SUNDAY DESECRATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 303, 23 December 1933, Page 8

SUNDAY DESECRATION

MINISTER SPEAKS OUT "PERIL OF CHRISTIANITY. ’’ SERMON AT METHODIST CHURCH. *' The peril of Christianity is not tho atheist or agnostic; nor the callous persecutor nor selfish materialist; but what Christianity has most to tear is from the friends who fail her,’’ said the Rev. R. Dudley in an arresting sermon at the Alethodist Trinity Church last Sunday evening. He took as his subject “New Zealand’s Sunday Desecration,’’ and trenchantly criticised thc manner in which the people of today spend their Sundays. He recalled that Jesus had said that the Sabbath was made for man and that He had not ignored the day of worship, but had purified it and hnd made it an opportunity of rest and of glcriuus, sanctified beneficence. “The modern world has drifted away from that ideal,” be continued. “Apart from any ethical and religious consideration, a day of rest in this age of ceaseless mental and physical activity would seem to be an absolute necessity, and possess a definite survival value for tho race. But Sunday for the student or pleasure-seeker, or thc gardon-lover is not wholly a day when the spent forces of the body and mind are revitalised. I cannot help thinking that our beaches crowded from early morning till dark will exact their toll apart from any question of religion. “Few of us, as we journey to thc office for a few hours on God’s day, or meet in small groups to discuss the trade outlook for thc week, realise that there is just a prospect that this season of rest may be taken from us because of our blatant disregard for its purpose. For tho Master, God’s day was sanctified and blest. Yet how different it is to-day! Wo arc in thc midst of forces organised against God, and yet Christians, instead of aggressively opposing them cither give their patronage or support or maintain an attitude of utter indifference. Government Criticised. “Alystcry trains, widely advertised, carry their gay and pleasure-loving patrons to popular resorts: excursions run to cities, and provincial areas, pouring out hundreds of picnickers or sightseers. And all that is organised, and organised by our country. 1 suppose nothing better could be expected from a Government that sanctions wholesale gambling, that robs import ers, and gazes with greedy eyes upon superannuation funds. But there are evils in our very midst. We, too, have our organisations warring against the very ideals for which Christ stood: river excursions and vaudeville turns, providing men with fresh diversions. Film societies set up to defeat the spirit of the law, screening pictures which, in one case, had not passed the censor. “And these are instances, not of iso latcd cases of Sunday desecration, but of facilities which have been deliberately provided to eiyrourage patronage mainly for the purposes of profit. You need not look for philanthropy or altruism in such movements. They are money-making concerns and they arc run by men who are trying to exploit Sunday, God’s day, for ulterior ends. They are worse, 1 tell you,- they arc worse than those who cried in Old Testament times, ‘When will thc Sabbath be gone, that we may buy and sell and got gain I’ Thc Sabbath for the Master was utterly different; it was sanctified and blessed. God for Him was the supreme object of worship. There were no competing claims and no conflicting emotions. Christ's Secret. “The secret of His constant devotion was that His whole mind and heart were turned to God; His attitude was saturated with adoring worship. But the people to-day, in their blind ness, bow down, if nut to wood and stone, to sport and hobbies. There is worship in Wanganui on Sundays, but it is not wholly Divine worship. People’s attitude is against that. They will dchid c themselves by saying that they can worship God on the river or in the train as successfully as in a church. But do they? They will declare that they go to their picnits to beaches or to the countryside for worship. But somehow a wet Sunday, when th e wind is howling or snow falling, seldom finds them adoring their God in thc open, nor docs it find them in the house of prayer, and, in their time of trouble, when the world seems to break over their heads, when bereavement's hand touches them or unforeseen disaster assails, they never go amid their luxuriant scenery nor into tho quiet ness of their room and find comfort by praying. ‘ How sweet the name of Nature sounds in a believer’s ear’ ('an they appreciate that as much as the people who sing ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear'? The Crux of the Matter. “It is not mat we go to bam! concerts and picnics and sport that «s so wrong, but that with our hearts filled with adoring love toward God we want to go and cannot find anything better to do. And it is there that the crux of the whole matter lies. Other interests and pursuits claim so much of cur attention and energy that God gets the scraggy cuds if He gets anything at all: we <lo not give Him the supreme place in our hearts. If a man motored, cvcled or swam on a Sunday I couhi not, nor wonk! nor, be bold enough to say that his was a wrongful act. But, if that man who motored or cycled or swam were to admit that he devoted more hours to Sunday recreation than in quietness and meditation, or that he spent no time at all with God, then I would be false to my duty if a word of protest. an<l denunciation wore not raised. “Where God completely enthralls the life, and where the attitude is wholly, consec rated ly, u n roserverly t heoce n trie and not. geocentric: where the gaze is Christ ward and not self-ward, there cun b e no Sunday desecration. What is your Sunday and mine? Is it a laying aside of task and too]? My friends, God wants your heart, Christ wants it. To us there is entrusted the duty and task of guarding the Holy things of life. Tho world will not do it. It tramples underfoot the ideals that the Alaster taught and loved. Don’t side with it. Don’t give it an inch or an hour, but seek first thc Kingdom and its Righteousness. Much trouble has been caused because you and I have been faithless. The peril of Christianity is not the atheist or agnostic; nor thp callous persecutor nor selfish materialist: but what Christianity has

most to fear is from the friends who fail her. Let us become devoted disciples and missionaries of the Master, and let us know that the Saviour, yours and mine, who knew how to live, to worship, to serve God completely, calls us to follow His wa^.' ’