WHAT IS
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1947.
YOUR
RELIGION ?
The second of three important articles by the leaders of the Churches In Britain setting down in simple language the faiths of their Churches
The beliefs of the Free Churches
by Free
the Church Federal
Moderaton of
•
exercise
The Free Churches that freedon h. their use, of hymns, their use or disuse of
S their name implies the Free Churches are deep ly concerned about Free- dom or, as they prefer to call, robes, and in their finding new
it, Spirifunt Independence.
offices to make satisfying
Believing that every Christ- jan van make
ways and new their worship thing.
#
Akk
¿ppiritual judgment they
hand
This means variety legitimate place in necessarily confusion
Church and State for the order.
but not
(31 dis-
1
exervise of that judgment. Na One church may use the in- outside authority such as dividuni cup at Communion, Tradition, Convention, or the anather may use the common
Slate mul constrain men
heir Christian life.
in
cup.
One church may have minis- ters who cut off the ends of the old-fashioned stock and wear a colini or a white tie in great
pulpit.
Religious truth may come to a man hacked, by a venerable institution. widespread belief, noble
Janguage and mames, but, before it becomes vital to him, a man must pro- nounce upon it and make it in the deepest sense his own,
He cannot take it second- hand from the Church, or third- hand from the State. Ile must get it at first-hand or not at all.
Freedom thus becomes a spiritual necessity for man.
MAN'S RIGHT
Judge for himself
AT the Reformation this claim
was first made against the Church,
Men found themselves no longer able to accept things on
the
the Council
THE MODERATOR The Rev J. M. Richardson. M.A., B.D.
This led them to relate their religion to ordinary every day
Another may cut off the top and appear resplendent with Presbyterian bands, What mat- ters it if the worship leads to life. a real communion with God?
They found men in their or- Worship can never
dinary life fottered and bound, thing more than that, and it and they flung themselves into should be nothing less,
economic and political life to free them.
be any-
The next struggle for Free- dom was against the State.
The Church nt times has
the This time it was the other way life. round.
There are many such conflicts peculiar to free men. To take but one. The conscientious ob- jector objects to taking part in war, and the State must use its full authority to maintain its ⚫ safety.
How is the tension to be re- lieved? Free Churchmen would say on the one hand that the conscientious objector must not push his claim to the point of endangering the State, and the State, within the limits of safe- ty, must find a place in national service for these men other than in the things of war.
So far, so good. But in each case that comes' up for settle- ment the tension of adjustment will always be found and the rights of Freedom be in danger of being last.
-POCKET CARTOON
WIMSEX
The glamour girl with the long skirt can fall out!"
Give The Poor Dogs
A Chance!
By "Candidus"
THE indiscriminate shooting
of dogs, reported some days ago, naturally created sur- prise and resentment among all It is perhaps for this reason that lovers of canine pets, especially the Free Churches have produced so when it is remembered that few saints of the gentle or quietist it was once officially advocated
p
have their own that householders should keep saints, men and women often of very dogs as
It safety measure humble origin, who by the quality against unwelcome visitors. of their Hyes have played no mean part in the redemption of the world from futility and defeat.
Yet they
The necessity for controlling dogs in these climes is fully Below the level of sainthood, they appreciated, and it is doubtless have produced within the Church on account of the measures men and women of sound moral and which have been taken in the spiritual insights, teachers and past that the dread disease preachers of great Influence, hydrophobia so rarely occurs ploneering missionaries at home and
Preventative measures abroad, and outside the Church they here.
Their share in the liberating movements of the past two hundred years is no mean one and for it they deserve well of sought to control State, many who do not share their have produced good ellizens, daring arc. of course, essential, but the social reformers, and keen poltti-reckless shooting of wandering Nor did their service end clans who have introduced, defend-dogs is to be deplored, there. They passed easily from ed, and maintained Christian values liberating measures to measures and standards both for our nation of betterment and reform. of There is hardly a single cause of betterment or uplift in the
The State sought to control the mere authority of the the Church, and our spiritual Church. They demanded the ancestors would have none right to judge for themselves. it. The Church must be free to
This was only one of the
order its religious life things arising from that con-
obedience to fiet, but it went deep.
its ever-living Ilead.
The ordinary Christian must be given freedom in all ques- tions affecting the doctrine and polity of the Church.
of Revolution was bound to lend to extremes.
FREEDOM Result of struggles
in
Such a claim made in a time THERE could be no compromise.
on that. The struggle for a reasonable degree of freedom
Some wanted to abolish the was long and bitter,-and-any Church altogether and trust to attempt to restrict that freedom the inner light. Others insisted on ill-lanced judgments, and is as strongly resisted today as private interpretations that ever. were both dangerous and un- sound.
