FAITH AND FELICITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

FAITH AND FELICITY.

[BY 3JRITANNICT7S.] For months past the English papers have been filled with letters and articles and speeches on the The Crisis in the Church, and an ccho of the ecclesiastical controversy has found its way into the colonial press. But the real crisis is not in tho church, but outside the church. It is tho spirit ot Christianity that is in danger, far more than the creeds and dogmas and ritualism of the churches. The world is passing through the twilight 01 faith. " The hills grow dark," as Scott says, and we begin to feel the gloom and mystery of the coming night. There is silence and sadness all around us. With the light has gone the joyousncss of life. Our hearts aro heavy with the clammy hand of dull despair. We feel that we are losing interest in existence. lhe present presents nc attractions for lis and the future no hope. We grow morbid and pessimistic. Wo take a dark view of everything. We deliberately shut our eyes to tho ocauty and tho glory of the wcrld. We perplex ourselves with riddles that none can Whence canio we? Whither do wo go? What is life? What is death? As we lose faith we lose happiness. The salt that savours life has gone. Wo aro m "re bubbles on the stream of Time, blown up we know not how, and vanishing wo know not where—bubbles or all sizes and of all hues, some dancing in diamond-like brilliancy, some dull and unresponsive, like the eye of a dead fish. There aro millions of them, and they are for ever and ever Appearing and disappearing, and the stream flows on deep, solemn and silent, as if unconscious of them all. W itliout doubt, it is all a profound mystery, unless we plant oui feet firmly on the ro-'k of faith, and believe, as Wordsworth believed, that all wo seo is full of blessings.

But it can scarcely bo well questioned that at the present moment faith appears to be on the ebb. It is appalling, lam assured, to find how widespread and bow deoprcoted is the feeling that lifo is not worth living, that '.t is a. hollow mockery, a sham, and a delusion.

This feeling is not confined to any particular class. It is common to both sexes and t) all conditions. 'Ihere lias sprung up ill many minds a stiunga profound discontent, which, unhappily, too often finds it.» climax in self-destruction.

They see wrong triumphing over right; they see honesty trampled underfoot by fraud; they see hypocrisy rolling in wealth, and truth clothed in rags; they see ignorance in tho mansion, and intelligence in the hovel; they see industry and thrift condemned to ceaseless toil, and laziness and improvidence rewarded; they see riches in the pulpit, and poverty in the pew; thoy see misery, and injustice, and humbug, and cant wherever they look, and they aro filled with overwhelming discouragement and nifiancholy.

In an a»e saturated with the spirit of commercialism, and the greed of gold, they look in vain for the spirit which animated the Sermon on the Mount.

A terrible eatastropho happens panic in a theatre, a collision at. sea, a tidal wave, a volcanic eruption—and hundreds, or it may be thousands, of human beings aro engnlphed. Why, it is asked, docs God allow these things tc take place? Are they consistent with the oxistenco of a divine and beneficent Providence? And because our intelligence can supply no answei, wo give ourselves up to despair. Wo seo in Nature, "red in tooth and claw," endless warfare—in the sea, in the air, and on the land, one ceaseless cruel and merciless straggle, and we know not why. It is all a mystery. An epidemic, a drought, a famine, may devastate 1 province. Why does God permit it? We cannot tell; and so many thousands gradually drift away from tho ancient moorings, and, lot ing faith and ballast, aro tossed hither and thither upon the stormy sea of doubt until the waters of death close over them.

It is this loss of faith which is plunging one half tho world into sorrow and tho other half into sin. This is tho real cancer 01 our time, and until wo cut it out, or bum it cut-, thero can be no improvement in our moral condition. Ihe ehiU'chcs may continue to show an increase of membership, but that is a fallacious test of the true state of Christianity. Mere church-going is no proof of tho Christian life. Indeed, some of tho greatest pillars of the church have been notorious evil-doers. Their life has been a lie. Ihe great mass ot church-god's are no better than they should be. They do not practice during the week tho precepts which they profess on Sunday, Their churchg('in o is largely a matter of form. They are not in earnest. Neither the sendee not the sermon which thoy take part in and listen to 011 the Sunday deflects one way or another their conduct on the Monday. Tho same old conventional lies are told, the same tricks of the trade are played --the sugar is still sanded, and tho Joker carefully concealed up the sleeve. Is the world, then, growing worse? Ho would indeed be a bold man who would affirm that it is growing better. It is, however, only a passing phase. ■ The course of human thought moves in circles, and what has been will be. Thus we may look forward with confidence to the time when the wilderness shall blossom as the rose, and the rough places shall be made smooth. But at present we are going through the twilight of faith. The old belief is ebbing, and as a consequence we are growing discontented and unhappy. No one now is prepared to make a sacrifice for his faith. The age of martyrs has gone. There is no clear ring of sincerity anywhere. Without faith there can be no real pleasure in life. It is the source of all cheerfulness and joy. It lightens our burden and takes the sting from every affliction. Milton describing to Cyriac Skinner his blindness, says: — Yet, I argue not Against Heaven's hand, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope ; but still bear up and steer Eight onward." * We are ennobled by suffering when borne with resignation, and in the sure and certabi hope of a happy release. % Upon the whole, says an English divine, it appears that in making the world the scene of our activity, the Creator opened out to us a field of enjoyment arising from and part of the activity itself, and that even serious annoyances and failures are not enough to deprive of this satisfaction. It may also be said that the higher and more engrossing the pursuit the greater is its power to lift us over lower troubles, so that a life might appear to be full of suffering to careless eyes, which was in fact so filled with noble efforts for the general good that the sorrows went almost unperceived. Nor need the mysteries of life sour or freeze the genial currents of the soul. If we hold that the world is not a final fact at any moment, says a recent writer, that it has a purpose, that that purpose is being constantly worked out, but that the ultimate issues are revealed within the unseen, that the death of the body is not that of the soul, and that all which happens was included in the divine plan—if we have faith to look at the universe in this way, and to see that it is

not to be measured by our little subjective plummet, we shall not despair at the many seeming ills 0 human life. The world is a beautiful place for those who can use their eyes aright, and is overflowing with joy for those who work by faith and keep the laws. Much of the lack of faith that now prevails is the result of shallow thinking, while the weariness of life is due to the want of purpose. The secret of how to he hippy is to have an aim in life, and to follow it strenuously. We have each a life to live, and we should see to it that we live it rightly, that it is not frittered away, but is devoted to the service of man. The measure of the work of life, as has been said, is not the joy or misery found in the world, but the satisfaction that, follows free and right activity. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, fliese three alone lead life to sovereign power, l et- not for power (power of herself \\ ould come uncalled for), hut. to live by law, Acting tho law wo live by without fear ; And because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.