THE THRONE OF GOD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4523, 14 January 1942, Page 3

THE THRONE OF GOD

THE PLACE OF RELIGION “ Many of us in the Free Churches are not very good at worship ” (writes the Rev. Hugh Martin in his book, “Christian Reunion”). “ Our passion for freedom has with sonic become a self-will which is too intolerant of discipline and team work. We are too dependent on the personal factor of the popularity of the individual preacher. We go to church ‘to hear so-and-so.’ We have too little respect for tradition and for our place in the Holy Catholic Church of all ages. We have too little care for dignity and beauty in the worship of God, though happily there has been great improvement in this respect in recent years.

“ The Church of England, on the other hand, would profit by the sterner intellectual training given to the Presbyterian ministry. Baptists and Methodists could teach some sections of it the passion for personal religion and evangelism, while they in return could learn much from its emphasis upon the historic continuity of the

Church through the ages. Congregationalists could teach many of us lessons of spiritual freedom and intellectual adventure, of vivid response to the needs of the hour; they believe more than most in the open mind and in the contemporary guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Friends could teach

.. ujy : I ! us the art of listening and of courage ous pioneering. “ If the Free Churches were led t< ? give a greater place to sacraments worship, the Church of England oi the other hand might come to yalu the pulpit more highly as ‘ the tliror. | of the Word of God.’ ”