CHURCH SYNODS, ETC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11202, 24 October 1899, Page 3

CHURCH SYNODS, ETC.

TO THE EDITOR. There is a constant recurring fuel, and which must he patent to very many observers, namely, that the practical results of periodical church synods, etc., are puny as regards benefit to the community. Their solid outcome is almost a blank. Why is this so? Gentlemen of intelligence meet from year to year in apparent earnest conclave, many, too, travelling long distances to be present, and four to five days are devoted without grudge to the matter by over 50 members, and which also include -business men. There seem to be three causes which are mainly productive of the puny results witnessed. The first is too much money, or "shop" talk; the second is ecclesiasii-.'ism; the third, narrowness of spirit. That money is usually an essential in most Christian work, nobody will deny, yet, money is not everything, fof there is also love, and voluntary labour, to be- considered, and which should be constantly encouraged and stimulated, asking for volunteers to share in needful Christian efforts. If urged, and the object be an urgent one, there will often be an unexpected' response thereto. If, 'on the

other hand, it is stated, that a man must have his' weekly 'stipend of £4, with 15s weekly added for a house, besides travelling oxpouses found", well, 1, then', tli'o .matter is simply talked: about, and is likely to end there. This is oeolosiasticism. Next is a narrowness of spirit. It is not whether the people are getting tho "bread of life" (Christ), but, do they get it from our shopl 'beeauso our bakehouse faces to the east, and all loaves therefrom are stamped with a cross, and wo desiro our people to cat these only. Or, by another simile, it does not matter so much as to whether tho perishing are saved, but chiefly whether they are-rescued by means of our lifeboat. How terribly narrow is such hidden reasoning. Sometimes one is inclined to think that church synods and conferences might show larger results if composed only of business men. The experimont might yet be tried for social and philanthropic objects.—l am, etc., N.Z.