AGAINST DISBELIEF

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 154, 1 June 1937, Page 9

AGAINST DISBELIEF

CHURCH IN REVOLT. ST. ANDREW’S SERVICE. “In these la.tter years, along a very wide front, disbelief lias won a victory; we need not deceive ourselves about that,” said ltev. J. Hubbard, -VI.A., 8.D., in, the course of an eloquent sermon in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, on Sunday. His subject was “The Revolt Against Irreligion” and there was a very large congregation. “The victory of disbelief,” proceeded Mr Hubbard, “is taken'for granted .by intellectuals over a wide area. One entire nation has gone over to it, and we can see all around us just what this thorough-going disbelief means — in personal character and social attitude, in the philosophy of life and its ethical result.” But, he added, there was no need for discouragement. This revolt of the disbelievers had brought to bear upon the creeds and churches justified criticism forcing intelligent believers to re-establish their lives on more defensive grounds. Moreover, it was handing over to Christian believers. the advantage of revolt —now Christian believers were the rebels j against irreligion. “Up into places of powtw, out into the thinking people of our time, filling o,ur literature with cynicism, our personal living with futility and our public life with paganism moves triumphant disbelief,” declared the preacher with emphasis. “All that scorns to bo most precious in life is threatened by it; all that makes life most worth living mn.v be crushed under it. We are in rebellion against a. pagan world ruled by irreligion and we must capitalise tire situation. We can make being a Christian really exciting if we will do it.” The primary effect of disbelief was to disturb not morals but morale, the preacher said, for no man could become genuinely irreligious without lowering his enthusiasm about living and so lowering his morale. “Heaven have mercy upon a nation,” lie added, "whose most privileged youth, with everything that culture and education - can give them, stand upon the threshliold of life —and there are thousands

such—wondering whether life lias any meaning. Life- cannot go oil without a spiritual push; we can live without ears, and aeroplanes, and we can live on lialf-a-crown a day, but if life has no aim, no direction, no purpose, then it is nothing.” The revolt had! to go oil, Mr Hubhard said, because of the substitutes which wei;e going in where religion went out. Taking the place of the worship of God was the worship of man. There was the common spectacle of a man denying God and so inevitably becoming his own god. “Look at this crazy, chaotic, tem-pest-tossed world to-day. The worship of the State by millions is a substitute religion, and where do you think that substitute god will bring us out?” asked the preacher, “lie will tear our fair world info pieces and make our children’s earth a. hell. Can we stand for such a thing? No! The revolt is on and the pagan deities and substitute gods must be swept away and the true God restored to His proper place.” The final count, lie thought, against irreligion was the fact that in the da\ when men desperately, needed heart their disbelief took it out of them. “I believe there is a feeling,” lie concluded, “that this pagan outlook has had a long enough innings, and there is reason to believe that the period of cvnicism and moral frustration is drawing to a close.” But the fight must go on. The revolt against irreligion had to become a real thing.