DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14528, 20 May 1909, Page 5

DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH.

REPLY' TO .MR FISHER. tFaoit Oue Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, May 17. Sevoi.il pulpit leferencts were made in Auckland on Sunday to the Federal Prime Minister's "recent statements concerning tiic attitude of the Church towards labour and social (pillions The Moderator of the Auckland Presbytery (Rev. A. Macaulay Caldwell) stated' that he was surpi is-jd thai more thought and care were not ejven in chiiosiiig speakers, for Assembly gaihetings, there being so many men within the Cuuich who have studied tliu problems lic.'t'lliiig human life and conduct, and who have spent, and' are (.pending, their strength in en kavouring to solve such problems, and are thereby capable oi lea.iiiig iind ;;iviny advice, lie hoped that, the 'exhibition made by Mr Eidier would be a lis.-on to the Australian Church and a warning to the Church in New Zealand nut to allow those who aie outside the Church, and have apparently no sympathy with the Chinch, to criticise and abuse it m>m its own platforms. Mr Kishoi and those ass-icialod with Mini overlooked the fact thai the C'mudi of Chri.-A in all lands was compn.-ed of all classes and conditions of men, many of whom were in a practical way interested in affairs legislative, municipal, v "ducalioiKil, and social, and tiiat when any need arose it wai! the inenioe'.i of the Church who rendered net ic:l h: Ip and donated iuu< of the money icciiured. The conspicuous weakue.-s of Mr Fisher's criticism, said the s]veai;er. lay in this: that he did not specialise the failure, but made a general assertion, overlooking the fait that abuse was no argument. Nothing delighted the true critic more than to be able to specialise failure, to set iovtb what should lie done, and to show how it should be doii". Mr Kisher stood outside and said : " I will do nothing and tell you nothing; but you. the Church, ought to call at mice a special session to take into account my weighty remarks, ami then if you do what pleases me 1 will come along and gi;e you my Messing.'' It was lime the Church was done with such cant. What was saddening the Church w;r; the failure of the massE.s to rise to their opportunities,—a failure for which not churches, not economies, but they themselves were responsible. They were men, and nnL il:ildren. If the Chinch did not help them, then let them relab'Wi u new and belter oue. Mr Caldwell went on to say that ihe Church had laid hetv.'lf open 10 i ,ich of (he adverse criticisms by departing from litr .sural calling of preaching and living the Gospel by seeking'to meet the outsider with wliiitc-.tr he desired, and not with what he re-ji.i i<-.1, find especially by providing what was frequently called a Sunday sacred eiii:-nammcnl ior t'.ie people. If the Church was to fulfil tier u.hsion and become a power fo:- h od amongst men she must get buck to Christ and learn of Him,

PLAIN- WUKUS FROM (PR GIBB. Some very plain woids wore used by the Rev. I)r Gibb when asked by a Dominion reporter for his opinion of the sentiments expressed by 'Ihe Commonwealth Premier in bis address to n recent meeting of I lie Presbyterian General Assembly of Australia. "My comment on those sentiments," said Dr Gibb, " 's ihal. they are bosh, and canting- bosh at ihal. It is lime, and more than lime, that ministers of religion *]x>ke out plainly when called on to vindicate the Church against the aspersions of critics of the .Socialist typo, whether high-placed men like Mr Fisher or hoodlums like (how that have turned at least, two recent meetings in this city into a veritable bedlam. If 1 have any adequate knowledge of the situation, the Church has been for some time past very vigorously telling the rich man of bis shortcomings and hick of the feeling of brotherhood; it is lime the Church had begun'lo tell the nnnr_ man that ho may be as poor as he calls himself and as selfish as Ihe devil. Socialism may be right or it may he wrong as an economic theory— 1 think if is wrong,—but a man may be a good Christian and a convinced Socialist. But it will not be the .Socialism of class halo and general yahooism. 'The Church has Ik-cu the friend of the poor, the genuine poor, and unhappily |oo often the, friend of the poor whose poverty is duo to their own thrift le?snc.?s and worlhlessne.ss. It would lake a long time to recite what is being done in this city directly and indirectly through the churches to relieve sulTering and help the helpless. The Rev. Mr Mayer, the reprcsentat'ive of. the Uarnardo Homes, the oilier evening named a layge number of the leading philanthropists of our own and recent times, and every man and woman of I hem wove disciples and follower; of Christ. And the Church and Christian men will continue to be philanthropists. Tliey cannot be anything else without denying the Christ, Who was not only the Son of God, but also (be carpenter of Nazareth. But if the Church takes up the political role to which Mr Kisher calls it, and begins to preach Socialism or any other 'ism' than the Gosixd of the grace of Gotl-tbc Gospel which is not primarily bread and butter, but righteousness—the only reliable guarantee in the long run even of bread and butter—then her end will be at hand. There will in this case be as few to mourn her disappearance as there would ix> (o mourn the disappearance of eoiiio Labour agitators and the Socialistic crank if they were to vanish from the sum total of created things."