RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20472, 28 July 1928, Page 5

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

By Amplius.

All the children of all the people have a right to receive all the good things the world possesses.—W. S, Athearn. KAIKORAI CONFERENCE. The conference of youth workers held in the Kaikorai Presbyterian Church was very successful, for in spite of the rough weather, there was a large_ attendance of local members, as well as line delegations from Roslyn and Maori Hill. In the absence of the Rev. J. D. Smith, Messrs J. W. Todd and Matheson cordially welcomed the visitors. ~, , ~ Meetings were then held for the workers in the various departments of the church school, beginning with the cradle roll, and extending to the Senior Bible class, each of these being addressed by a speaker supplied by the Otago School of Education. The discussions in these were good, and altogether a profitable and interesting time was spent in dealing with departmental and class problems. A short united meeting, at which Air A. T. M'Naughton, director of the Otago School of Religious Exercises, dealt with “ Organisation ” followed, and at the close a short dedication service was held. The Rev J. D. Smith voiced the thanks of all to the speakers for their fine work, and expressed the hope that this would not be the last of such gatherings m Kaikorai. Fully 200 partook of the good things provided by the local church workers, and those interested gathered in groups to talk further of the work so dear to their hearts. Mr Magnus Johnston •expressed the visitors’ thanks to Mr Smith and Ins willing band of workers, for all then kindness and hospitality. . A similar gathering is to be held in First Church. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. The following notes are taken from an address given by Dr W. C. Poole, president of the World’s Sunday School Association, at Auckland:What is the place of Christian education in the rebuilding of the world?—Let us take that from two viewpoints—first the positive, then the negative. We tliiuic of the world as a unit. . Our larger loyalties will never seriously injure our lesser loyalties. No man is able to thuus iin world terms to begin with. We are schooled through our lesser loyalties to an understanding and appreciation of our larger loyalties. First of all, we commence our lovalty as an individual in a home, extending to a neighbour, village, town, city, through a district, until we think in terms ot a country, then of a dominion or commonwealth, and as part of an empire. The more you think in world terms the greater will be your understanding of the particular contribution your own national heritage has to give; the more you will understand the value of church life in its various bearings and aspects. . . That man is the greatest citizen who can think of citizenship in the largest and most adequate terms. While one is thankful for the soil on which he was born and where he received his infant nature, while all these loyalties must be respected and recognised, in this stage of progress and development we are moving on steadily, persistently, to a conception which is the further genius of the divine revelation. . Can we agree to these things first. (1) Civilisation is a collective achievement. (2) Civilisation is a common heritage. (3) Civilisation is a joint responsibility. . ... .. First* in respect to race, civilisation is a collective achievement. This can be proved from a hasty survey of the history of our own race, with the varied contributions of all the nations which have had a part in its making. What we call an Englishman is a collective achievement contributed by Iberians, Celts, Latips, Scandinavians, Jutes, Norsemen, Normans,- Hugenots, and Flemings. Personally, I would rather think that niy citizenship is the product of that rich and varied consistency than everlastingly be prating that I was pure blooded. , Civilisation is a collective achievement in respect to ourselves, and this could be } said of any race in the world. The same applies to language, and to religion. , Christianity was taken to Britain before Augustine was sent out in the year 597, . Once Britain was a “foreign mission , field.” When you remember it is 1300 years ago and more since Augustine went , to Britain, we represent a collective ! achievement in religious life, because in a sense Christianity came to Britain from Rome;, but it did not begin at Rome. It most likely came from Constantinople to Rome. In our religious life civilisation along religious lines does represent a collective achievement. Certainly it is true that civilisation is a common heritage. We enjoy electric light, and associate it with the name of Thomas Edison." While Thomas Edison was a genius, he would be 1 one of the first to admit that behind his 1 application of principles there were men who had laboured for scores of years elaborating the ideas which later he used, i In wireless, too, the same is found. Mar- ; coni used Hertzian waves, the discovery ; of a German, who got his ideas from a , distinguished Englishman named Clark ; Maxwell. No nation can monopolise wireless. After all, God Almighty is an internationalist. He uses all the nations. , What a great day it will be when we can see all these things are a common responsibility. Everything worth retaining is in jeopardy unless everybody ' capable of enjoying it has a share in the enjoyment of it. Every privilege that is not shared by everyone is not secure to anybody. That does not mean that we are surrendering the peculiar things that make one part of the world distinct from ' every other part. ! We often talk about a concert of nations. 1 What a concert of nations we shall have 1 when all the world responds to the 1 leadership of the Christ of God, and ' every nation is willing to play its part! < Idealistically that is how we can view 1 civilisation. We are moving in a day ( when civilisation has been shattered, i “ Not in a thousand years,” says A. G. Gardiner, “ has so much wreckage strewu the shores of humanity.” J 1 think you will agree with me that j the world needs to be remade. We have • spent a lot of time trying to remake it , economically and industrially, but this , does not solve our problem. We need . to get a new discernment and a new understanding of the movement of our J day, and how to relate it to those higher and more wonderful designs and purposes which we believe are part of God’s plan j for the world. This wreckage is not altogether an unmitigated evil. The Plague of London ' in 1660, followed by the Fire of London | in 1666, destroyed what we call Old Lon- ‘ don, but this gave Christopher Wren his i chance of building St. Paul’s Cathedral. 1 All the forces in any generation are not « forces of advancement. There are forces which look with suspicion on change, and 1 so forth. That catastrophe called the Fire of London only destroyed man-made : things. What God had made remained; 1 and as you look out on the world to- ] night, it is the man-made schemes, our , little schemes, our plans, that have gone , astray; but the ideas of God are never , more real than they are to-night. This world wreckage is not without its compensations. During the last 100 years , we came to think that the sole method by which we could advance the world was 1 through competition, and we forgot that co-operation is no less an effective plan in ! God’s hands for the realisation of His ■ purpose. There always have been groups of men who have held that Jesus came from God out of Heaven to teach us men, and He lived and suffered and died, and in His own life embodied the very facts ! and principles that He sought to com- . municate to His immediate followers, and { to make the common basis of our lives. It is God’s knowledge of all the world . that secures to you and to me as individuals, and to us as a nation, and to all parts of the world, that justice of God which is their right and their privilege. What is the good of giving a dynamic unless I have given you a little diagnosis? I want you to appreciate how valuable this world situation is to-night, I think it will encourage you to see in this Sunday school programme not the dream of a visionary, of some sentimental mood. The ' World’s Sunday School Association is a ‘ spiritual League of Nations. A real League of Nations is an attempt to articulate the total life of the world by the dynamic of reconciliation. There is a difference. You may think it is a dream, but believe mo, I will live to see the day ; when the chair at the head of the table , of the League of Nations will be not unoccupied, but filled by One Whose Presence fills every soul with vivid con- ' seiousness; none other than the Prince of i Peace Himself will preside. It is to teach the children of the world something of that bigger aspect that is part of our task. In all parts of the world , we are trying to present to the children

of the world a picture something like that. Christian education has been defined as the introduction of control into experience in terms of Jesus Christ. How do we educate from the Christian standpoint? By introducing control into experience in terms of the teaching of Jesus Christ, the fundamental means of reproducing the mind and spirit of Christ you can control your life. The childhood of- the world can control its life when we teach it that Christian education means control introduced into experience in the terms of the ideal of a personal Saviour.