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)',>'I ..-OtJR PULPIT.I

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)' >' I OtJR PULPIT. I THE FUTURE OF THE. CHlJROH IN .WALES. By thettev. E. W. Barnes, Sc.I)., F.R.S., Canon of Westminster. Preached in St. Mary's Church, Swansea, on Wednesday, November 19, on the occasion of St. David's Diocesan Conference. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure (If the stature of the fulness of Christ. EPHESIANS IV. 13. THE Diocesan Conference of St. David's Diocese meets this year after a catastrophe and a misfortune; and it is necessary to survey the future with, grave consideration. The catastrophe is, of course, the European War which has half-ruined, the civilisation of Europe. However rapid eoonomic, recovery may, bp, some of the evil moral and spiritual consequences of the war will last for two generations. Lassitude and bitterness, political pessimism and social mistrust have been pitiably aggravated by the strain and destruction of the last five years. We shall delude ourselves by false Optimism if we do not expect that, for many years to come, these things will make large numbers of our fellow citi- zens deaf to our appeal to them to search for the Kingdom of God. The war has been a spiritual catastrophe of the first magnitude; in all our disappointments as ministers of Christ we must remember the fact and not be dismayed by ill-suc- cess due to widespread bewilderment and loss of faith. After a Misfortune. But we meet also after a, misfortune. The Church in% Wales in now dis- established, and has suffered severely by loss of endowments at a time when money has shrunk to less than half its former value. Personally I deeply regret that Wales has no longer an established Church. I believe that the connection between Church and State has been of positive value to the whole com- munity, that it has to same extent pre- vented the severance of Christian from secular thought which in Latin countries is deplorable, and that in England and Wales it has indirectly promoted both toleration and comprehensiveness within the Church. In saying so much I would admit that I do not like privilege; and I would always support any movement to take from the English Church specific privileges which other Christian com- in unions deem unfair. But the develop- ment of English society and continuous legislative changes have made it hard to discover any such privileges, save pos- sibly the presence of some.Bishops in the House of Lords. When.that chamber is reformed, I venture to hope that an op- portunity will be given for Nonconform- ist leaders to take a share in its legisla- tive activity. However, the fact remains that you are disestablished. It is a fact which is, I am ha.ppy to think, being carefully remembered by those who are framing your new Constitution. They are trying to secure that you shall become, even more than in the past, the Church of all Welsh people, responsive to their spiritual needs, sensitive to their Social aspirations, as democratic as they are, not merely able to include but ready to welcome Churchmen of widely different types of temperament and training. The success of your Constitution will, how- ever, ultimately depend on the spirit which guides bodies of men like your- selves. The best-devised scheme will fail if those who have to work it are not loyal tp its ideals. You must individually seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit; by, pruer and meditation you must streng- then your generosity and self-restraint if you are to remain a Church ready and able to guide and to inspire the whole people of Wales. A Great Past. With your historic past and your present opportunities you cannot en- dure to become one of a number of competing sects. Your past is great notwithstanding grievous faults." your present opportunities are full of promise.. Of the faults of the past I need say little. The tragedy of the situation has been that some of the great Nonconformist bodies in Wales derive their origin froin Churchmen who, a century or more ago, found the spiritual inertia of the Church intolerable. They established new com- munions because, ap thv 11 d discourage- ment dtove them from the Church of their forefathers- The type of Christi- anity which they tlevel jied had limita- tions it owed too much to its own age and locality. In Dean Church's sober words the men who made it were too limited and narrow in their compass of ideas to found a powerful theology." But they had true religious zeal, and by virtue of it Welsh Nonconformity flour- ished and flourishes. Since the unhappy days of which I have been speaking new religious vitality has run, like sap in a healthy tree, through every part of the Church in Wales. The new vigour has shown itself everywhere: High Church- men and Evangelicals alike manifest its power. The old reproach is no longer deserved, and even the memory of ancient scandals is dying away. The time has absolutely passed when the people of Wales in their religious need came to the Church for the bread of life and received a stone. It is good. Had it always been true you would have escaped many of ] your present trials and would not have cause to admit that the sins of the fathers have been visited on their chil- dren. But now that the worst is over you enter on your future. You have, I make bold to say, no less earnestness than that which animates your Noncon- formist brethren. You have also the in- heritance of a powerful theology and an organised history of some sixteen cen- turies. Do not underrate the force of the appeal which these will continue to make outside your Communion. Our own theo- logy is doubtless changing under the im- pact of modern ideas. But it is soundly based on belief: in Jesus, our Lord. and Saviour, as moulded by the religioius thought of the two greatest nations of antiquity, those of Judaea, and Greece; and 'it has thereby the inherent power to renew its form without losing any of the old spiritual values. Theologies of local origin and more limited compass are feel- ing the nee-J. of far more drastic changes, and the result is that theological divi- sions between ourselves and the more thoughtful Nonconformists are rapidly breaking