"NOT IN CONFERENCES.”

Southland Times, Issue 22067, 14 July 1933, Page 5

"NOT IN CONFERENCES.”

To the Editor.

Sir,—-Dr A. G. Williams in speaking at Wanganui said: “We call this a Christian country and yet in this very city people are sleeping on rags with sacks for coverings. In many homes I have been in there is practically no crockery, I knew of a home where there was only one cup. Until we observe Christian principles and get back to God there is no hope for us, for in spite of the Young Plan, the Dawes Plan, and the conference we are deeper in the mud than ever.” Dr Williams strikes the right note

when he urges us to get back to God. We can hold conference after conference on which are spent thousands of pounds and they will all come to nothing unless we get to the heart of the trouble first. If we are hoping to put the world right we must go to Him who can put it right but who cannot put it right without our co-operation. We have had our national days of prayer but without much success. Why? Because we have missed the point again. Does it not seem an impertinence to dare to ask God’s help when we are not prepared to co-operate with Him? Most people are ready to pray for the world’s depression to pass, but a great number pray because they believe that if the depression passes their bank balance will improve. Can we imagine that God will help us to fatten our bank balances especially when He knows that those who wish it most are very mean and miserly with money. I would that I dare give freedom to my thoughts of these who can be counted among the mean and miserly. I would even go so far as to name a few of them but a parson must be tactful and discreet. The days when a priest or prophet of God could speak out are over. Even in those days he was persecuted for the truth’s sake. Christ was crucified for it, John the Baptist was beheaded. However, I will risk it and say that before we pray for deliverance let there be a national repentance. When we get that then we may dare to pray for deliverance from this oppressing depression. Why should this national repentance not begin in Invercargill? It might well be perhaps if the clergy of Invercargill first of all got together and examined themselves. Perhaps we are not all that we should be; there may be amongst us those who have not truly repented, who have not received forgiveness of sins. We cannot hope to be the spiritual forces we are meant to be unless we are full of spiritual powers ourselves. We are too anxious to preach our mission to others and all the time we may be sadly in need of a mission to ourselves. So much for the clergy and now for Invercargill as a whole. Doctors, lawyers, bankers, school masters, business men, working men, no class is exempted. We all need repentance. Why are the churches half empty? Some will say because the preaching is poor. Is it? Others “Because I do not agree with the parson.” Did everyone agree with Christ? A hundred and one excuses, which to boil them all down can be summed in one word —“bunkum.” What can we say to people who send their children to church instead of taking them, who think the church is what their children need and they themselves are too superior to need the church? Christ founded the church because He knew a church was necessary for His people, for their children, and for His work. How can we hope to have a moral city if we have not got a spiritually strengthened people ? We may be worried about our bank balances. Let us go on worrying about them and they will still remain in a state far from satisfactory to ourselves, but let us worry about the condition of the world as a whole—those poor wretches who go to their aimless task to gain a small pittance on the unemployed relief works, those children who even if sufficiently fed are poorly fed. Let us get away from self and remember that we are our brother’s keeper and that we are responsible for our brother. The church is meant to be r. great brotherhood and nearly everyone is a member of the Christian church, nominally or otherwise. I may be merely “a voice crying in the wilderness.” However, I say that you can go on having your conferences, you can even ask God to help, but unless you put yourself in the position of being able to cooperate with God this terrible depression will continue and you can only do that if there is first, of all a sincere repentance. Put aside your personal grievances, your selfishness, your self-conceit, your jealousies, small-mindedness. Look at things from the other chap’s point of view and instead of thanking God because you are such a fine fellow go down upon your knees at the foot of the Cross and say earnestly: “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” and remember you should be a very miserable sinner at that.—l am etc., K. D. ANDREWS-BAXTER.