SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

Evening Star, Issue 22359, 8 June 1936, Page 11

SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

Mr R. N. Ridd was the speaker at yesterday evening’s service at the National Spir 'nalist Church, and he took n r nis subject ‘ A Spiritualist’s View of the Vicarious Atonement and Forgiveness of Sins.” In the course of his address the speaker pointed out that it was extremely difficult for Spiritualists to accept the orthodox interpretation of the vicarious atonement as being compatible, from a religious point of view, with reason and common sense. A Spiritualist required his religion to appeal to his reason as well as his intuition, and if it did not do so, lie considered that there was something wrong either with his reason or his religion. Of necessity, our sins must be forgiven, but not until we have worked out our own salvation, after we have borne our own burden, said Mr Ridd. We would not thank the school teacher who bore our children’s burdens for them and worked out their problems. And the purpose of Christ was the same; it was a matter of the Great Teacher teaching us how to think, act, live, and achieve on lines which 1 the Great Creator had mapped out at the very beginning of things. The great purpose was, said the speaker, to make us realise that wo had to work out our own salvation, to be responsible for our own thoughts and deeds, lor every idle word we uttered; to realise that we were humble followers of Jesus tho Christ, who lid not come to earth in a physical body in order to bear our sin's, but in order to teach us how to avoid sin, how to live, act, and think, and, most important of all, how to die. It was easy to sin, and vicarious atonement would make it easy to escape tho consequences of sin; all that was necessary would be to experience a change of mind at the psychological moment to express sorro for one’s misdoings. This was one of the greatest incentives to sin that was ever promulgated, said the speaker, and it surely would be illogical, not to say stupid, for a Divine Being to place us here to learn our lessons, develop, our character, and then, no matter how little we had learned how much we had shirked, how great the wrongs we had done—all we need to do was to feel and express sorrow at the last moment in order to be vested in the same degree of spirituality as those whr. had lived clean, honorable, Godfearing lives. A number of clairvoyant messages were given by Sister Edith after the address. Mr V. J. Hut ten presided.