CHURCH PROBLEMS

Southland Times, Issue 19102, 21 November 1923, Page 5

CHURCH PROBLEMS

'‘THE BOOK AND THE DAY” THE BIBLE AND THE SABBATH “THE BUSINESS OF THE MINISTRY.” (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, November 20. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand opened at St. Paul’s Church this evening, when the retiring Moderator (Rev W. J. Comrie) preached and the Moderator-elect (Rev. Professor Cumming, of Dunedin) delivered an address on “The Business of the Ministry.” FAITH AND PRAYER. After referring to some of the difficulties ministers are called on to face, the Moderator said: “Now it would be too much perhaps to expect that ‘the business of the ministry’ should progress uniformly like a prosperous undertaking in the commercial sphere which makes headway steadily every year. Even in the case of the latter, advance is apt to be irregular and Scripture gives us no guarantee that it will be otherwise. In the case of the former people need to remember ‘that the ministry be not blamed,’ blamed for the existence of circumstances or conditions for which the ministry is not responsible. Even the Prophets and Apostles, even Christ Himself, did not always get a hearing and the cry ‘who hath believed our report?’ is not a new one. Preachers need to remember that they may become despondent at times; they may feel that their faith has failed. Faith should be able to move mountains and yet their faith does not seem to be equal to shifting a molehill. Faith and prayer should make all things possible and in prayer they seek to gain the ear of God for man, but in preaching, they do not succeed in gaining the ear of man for God. OLD VIRTUES AND NEW IDEAS. “On two points amongst others,” added the preacher, “there is much more diversity of opinion among Christian people today than there was even half a century ago, viz., ‘The Bible and the Sabbath.’ Ideas are current now in regard to the former which would hardly have found an entrance into such circles as ours in days gone by. 'Phen practices are borne with now in regard to the latter, which would have found few in such circles to countenance them. Then many say that the conception of our predecessors in regard to the Bible and Sabbath keeping were very narrow and, yet, numbers feel that if faulty they leaned to virtue’s side. Have not the Bible and the Sabbath been the two great mainstays of visible Christianity? Where has spiritual religion flourished when the Book and the Day have been ignored? The prospectus of Christianity must not be represented as too short. Eyes must not be fixed on the distant horizon without taking notice of what lies immediately in front and we must encourage all reasonable schemes for the amelioration of man’s lot now and not be content to speak to those who have missed the prizes in this life, of some better fortune in a sweet by-and-by. Yet, let us not shorten the programme in another way. It is also our duty to warn men of the folly of allowing themselves to be carried away by any purely secular gospel of shorter hours and larger wages and healthier homes to the exclusion of other things. Numbers who have long enjoyed the benefits to be derived from all that sanitation and leisure and comfort can afford, know that those possessing them do not necessarily inhabit an earthly Eden.”