THE MODERN CHURCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23213, 10 June 1937, Page 7

THE MODERN CHURCH

SERIES OF ADDRESSES CONCLUDED The last two of the series of meetings conducted by the Rev. E. R. Harries and arranged by the Otago Evangelical Bible League were held yesterday at Burns Hall. To-night Mr Harries will Rive a lantern lecture on Syria and its needs. The function will be held in the same building and under the auspices of the Otago branch of the British Syrian Mission. Yesterday afternoon Mr Harries s Bible reading was based upon the passage in John, chapter 20, in which the Lord Jesus declared to his Disciples that as He had been commissioned by the Father, so He sent them. The Church was a company of "sent-ones," the speaker said. This meant that she must be mobile, but he feared that the modern church was far from that. When she seemed more concerned with building fine churches than with the missionary enterprise and when some leaders considered that the paying off of a church debt was the only possible activity of a Christian Congregation, it would seem that the Church was no longer a "going" concern; she had become immobile. While he lik'ed good architecture as much as most men, the speaker said, he thought there was urgent need for a change of emphasis. Christ taught them that the Spirit was received by* faith, and that no valid work could be accomplished without the Spirit. The Church might resort to many devices and schemes by which to make religion popular, but even the young people were most surely attracted to the Church when they saw Christian experience measure up to the promise of power contained in the New Testament. Besides, the Spirit-filled Church was given moral authority, the power to read the motives of men, and the solemn duty of sometimes pronouncing Divine judgment upon the pretenders within her courts. The closing address given by Mr Harries dealt with Elisha's quest for power. Spiritual hunger, as seen in Elisha, constituted a man's value in the sight of God. Cecil Rhodes had been credited with saying, "Some men seek for peacock's feathers, I will seek for power." The speaker appealed to his audience to realise that their Master, too, had ascended, and had left for His followers the promise of the Spirit. Those who were ready to surrender their lives could there and then receive the promised gift, which was the secret of victory and of fruitfulness.