CHURCH MILITANT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 68, 17 February 1939, Page 9

CHURCH MILITANT

TASK IN FUTURE. CALL TO~ ACTION. “We ae living in an age of disillusionment, bewilderment and dread,” said Rev. Angus Aicßean, President of tho New Zealand Methodist Church, in commencing liis inaugural address at tho annual conference of the church, now in session at Christchurch. “In the year just past, the heart of humanity almost stood still with horror, confronted as it was with the awful fear that the monstrous dogs ol war were once more to be unleashed iilion a troubled and afflicted world. And a cry of thanksgiving, universal, and almost too deep and poignant for words, went up to the Almighty, because forsooth the sword-clenched hand of an arrogant dictator was held in check, and he was allowed to take without resistance what he had resolved to seize by force and the horrors of war. We must pay tribute to Air Neville Chamberlain for tlie initiative, courage and determination he showed in his pursuit of the way of peace—or at least the avoidance of war. “But this is the world in which wo live to-day—a world in which the nations were so- recently on the brink of the abyss of war. It is a troubled world- and a world full of rapid changes. But if the Chureli is really alive it need fear, no change which the future may bring. No power on earth can destroy a Church made up of people whose religion is real. But a Church which is only an outward shell, containing none of the great forces which produce the finest things in the world, will go down before the blasts of persecution and the onward sweep of godlessness in high places like a jerrybuilt palace before a hurricane. ’ Tlie president quoted a letter received recently, written from the centre of Europe at a time when ait awful fear held the smaller states in a paralysing grip. The writer said that, just as a little child, confronted with a terrible fear, turns instinctively to his father, so he thought perhaps the world would turn to God to-day. “I think,” he wrote, “that out of these days something really fine may in the end come. The persecution in Germany lias struck the Church; but it has produced a vitality and a heroism among many which has indicated where the real strength of the Church lies. The Church must change its emphasis. Formalism must he dropped. The vision of what can he must he presented to the people.” MEETING THE CHALLENGE. Air Aicßean claimed that the conclusions of this writer were _ being borne out by what was happening in other spheres. Humanism was losing its vogue. Mr Aliddleton Alurry had once written a hook in which he had abolished God and dismissed the churches. But he had now become a candidate for the Christian ministry. He had said, “the last five years have really convinced ine that nothing has power to withstand modern paganism except the organised Christian Church.” “How shall the Church meet the challenge of the times?” asked the president. There is need for a positive faith, and an experience that is deep, satisfying, and triumphant. Too often, in place, of this we see little hut perplexities and problems. In some places everything is turned into a problem, even Jesus Himself. It was not so with the Apostles, once they knew the risen Christ. I know that even then they , had some difficultquestions to face ; hut Christ was not a problem. He was a wonderful Reality, and to live with Him was to find abundant grace and victorious life. “People outside tho churches to-day have problems enough of their own. There is little use in asking them to come in and share ours. AVe must have something better to give them. And we shall not. get far with them by saying something like this: Look at us; we don’t get drunk, we don’t swear, and we don’t buy tickets in art unions or sweeps. That simply doesn’t impress them at all. For it is not what we don’t do that matters much ; it is what wo arc that counts. Arc we more generous, more dependable, more unselfish, easier to live with and work with; is the natural tendency to selfishness, greed, selfseeking being overcome; does our presence on a committee add sweetness and graciousness to it? How is it that year after year passes without any change in the personnel of many congregations by tho winning of an oufr sider ? ON THE MARCH. “The Church is an army—it may well be a mighty army, an army on the march, and going forward to victory. The objective is set before us in our hymns and in our prayers: yet many lose sight of it. ‘Thy will he done!’ It is a call to action: it is more than that, it is the Divine programe for mankind. ‘Your old men shall dream dreams,’ said the prophet. But they will not be dreams of the long dead past, ‘the good old days.’ For these men, whose eyes have been opened to the glory of God and His Kingdom, the Golden Age lies in the future, they dream of great days yet to be. But those who think the best is gone, and who face the future without hope and without courage, these are already old, though their years may not number more than twenty-five or thirty. Armed with a dream! Let those laugh who will, but, believe me, this is the one impenetrable armour in the world. No enemy can ever break a people who are armed with a dream worthy to be believed. “Here then is our dream, Christ’s dream: 'the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ’: and He shall reign for ever and ever. There lies the goal. To fulfil His sublime and matchless dream is our campaign.”