THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 1 February 1936, Page 9

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

(Contributed) Our National Need What do we need to keep the nation whole, To guard the pillars of the State? Wo, need The fine audacities of honest deed; The homely old integrities of soul; The swift temerities that take the part Of outcast right —'the wisdom of the heart; Brav'e hopes that Mammon never can detain, Nor sully with his gainless clutch for gain. We need the Cromwell fire to make us feel The common burden and the public trust To be a thing as sacred and august As the white vigil where the angels kneel. We need the faith W go a path untrod. The fiower to be alone and vote with God. —Edw in Ala rkhatn. The Originality of Jesus It has been claimed by those who are opposed to the Christian religion, that the Golden Rule was not roiginal to Jesus. It had been spoken by others long before Ilis birth. This is certainly true. In the last Fcrnley Lecture, Air E. W. Hirst stated that. “I,lie Golden Rule is widespread as well as ancient, being found in Zoroastrianism. Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Hellenism.'’ A comprehensive list indeed! But it is difficult to see any reason for disparaging Jesus because some of His savings were not original. He Himself said that He came to fulfil what had gone before. • The Christian religion has always taught that God had spoken to men before the coming of Christ. He spoke through the Hebrew prophets. He spoke in the sublime conceptions of the Greek philosophers, and through the ancient thinkers of India and China. For Jesus to have been absolutely original would have meant (hat He rut Himself off from all that the Spirit of God had been teaching men in preparation for His coming. r l he true meaning of His coining was clear- ; ly seen and expressed by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. As trims- I la tod liv Dr. Alofl'att bis opening words ; run. “Alany were the forms and fashions in which God spoke of old to , eur fathers by the prophets, but in these days at the end he has spoken , to us bv a Son.” j I Cm all—Great But oh, the smallness of it all. wo think sometimes, of good work done or realised by endeavour, Wlrat does i! amount lo after all? What is the worth of it to the world or in the midst of the vast universe whose vastliess seems to mock it, before whose vnstness if dwindles and shrinks to nothing? Yet, look you, every bit of

spiritual good done or realised has magnitude, whatever its insignificance iii bulk or show. The humblest duty faithfully discharged, the earnest intent or. wistful struggle to be, the heroic devotion or endurance on some lowly stage, in somo obscure corner, fidelity to principle tlitro jn a trifling matter, the untold triumph by some cottage hearth of love over selfishness, the holier impulse quickened by some word or influence of ours in another’s -oul —these tilings are not measurable in terms of quantity, hut of quality, j ami in quality are always grand in | quality immortal; apparently ending j in themselves, they do not thus end. but survive in their eternal beauty, and in some contribution from them to the 'world, however imperceptible and untraceable. —“The Christian World.”

The Present World Situation A quite new factor in present-day human life, said Dr. J. H. Oldham, addressing a business men’s luncheon i hour gathering on “The World SituaI tiou in 1035,” is that modern science has placed in the hands of those who will to exercise it unprecedented opportunities of influencing the whole mind and life °f their peoples. The present moment is a.vital one in regard to the future of mankind, as it sees the conflict set between the Christian conception of the Divine Being as God and Father of all men, and a eonI ecntion of man shutting out God arid ' limiting man’s purview to nationalism j and materialism. Life is becoming more and more organised, and the control of public .information and education is in the bands of a relatively small number of people. There are no l tariffs in ideas, so that we in this I country cannot remain uninfluenced j bv the impact of these conceptions and practices. Society is based upon a I' certain definite understanding of life, j and we have come to a time when re- ' ligion can no longer be regarded purellv as an affair between an individual and his God. If the Christian faith and the Christian Church is to survive in this modern organised world, they must challenge openly and boldly those ideas which are incompatible with Christianity. For this tremendous conflict between two fundamentally contrary conceptions of human life, it must lie admitted that the churches are in no adequate sense prepared. Yet the struggle is one the results of which are vital to the whole future ,>f mankind. What is needed is a Christian order of society.