down. Political differences may remain, but they are transient; the war, for instance, has brought to an end many of the old lines of cleavage. The drift of earnest Nonconformists to the Church is large and likely to increase. I will not ask how many of you began life in Non- conformist homes: I would only say that if the Church in Wales can retain spiritual zeal, national sympathies and general comprehensiveness, its steady expansion is assured. Tribute to the Bishop of St. Davids. Were I nt preaching a sermon, some of you would probably remind me that you suffer from disendowment, and that the work of the Church in Wales in the near future is likely to be gravely hindered by lack of funds. As your Bishop, in his most valuable statement, has made clear, the capital loss of the Welsh Church consequent on the recent Act is roughly £ 1,000,000. It is a most serious misfortune to a, Church which all fair-minded men admit to be poorly en- dowed. It is sometimes said that you might have done better had your leaders refused the recent Amending Act, and had they so added to the many anxieties of the present Coalition Government that to ease an intolerable situation Ministers of the Crown gave you more generous terms. I am glad that your leaders took no such action. Your Bishop's state- ment is masterly in its exposition of a complex legal situation and singularly lucid in matters of finance but to me the most valuable part of it is his insistence tha,t a Church, which takes Christ as Lord and Master, could not in loyalty to Him reopen 'a controversy which would add to the strife and confusion -of our time. The vigorous protest of six years ago was made against proposals which seemed to us all unjust. You made a straightforward appeal for generous sym- pathy. You won such sympathy in large measure, but adverse political circum- stances were too strong for you. A secular organisation might have carried on the struggle: the Church would cer- tainly have lost spiritual influence by so doing. We cannot keep the Church true to Christ's standards if we allow it to become immeshed in political intrigue. And I would have those who shall con- trol the policy of your Church bear this in mind throughout your future hsitory. In the region of ecclesiastical diplomacy nothing fails like success. Welshmen show peculiar aptitude for political strategy. Religious men, by virtue of a certain austerity in private life, readily develop a clearness of aim which-in the same sphere of action serves well. I would urge you to avoid such tempta- tions of enlightened worldliness. When controversies arise let us state our prin- ciples clearly and resolutely, but with charity and courtesy, seeking the ad- vancement of Christ's Kingdom rather than the immediate advantage of our own Communion. But let us prefer de- feat to entangling alliances with worldli- ness. We believe that the Church will last for ever if it remains true to Christ's standards. We need not, then, be over- anxious at temporary ill-success. Wales will value the Church just in so far as it can raise the moral tone and deepen the spiritual life of the community. If the Church can do these things the Prin- cipality will have need of it, and in the long run will neither thwart its efforts nor leave it impoverished. Prospects of Grievous Povecty. Meanwhile, it is but too true that you are faced by-the prospect of grievous poverty- The immediate future will; I' fear, bring distress to many whose work will be sore let and hindered by pecu- niary oares from which they ought to be free. Such must remember Christ's words of encouragement, Be not over- anxious what ye shall eat or with what ye shall be clothed your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." There is great wealth in Wales; you must teach your people that it is their duty to idve liberally to tlie cause J of religion. Too,, many C) of moderate means ought to ha ye a higher standard, of generosity. It is a grave social danger that many rich men do not regard their wealth as a trust which God has placed in their hands. Your influ-" ence, if you are worthy to be called min- isters of Christ, will not fail to improve matters. Every religious community tends to become wealthy, and as it does so its members tend tohecomeindifferent to the neteds of the poor; that is why Christ so emphatically condemned riches and made His pointed antithesis between the service of Mammon and of God. For the present there is no danger that you will be ensnared by riches. Thank God for it. And in this connection let me emphasize that the Church in Wales must strive to he the Church of all classes, and especi- ally of the poor. Lord Morley, in his Recollections published two years ago, wrote a memorable sentence Have the higher and middling orders no preju- dices, interests, indolence, of their own, to deaden their perception of Rousseau's resplendent commonplace: "Tis the people that compose the human race; what is not people is so small a concern that it, is not worth the trouble of count- ing? One can measure the real latent strength of a Church by the extent to which it is the Church of the common people. To win and hold the people who, in the common, phrase, do not count is everything. Their lives are often hard and narrow; religion can make them beautiful and spacious. Often they are bitter because they seek material joys and, sometimes, sordid pleasures; re- ligion can transform their outlook and give them true happiness, Christianity is a transformation of values which we all have to make as we receive the Christ- spirit within us. But it is not an ano- dyne. Modern industrialism has been criminal—I usS the word deliben1,tely- in the way in which it has deprived the workers of the decent surroundings and unexhausted leisure necessary if Christ is to be seen and welcomed. For the sake of the Church, that you may make it truly the Church of the people, you will have to be ardent Social Reformers, zealous for all that can add to the material well- being of your poorer fellow-citizens. Question of Education. May I, in this connection, say something of the vitally important question of edu- cation? In the words of your Bishop, The greatest of all the social problems of our age is education, for