The Religious World

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 160, 8 July 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Religious World

Lord Halifax states that since the English Church Union manifesto in February. 2600 persons have joined the union. At the annual meeting of the London Missionary Society, held in London early in May, the income reported for the year wa_ £135,673, the expenditure having been £137,462.

The Sydney City Mission is again appealing for funds to enable the misXaries> help poor fatniHes during the winter. Money to buy food, clpthing, or blankets is wanted. The Rev. Dr. Mouiton has left Sydney for Tonga. He will be away about 2 month, during which he will visit an?.nsp.ct.he Wesleyan churches m the group. At a meeting between the Archbisho/of Canterbury and the Bishops of Winchester and Rochester, it was decided to proceed with the formation of a new diocese, to be called the diocese of Southwark.

The total-promise's to the Wesleyan Century Commemoration Fund of New South Wales, up to June 24, was 25,500 guineas. This is a little over half the amount, subscribed between May JA and June 24.

The Papal Bull respecting the jubilee at the end of this century and the beginning of the next proclaims the celebrations to commence with the First Vespers of the Nativity m 1899, and closing with those of the same feast in 1900.

One of the most useful agencies m the evangelisation of France is the canal bpat, as worked in connection with the MAll Mission. There are 20,000 miles of canals in nl" ial France, and along these at different centres the mission boats work. The Council of St. Andrew's College, Sydney, last week confirmed thl nomination by the Presbyterian General Assembly of tluv Rev. Dr. James Cosh to, the Hunter-Bai lie Professorship 'of Oriental and Polynesian Languages in the said college, v A special effort is being made by leading Congregationalists in Bristol (Eng) tp riiise the sum of £10,000 to secures a promise of £5000 made by Sir M. H. Wills, M.P., for Congregational church extension in that city. Already !£SOOO has been promised towards the sum required. ;

The Rev. Professor Gosman, of Melbourne, has recently predicted that "in the first quarter of the new centuryPresbyteriani_}m, and Congregationalism Will become ;OnQ," and in answer to a request made by the press, he has stated his reasons for this opinion.

In the reports of the Congregational Union of Scotland- submitted, at the annual meeting of the Union in Glasgow last month the number of churches, exclusive of those still holding aloof from them, is 168, and the estimated membership was about 28.000.' ;

The Rev. James Egan Moulton, Principal of Newington College, Stanmore, has been raised to the dignity of honorary D/D. by the Victoria University of Canada, which is the oldest degreegranting institution in Ontario, and the oldest inCanadian Methodism.

At the; one hundredth annual meeting of .the .Religious Tract Society, London, it was, reported that the society publishes books or tracts in 230 languages, and- that the annual circulation^ now Stands at 59,053,360. The trade receipts, last year amounted to £109,141, and the grants made for missionary purposes had been £16,109.

The Rev. Dr. John Pagan, of Bothwell, recently elected as Moderator of the Established Church of Scotland, is.a native of Dumfriesshire. One of his first appointments was as assistant to Principal1 Story's father at Roseneath. He was^ ordained in 1861 to ForgUndenny Church, in Perthshire, and in. 1865 he was elected minister of Bothwell. ■-'

Cardinal Moran, at the opening of the . Lewisbari- Presbytery, delivered an address, in; which he spoke of the progress of the Catholic Church during the century now closing, and specially of the Roman Catholic missions in the South Seas. ... He said that "Protestant missionaries, did a wonderful amount of humanising work, just as British gunboats did,.but the great work of the mission field belongs to the Catholic Church."

"The resignation of that attractive preacher, Canon Eyton," writes the "Bulletin's" London correspondent, "is the most serious, and also the saddest, tragedy the- Established Church has ever known. He held the Canonry of Westminster Abbey and the Rectory of St. Margaret's'adjoining, worth £1500 per annum, and a Gothic residence. Lord Rosebery made the appointment iii '95 and, later, the office of subaimoher to the Queen followed as Her Majesty's own gift: All has been surrendered and, with a "Times" announcment of broken health, mental strain, etc., the Canon "has gone abroad, unlikely to ever come back. He was immensely wealthy, his ample fortune having been increased by about £ 100,----000, 16ft him by the late Mr Villiers, 'Father of the House of Commons.' His one hobby was his choir boys, whom he invited/frequently to his residence at Broadstairs and entertained in a manner worthy of an emperor or a Sultan."

Deluge myths (says "Peter Abelard" in the "Church Gazette") are worldwide. Berosms gives an account of the Babylonian niyth which is substantially identical with that given in Genesis. Bnttihe highest authority now for the Babylonian version is that in the eleventh lay of Mr George Smith's epic discovered in the library of Assur-bani-pal. This is a Chaldean transcript of an Accadian original, which Dr. Schrader assigns to any date between 1000 and 2000 B.C. In it Hea warns Samas-Napisti to build a ship and .put in it his family and his chattels. He is to coat if With bitumen. Then the Sun-god, Sarnas' sent a deluge and destroyed all life from the face of the earth." On. the seventh day there was a calm and the ship rested on a mountain named Nizhv After another seven days a dove. (?J, a swallow, Jand a raven were despatched. Then Samas-Napisti said, "I builded up an altar on,the peak of • the mountain. . . . The gods smeljed. the.odour. The gods smelled .the sweet Qdour. The gods, like flies over the Master, the sacrifice gathered. Finally, Bel "turned himself to ns and established himself to us in a covenant," The interesting part of £$_.**&*** *$»*■ Uis *arlier »nd no* k'JTVb'/W --the exiting account in Genets or, tly.« the Yahvist and liiestly versions there embodied.

The union between the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church in Scotland will not be consummated wi.hout a good deal of opposition from the Highlands. Another anti-Church Union meeting was held in Inverness on May 16. Previous to the meeting a private conference took place, and from what was learned it would seem that much irritation had been created by the speech delivered by Principal Rainy at Inverness a fortnight ago. There was an attendance of two hundred ministers and laymen. Resolutions were passed condemning the proposed union on the ground that the basis on which the union is proposed fails to maintain those Scriptural doctrines and principles for which the Free Church was called to contend, especially the doctrine of sacred Scripture regarding the duties of nations and their rulers toward Christ and His Church,

The American preacher who has been endeavouring to ensure the popularity of his sermons by basing them upon current novels seems to have misjudged the taste of 'his congregation, who have intimated that they prefer him to seek his pulpit inspiration from the customary sources. Apart from that orthodox objection, there is reason to hope that he will not find imitators. The already excessive fondness of modern novelists for posing as prophets and evangelists would be increased to au intolerable extent if they could count upon the utilisation of their works for pulpit purposes. As a rule they are quite capable of doing their own preaching—to say nothing of their own advertising without cler-

ical assistance,