‘FREEDOM BY THE TRUTH’

Evening Star, Issue 22271, 24 February 1936, Page 3

‘FREEDOM BY THE TRUTH ’

LECTURE BY MR W. SHAKESPEARE SINKS Ample evidence of any justification which might have been required for Mr W. S. Shakespeare Bink’s decision to accede to the request that he should deliver a second series of lectures in Dunedin was forthocoraing last night when the Town Hall Concert Chamber was packed to the doors and beyond with people eager to hear the eminent psychologist. There was a decided warmth in the welcome accorded him, too, when he appeared amid the beautifully arranged stage sotting.

Mr Shakespeare Binks announced at the outset that he intended that on this particular occasion his lecture should be of a religious character, and that it would be to all intents and purposes, a sequel to a similar type of lecture which he delivered during the previous series.

Taking for his subject, ‘ Freedom by the Truth,’ the lecturer, in the course of the evening, pointed out the errors which, he considered, had brought about a misconception of God. Orthodoxy would have it, he said, that God was made in the image of man, whereas in reality the reverse was the case. God was a Spirit, an all-pervading, everlasting, infinite Spirit of Consciousness. The “ two power superstition,” said the lecturer, must be got rid of, for there was but one God and Father of all, Who was above all, through all. and all in all. In Him we lived and moved and had our being, just as in us He lived and moved and had His being. The old idea of God as'a Person to be appeased, to have His goodwill, bought, must go. Science had killed atheism, and now no earnest man who gave any thought to the subject at all would deny the existence of a Supreme Power, a Universal Intelligence. It was a fact, said Mr Shakespeare Binks. which • the scientists now admitted, that there was a Supreme Purpose in the great universe. And this wonderful' universe, including our own little planet. Earth, was all the outcome of God’s imagining. There was a purpose in every happening, no matter how black and puzzling our lives might appear to us at times; regardless of the cross purposes, the cruelties, the sins of the world, there was a Supreme Purpose in it all. People blamed God for a lot of things that were manmade and not God-made at all* said Mr Shakespeare Binks. Venomous, dangerous, unpleasant things were all the outcome of man’s wrong thoughts and actions down the ages.' For God was essentially a God of Love; the Spirit of God was the Spirit of Truth. Yet, said the lecturer, there was a universal Jaw which could not be broken with impunity; man had been given free will, and if he chose to ignore the laws of Nature, the laws of God, then he must inevitably suffer until he had adjusted the balance. The great Life Principle, which was responsible for all creation, was everywhere. We could not escape it if we would, for “ He is closer to us than breathing; nearer to us that hands and feet.”

In dealing with the three greatest religions—that of Buddha, that of Mahomet, and that of Jesus, the lecturer remarked that when the average person; sav, in New Zealand, thinks of religion lie thinks onjy of Christianity. Yet thousands in this country followed the teachings of Buddha, teachings which began 500 years before the advent of Christianity. And it was safe to say that the average person set more store by the miracles of Jesus than by any other aspect of His life in this world. Yet Jesus Himself regarded the raising of a material form or the healing of the sick as only an outward symbol; there was more significance, in His eyes, in the inward spiritual truth. Miracles were for the moment; Truth was for all time. The lecturer also urged his hearers to remember how Jesus had stressed man’s sonship with God, and how He had repeatedly told th£ people that they were co-heirs with Him. And ■when one realised that every part of Nature was part of the Divine thought it could be seen that perfect man would represent - the whole thought of God. Christianity, then, presented to the world the perfect man in the person of Jesus, who had said “ When you see Me, you see the Father.” This incarnation was not brought about that God might become man, but that man might become'God. There was one point which theologians always missed, deliberately or unintentionally, said the lecturer, and that was the point regarding freedom in the teachings of Jesus, who never claimed anything for Himself that he could not claim for mankind. What he himself did, men, provided they had truth in their hearts, could do also. The whole thing was so simple, yet what quarreling and hair-splitting there was among the leaders and followers of the various .reeds regarding this same question: 1 What is Truth?” Incidents and statements in the Bible were argued and cavilled over unduly, different opinions were expressed over small matters, when all that was of any importance was the great fundamental truth as it was in Jesus; for although He might have tired of performing miracles. He never wearied or proclaiming the truth. And that truth was man’s divine inheritance.

Perhaps, said Mr Shakespeare Binks, this new psychology had come to us for the purpose of revealing the truth; of clearing the cobwebs away so that mankind could enter the door at which Jesus had invited them to knock. Those who feared to leave the old, worn-out pathways which had been trodden by the unenlightened all down the ages, would never find the truth. Progress was the law of life; progress was the antidote to decay, whether it referred to business, social life, religion, or anything else. Science had freed ns from a thousand superstitions, yet how many people were afraid of science when it came to the question of religion. “ A zealous Buddhist is far better than a lazy Baptist, said the lecturer, “ so, if rehgipn is not changing your life, then it is time you changed your religion.” “ There is just one right way of doing everything,” concluded Mr Shakespeare Binks; “ one track which your temperament, disposition, nature, says is the best, and that one right way is the truth for you.” Deep down in our subconscious mind, he added, is embedded not only the wisdom born of our own experiences in life, but the accumulated wisdom of ages, and when we realise this and can draw from that wonderful storehouse, then we have indeed gained freedom by 7 the truth.