CHRISTIAN WITNESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21273, 29 August 1932, Page 10

CHRISTIAN WITNESS

CAMPAIGN OPENS WELL j making religion real SPECIAL CHURCH SERVICES ; LEAD GIVEN BY ARCHBISHOP _- , Tho week's campaign of Christian witness, conducted by the Anglican and nonepiscopal Churches throughout the city and suburbs, opened most encouragingly yesterday. Special services, with addresses fitting tho occasion, were hold in practically all . churches, and largo congregations showed that tho preparatory meetings and houso-to-houso visits had aroused real interest. A united open-air service was held in Point Erin Park in tho afternoon. There were many pulpit exchanges among tho non-episcopal churches, and a programme of united gatherings will bo carried out through tho coming week. There was a largo gathering at St. Mary's Cathedral in the afternoon, when a week's mission was inaugurated by Archbishop Averill in the presence of the deputy-mayor, Mr. A. J. Entrican, and members of the City Council, and other public bodies and philanthropic, fraternal and social oiganisations. The service was informal and mission hymns were sung. Nsed to Recover Vision In a short introductory address, tho archbishop drew a present-day lesson from tho story of the Transfiguration. Jesus, ho said, took three of His disciples to a high mountain apart for the purposo of bringing them into touch with reality, with tho divine shining through the human, with the vision of God Himself. There was so much superficiality in modern life, and especially in religion, that men and women greatly needed _ such a spiritual experience. In a mission such as the present, people were invited to come apart for a time and to renew their spiritual vision, which among the Jaily contacts of ordinary life was apt to become dim and even to suffer eclipse. " 'Where there is no vision the people perish,' " he remarked. "In these difficult days we all need to keep a little plact* apart where we can find God." For his text later the archbishop took some words from the Epistle to the Ephesians: "Without God in tho world. Quoting from "The Clash of World Forces," by Basil Matthews, _he said that the fervent nationalist believed the highest good to be the glory of his own nation; the convinced communist saw it ir; tho material wellbeing the proletariat, and the secular materialist found it in the triumph of mechanistic civilisation. " Too Many Shirkers " Were these true values ? asked the archbishop. Did they correspond with reality ? Could a good and lasting world-order be built upon them? "If so, we may pursue them," ho added, "but, if not, let us give them up, and in the name of G°d let us challenge them!" With these forces arrayed against God and religion, and particularly against Christianity, Christian men to-day should Jieed God's call, to help, just as they had heeded the call of Christ in past ages and the call of king and country when danger threatened. "The danger with us men is that there are too many of us in the reserves and too few in the front fighting ranks," lie said. "There are too many shirkers. One purpose of this mission "is' to . appeal to thinking men ■ to come" to the front and show their colours'. 1 The" mission will- not b& merely a series of addresses. I'hope it will be the voice of a prophet, having behind it the voice and message of God." It had been well said that the " old masters" were not on their trial, but that the spectator of them was. Christianity was not on its trial; the trouble was that too many professing Christians did not know what their religion really was. v Spiritual Bolshevism Numbers, were ready to admit that there was a place for religion in the -world and that tho world would be an infinitely worse place -without it. Yet the. same people would be surprised if anyone faced them with the indictment, " Thou art the man'," because they bore no witness and were living in spiritual Bolshevism upon- the capital of the saints, giving nothing in return. The cause of much lukewarmness and superficiality in religion to-day was secret doubt, a half-fear that something might be wrong with the- foundations of religion and of Christianity, and in particular that they had been weakened by natural science and Biblical'criticism.' In this a little learning was a dangerous thing. People with doubts should give Christian, ministers credit for wanting to be honest; they did not preach What they did not believe. > It was not "playing the game" tq take pride in one's. difficulties or doubts and to go on nursing them' without ever really seeking a solution. Christianity challenged the popular conceptions of God, of death and of eternal life. Particularly it challenged the easygoing, soporific notion that "all would come' right in the end" and the pagan intuition of natural -immortality.. Character, consciousness and- memory were the only permanent things that-man, by-the gift of God, could take .with him beyond the grave. Men were not here to save' their own souls, but to make the best of themselves so that they could make tho best of others. Without that realisation t,hoy could-, be of no use to God or their fellow men. Each man's life cast shadows upon the lives of others, for good or ill. As he wrote tho book of his own character-and 'memory,- every man was making contributions to the lives and characters of others. Tho archbishop concluded with an earnest plea for the sense of sacrifice and a real witness to religion: in daily life. POINT ERIN PARK SERVICE FIVE CHURCHES COMBINE Conducted among picturesque surroundings in Point Erin Park, a united service in connection with the campaign of Christian witness was attended by several hundred people yesterday afternoon. Ministers of five churches in the Ponsonby .district took part in tho service, and addresses were given from tho verandah of the tea kiosk. During the afternoon the people present recited the Apostles' Creed as a recognition of the purpose of witness. Tho ceremony commenced with tho National Anthem, played by the Ponsonby Boys' Brass Band, and prayer was led by the Rev. Fraser Barton, of St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church. Following a Scripture reading by the Rev. G. Frost, of St. John's Methodist Church, an address was given by tho Rev. J. D. Jensen, of the Ponsonby Baptist Church. The Rev. W. . Averill, of All Saints' Anglican Church, stated that the purpose of tho campaign of united Christian witness was to cause people to consider what they actually- thought of Christ. It was to allow the community substantially to determine its -attitude. The question was ope which would have to be faced.