OUR PARSON'S CHAT

Hutt News, Volume 9, Issue 16, 25 September 1935, Page 8

OUR PARSON'S CHAT

(By "Fulttx.") TWO YOUNG LADIES. I had two young ladies to see me the other night. They had been at a meeting that I-had addressed aji(t called at the manse to a talk about things. One of the qufestitnii ths/ asked is one that is often asked by people, and so 1 am going to answer it here in my chat this week. The question was about church going. Win should people go to church ? Could the} not be just us good if they did not go, and as a matter of fact is it not the case that many who do not go to church live just as good lives as those who do!' Those were the questions these two, young girls lirod at me. Now it is easy to take up the attitude that the church has always existed, at least since the birth of the Christian era, and therefore it must have some part to play in life. I remember reading in a book on psychology ouee, of a man who experimented with some ducklings. They were just hatched and he put them after a'day or so into some water. The first day they splashed around and endeavoured to swim. The next day they did better, and so the next day he put them in without any water. That day they tried to swim just as if the water Was there. The next day he put tham | in without water again, they tried j to swim again. He continued the experiment for a fortnight, and at the end of that time the ducklings ceased to try to swim. They realised it was not getting them anywhere, and so knocked off. If duckling's have enough sense to do that men have also. That means two things in connection with our question. I The first is this: There are some men who have knocked off going to church because they did not see it was getting them anywhere. I do not blame them: I feel sorry for them. Either they did not know what to seek for in the church they attended, or else they were unfortunate in the one they choose. The other decision is far more important. It is this: If the church had not contributed something to the lives of men, it would have been given up long ago. For I would have you remember that it has not always been as easy to go to church as it is to-day. In the days that are gone, it often meant persecution rnd in some cases death. Yet despite that fact, men aui women who were of the noblest of their generation went to church. The fact that the church exists to-day is a sign that in the past it las meant something to men. When we discuss church attendance we ought not to lose sigbt of that fact. But we must be able to say mure than that to the young people of our

duy. What wc will say of course depends on whether they are (Jlirmtiuns or not. It' they are Christians, then 1 s»iy to them that Christ founded the. (hureh, and for thut reason they outfit & support it. ; I take it, as one of Ihe Rings' I accept, and Uo Hot urgue about, that "'Christ*'" knew what He was about when He founded the Church. He win providing a weans whereby people Who had given themselves to linn ai»ht meet for fellowship and for the d:;ep|nins of the spiritual life. 'Mow, if th.it is jgo/>vho" am I that 1 should say it is unnecessary'fDo I set myself up ibovi? Christ and say that 1 know more t.J what is necessary for the spiritual lit'n of men than He did.' If 1 take ih it position, then let me be honest fuJ cease to'put myself down as a Christian. .-Moreover, we forget- that Chris tian made 'it a practice to go to the 'synagogue. That was the equivalent of the church, roughly speaking. Mow, He must have heard some awL'ul duvet at some of those services. Is it going 100 tar to say that sometimes lie niignt even have heard a sermon exposing the Mew Prophet from CalileeJ Vet for alt of that Me continued to go. Now, why .should He do Unit' He did it to set u» an example. He did it also because it meant something' to llim. it we go It church in His spirit it will mean something to us, too.

Again, my young Christian i'rieml, I would have you remember that Christ Has promised a special blessing foi those who gather together in His name. Here are the words of it: —Whore two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am i in the midst." Later, when the man who wrote the Lpistle to the Hebrews remembered that he wrote: Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. That was to poodle who probably ran tlie risk of persecution when they gathered together for worship. But the writer does ijut let them make that an excuse. See to it. he says in effect, that you keep up your church attendance. Those thing's atwavs seem l» me Id fairly solid reasons, first the eh tire It would long ago have l':t !:"l oui il i! hud not been l'ullilliiig s<mi<- purpose Second, Christ founded llur di nvn and therefore as a disciple oi 111 must support it. Third, Christ Himself made a Habit of going ! j the syuag. t h(-• equivalent of our "kiirth. Fourth, lie has promised a ble-i<in<j lor those who meet with their fellows in Jlis name. Fifth, it is distinctly laid down in the epistle to the Hebrews that Christians are not to forsake the assembling of themselves together.