CHURCH RALLY

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3492, 30 October 1926, Page 15

CHURCH RALLY

(By J. M. Stewart.)

THE ORDINARY MAN AND THE CHURCH.

This is the person who is continually asking: “What is wrong with the Churches?” Everybody knows what is wrong with the Churches. The discussion of the reasons for decline in church attendance is perennial. X cannot remember when it wasn’t relevant. In ecclesiastical circles it is always the question of the hour. Two hundred years ago that stalwart of Puritanism, Isaac Watts, wrote: “We long to see Thy Churches full.” The eighteenth century has been described as a “conscienceless time." There was no brightness in the past, and no promise in the future; religiously, it looked not like the morning, but like the evening of the world. This is a discussion which is easily started by the ordinary man, and yet in his own mind he invariably believes in the Jesus of the first century, but when it comes to Jesus of the twentieth century he tries to make us believe he is an atheist.

A comparatively small portion of these men come to our churches to tvorship in the Name of Christ, concerning Whom they have no clear conception and about Whom they think so slovenly. To a large number He receives a passing thought On Easter Day, Christmas Day. and Sn New Year's Day. when they rliake all sorts of good resolutions, Which they have no' intention of fulfilling. Some think of Him in an ctncrgency; when bereavement comes liilo the family or when any crisis cbmes when they need the comfort and consolation of Christ; but to thousands in our town Jesus means little more than the man in the moon. And the Church? Well! Somehow they feel glad there are churches. They mean little to the most, but the community seems a safer place because of them. One can motor round the countryside, with more comfort on a Sunday, knowing that there arc parsons as well as police in the vicinity of their homos and business places. Dike the Greeks and Romans of old their hearts have gone out of religion, but it is just as well to keep the churches open. The Church to them is like a grandmother looking through - her spectacles with an air of censor and saying: "You mustn’t do this! You mustn’t do that!” And these twentieth century ordinary men retort, that the Church is out of date; Religious folk, as they call them, are seen looking out upon ; the world through the stained-glass windows of the Church, and the man in the street is bored stiff. They regard those associating themselves with the Church as antldiluvian. And yet those people are in-

variably religious at heart. There is a lekven, working in their lives. The Spirit of God which is striving with the people in the Church, is also striving with the people outside the Church. We arc leaders of men to-day in so far as we can express the thoughts that arc surging in the' minds of our fellows. Wo are living to-day in the presence ot groat opportunity. Religion is the one subject upon which most people arc having a say in these times. Have we an insight to take advantage of it? How is it to be done? How are we to bring the healing touch of Jesus into contact with this awful need ? The ordinary man tells us that what is wanted is more love. How much does all this talk amount to? It is easy to say these things, and such disgruntled talk is often very unpractical. For to put it frankly,, the love of God to most people is a sort of spectacle at which to gaze and wonder, and not a practical power. Well, how can we make this love of God a practical thing to the people of to-day? How can we link up the fullness of God with life’s emptiness? Where shall we. find the connecting link? We turn to the Church. It seems popular nowadays for- the ordinary 'man to criticise the Church and on tlie face of it. such criticism may seem justified. Her past is stained with blunders, her present is so far rmoved from the heights her Dord had marked out for her, while many of those within her gales contribute by thpir .very world)iricss to her inefficiency. Nothing seems easier than to criticise the Church and lay at her door the responsibility for the unhappy state of affairs obtaining in modern life. ' We have heard enough of the old saying: “I can bo good without going to Church." Assuming that they can, where did they get their goodness from? Very likely from a dear old mother or a saintly pld father who did go, and this talk of goodness outside the Church is another form of selfishness. Those people refuse to hand on to ■ their children what has been handed on to them and made them great. We must not judge the Church by her past, or even by 'her present, but in the light of what she may become, with our help as ordinary men. Besides, what qualifications has the man in the street for judging the Church? Who is this man. of the street? What arc his predominant interests? He can tell you what horse won the last big race; ho will tell you who kicked the winning goal in the football championship, or who is likely to carry off the next heavy and lightweight championships, or what hotel in the town sells the best beer: but about the deep matters of his life ho is ignorant. If the Church were perfect, as perfect as the ordinary man thinks she ought to be, there would still be a great world outside.

When we turn all reasons and wonder why the ordinary man stands aloof from the Church, the chief reason is I think that men to-day

are not prepared to yield to the Holy appeal that Christ makes to life. There are other institutions w T hich have a pull because men can bo welcomed as talkers and workers and yet remain their old selves; but there is something on the threshold of the weakest Church to challenge' a man’s inner life. Therein lies the problem. For those whoso revolt from the Church is due to unworthy dinings there is only one message—Repentance. Now whatever may be your attitude to the Church of to-day and to religion generally, do not forget it was the Church that gave you Jesus Christ—-that noble figure, that precious story and that great ideal. And ho has a right to be hoard as a member of the Human race. He may bo like yourself, an ordinary man, whatever that phrase may moan to any person using it. To me man is not an ordinary but an extraordinary being. But if so, Jesus has a right to be heard as an ordinary man . Whai<ver Ho taught or is reputed to ’have taught is worthy of every consideration on our part. Whatever -is the value in His teaching cannot be set aside on any just grounds. He has been a factor in the world’s development and the Church that grew out of Him is one of the biggest things in the world to-day: big as a social experiment, big as a human thing. The churches of this town are now offering you the opportunity to cease hugging so fondly those discredited ideals which have kept you aw'ay from public worship for so many years. By taking an interest in her work, by investing a little more of your time, and best of all yourself, so that you may hand on to your children that which has has been so generously given by your own fathers and mothers to you. By doing this you will marvel at the joy that will come to you in the Increasing power of the Church.