THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 21

THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISM

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your leader last Wednesday entitled as above, do you not fall into the same error that the Churen always has done since the early centuries, namely, that religion has a message only for the individual, overlooking that there is also a message to the nation (as apart from the fact that the nation is made up of individuals) for you state that most people may be expected to concur with the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in urging the clergy to subordinate their excursions into world affairs to the more churchly duty of preaching the Gospel Or is it that I am quite wrong in putting forward the following arguments? , , The cause of the failure of the Church to make greater headway seems to he that those of the Church have always subordinated their views (that is, the Bible’s view of problems of national and international affairs) to the view of the ruling classes who have been their financial support, rather than trusting that He Who fed the sparrows would support them, and speak out fearlessly the truth which incidentally can be seen wholly all the time by every man of ordinary wit, if he will go to the fountain head in search of it. King David had learned the source of it, for he wrote: “Thy Word is true (or truth) from the beginning, and everyone of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” That Word as he knew it comprised the five books of Moses only, which contain laws and ordinances for any and every problem of individual, national and mternational concern for all time. Had the preachers fearlessly taught God’s laws, even only since the Reformation, and the nation had practised them, how different would conditions have been to-day! No poor in the nation, no sickness or disease either in man or in beast, no slums, no starvation in the midst of plenty, no devourer of the harvests, no national and many other debts in perpetuity, work for all but lightened and ever lightened as invention increased! No complicated taxes, only one simple tithe to cover religious, national, civil, educational, health and legal services for all! One can see further, not into the mirage of one’s imagination, but into reality—that, could the nations of the world have looked on such a Britain, they must have said by now: “ Look how they thrive. Whv do we not adopt their ways and thrive too? There would have been no need for any League of Nations, for all would have been, ere this, of one mind—in love with God and at peace with man. No need under such conditions for the present colossal, world-wide waste of life and treasure in warfare and war fear! Our kings are richer now than David, for when crowned they are presented with a copy of the whole truth in these words, “ Herein is wisdom ”; yet many of our ministers style themselves New Testament Christians, scoff at what they call the laws of Moses, and teach that parts of the truth are m &o!' until the Church learns that righteousness exalteth a nation as well as an individual, and directs the nation and the individual out of the whole truth, there is no hope of a lively church. —I am, etc., G. Steel. P.S. —I am in complete disagreement with the “ convenient ” Christianity expressed by “Anonymous,” and do not ' wonder he does not append his name.