TELEGRAMS

Grey River Argus, 29 February 1908, Page 3

TELEGRAMS

Per Press Association— By Electric Telegraph— Copyright.

METHODIST CONFERENCE

A PLAIN-SPOKEN REVIEW

WHAT IS THE CHURCH DOING?

AUCKLAND, Feb. 28. At the Methodist Conference there are 170 Ministers present: Rev G. E. Beecroft, of Feilding, was elected president. The address of the retiring President of the Methodist Conference (Rev. VV. Slade ) to-night included a vigorous and plain spoken review of th c problem of non-church goers. He referred to the enormous disparity between the number of people inside and outside the churches 'In 'dealing with this subject we need no go," h e said, beyond our own shores, because N. Z. presents, on a reduced scale, a picture of what exists in Europe, in America, and in Australia. Where may w e look for the cause. "This it may be expressed in a sentence. ' The world. The world has captured the church, and still for the most part holds dt in bondage. The entire population of New Zealand is in round numbers 900,000. The number of people .for whom accommodation is provided in all the churches and meeting houses is 375,908. Here we have a difference of considerably over half a million, i -which means that if on any day the whole population wished to attend div- ! me service more thanj half a million could not get inside the places where service is held but this does not ex- - press all the facts. When we ask what number of people the churches themselves return as attending their various ■places of worship we find the number is 220,263, which leaves a still greater disparity between our total population and church attendance. It is an unwelcome truth that not a quarter ot the people in the dominion are ever found within the walls of the church. Mr Slad c referred to what he termed "the deep and awful cleavage" that exists between the worEing clashes and the Christian church. Not only he said, do comparatively few of the great army of toiling men and women attend the churches but there" exists in their minds an intense hostility to them and through them to religion itself. To these persons churches are associated with political disabilities, with social inequalities, with invidious class distinction, with economic injustice, and with pride of purse and pride of place. To them religion has seemed to be always the privilege of the rich and th c strong. 'We cannot wonder at this. It is difficult to think of an abuse of power in which State churches have not shared. The darkest pages of history have been embroidered with mitres and lawn sleeves In recent times th c churches have seemed to the working classes to be indifferent to their needs and sufferings They think of the churches as institutions which say "live «i a nice house, wear nice clothes, have money in your .pocket,, and we will welcome you" they tannk :that rtjhe churches are not only out of -eympathv witih -them but axe actually opposed to their efforts t 0 secure 'air wages far themselves, better home «nd eni vironment for their families, and to be able to live without the dread presence of the worlf always at the door. They think the churches have always been on the side of the big .battalions ofthe -capitalist, of the land owenr, ot the monopolist. We who have read history know how mistaken all tJhis is. We know, in snite of her many shortcomings and mistake, the. Christian Church has done infinitely more than any other half a dozen institutions put together for the amelioration of the suffering, of mankind. If Christianity has no" power to attract me multitude, if it has nothing to offer towaTds the solution of problem, which though not immediately religious, have great influence on religion., if when men with th c anguish born of hunger ask that the bread of earth be made earier to procure, religion can only talk about tihe bread .of the life to come, of when shivering with cold they •pray for warm clothing for themselves and their families, religion can only point to the white raiment which the redeemed wear, if in the mcc ;Ot Wie extremeb of wealth and destitution which modern life -"resents, the multimillionaire squandering thousands of pounds 1 on one Batlhanalian while the poupcr lies dying of .hunger on his sack of straw. If I say in answer to this religion -hus only the message about the crowns of gold which the saved sliall wear before the throne in another sphere, it should not surprise us that men turn away from •it as havintr'no message for them.