SERVICE FOR SPORTSMEN

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17885, 4 December 1929, Page 6

SERVICE FOR SPORTSMEN

CLERGYMEN AT VARIANCE. X “A GROTESQUE DISTORTION." WELLINGTON, Tuesday. 11 It was reported," said Canon,Per-' cival James to-day, “ that last Sunday the Rev. Di. C. Herron, of St. David’s Presbyterian Church, Auckland, made a gratuitous attack upon me because of my intention to introduce at St. Paul’s Pro-cathedral, in addition to all the regular Sunday services, an extra early service, not the earliest of the day, but at a time convenient to a large number of people who do not come to church at present. Many of these, I am convinced, are utterly unable to come at 11 a.m. “ It is deplorable that a minister of another denomination, in his haste to interfere, should display such a spirit, the very spirit that is thwarting the efforts of men of goodwill toward reunion.

“It is even more deplorable that Mr. Herron shouitt deliberately choose for his avowed purpose—attack a text of Scripture and wrest it violently from its context. Reference to the 44th. chapter of Isaiah will show immediately that the meaning of the passage is that idolatry is irrational, but Mr. Herron chose to misinterpret it as a denunciation of those who insult God by offering only that which was left over after their own selfish interests had been satisfied, in this case those who will attend the extra service. “ There is no such meaning or implication in this passage. For the minister of one of the chief Presbyterian churches in the Dominion, in a sermon addressed particularly to young people, to descend to such a grotesque distortion of Holy Scripture, seems a desperate expedient not likely to commend lo the more thoughtful young people the church-going which both alike desire to foster. “My contention is this: I am not attempting to discuss now, much less to decide, the difficult question of Sunday recreation, but I definitely refuse to assume that none of those who are accustomed to spend a large part of Sunday in open-air recreation wish to come to church as well. On 1 lie contrary, I believe that many of those,people have a real religion and that they arc not unwilling to become church-goers IX we give them a read opportunity."