THE RELIGIOUS WOULD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 3 February 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE RELIGIOUS WOULD.

The Eev. Hugh Price Hughes, M.A., hopes to visit Australia next year, and proposes to spend some months in visiting the various colonies.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right ,Hon. and Most Eev. Frederick Temple, D.D., completed his 78th year on November 30th last, having been born in 1821.

Mis C, 11. Spurgeon, widow of the late'pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, has been very seriously ill, and when the last December mails left she was still confined to bed, suffering from extreme weakness.

The first Sunday in the New Year, January 7, was appointed by the Archbishop and Bishop of the Church of England as the day for a sirmiltaneousappeal in the churches throughout England on behalf of the war funds.

Bishop Julius, of Ch.ristchurch, New Zealand, who with Mrs. Julius has been on a visit to his son-in-law, the Bishop of Melanesia, at Norfolk Island, arrived in Sydney by the steamer Ysabel on January 21, and is now back in Christchurch.

The Bishop of Ripon has appealed in a- pastoral to both the clergy and church workers for the consecration of the closing year of the century to special prayer, the conditions of the church and of the world being1 so full of difficult questions and pressing- duties.

The Bishop of Winchester gave instructions recently that throughout his diocese marriage licenses are not to be granted to divorced persons whilst the former husband, or wife is living, whether the person applying for the license be the guilty party or not.

A sermon on "The Hope of the future," preached by the Bishop of London at Sandringham Church, on November 26th, before the German Emperor. has been printed at the special request of His Majesty and H.K.H. the Prince of Wales.

Miss Josephine Drexel (says the San Francisco "Monitor") is to enter a convent. She is the daughter of the late Joseph W. Drexel, and her legacy is estimated at 10,000,000 dollars, her income ■ being about 80,000 dollars a year. She is only nineteen years old, and is beautiful and accomplished.

The death is- reported from America of the Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry, a Baptist minister, and the author of "Shall We Gather at the River?" "I Need Thee Every Hour," "Weeping Will' Not Save Me," and other popular religious hymns. He was at one time a professor and afterwards Chancellor of. Lewisburg University, but retired from active work several years ago.

The "Church Standard" states, respecting the Melanesian Mission, that the present Bishop, the Eight. Rev. Cecil Wilson, M.A., has a staff of 25 clergy (12 of them natives), six ladies, and 400 native teachers." There are said to be over 12,000 Christians and many catechumens and hearers in the various islands included in the mission.

The Committee of the Church Missionary Society has recently stated that they "hope that the time may soon/come when the conditions of the Church in West Africa may make it desirable to create in one or more districts separate- dioceses under

African bishops." There are at present two bishoprics in Western Equatorial Africa.

A prosperous • Methodist Church, with a membership of 120 exists at Norfolk Island. Its commencement was quite independent of any outside influence, but some years ago it was organised 'into a church on the doctrinal basis of the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church, and now seeks some kind of association with the Methodist Church of New South Wales..

Dr. Clifford, the President of the Baptist Union of England, and the Rev. ,T. H. Shakespeare, the secretary, liavebeen holding a long series of services and meetings in groups of •London churches, in connection with the Twentieth .Century Fund of their denomination, and with the best results. The secretary is now quite sanguine that at least the £250,000 originally aimed at will be raised.

■ The . Rev. F. W.. Wray, chaplain to ;the Victorian second contingent, now en route to the war. is a native of Taradale, Victoria, and is known as ."the sporting parson." He stands sft .114 in, and weighs 15st. He joined the Castlemaine Greys, of the old volunteer ' force, before he was fifteen, •and afterwards the militia, when the volunteers were disbanded, serving spvjen years in all. He was captain of the premier football team in the Castlemaine district for some seasons. He fowed in Trinity and University boat crexvs in' 1890, and last year captained the -clergy team in the' match against the army. He is a capital Shot with' rifle and gun.

Dr. John Fox, writing in "Leslie's [Weekly," says that the Zulu Bible, •published"by the American Bible So,ciety, is a factor in South African affairs larger and more influential than many' more conspicuous in international politics. Whatever happens in the Transvaal it will not cease to do its silent work. On West Coast of. Africa Bible translation has been proceeding for'half a century, and the sheets of the Benga Bible, intelligible jiot only to that tribe, but to a cluster of rude tribes dwelling on the far off coast; have been passing through the ■press of the society in New York and "when finished sent on their voyage to the Gaboon and Oorisco Mission.

"The Gospel Bike Mission" is the .latest thing in religious enterprises, ,The Rev. Howard Fleming, of Wentworth, New South Wales, writing1 to the "Methodist," says that during the last nine months the Bike Mission work, begun by the Rev. J. A. Walsh, has been continued and extended. "Almost a month in each quarter is .spent in travelling the Murray ,the Darling, and the branch districts. A Tegular hqiise to house visitation is marie. Sunday schools are established, and religious services conducted wherever possible. A bike trip is made down the Murray as far as the South Australian border, and the missionary work of the Rev, W; J. Russell is .thereby carried right on to Wentworth. Post cards are sent in advance notifying the residents of the contemplated visit and service. As ihn Work is done on an iron steed, hymn books cannot be carried, but a feu-: woll known Rnnkey's hymns prs—t<?ci on enrrtbonvd do equally as \vt>]l. Ir> these parts the horsp of iron ■','•. -fovT-fi iv>nvp servicenblp than ihe harno of fieF;h. because of. the scarcity ;'."■.-'■' >; 'iikl the frequent crossing of the ri'vtti-a. ■ ,• ,