CHURCH RALLY MONTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19465, 28 April 1925, Page 5

CHURCH RALLY MONTH.

Despite its weaknesses and defects, the Church is the biggest thing in the world to-day. Measured by the values of character, it stands absolutely alone. Its influence is quiet and constant, the secret chemistry of Nature. Its linkage of all the ages of man, whether viewed individually as seven or 17, from infancy to “the allotted span,” or historically, as the testimony of the centuries of human experiments in civilisation, is binding and comprehensive. It is certain that few people, within or without the Christian Church, realise all that the Church connotes —still less all that the Church might do for human society. A witty Frenchman said that if the world had not a religion it would bo necessary to invent one; but, happily, such a social masterpiece is not required. The Church, as the expression of the sublime Christian faith, transcends all names and forms, while honouring each company of God’s people “for their works’ sake.” Those who decry the Church are Often forgetful of what Carlyle called “the after-shine of Christianity”—that is, the abiding effect of the Christian life and tradition in the world. They remind one of Andrew Fuller’s quaint remark about the Deists, who, “after gazing in the pastures of revelation, boast of having grown fat by nature.” Eueken says in “Life’s Basis and Life’s Ideal” that “Christianity lm exercised most deep-reaching influences on the course of history. In the first place, it implanted a new vitality in an exhausted humanity; then in 'the Middle Ages it worked to the education of a new race; and now that it has become nature it has not ceased to exercise strong, though quieter influences. Considering all the facts, it appears to be the most powerful force in history.” During the month of May everyone is asked to attend his own church.