BAPTIST UNION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11535, 21 November 1900, Page 6

BAPTIST UNION.

ADDRESS BY PASTOR CLARK. [by TELEGRAPH.—PRES3 ASSOCIATION.] Chbistchitbch, Tuesday.; The business session of the Baptist Conference commenced to-day. Two new ministers, the Revs. Martin and Ings, were received. Fifty-four delegates answered the roll-call. A cablegram of greeting was sent to the Victorian Conference, now sitting. The Owaka Church was received into membership. The secretary's report showed a gross increase of 301, and a net increase of 58 members. Thirty-four churches were now affiliated. £2300 were paid off .church debts during the yeai. . . The Conference warmly approved of the action of the committee in inviting the Rev. Greenhough, a famous preacher and president of the British National Free Church Council, to visit the colony next year at the celebration of the Baptist jubilee. The Conference is exceptionally hvrge, and a strong feeling prevails in favour of indertaking home mission and church extension work. At night the Rev. J. Clark delivered the presidential address on " Conflict as the Chief Factor in the Progress of the Church." There was a large attendance. In the course of his address Pastor Clark said: Standing as they did upon the threshold of a new century they were constrained to look back over the extended past of time; to think about the very wonderful present, and to speculate concerning the future. What a debt they owed to our fathers and above all to our fathers' God. Of all the centuries the present would doubtless bo reckoned as the most remarkable hundred years the Church had known; agencies almost beyond numbering had been started, which, for the most part, were zealously worked in spheres calculated to bless the race, so as to accomplish the great designs of God in the world. There was, perhaps, a little danger of over-organisation, and so of feeding unduly the prevailing passion for novelty. After depicting the early triumph and conflicts of the primitive church the speaker went on to say: The century has been marked too by the birth of the scientific spirit, the care given to young life, the consideration given to woman, and the prominence given to all things humanitarian. Religious communities are coming close together, thanks to the influence of the church councils ; this organisation, we believe, has come to stay, and will prove to be the mast remarkable religious movement since the Reformation. We believe also that the kindly attitude of our bishops, in the Old Land, and here, is greatly helping this fraternal spirit, and we are persuaded that the closer we get together the better we shall know and the more we shall love one another. This spirit is largely abroad in the world. Notwithstanding the din of battle, the clash of arms, nations are coming together, treaties are being signed to secure mittual interests and to avoid friction, and we see clearly that the Prince of Peace is most surely doing His beneficent work. In the religious realm let us consider a few of the trials and tests of the Christian Church. One of the sorest trials of this century to the Church has been the work of the rationalistic school. First, let us thank God for science, and second, let us not fail to acknowledge the large debt we owe to Christian scientists like Michael Faraday, Dr. Elieha Gray, and Lord Kelvin, who is said to be unequalled in *he profundity of his knowledge of the ultimate force? of the material universe. Science, not science falsely called, is a friend not an enemy, a real handmaid to Christianity and not a masterful and victorious opponent; for with Romanes we believe science has done no end of good in developing our ideas of method, evidence, etc. But he further says: "What a terrible hell science would have made of the world if she had abolished the spirit ot faith, even in human relatives." But she has not. Evolution, described in a late number of the Bibliotheea Sacra, April, 1900, as " the fad of the century," is far from being proved in its details, and its influence is much weaker j now than it was when first propounded. With the Church wo have some extremes that disconcert, and, we fear, often hinder the good cause, because parts of truth are by extremists represented as the whole. We sadly want a balance of truth. Let us now look at some of the signs of the times which offer to us the best reasons for believing in the progress and permanent and final ascent of the Church. Rationalism, Ritualism, Romanism, Latitudinarism, and Attitudinarian, we believe, are. declining theories and practices, whatever may be advanced to the contrary the spirit of the day and the spirit of the Master are against them. We see, too, that we are getting less individualistic and more communistic; we are more concerned about our favoured fellows than we used to be; legislation and social science are, if anything, rather much in favour with the worker, and we need to be cautions in this direction, or we shall find the hours so short and cost of production so high that we shall shut ourselves out of the world's markets. Science is more humane; we hear less about the icycold doctrine, the survival of the fittest," because Christianity has emphasised its Christlike teaching, the survival of the unfit. Pessimism, the latest product of infidel philosophy, produced such a harvest in the shape of suicides that we now hear very little of the teaching which declares that life is hopeless misery, increasing with increasing knowledge, that no intelligent person can be happy, but must bo miserable to the extent of the intelligence possessed,the only inference being that to bo happy you must be a fool. Literature is sweeten, and the products of the time, in the shape of penny classics, are a marvel of the ages. The education of the people, largely by the people, is a characteristic feature of the day and the coming time. Without difficulty we might continue to show that our fathers, Divinely guided, were led to plant many goodly trees, the luxurious fruits of which wo have now here for the trouble of gathering. There remain two chief developments of recent date which deserve special attention at our hands, although we have already hinted at them. I refer first to the Evangelical Church Councils; they will, under God. work mighty changes in the coming years indeed, they seem to me, to be God's instrument to bring a speedy answer _to the Saviour's prayer, viz., " that we all might be one, even as He and the Father are one." At Home, under its auspices, they are arranging for a vast effort at the opening of the centuryan effort to bring the people to Christ by preaching the Gospel. Ministers of nearly all denominations are to be engaged, exchanging pulpits and districts. May the richest blessing of the Almighty rest upon the work; and may we of New Zealand be led to follow this splendid example of practical Christian love. Let the cry he New Zealand. a new evangelism, which will find the ministers of our churches evangelising the mass**. America is now doing this work, and the greatest of her pulpit magnets are now travelling far and near, drawing crowds to listen to the word, and. we trust, to receive it. The other matter I am particularly anxious to call your attention to, is the holding of an Ecumenical Council recently in the United States. There were at that unique council 2000 delegates, representing 104 different societies, and there were Presidents and exPresidents of the States present, writers, leaders of thought, missionaries, ministers, and leading merchants, from all parts of the world. For eleven days meetings were held, dealing with every interest of mission fields, and since the reason for holding the council was neither ecclesiastical nor intellectual, but spiritual, the best results may be expected. A so many-sided gathering was full of significance,' showing that the interests of religious life and work is now the widest and deepest of all human interests. In conclusion, Pastor Clark said: Let us rejoice together at such a time as this, for we are doubtless on the border kind of the most wonderful experiences the Church has ever known. Today we are able to adjust the value of scholarship; we have seen how important it is; we have learned, however, that it is not everything, its real value being found largely in the spirit in which if is used. I would like that we all had more and more of culture, greater intellectual grip, wider mental range, but chiefly in order that we should be simpler, clearer, and more effective in our ministry But we must never forget that all first principles, oven of scientific facts, are known by intuition, and not by reason, and so it is with regard to the principles of our common religion.