CHRISTIAN REUNION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20923, 13 July 1931, Page 13

CHRISTIAN REUNION.

f# Sir, —We are living in an age when everything is tested by its present-day practical worth, in other words, by what it does. This applies no less to organisations than to persons, and to religious organisations at that. Practical worth is the test instinctively applied by the unsophisticated person of every-ctay life, and it is also the true test, for, as I said in my former letter, it is Christ's own test:—"By their fruits ye shall know them." My object in drawing attention to this practical standard of judgment was to correct what I considered an error promulgated by your correspondent, Mr. Hugh Mcllaigh, and others, who seem to champion the view that because there is a lineal descent, ecclesiastically speaking, with one* or more of Our Lord's Apostles, therefore the religious organisation in question can necessarily claim Divine authority to-day. For a similar reason the Divine authority of other organisations is denied. My reply is that these latter vindicate their spiritual authority by the good they are doing (supposing it, to bo genuine good), and in that opinion the majority of ordinary cvery-day people will readily acquiesce. One may question the theoretical origin of many religious bodies, and although it may be readily conceded that several of these are scarcely justified in having a separate existence, yet undoubtedly they prove that the Divine grace is operant within them by the unmistakable good results of their efforts and work. The same test applies with equal validity to every other religious organisation. I have not the slightest intention of raking over historical cesspits for the purpose of defaming the Roman Catholic Church. Let bygones be bygones! These "bygones" Mr. Mcllaigh readily acknowledges, but in any case we who live today cannot be blamed for the doings of our forerunners, whether Protestant or "Catholic." Whnt I say is this: If "Catholicism" is to prove its Divine authority to-day, it will be not by drawing attention to the commission entrusted to St. Peter or to any other Apostle, but by demonstrating through its practical deeds that the grace of God is operating within it as a mighty -spiritual force, regenerating the characters of men, however originally bad, and manufacturing saints, as it occasionally used to do in past days. By its "fruits" we shall recognise it as part of the living Church of the Living God. Any future movement in the direction of the reunion of Christendom will vindicate itself in like manner by showing that after union the Church has become very much more efficient in producing the "fruits" of Christian character and of social service and social regeneration. C, B. Jordan. July 10, 1931.