THÈ OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1935. THE CHURCH MILITANT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22721, 6 November 1935, Page 8

THÈ OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1935. THE CHURCH MILITANT

The address delivered by the moderator, the Rev. H. H. Barton, at the opening of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church last night will almost certainly meet with disapproval in some quarters. There is an element in the church which is strongly conservative. Those who compose this section will be displeased by Mr Barton’s references to evolution and Biblical inspiration. There is another group which would have the church take a prominent place in the discussion of economies and endeavour to lead the world out of the difficulties which confront it at the present time. To these Mr Barton would offer the advice which must be given to all who would leave the occupation in which they are skilled in order to tell the experts in another sphere how they should perform their work. “ Let the cobbler stick to his last” may be a hackneyed expression. It is certainly a sound piece of reasoning. Mr Barton’s address expressed no extreme ideas, but rather a careful balancing of thought engendered by the difficult period through which we have been passing. It has been said that we have been passing from one era of the world’s progress to another. Just as the fall of Constantinople and the consequent scattering of the scholars and their documents throughout the Western world heralded the change from mediaeval to modern, so the close of the Great War and the changes which it brought about marked the beginning of a new aspect of thought and world movement. To some people this is matter for regret. To be made to adjust, oneself to an unusual set of circumstances and to rethink one’s position is almost as painful as the immediate after-effects of a surgical operation. But there is no escape. The “ good old days ” cannot be with us for ever, nor would the practices with which they were associated suit anyone to-day. Electricity with the benefits it brings to us quite unfits for the use of the old tallow dip or the slow-moving coach drawn by three or four horses. The Church cannot be static any more than the world of thought. World movements inevitably influence religious ideas, and MiBarton was on safe ground when he

urged that the attitude of some good people to the theory of evolution and that of the inspiration of the Bible is foolish. Divine truth is not revealed along only one line. The scientist, as well as the theologian, may be granted a vision of some aspect of the eternal verities as he patiently seeks to probe the secrets of the universe. "No longer must the Church seek shelter within dogmatic . positions, many of Avhich have, one after another, to be evacuated under the reducing fire that is brought to bear upon them. She must not seek.refuge in sullen retreat from one untenable outpost to another."

That many people, who have only a small equipment for the task, should plunge into the fight to set the economic position right is not a matter for surprise. The correspondence columns of al! the daily papers —of our own as well as of others —and the lists of books published by various houses show how many are eager to provide a panacea for the world's ills and, pathetically it must be admitted, how various and how futile are the plans urged upon our notice. The cobbler refuses to stick to his last, and, in this respect at any rate, "as things have been they remain.". But the Church is not called upon to interfere in economics. "She has her own function to discharge and her own testimony to deliver." If, as churchmen believe, the root of our sorrows is spiritual or lies in the spiritual realm, it were surely an act of wisdom for the Church to concentrate upon that. No one would for a moment argue that the clergy should not in given circumstances discuss the economic problems of the time. But for a minister of any denomination to give himself to the discussion of economic questions, as some do, when he should be concentrating upon influencing the spiritual outlook of his people would seem to be a case of misdirected energy. There was a time in the early days of the ' Christian Church when an economic crisis was experienced. The Apostles suggested that certain men should be selected to attend to the problems which were facing the members. "It is not fit," they said, "that we should forsake the word of God, and serve tables. . . . We will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word." As subsequent events showed clearly, that was a wise attitude. The Church has an important task to accomplish. She is to bring into the world that sense of the spiritual and of spiritual values that will keep the minds of men centred upon the "things which cannot be shaken." To deviate from that great task can effect no good purpose. There are not many who will disagree with Mr Barton's closing paragraphs, in which he pilloried the inconsistent Christian. His quotation from Alexander Maclaren, of Manchester, is particularly pointed. "It is you and your like, you inconsistent Christians, you people that say your sins are forgiven and yet are doing the old sins day by day that you say are pardoned, you low-toned unpraying Christian men, who have no elevation of character and no self-restraint of life and no purity of conduct above the men of your own profession and in your own circumstances all around you ... it is you that are the

standing disgraces of the Church and the weaknesses and the diseases of Christendom." The whole argument of the address is summed up in that. By concentrating her energies upon the things that belong to her will the Church discharge her mission, benefit mankind, and help to solve the problems which puzzle the statesmen of our day.