Public Worship.

Waiapu Church Gazette, 1 August 1910, Page 20

Public Worship.

Sermon preached by the Bishop of Waiapu at All Saints' Church, Haradale, at . the consecration of the additions to the Chuech, GalatiansVl-7. — "Godisnotrnocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." " It is a great mystery," wrote Bishop Woodford, " that whilst God is everywhere, and wherever He is, there He is entirely, yet has He intimated to us the possibility of His being specially present m peculiar places under peculiar circumstances, and this we at once acknowledge to be incomprehensible* How can God, we ask, be everywhere and yet be more here than there ? How can He be everywhere perfectly and one spot enjoy more of the awful presence than another ? We are not able to answer

these questions : that it is so, the Bible throughout witnesses." The consecration of the hitherto uncorisecrated additions to this Church this morning is the expression of our religious instinct that the special audience chamber of the Almighty is intended to be separated from all secular uses, and devoted to God's honour and glory for uses pertaining to His worship and the edification of souls m the knowledge and love of Him. We remember' the words of Hooker : " When therefore we sanctify or hallow* churches, that which we do is only to testify that we make them places of public resort, that we invest God Himself with, them, and that we sever them from common uses." " And as touching God Himself, hath He anywhere revealed that it is His delight to dwell beggarly? And that he taketh no pleasure to be worshipped saving only m poor cottages ? " We cannot forget how Almighty God was pleased to accept the dedication of the Tabernacle and the Temple. We cannot forget how He manifested His pleasure and spproval by taking possession of those buildings. We cannot forget how Christ loved His Father's House— rhow constantly and regularly He made use of the Synagogue and Temple services, and how He refused to allow even the outer courts of the Temple to be profaned by unhallowed usages. Even the. outer courts were part of His Father's House. " Make not my Father's House a house of merchandise." If the glory of the Lord filled the Temple when it was completed and dedicated to the service of the Almighty. And if God permitted mortal eyes to see , the outward and visible signs .of that Divine Presence which took' possession of that building of wood and stone, may we not reverently and humbly assume that God is still pleased to accept the buildings which we erect m His honour and to grant His special Presence m them as He did of old ? We therefore consecrate our Churches, because we believe that such consecration is m accordance with the Divine will. .. . '•■ (2). If we are trying to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, for no one could have been, more loyal to His Church than Christ was -no one could have attended the services more regularly than* Christ, did — no one could have loved those ser-. more devotedly than Christ did. It is a sigh of the tiiries which is foreboding ill to our country and

Empire that so many men and women are neglecting the regular worship of Almighty God, and are allowing the Lord's Day to become a day of pleasure. Some parents may m the past have mistaken the purpose and meaning of the Lord's Day and have confused it with the old Jewish Sabbath and been very unwise m forcing on their children altogether wrong ideas of the Christian day of worship; but there is absolutely no excuse for the lax and careless way m which too many people spend the Lord's day at the present time. Abuse is no argument against proper use, and the excuses which one so often hears are as childish as they are insincere. The Parish Church is not merely a suitable building for a service on some occasion of national joy or sorrow, or the customary place for a wedding and possibly a funeral, but it stands m our midst as a witness to God and as a witness to man's religious instinct and relationship to God. Well might a poor little child say to her mother one Sunday morning when for the first time she was brought into contact with people who never troubled to go to church, " Mother, is God dead ?" This present day neglect of the regular worship of Almighty God seems to me to be such base ingratitude. Men and women are quite Willing to accept all the privileges and blessings which a Christian country oflers, and yet do nothing to keep up that outward witness to God which is really supplying the very moral power m the world which enables them to live securely, and enjoy their lives, and which keeps m check the forces of disintegration and anarchy. Very few men and women would really like to see the churches shut up, for they know perfectly well that if the outward religion went, the inward would soon go with it, and then where would they be ? Where would the country be ? If we had no other and higher reasons for maintaining the worship of God, yet surely thankfulness alone should be sufficient to draw rightthinking men and women to Church. (3.) We talk a good deal about our patriotism m these days, but what does a good deal of it amount to? Self-preservation, self -protection, and self-aggrandisement. If we really loved our country, we should be anxious for its highest welfare, we should try to keep up the moral sense of the. community and country, we should try to help our fellow-countrymen, tq be loyal and

law-abiding, ,by setting them an example of loyalty and obedience to God. Men and women who are lowering the moral sense of the community by their examples, by their indifference to God's claims upon them, by their lives of carelessness and selfishness, are incurring a tremendous responsibility. If some poor boy or girl comes to grief on account of the stumblingblock which their elders have set m their way, who will be held responsible at the last great assize ? The blame will be put on the right shoulders then. Again, we know perfectly well that there is a tendency m the world towards a Godless socialism — an upheaval of law and order, : — and these steadily burning fires are being constantly fed by the men and women who are living m wilful blindness to their position. If men and women have no regard for God's laws, why should man's laws be regarded ? If our patriotism does not reach down below the surface and spell selfsacrifice for the sake of others, it is a poor patriotism indeed. What this country needs is self-sacrifice. Prosperity, alas ! has to a great extent enervated it, and weakened our sense of duty. Until we come back to a deeper sense of God's claim upon us, until we come back to a deeper sense of our duty to God, until we come back to a deeper realization of the importance and necessity of worship, we shall continue to decline. (4.) The cause of the neglect of worship is purely and simply that the claims of God are crowded out. There is "no room" for God m our lives. We hear the old question discussed from time to time, " Why men do not go to Church?" We hear the same old excuses, we hear the blame put upon everything and everybody and everywhere but m the right place. If a man really believes m his God, and is true to his own immortal self, he will be ashamed of paltry excuses, and will not neglect his duty to God, and his family, and his country, even though the details of the service may not always be to his liking, or the sermons quite the right length for the 20fch century. (5.) Thank God, there are noble men and women still — men and women who believe m the God of their forefathers — men and women who by their self-sacrifice and good examples are the very salt of the earth keeping it from putrefaction.- This country would not be what it is to-day, were it not for the few brave souls who are living noble, self-sacrificing lives; who

are conscious of the responsibility of their own examples, who are ready to deny themselves pleasures, it may be lawful pleasures, for the sake of ex* ample, who humbly and quietly are letting their light shine before men, and are adding to that moral force and power m the world which alone can keep it from chaos.

Dear friends, to-.day by our service we have emphasised our belief m the Eternal God, and expressed our sense of what is fitting and due to him, but let our service to-day emphasise also our duty and determination to fight more earnestly for those high.principles of usefulness and self-sacrifice which alone can build up true characters, alone can save patriotism from being dragged m the mire, alone can stem the current which is slowly but surely carrying us as a nation into those very same sins whioh have ended m the downfall of every empire which has risen hitherto. If we crowd God out of our lives, we too may be crowded out of our place as a nation and Empire. Remember that " God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap," and what is true of an individual is also true of a nation an 4 Empire. %