A CHURCHLESS WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20592, 15 December 1928, Page 24

A CHURCHLESS WORLD.

Written for the Otago Daily Times,

By the Rev, D. Gardner Miller,

One of the prominent preachers of Old an England has been letting himself go— o fl and to some effect—on the question of a pr Oburchless World. He characterises as ch absurd the suggestion that if the lia churches wore' shut up the world gii would not , know much difference. T. I . propose to peg a moral or two re on his outspoken utterance—oue which is very timely, and to which I give my A. entire agreement The preacher in ques- he tion is the Rev. Ewart Jcmes, M.A., of Southend (London). Ho declared "Chat much. of tint criticism of the churches came from people who had never been " near a church for 25 years, and did not J" 1 know what the churches stood for today. In the churches they were supposed to be the biggest set of “ duds ” the 0 , world had ever seen. They were sup- | c pdsed to do nothing but hand out sooth- , ing syrup and chloroform to all who came g near them, and, as for the people who v< attended the churches, they were supposed to be the most helpless imbeciles .jj, imaginable”, “I am supposed ”he said, H ‘‘ to preach hell fire every time I enter ] a the pulpit, yet I have never introduced v< the subject at all.” He then goes, on to say that jf the churches were shut up, d Sunday would go, and music would also M go. “ England had sunk from William w Shakespeare to Charlie Chaplin. At U times when religion was vital you had t< great statesmen, great poets, great artists, great musicians. Who was the , u outstandingly great statesman of to-day? « Nobody could name him.' Without a church, how long would .religion last? When you take people away from the q Church they seem to be as good as ever Q for a time, but they go down hill steadily in character, and their children grow, up p pagan.” ■) » “There must be a church if religion p is to prevail. ,• It may have to undergo tJ many changes—l hope it will—but it p must stay. Wo can't face the prospect n of a world without a church.” o It is about time somebody said these r things. To those who sneer at the Church j, and to those within th« Church have ; j become tired and listless, and can see no j brightening: of the horizon, I would like j to, say two things: The first is that, had thei;c been no Church, there would have j been , ' f NO NEW TESTAMENT. , ! \ The New Testament did not produce * the Church, It was the other way about. * The church produced the New Testa- •* raent —I mean, as literature. It is true, 11 of course, that the spirit that gave rise ( to the New Testament evolved what-we 1 call the Church, ns an institution, but £ it was the spirit of the Chlirch that gave c rise ,to the writing of the manuscripts 1 which we call the New Testament, and * which are the most unique writings in the ] world. Even the most blase critic of the < Church pays omage to the New Testa- ■ ment. This little handful of MSS— J written within the first century, and of which no originals are in existence —has 1 been the means of bringing about the ! great reforms that have blessed and | sweetened civilisation. There are still ■ great reforms needed, and the fact that they are needed is no judgment on the ' New Testament, but rather a Judgment ■ > on' a weak-kneed generation afraid to go “ all out” for New Testament ideals. „ , Take the Sermon on the Mount, for ■( instance. The world pays lip-homage > to it, but is at great pains to kfeep at a distance from its radical ' demands. There are Christians even who look upon the manifesto of Jesus as 100 idealistic for this nnromantic and work-a-day world. But the Sermon' on the Mount is no picture of an ideal world, hut a manifesto of principles that can trans- , form this world. Put these principles j into operation, and business and the press and governments would be shaken to their foundations and a new order would emerge. . A world at peace is ho dream of a' frenzied fanatic—-it is within the realm of practical politics, if and. when the New Testament, the legacy and gi£t of the Churph to the world, is taken seriously. . Shut ‘ the Church doors to-morrow, muffle the steeple bells, prevent the humble seekers after God from wending their way through the silent streets and country lanes to the House of Prayer—and even then religion will persist and the highest ethical ideals will persist, for you cannot tear the New . Testament out of the warp and woof of human life. A world without the Church as an institution is possible, but-a world without the New Testament is impossible. ! The second thing I would say is that, even though the cluirdiea wore shut up, you could not \ . OBLITERATETHE CHURCH. The Church is a thing of the spirit, the churches are simply the moulds, man-made, to give concrete expression to that spirit. Smash the moulds and ” the spirit still persists. Indeed, a smashing of the moulds might not be a j bad thing for religion. I ♦ Link that! God must sometimes be a little weary of the inelastic moulds which we call denominations. Did, Jesus found a church? I don’t think so, if we mean by “church” an institution. The Master’s ideal was more daring. His ideal was a spiritual fellowship of consecrated lives, to which He'gave the name of the Kingdom of God. The Church is not the Kingdom, but it exists to promote the Kingdom. ( 1 f we can say that Jesus founded a church it was none other than the Church of the Spirit. This Church of the Spirit—which uses denominational moulds, but was never meant to be controlled by them —stands against all false ideals of this civilised world,, its paganism and laxity, and gathers in the weak and erring and upholds the Cross among unheeding men. . Its authority is not , the authority of ecclesiasticism, but the I authority of simple goodness. You can- | not obliterate spirit. You cannot kill religion for religion is a child of spirit. ; Man is incurably religious, and in the long run his religion will be - Chris- ! tianity.

The. world is being slowly Christianised. ‘For there are only two alternatives before men l —Christianity or an agnostic rationalism. Can anyone doubt the issue? No, the real Church, the Church of the fellowship of men and women in the Spirit, would persist even though all our church buildings were razed-to the ground. At the same time I have no doubt that this fellowship will always express itself in an external form and order. I have also no doubt that the present form and' order will be changed radically and that in the not very far distant future. A churchless world would he like a house without windows.