LOSS OF FAITH.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, Issue 17692, 5 July 1927, Page 4

LOSS OF FAITH.

SERMON BY ARCHBISHOP. By Telegraph—Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, July .4. Festival services were held at St. Peter’s Church, Riccarton, yesterday, Archbishop Julius preaching the sermon at the morning service. Archbishop Julius chose as his text, “And this is the victory that overeometh the world, even our faith.” It was faith, said the preacher, that had enabled a small body of men to overcome Rome, and eventually the whole world. But faith alone was no good: a person could not have faith in nothing. Faith had to be founded on belief. The Jew’s; and the medieval churches had belief and in a Way so did the people of to-day. But they might not have any faith. People believed in God and the Bible, and yet they bad lost faith. That was a dead religion. A few years ago there was formed a society—a most awful tiling, he considered—called tlie Church Defence Society. He could not understand what it was for. The Church had its duty to'perform, and lie did not see how it need be defended.

“Religion is an awful dreary thing for some of us.” said the Archbishop. “It is a sedative that keeps some of us peaceful. But religion is not a sedative. Its purpose iis to upilift people, and to’inake them forget themselves, and the positions they hold in life. Some people are tolerant —I don’t know whether that ijo, a virtue or a vice. But a Christian can’t b© tolerant when lie knows that he has to fight.”