Citizen Sunday.

Thames Star, Volume xxx, Issue 9450, 28 September 1899, Page 2

Citizen Sunday.

REV. D. J. MURRAY'S SERMON

The Rev. I). J. Murray, who preached in the Presbyterian Church on Sunday last, selected his text from 1. Cnronicies, xvn., 32v.: "And oi the children of Isaachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred men; and all their brethren were at their commandment." After speaking of the thousands that were ready aimed to the war and came to Hebron to make David King, the preacher ,said we grow tired oi reading about these big battalions, and it was refreshing to come upon this 32nd verse and get into the company of men of another sort. Men of understanding, who knew what Israel ought to do. Men of reflection, of practical sagacity, of political wisdom. Men of thought and men of action; the kind of men who really sway the world, after all, if the*world only knew it. These are the men needed to-day, and specially needed in the church. Men who can read aright the tendencies and necessities of the age in which we live. It is so important to understand the time, these times, the times we are born to; and perhaps these are the times least studied and least understood. Our boys at school are carefully drilled in the careers of William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great, but where are they taught anything of the political and social movements of our own generation. The teaching of our universities is in like manner confined to the long-buried past, with the present drift of thought, and the movements of the hour they do not to any appreciable extent concern themaelvee. And it is equally true that in the church we breathe the musty air of antiquity rather than the fresh brisk atmosphere of to-day. It is quite proper for preachers to give their hearers a correct idea of the times of the Queen of Sheba; but we want men also who will clearly and intelligently understand the times of Queen Victoria, and tell us how to act in relation to its critical needs and supreme opportunities. The newspaper editor is wiser. He knows that leaders on events that happened in 1889 will not be read in. 1899, and that he must speak to the mood of fhe moment if his paper is to sell and tell. But the pulpit goes on dealing out the old formulae in it« old dull way. It discourses of Enoch and Noah and Melchizedek and the Hittites to a generation that is at its wits' end to reconcile aristocracy with democracy, capital and labg£ and the dying feudalsim with the new-born socialism. We talk admiringly of the old prophets, but if Isaiah or Ezekiel, or Amos, or Joel were among us toKlay, would their pulpits be silent on such questions as nationalisation of land, imperial federation, education of the people, or even prohibition 1 When shall we learn to adapt our presentations of truth and our methods of spiritual impression to the busy and sorely perplexed man of to-day. The man you meet in Pollen street, or in Queen street, Auckland, who feels no particular interat in Ahab or Nebuchadnezzar, but who would give a great de&Lfor helpful guidance in the solution of practical social problems, problems that really involve the essential principles of Christianity I We are faced to-day with a rising democracy—a rising democracy that is rapidly growing in power and ip, a con■oiousaess of its power. That growing democracy is the grand factor in the future development of our civilisation. Are the churches to take no part in moulding that democracy, in inspiring it with great idealß, in persuading it to a salutary prudence in teaching it the magnanimity of selfcontrol? Or are they to let this great leviathan go on its way crashing through fenced landmarks, and trampling down the fair garden of the Lord 1 To the preacher, this was one of the questions of the hour. Christian society must either Christianise Demos, or an un-Christian Democracy will secularise society. In dealing with the restiveness of many of our young people, the church should recognise the necessity of getting out of the old ruts, and bring the machinery of the churches up to date. Likewise in our dealing with the sinning and suffering members of society. In Jesus Christ's inimitable parable of "the good Samaritan," in order to resoue and help his suffering brother, the helper, "came where he was." That is the true principle—the principle of adaptation. That is what we have to do; Meanwhile we are "passing by on the other side" mumbling our formularies, and wondering why the man in the ditch does not get up and run after us. Why not, by way of excitement, revolutionize the whole character of our Sunday evening services, and instead of sermon, sermon, sermon always, by one man and one roice, have conferences in which short addresses on the questions of the hour—always from a Christian standpoint, of course—where representative and capable men should give their views on the religious and social outlook. If we are to lay hold of the masses we must get rid of all our conventionalisms, discharge ourselves of all our starch and defy the grumblings of the ecclesiastical "Mrs. Grundys " by new. departures by modes and methods born of "the times" and adapted to "the times." These "men of understanding" were in the minority, but they were the leaders, for "all their brethren were a£ their commandment/ It is always so. Witness Jesus Christ in His day; and Paul, on the shipwreck. Plenty with an air of judicial wisdom will Bay "something must be done," but only one here and . there will say what ought to be done; and, like a man, go straight away and do it. In justification of the "Citizen Sunday" movement the j preacher said he did not feel frequently called upon to obtrude political and social questions upon the attention of his congregation. He believed that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the grand and sufficient remedy for every kind of sin* ffiat opposed and op-, pressed mankind; but, even so, there were times when it was necessary, or at least expedient, to translate the principles and maxims of the Gospel into modern life, and to show their

practical bearing upon the burning questions of the day. There were evils tolerated by society to-day that Christian sentiment could frown out of existence. The unsound speculation which day after day is tempting and ruining individual souls, and which confessedly is eating the heart out of our civilisation. Would this vex us any longer if Christians no? Could we not compel our Councillors to sweep the streets clear of moral impurities, those temptresses to immorality, and the harpies and vampires who fatten on the life blood of the youth and sap the strength of the young manhood of the country, by tempting them to gamble? Are we not sufficiently numerous as church'merit- >, bera to secure the return to the next Parliament of men'pledged'to the abolition of that device of the devil known as the totalisator, which more, than, anything else popularised gambling among young men, and. worse still' among young women? Could we not, if we so desired, bring an end to that intolerable system of legalised temptation glaring upon us at every street corner, and by one supreme act of righteousness sweep away all those schools of hell—the open bar—where mother's sons are ruined and husbands converted into brutes? Let us all feel how solemn and sacred is the trust reposed in us by God. Let us be faithful to that trust, and by prayer and vow, and vote, and influence, and, above all, by Christian cooperation hasten the time, when God's kingdom shall come, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven; and speed that day when

"Righteousness shall abound As the great deep profound, And fill the earth with purity!