"THE NEW AGE"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23004, 6 October 1936, Page 18

"THE NEW AGE"

STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT The Otago District Council of the Student Christian Movement was addressed last evening by the Rev. Dr J. D. Salmond, acting-master of Knox College, on "The Student Christian Movement and the New Age." The speaker called attention to the recent moderatorial address of the Rev. Dr John Mackenzie, who had been one of the leaders of the Student Christian Movement in the days of its founding and growth in New Zealand, and who had recently been chosen to be moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the Commonwealth of Australia.

At the moment, Dr Salmond said, we looked out on a very troubled world. The world's troubles, however, were not new; they were but the symptoms of a disease which had been long at work in the blood of the nations. The present position constituted a great challenge to the Church and to all organisations with a Christian purpose. Hence, there was a great need for realistic thinking and action on the - part of all who were concerned about the future of human society. Our civilisation, with all its great triumphs, could no longer be regarded as Christian in any real sense. It was essentially secular and humanistic.

A very significant development in our day was the renewed interest in theological thinking. The Barthian had, indeed, set a bell ringing round the world. Like the prophets of old they were pointing us in our chaotic world to the foundation truths of the Christian Faith, calling men. and nations " once more to realise that God is the Supreme Reality, that over all the folly and futility of our merely human planning is the mighty arch of His Divine Will, and that our salvation is to know and accept that will, as it is revealed in the Eternal Word —Jesus Christ pur Lord." Out of the growing dissatisfaction with a " humanistic" Christianity there had come a rebirth of Calvinism. This new Calvinism, like the old, began with the fact of God. and with the reality of that revelation of Himself which He had given through the Eternal Word in the Scriptures, to sinful, helpless men and women.

This re-emphasis on the foundation things of the Faith was leading to a renewed stress on the necessity for personal religion and pre-requisite for social and national reformation. A great church or a great nation could not be built up out of third-rate human material. The modern interest in group movements was indicative of the growing appreciation of the need for a return to the methods of personal, evangelism and spiritual fellowship. Reformed churchmen believed that all who in every age and land had acknowledged Christ as Saviour and Lord belonged to the true Church, and they did not unchurch anyone who made that confession, irrespective of their denominational name. Nevertheless, in certain branches of the Protestant Church there had been a lack of emphasis on churchmanship, with resulting division and dissension, ■to-day. the Christian Church along lis whole front faced a common enemy. In the face of the doctrines of atheism and violence that were being broadcast both directly and indirectly throughout the world to-day, Christians needed to stress their unity rather than their diversity. The Student Christian Movement had a real task to perform in bringing about true fellowship amongst Christians of differing communions.

•As well as being interested in theology and in personal religion, the Student Christian Movement and the whole Christian Church needed to deal courageously with the ethical problems which were so pressing, in. our day. Such subjects as war, money, luxury, marriage, class and colour prejudice, recreations and leisure were now matters of debate and discussion among thinking people. Solutions for our complicated modern problems were hard to find. It was just here that the Reformation principle of the Sovereignty of God came to our aid. When men regarded all their activities as service done unto God, a new sense of duty was brought into being. This sense of a man's responsibility to God revealed in Jesus Christ was the root from which solutions to ethical problems alone could spring. To-day the Student Christian Movement had a unique opportunity of inculcating in the minds of the present student generation that high sense of duty which alone led people to subordinate their primitive selfish interests to the common good. Theological thinking among students was never to be allowed to become a narrow academic interest; it had to express itself in the practical ethical decisions of daily life.

To-day, the speaker continued, we noted the rise of tyrannies of one kind and another all over the world. Democracy seemed definitely to be in eclipse. Political democracy, without doubt, owed much to the Reformed Church, and democracy at its best did stand for that justice, freedom and order so dear to the hearts of British people. But if democracy was to endure it had to be built on moral and religious principles and to adjust its forms to meet the needs of our day. Christian students in our British lands might have to make momentous choices in the future. We might be called upon either to stand for the proud traditions of our love of freedom and the reality of our religious and social heritage, or, as Professor John Macmurray had expressed it, to "turn our backs on all that is worthy of worship in our past and descend with chains about our ankles into the dim and shameful slavery of the Totalitarian State." The Student Christian Movement could do much towards the building up of an enlightened and progressive democracy in our, land. The future, Dr Salmond said, was full of . opportunity for the young people of New. Zealand. New Zealand had become a nation with a voice in world affairs. As a people we had also a part to play in the affairs of the Pacific—" the third Mediterranean of history." The world was again becoming interested in our social experiments, and an indigenous literature was rapidly coming into being. We were a small people, but great things had been done for the world by small people. We needed only to instance Scotland, Switzerland, and Palestine. We were a greatly privileged people, and as such had also to carry responsibilities. New Zealand youth, particularly Christian students, had to be given such dynamic ideals that they would turn from the superficialities to the higher issues of life. The Student Christian Movement was strategically situated to give our able young people, the leaders of* the future, the sense of mission and the dynamic Christian idealism so much needed to-day.