’ for m is the only rational way of explaining how the universe came to be. We find belief in a God or gods is uni\crsal. Travel where we may, we never find any tribe, of people devoid of belief in the supernatural. It may express itself in crude and strange ways, but the fact remains, it is there. Men have been discovered without culture, cities, laws, literature, but none without belief in a. God or gods. The question is Does not the very universality of belief correspond to a great reality ? Some affirm that belief m the divine is the outcome of the Church and religions teachers, and is altogether unnatural and artificial. What, aro the facts? Long before tony temple was erected to Jehovah or any creed was formulated, man stood out under tho blue heavens and said: ‘Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,’ and where no temples have been erected, no Bibles circulated, no religious teachers gone, men believe in God or gods. Each one of us is haunted by a sense of the invisible-. We cannot he_ satisfied by the, present order of things. Every other creature seems to bo able to satisfy its instincts by living for tho present. The fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the beast of the_ field, as far as wo can judge, are satisfied with the present order of things. Man is a strange exception. In a world where every other creature can satisfy itself to the full, man, the highest link in the great chain of life, is unsatisfied. Is Nature reversing its order? The world wc,. live in i? rational, and the deeply-implanted desire within us for God is surely to ho met. Augustine said : ‘ Thou hast made ns for thyself, and we can find no rest till we find rest in Thee.’ By making much of the present, and little of the future, _ by gratifying the flesh and neglecting the spirit, wo may suppose that we can do without God, hut wc wake up from our dreams to find there is no worth in tho world’s markets, no peace in its streets, no bread in its granary. T\ e, like the prodigal, perish with hunger. The supreme satisfaction is God. Is there satisfaction for this deepest instinct of our nature, tho instinct for God? There must be somewhere. Wc are not hero to be mocked ; our nature docs not play us false; wo may make, if we will, the great discovery How, through the senses and the intellect? God is a spirit, and you can- ; not discover God by the senses. Tho I geologists may crack the rocks, the astronomers sweep the heavens in quest of God, and affirm ‘We have found Him not,’ but the spiritual-minded man may know God, whom to know is life eternal. He may say:— Whose hath felt the spirit of the highest, Cannot confound, nor doubt him, nor deny, Say with one voice, oh! world, though thou denyst, Stand on that side, for on this side am I. “Each one of us mav know God by experience. If the knowledge of God i be a delusion, it is the most blessed of all delusions, for it has done more for °’ ar , °'d ■world than all truth put tovethor. Is the deeper man in you deadr -f not, you- will know that God is, and that he is a reward of those who diligently seek Him.” Speak thou to Him, then, for He hears, And spirit with spirit can meet, Closer is He than breathing, And nearer than hands or'feet. Mr W. R. Don led the mass singing, and. Mr Miller Hope was the accompanist.