THE CHRISTIAN SUNDAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17587, 17 December 1928, Page 6

THE CHRISTIAN SUNDAY.

NOT A MATTER OF RULES.

"SERVICE IS PERFECT FREEDOM."

BISHOP CHERRJNGTON'S SERMON.

"Pure religion and undeflled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Taking this verse from the Epistle of James as his text, the Right Rev. C A Chcrrington, Bishop of Waikato, preached on Sunday observance to a large congregation at St. Peter s Cathedral yesterday morning. He maintained that for Christians the Old Testament laws for Sabbath observance had been abrogated. The service of Christ was "perfect freedom." It was natural for Christians to celebrate the first day of the week—the day of the Lord's resurrection —as an occasion of happiness. If they attended Holy Communion in the right spirit in the early part of the day they would probably live aright for the rest of the day. People should be free to choose their own recreations, but Christians could only be happy if they were doing their best to follow their divine leader. In reference to Sunday schools, the Bishop expressed admiration for those who were carrying on the work, and said that while he preferred that religious instruction should be given during the week Sunday teaching was to be encouraged when the children's needs were not met otherwise. In the text he had quoted, said the preacher, we had the essence and kernel of religion. Religion was the endeavour to emulate our Lord and Master, who went about doing good, and to let our conduct approach as nearly as possible to His—to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, so that our light might shine in the world that knew not Christ.

The Bishop said he had been asked to preach about Sunday observance It was not for him to interfere with the interpretation of the Scriptures in this, regard by Presbyterians, Methodists, or other sects. There had been deprecation of the supposed tiend toward a "Continental Sunday." The only Continental countries in which he had lived were Belgium and France. In reference to the village life in those two countries he would say that if we attended church with anything like the regularity oi the people there we should need five new churches in Hamilton at once. Sunday Schools. Some people had been vexed, said the Bishop, by his remarks concerning Sunday schools. He wished to make itclear that he was second to none in his admiration of those unselfish men and women who devoted an extraordinary amount of time to helping the clergy to teach religion to children who apparently could not get tliis instruction elsewhere. When it was impossible to get things done that ought to be done on other days it was best to do these things on Sunday. It was not always possible to lind opportunity for pursuing the ideal course. For instance, he did not approve of the Bible-iu-schools system or of the Nelson system; he preferred the New South Wales plan of religious instruction in schools.

"But," he said, "when ycu can't get what you want you've got to make up with other things less satisfactory." He applied this principle to Sunday schools. The purpose of the Sunday schools first established in Britain, he pointed out, was to teach reading and writing to children who were hard at work during the week, some of them having to toil 12 or 14 hours a day at that time in pit or factory. In the South of England at present the Sunday school had practically died out; in the Midlands is was moribund; but in the north it was flourishing. He had gone to one parish determined to have nothing to do with Sunday schools, but he had found the schools there flourishing, and had decided he must do nothing to discourage them, as they were doing good work.

Sunday—Not Sabbath. Before giving his views en the right use of Sunday Bishop Cherrington said that preaching was useless unless the preacher put forth the beliefs of which he had become convinced after study of the Scriptures. If his interprets:ion were wrong the Truth would eventually prevail, but each must speak his own convictions. "There is no more obligation on us, as Christians, to keep the Jewish Sabbath day lhan to offer animal sacrifices," he said. He believed the Jews had instituted the Sabbath at the time of one of the exiles as an observance tD bind themselves together nationally, possibly there had been some earlier observance. In Exodus the reason given for the Sabbath was to commemorate the rest taken by the Creator. In Deuteronomy the reason given was to commemorate the passing of the Children of Israel through the Red Sea. Both could not be correct. Probably the Jews did not care whence the observance came so long as it was established on good authority. At the coming of Christ everything Jewish was abrogated and finished with. Certainly the Old Testament was a wonderful book, if rightly understood. The teaching of some of the prophets would endure for all time, because, while decrying external observances, they appealed to the moral heart of man. In the words of Micah, "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy G-od." Saint Paul had attached no importance to the •'observance of days." The preacher quoted from Paul's Epistles to the Galatians (fourth chapter), to (Jolossians (second chapter), and to the Romans (fourteenth chapter) in this regard. Paul was the chosen \postlc to the heathen, who had never had anything to do with the Jews. As to the observance of the first day of the week by Christians, there was mention of the Lord's Day in Revelation: "I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day," and Paul had mentioned a meeting 'held on- the first day. But there had never been discovered any instruction for Christian people to make any difference between the first day of the week and any other. But, to his mind, the fact that the observance of this day had become general among Christians without definite instructions was one of the surest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The observance was accepted even by conservative Jews among the early Christians. "Jf we believe in Jesus Christ," said Bishop Cherrington, "if we are really thankful for the fact that He rove from the dead and so taught the world that this life is not everything but only the beginning, then we cannot do anything else than express towards Cod on this first day of the week our thankfulness for the same." The best way to do this, lie added, was for all to gather around the Lord's Table and

offer prayers of thanksgiving in remembrance that Christ had risen. Not for Self. Someone had understood his article in the Diocesan Magazine as meaning that, after attending early service, each should have the rest of the day for himself. He did not think he had said that. The Communion was not only the act of receiving the body and blood of the Lord, but receiving them together. It was an act of friendliness and affection towards one another. If worshippers came In that spirit of devotion to God and affection to one another no rules would be necessary for them. The Book of Common Prayer taughl that all Sundays were feasts, as well as Christmas Day, Ascension Day and the Saints' days. ISo special services were set down for Sunday. Morning prayer and evening prayer were intended for every day of the year. We should spend not only one day of the we ;k but all days to the glory of God. What it was right to do on one day it was right to do on other days, and what was wrong on one day was wrong on other days.

Sunday Tennis. Coming to the question of Sunday games, the preacher commended the verses on the subject which had appeared in the WaiUato Times the night before. "If it is right for anybody to play golf or to play tennis on his own court," he said, "then I don't see how it can be wrong for young people who have no tennis court of their own and who, perhaps, cannot afford a subscription to a golf club, to play on a tenuis club court." He regretted that those responsible had not seen fit to open St. Peter's tennis courts during certain hours —ssy, from 2 to 5 p.m.— on Sundays. We must be honest, straight and fair. People found recreation in different ways—one by reading elevating literature, another on a motor cycle made for two. One would, choose a pipe and books; another would find recreation in keeping his muscles moving. What was one man's meat was another man's poison. In any case there should not be one law for ths rich and another for the poor. Christians must remember, said the preacher, that their religion was net a religion of rules and restrictions. As parents and teachers tried to teacli children to acquire certain habits not for the sake of obeying rules but as being the right thing to do, so it was in the Church —the family of God. Our business was not to be servants or slaves, but lovers' of Jesus Christ. Then we would serve Him devoutly and earnestly. In their daily prayer they used the words, "Whose service is perfect freedom." Christians could not be truly happy unlii they did the things they thought Christ wanted them to do. In conclusion, he repeated the definition of "true religion and undefiled" as stated in the text and declared that other things were secondary.