BAPTIST CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 19385, 20 October 1926, Page 4

BAPTIST CONFERENCE

LAST BIGHT'S SESSION At the Baptist Conference last night the Rev. E. S. Tuckwell, 8.A., spoke on ‘The'Church’s Answer to tho Industrial Situation,’ and the Rev. J. J. Nort-i gave an address on ‘ The .Church and the Wider World.’ Dealing with the church's answer to the industrial situation, Mr Tuckwell feinted out that in' New Zealand in 924-25 there were thirty-four disputes, including strikes, which involved 14,81-5 workers, with a resultant loss of £62,732. There was also the unemployment caused, although this was less than 1 per cent, of the wage-earners. In Australia in 1925 26 there wore 499 strikes and a loss of over £1,000,000 in wages; and England, too, had suffered by tho recent general strike, and was being bled white by the current coal strike. Europe was seething with economic discontent, whilst the mystery land of Russia was in the throes of a mighty economic revolution, afflicting the lives of more people than any revolution in history had done, and resulting in '■ Communistic regime and a world-wide propaganda. History was repeating itself in the Orient, where industrialisation was giving rise to tho same acute problems. In America, fortunately, there was comparative calm owing to general prosperity* and high wages, but beneath this peaceful surfm o was the same real situation and the problem that would surely arisj again, Thus, said Mr Tuckwell, a general survey of the world revealed, broadly, two classes —Capital and Labor—glaring angrily at each other across gulf that grow wider and deeper. On one side was tho employer, who provided the capital, and on the otlmr the'wage-earner—who had only Ins labor, flesh, blood, and muscle to sell—all the time in constant dread of unemployment. What, then, asked the speaker, should bo the attitude of the Christian Church to this situation? Ho could answer best by two personal experiences. ‘ Some time ago, lie said, he had mot a number ot trade unionists at the Semaphore (South Australia) Tow-n Hall, and had asked what they wanted the church to do. “Wo want you to know’ what tho situation is, and we want to know that tho church is making a fair study of tho position,” was the reply. Further, when invited to meet the seamen during the. strike at Melbourne in 1025, only forty ministers responded. Rersonally, ho contended that every student of tho ministry should have included in his curriculum some study at last of the social and industrial problems of the world. A great moral issue was involved in this situation, which was not merely a political nor an economic question—it was an ethical and, at the bottom, a spiritual question. Discussing the question of wages, Mr Tuckwell said that surely a man, made in the image o; his Maker, was entitled to receive enough in return for his labor to enable him to do full justice to himself and those dependent on him On the other hand, his industrial task wavs his vocation. which meant that he should put his best into it. 'The church should also assert that the right to live implied the right to work, and that no man who was capable, whiling, and honest should be workless. After all, tho roots—the roots of these problems and others like them—ran down into a system, and it was doubtful whether this system could be reconciled with the principles ot Jesus Christ.

The capitalistic system which perpetuated the gulf between the two great classes involved in modern industry could not be Christianised, otherwise it would not remain capitalistic. The answer of the church was that this gulf should be bridged, and that these two opposing classes should bo brought closer together. It was not for the church to go into the ways and means of doing this, ft could and ought to declare that co-operation was essentially Christian in principle and hope that a process of bloodless evolution—not revolution—in the direction of co-operation would at length span the abyss. The movement was decidedly in tin's direction to-day, more particularly on the lines of giving the workmen a share in the management of industry. Man, concluded tho speaker, should be taught that he was a spiritual being, and that, alter all, material possessions were to subservo spiritual ends, and thus he could not bo truly satisfied and happy until those ends were realised. THE ADEQUACY OF CHRIST. On ‘ The Church and the Wider World’ the Rev. J. J. North said that when the small clerics mado t great pronouncements of how the woria could be put right they were often ridiculous. Personally, said the speaker, ho believed in the thorough adequacy of Jesus Christ to meet all the problems of mankind, and, although the Bible was imprisoned in black covers as though it were a book of gloom, it contained reserves of life and power sufficient to meet all the needs of men. It was difficult to realise how big and how beautiful it really was, and what they all had to do was to try to understand teachings and feel more truly the Magnificence of Christianity. Bernard (few had said “Tho Galilean was too jpeat for me nof small hearts,” and the New Testament had revealed the conservatism and unwillingness to see how large was the now gospel. The followers of Christ did little more than sit sobbing on the temple steps, till men like Stephen arose to show now the power of tho new religion broke the bonds of conservatism and declared itself bigger than its main pillars supposed. Then there was Paul. He was hurt in his soul when he heard _ little men speak of his mistakes, and rightly so, for he was grater than Plato and greater than Socrates. He saw the great implications of tho Gospel so clearly that Christians fell away from him and threw themselves back on ceremony. Then came men who stood with wonder as they beheld the grandeur and the greatness of Christian ideals. Galileo saw further than most men of his time, and disturbed both the Pope and Martin Luther, who wondered what would become of Christianity if their ideas of what had been were upset. Truly Christ was adequate for all the magnitudes that wore. The Bible had told them that when Christ rose from the dead be was invisible to all but those who loved Him. Then He vanished, and by all ordinary custom tho disciples should have returned weeping, whereas they rejoiced that He had become the Christ eternal. Christ met the problems in an ago like ours by saving the world through men and women, In whom His very life and very love found speaking expression. It was through the saint that Christ solved the world’s problera-s—the modern saint, fired with the passionate desire to do good for tho world. There never was an age so wicked and so vilo as that into which St. Franvis of Assisi was born, yet, when the silk merchant’s son went out into the world to minister to the sick, the needy, and tho suffering all problems solved themselves. EXECUTIVE COJIMITTEE. The following Executive Committee was elected to office; —Tho Revs. H. G. Hejrcus. E. Evans, M. W. P. Lascelles, J. J. North, L. B. Busfield, J. Hidcllestpne, J. Carlisle, E. S. Tqckwell, F. E. Harry, J. Robertson, C. S. Matthews, A. W. Stewart, and Messrs F. W. Andrews, S. Carey. A. North, C. J. Darracott, F. W. Horner, H. M. snjeeton, and J, R. Carey. College Committee —the Revs. F. E. Harry, W. S. Rollings, E. S. Tuckwell. J. W. Kemp, J* Robertson, R. H. K. Kempten, and Messrs H. M. Smeeton, I. W. Andrews, F. W. Horner, and H. Dearsley.