Secondary things were put first and first things last. Christian charity came last all.
of
The restriction need not be
job. The law must
realm of benevolence or reform in which Free Churchmen have not made a full contribution of leadership and support,
For this they deserve well of the nation, but they have this further reward. Their religion has kept close to every-day life. "Nothing human is foreign to
them."
They may derive their faith operating that faith is in the from beyond, but the sphere of world around.
OWN SAINTS
Often humble men by force. Legislation can pre-
It is commonly said that the vent the Church doing its real price of Freedom, is eternal leave i vigilance. Perhaps it would be free to do its work as well as more true to say that the price
is eternal tension. express its. faith.
Free Churchmen have known and still know these tensions in plenty, for the greatest tensions Churchmen come not in a conflict between the faith once delivered to the were led to see the importance good and evil but in a conflict in of Freedom, not only in the between forces which can both saints is securely guarded
Church but also in the State. be called good.
As time went on, however. there emerged a conception of
Ong unexpected result fol- the Church in which authority lowed from these two and freedom are preserved and struggles.
the Church.
Free Church-
men may not be- lieve that God to
wants 134
speak, pray, and sing all in the sarne way, but they
no less
stoutly believe in
the fundamentals
of the faith.
Au one of my teachers put it: "You may have the right to question this or that statement of the Apostle Paul, but you have no right to throw out of the window every- thing that made Paul the man he
,"
was."
In worship, too, everything must be done decently and in order, but
this does not pre- vont the intro- duction of new and different methods of woœ- ship.
Free
US.service
in GREECE
HOME
MES PRODUCTION
and the world.
A TRUE CHURCH
Claim well founded TT is by these things Free Church- these things they ask others to judge them.
or content
Their claim to be a true Church to Christ, their commending of the faith by their integrity, wisdom and charity, and their extension of the faith by Gospel and by support of the things personal witness to the truth of the
that lift human life to higher levels and nobler striving.
If by integrity, steadfastness, en- durance, service and sucrifice, and if, above all, by deep spiritual in- sights into the working of truth and love, they have played no small dom, they may rightly claim to be part in the extension of God's King-
of the one, holy. Catholic Church.
part
Next Saturday: "The Beliefs of the Roman Catholics," by Cardinal Griffin, Archbishop Westminster,
200
AN Service
in PALESTINE!
0.0
THE GIRLS WHO WOULDN'T BE LEFT BEHIND HIM (Corrigan,
All Cointriazi
of
All dogs are liable to stray occasionally, but this fact does not justify their destruction. In days past, the motor-cycle with side-cur-cum-cage, attach- ment was to be seen frequently, and stray dogs were humanely netted and taken to a collecting centre. The owners then had the opportunity of retrieving, their pots.
to the are nice.
I cannot subscribe plea that some dogs pen to live in well-mannered dogs simply because they hap-
localities. A dog is just as valuable to the humble but or tenement dweller as to the owner of a mansion-and just as able to stray. It earns the same sentimental regard and performs the Hame duty in protecting its master. Tho ugliest little mongrel may even possess greater virtues than his aristocratic brother.
Whether pedigreed or "mysteried," the dog is loved more than any other animal just because of his faithful- ness and Intelligence. He becomes one of the family, and carns the same love, even if he docs huppen to be "Just plain dawg."
There is no excuse for destroying a dog unless he is uncontrollable or rubld. Compulsory inoculation would help to solve the problem, and with poorer people, the number of dogs kept could be restrleted, Shooting al sight without a fair trial is nothing short of criminal.
THERE appears to be every likeli
hood of a blood bath in Palcs- tine as the result of the Jew-Arab dispute. The-record of the lawless Tews makes one of the ugliest pages In history, and thoro concerned, whether in Pal
in Palestine
or numbered amongst their sympathisers. United States and elsewhere,
in the bre
equally culpable. It will be a good day for Britain when she hands över, Fo unenviable a responsibly to the United Nations.
It seems to be a loss-up now as to whether the United States will endeavour to maintain law and order, or who her Russia will find an excuse to insinuate her creed and palitical practices into the Holy Land, as it is so Ironically termed.
· Influential Jews throughout the world have lost the opportunity they ance had of protesting against assasination and murder practised in their own name. It is this aspect which all thinking people deplore so greatly. The frenzied fühatles who have ignored all civilized forms of pleading, have by their outrageous actions lost whatever sympathy their caise may once have evoked.
Falestine represents one of the world's greatest tragedies, and 'It is obviously a job for the rest of the world to settle, and cannot be placed upon the shoulders: 01 nation
any
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