it moulds the future." It seems to me that in our modern world it is absolutely essential that all the children whose parents con- sent shall receive Christian teaching. But if religion is to be taught by the State it cannot, as things are, be the distinctive faith of one particular ChuTch. There have been sad disputes in the past; we must make an end of them. I personally would have children taught as Calvinistic Methodists or as Roman Catholics rather than' they should have no Christian instruction. Fortunately we are not confronted by such alterna- tives. And fortunately, also, there is such general agreement as to the value of Christian morality and the Christian view of life that it is still., possible, if the various Christian communions will avoid disputes, to secure for all children the elements of Christian instruction. To buill adequately on that basis is the task which various Christian bodies should set themselves, and it is a task for which their united energies would, as things are at present, be inadequate. The growth of a pagan population is a grave danger. The religious instinct always seeks an outlet: if it is unguided it wili turn to primitive combinations of folly and vice from which a purer and wiser faith can protect men. Superstition and degenerate cults will revive, moral laxity will increase, the wet-being of the com- munity will be imperilled, if Christianity ceases to permeate the whole thought of the people. Let me urge, then, that you set the Christian education of the com- munity above your own private ideals, when they prov& unattainable, however valuable they may be. Training of the Clergy. But there is another aspect of educa- tion which to the Church in Wales is of equal importance. I allude, of course, to the training of the clergy. The clergy must be at least as well educated as the average doctor, schoolmaster" or lawyer. All clergymen ought to receive in early manhood a Uni- versity education, during which they in- fluence and are influenced by the thought of other young men, who in due course will become leaders of the community. They ought during years of rapid mental development to share fully the intellec- tual life of the Principality. Only so can we escape the danger that from the pulpit obsolete ideas are set forth which thoughtful men reject. We have to re- member that there is no such tiling as Christian truth, or Catholic truth, or Evangelical truth. Truth is a unity. That unity must be preserved, and Christ's teaching must be shown to be central in it, if the Gospel is to be pro- perly proclaimed. The Church must, therefore, have a" body of accredited theologians, professors and subordinate teachers, whose duty it is to study the present rapid development of Christian thought throughout the world, for other- wise religious zeal will be marred by a limited theology. The history of the Church of Ireland since its disestablish- ment indicates that such a narrowing of ideas is not impossible. The crux of the concrete problem which confronts you is, of course, the existence of Lameeter with A I its valuable past and its strong hold on ) the affections of Welsh clergy. The college was placed at the junction of great high roads before the railways came, before the great industrial, centres of Wales had come into existence, before the Univer- sity Colleges had been founded. Sooner or later, I am convinced, it must he re- placed by faculties at university centres. I do not suggest separate institutions which might develop different atmo- spheres: Broad at Bangor, Catholic at Cardiff and (the alliteration will not hold out) Evangelical at Aberystwyth. Such incentives to partisan rivalry would be disastrous. One central body representative of the Church as a whole, with a single director (and I could imagine no better man that Principal Joyce), would have control of the system. There is no longer, I believe, any real danger of partisan appointments to theo- logical professorships either under the present or any future system. A new spirit has arisen in connection with the- ological teaching in our Church. At* King's College, London, with which I am connected, we have quite recently ap- pointed Bishop Gore as Lecturer in Dogmatic Theology (characteristically lie refused a Professorship) and a distin- guished young Evangelical scholar as Sub-Warden of the Hostel. At the same time a group of Ldiidon Nonconformist colleges asked that we would allow Pro- fessor Bax to lecture, to their students on the Old Testament. University scho- larship, a university atmosphere, can help enormously towards that reunion of the Churches for which we all ought to pray. Of course, you have no money for such a scheme of reform as I have out- lined. I put it before you to-day, at the beginning of your new life, in the hope that the imagination of some million- aire may be fired as he realises the splen- did use which he might make of his wealth. Increased support of the clergy will come largely from individual con- gregations. But I dp not think it im- possible .that one or more rich men, with that enthusiasm for higher education which characterises Wales, will make your system of training clergy a model which we in England will admire and envy. No Ordinary Occasion. It is at the kind suggestion of your Bishop that I have thus spoken to you at some length. The present is no ordinary occasion. You stand on the threshold of a new era in the history of your Church. If the past has been chequered the future is full of promise. The meetings of the Governing Body have already been marked by sober judgment, by generous tolerance, by a true spirit of brotherly unity. You have within you zeal, energy and the spiritual vitality which will turn past loss into future gain. The task to which the Church is called by the Lord Jesus Christ is .both arduous and inspiring. Your difficulties are m,aiiy-to preach the Gospel in truth and fidelity is never an easy task-but your opportunities are great. May the blessing of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit of Christ be with you till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

A PRESTON MISSION.

SPIRITUAL REQUEST OF LABOUR

REVISED LECTIONARY.

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