FIRST SUNDAY SERVICES

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1932, Page 5

FIRST SUNDAY SERVICES

LARGE NUMBERS ATTEND SERMONS BY REV. W. HEWITSON. HISTORY AND GROWTH OF CHURCH. Every seat was filled in the church for the morning and evening services yesterday, which were taken by Professor Hewitson. In the afternoon there was a large gathering of all the children of the combined Sunday schools of the church at a service taken by the Rev. J. D. McL. Wilson,

The beginnings and growth of the Christian church and the principles underlying the growth was Professor Hewitson’s subject for the morning service yesterday. Jesus was not only a great teacher and the redeemer of men, said Professor Hewitson, but He was also the founder of a society. In the writings of the apostle John they saw how He began to gather about Him some disciples. At first there was a small group of five or six, Andrew, an unknown one .who was probably John, Simon, Andrew’s brother, and John’s brother James, Philip and Nathaniel. The' group began to grow. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was with them at the next meeting, and later came Nicodemus to make inquiries, and the woman of Samaria. The progress of the society that Jesus' founded swung to and fro throughout the gospel story. After the death and the resurrection there came a most wonderful and rapid increase in the society. Great numbers were added to the church and there came a wide diffusion of the knowledge. Paul first went into Asia Minor, into Europe as far as Rome and set his heart on reaching Spain. Later in the sixth century Augustine crossed from Rome to Britain. Later again men followed Columbus and established the church in America. The church travelled to the East, into Assyria, Babylonia and to India. In the south-west of India was a Christian community which claimed to date from the time of Thomas the apostle. The Christian religion moved across Asia into China and Japan, where it was persecuted but secretly persisted. Finally it came across the Pacific and set a girdle round the world. UNIVERSAL SOCIETY. No society of human beings in the* world to-day was so universal as the society of Christian believers. Even the great British Empire on which the sun never set was provincial compared with the catholicity of the great Christian church. To know bow wide the belief was they had only to remember that the British and Foreign Bible Society had on its roll over 600 languages into which the Scriptures had been wholly or partly translated. Parallel with the growth of the church took place the development in the church. The 12 disciples selected by Jesus had soon appointed other men, as deacons, to carry out the charitable work, and later the apostles appointed elders. Later still the first council was held to consider the relations of the Christian church with Judaism, the first of the great church councils. If they thought of the history that lay between now and then they would realise the great changes that had taken place in the church since the days of the disciples. From the little band of disciples came all the churches. There were the churches episcopally governed, like the churches of England and of Rome. There was the church of tho Presbyterian order, which included the Lutheran church and was closely related to the Methodist church. “What extraordinary developments • and different branches there are,” said Professor Hewitson, “alas, too many of the same denominations.”

The preacher emphasised the development within the Presbyterian church itself. He spoke of the growth of thn Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union and its service to the East, and the growth of Bible classes. The most recent development was the appointment of the director of youth movement, Dr. Salmon, a man whose selfless spirit, said Professor Hewitson, had rarely been equalled in the circle of his acquaintance. He named the activities of the church in the last 35 years in New Zealand. All these had" begun with the teachings of Jesus to that little group. UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE. The principle underlying the growth and development of the church was that Christianity in its growth was selfpropagating. The missionaries in foreign lands had three rules—that the church should be self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating. The people of India and China were beginning to govern the church’s work in their own lands. The great principle of self-propagation was a law. All throughout the land, in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the law of self-propagation was being obeyed. It was the same in the intellectual life, where to have full knowledge of a thing it was necessary to teach it. The same law governed religious life. Religion did not come to its fulfilment unless it were a missionary religion. “Woe is me,” cried Paul, “unless I preach the gospel.” The vision of Christ would abide with them as long as they passed on the knowledge. “Apply this to your own church,” said the preacher. “You are self-supporting and self-governing. You have established centres in other parts of the town and carried out the principle of selfpropagation.” Another great principle was the law of application. They saw the law of change and adaptation in the constitution of the British Empire. So too were the adaptations of the church. There was wisdom for the young to find in the past and for the older men he would say, “Look to the present.” There were some changes in the Presbyterian Church which were long overdue. Some of the elders of the church had impeded progress because they had their eyes too much on the past. The disciples gave their personal testimony. They had seen Christ and they bore witness first in their own homes. And the way this church was to grow was through the homes. He would not have them stopping people in the street and asking them were they saved—in his judgment a useless impertinence. Jesus taught his disciples to. love the world by lighting their own homes. During the service Mr. W. L. Hay sang the solo “How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings” and the choir sang the anthem.

The need to model themselves on Christ was the theme of the sermon of Professor Hewitson at the evening service. In the gospel of St. Mark they had pictures of Christ, said Professor Hewitson. He would ask them to examine the picture of Christ drawn by St. Mark when he described, Him in the words: “Looking up to heaven, he sighed and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is Be opened.” They would observe first of all in the picture the eye turned upwards. That was the common attitude of prayer among the Jews. He was supplicating the Father and in doing that was expressing dependence. The action, thought the preacher, was also an expression of

' fellowship with the Father. That was the expression that they saw m Raphael’s picture, the Transfiguration. In the picture of St. Mark, Christ sighed. The sigh was a universal language and meant the same in China as in Africa. It was the language of a burdened heart. The sigh was one of compassionate sympathy with the deaf man who was standing before him at that moment. As with musical instruments, souls could be tuned into perfect accord, so that the one responded to the note struck on the other. Christ felt not for the man but 1 with him. He felt the tragedy ot deafness with its unthought of privations. Christ had sighed at other times with sorrow at sin. People felt righteous indignation at sin but did they also feel sorrow? “Christ,” the gospel said, “looked round upon them with anger, being grieved.” He felt anger and loathing at their sins but in his immense pity, grieved at them and bore them. Then they must note the use of the word “ephphatha.” Jesus was bi-lingual, speaking both the Greek of the business classes and the vernacular of the people. In moments of great emotional stress, a man would speak the word of- power not in the polished phrase but in the language of the people. °They saw him then in the picture of St. Mark, a dependent, needy, praying man, filled with compassion and able to speak the word of power. The must model themselves on the picture of Jesus. They must study the picture of Him and assimilate it. He people could give themselves up to pleasyouim people, but they would find that life "held some bitter, unspeakable moments. Never was that more evident than it was to-day. Yet it was a strange thing, passing his. comprehension, that people could give themselves up to pleasure without a thought of their responsibilities. They would give themselves up to cards for instance —not that there was harm in only an occasional game—-for hours day and night at a time when men’s hearts were failing and it seemed that the whole constitution of the civilised world was being shaken to its foundations. What should they do? Let them look at the picture of Christ; Let them have fellowship with the blue heavens, and try to do what Christ did. Let them go and take up the sins of that ne er-do-well 'that spent his relief money at the hotel. Let them grieve for his sms as well as feel indignation, and bear them for him. During the service Mrs. Bulmer sang a solo and the choir an anthem. Mr. Wilson thanked Professor Hewitson, who had come so willingly so great a distance to take the opening service. Mr. Wilson also thanked the architects, Cle're and Clere, Wellington, for their beautiful conception of the church, the contractors, Messrs. Boon Bros., New Plymouth, who had so faithfully carried out the undertaking, and the workmen who, under the supervisor, Mr. W. L. Thompson, had taken■ so. great an interest in their craftsmanship.