JOTTINGS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14162, 30 September 1911, Page 11

JOTTINGS.

The first of Genera] Booth's grandeons to become a Salvation Army officer

is Mr Brannrell Booth's son Bernard, who is, however, the fourth of ins father's children to enter tho Training College at Clapton. He will have as fellow-cndote several other children of Salvation Army officers, including & son of Colonel Hoggard, of Korea, who has left a commercial position in Japaji to come to Clapton; another eon of Colonel and Mrs Simpson, their third child to become an officer; and a daughter of Colonel Unsworth, editor-in-chief ot the Army's publications. The Rev. W\ G. Taylor, of Sydney, has been telling English audiences of the growth of Methodism in Australia and ;N«w ZeaJand during the past forty yean?. He says thero were then 860 churches, there are now 2<20; TSero were only 230 ministers, to-day there are 911 j there were 1300 local preachers, now thero aro 4o00; then thero were 800 Sunday schools, to-day 300O; the scTlolars were 51,000, thero are now 200,000; church adherents were 155,000, their numbers to-day arc 035,000. Besides these were the South Sea Missions, where forty years ago thore were 20|000 Methodist Church members, but now they number 110,000. " Pending the .evolution of a satisfactory scheme of Church Union, it will bo generally admitted" (writes the bydney " Methodist") "that it is desirable to limit the wasteful and weakening overlapping that at present occurs only too frequently in many places in Australia. So far, all proposals in this direction have been brushed aside with no_cereinonv and little courtesy in iSew South Wales The plea is that the several Churches are to continue as going concerns' until union actually comes, eprendinc: themselves/for all they are ■worth ' in tlie colloquialism of the day. How this is going to prepare the way to union, or to make tho process easy when it comes to pass, J.s beyond our comprehension. In our judgment, it can only intensify sectar»™ m «™ multiply difficulties for ft*™? rnent* We note, however that in West Australia they are proceeding on other lines They are not troubling much about organic vmion, but they We deoverlapping. Tho agreement has been £aLd P by the Melodist Conference extlV Tho -Rev. J. D. Jones, M.A. 8.D., one of the aßleet of the Nonconformist poachers of the Old. Country, wigng vi his Church magazine, says:— Oomplaint about long services raises the question of the proper length ofthsermon. Personally, I am no advocate of lone sermons. Modem oongrega?£_s.siuld not and would not stand tho two or throe. hours our Puritan ancestors used to inflict on their oon--cgations, nor even the hour to which \\ r clsh congregations to this day will patiently listen. Life Iβ more exacting In our day, and we could not stand the strain of the prolonged attention which our fathers apparently were able to bear without turning a hair. At the same time, I am all against tho short sermon. Preaching lias always been tho central thing m our Free Church worship. To detract from the dignity of preaching, or to relegate it to a secondary place, is to sacrifice the secret of our power, isow, 1 am persuaded that to reduce the sermon to a more snippet of speech lasting 10 or 15 minutes is to sacrifice its dignity. Tt ie to make great preaching impossible. For tho treatment, the reverent treatment, of the great themes of the Gospe' .adequate time is required. If the politician thinks, ho requires an hour to expound his views on some topic of momentary interest merely, and if people are quite willing to listen to him patiently for that length of time, tihe preacher is not demanding too much when he asks that people should listen patiently and reverently to him for 30 minutes whilst he epeaks to them upon the most vital theme of all."