RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 276, 18 November 1905, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

(By Henry Scott-Holland, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's.)

THE NEAR WHO ARE FAR OFF.

(Preached at St. Paul's Cathedral in connection with the Bast London Church Fund.)

"And He said,-- Verily, 1 say unto you, no prophet is accepted lv his own country. But 1 tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel "in the days of Elias, when the heaven was phut up three years and. six mouths, when great famine was throughout ali the land; but uuto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel iv the time of Ellseus the prophet; and none of them was- cleansed, saving Naaman the byi-ian."—Luke iv. 24-27.

We are admitted suddenly within the secret of a hidden sorrow, which our Lord deliberately faced. It was the sorrow of all that which on the surface might seem to be success. We watch Him-as. the sick crowd round on some happy evening. hour, or as the ten lepers cry toTlim from afar, or as the blind man breaks.'in''Upon Him with a clamour .which..Will .not be denied, or as the bearers of- some poor paralytic force-their way through the roof to secure His comfortable touch: Blessed indeed to set free the redemptive energies of God for the sick and the sorrowful. But why should the area covered be so small? If this much is pobsible, why not much more? If the few can be healed, why-not -the many ? Here mmy text we see our Lord thinking of those who never drew near, of those who would not press in. Time after time He mufct have pa-__e_-a blind man sitting by the. wayside, -who never met Him by any cry, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon mc." But if he would not cry. the Lord must pas's on unarrested, uninvoked.... Ten lexers have lifted up their voice, out what of those others who went shuddering past, shut up in their own misery, without eyes to see what jmjght 6 ave, without the awakening of any hope that might cry for help? What, of. the sick who mope in sullen gloom, and never put out a hand to touch the hem of His garment? Surely ;He was only waiting to give them thj~ opportunity.' Surely the pent-up pity was ready to leap out at _ touch. Surely His heart burned within Him as He looked upon them. Why will not they speak? Why cannot they understand? And yet if they will not He must pass on and do nothing. He could not dc any mighty works there because of their unbelief. The power is there, by their Bide, in their midst, and yet idle because uninvited. And the worst is, as our Lord notes, it is among His own peculiar people, in His own House, that this misadventure is at its height. It is those who know Him best who c_ll upon Him least; it is they to whom He -has been familiar from childhood who are unable to make use of His compassions. Familiarity itself has blinded them. Elsewhere, in strange places, among outlying heathen, He win 3 recognition. Out there in Syrophoenkia Ho cannot be hid even if He would. Out there in the wild hills beyond the lake •He is followed by heatuen crowds when He had lied away to be in secret. They pursue Him with thefr sick even when He has set Himself to escape. It is only at home, at Nazareth, where he ' had lived asi a> neighbour,.,that He fails to win' Hi's/way.' He Is honoured as a .prophet, anywhere, everywhere, except among His own people and in His . father's house-. •■ •

. And yet, after all, why should He complain? He is only verifying vhe law of human experience. So He recalls as He turns back' His thoughts to those ancient Scriptures which are the record of man's- historic relationship to God. There His own present experience in Galilee found its* parallel sure enough. Always it had been with those as it was now. -With other men always the prophet has had to face this cruel rebuff; always those nearest had. proved, to be furthest off; always the privileged had missed what the outcast had discovered. Do you suppose, for instance, He says, that there were no lepers or widows in Israel in, the days of Eliseus. the prophet? Yet not, one of them found out the power to heal them, there, by His side, not one of them was in touch with the Man of God, had their eyes opened and sent out the cry for help. Their leprosy lay heavy on them, unmoved and unlightened, ■while far far away a total stranger, Naaman, the Syrian, somehow took the road arid made his way and committed himself, and evoked the gift, and ■was healed. Were there no widows in Israel, then, who" must have had eyes to detect the prophet's need and a heart to offer- him-board and- a- bed,, and a spirit of trust to receive him, in spite of the terror of famine;? Yet "not 'one of them moved, and. it. was left to the woman in far Sa'repta," the. city, of Sidon; to do what all should have done. The secret for her and her alone was, by the power and mercy of God, able to disclose itself.

;.So our Lord" spoke, using, what was so Tare.wijjh Him, a grave and awful irony : "I-tell you of a truth many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut tip three years and six months, when great, famine was throughout all the' land-; but unto one of them was Elias sent, save unto. Sarepta, a city of Sidon, un-, ik> a woman that was a widow."'

(To be continued.)

CLERICAL BITTERNESS.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON ON THE

NEED FOR TOLERATION.

At the opening of the Church Congress at Weymouth the''Bishop of London preached the sermon. He said some suggestions had recently been put forward by men, whom he. deeply respected, for altering, or removing, or authoritatively interpreting that bone of contention in the Church, "the ornaments rubric," and, of course, if the matter came before Cmivocation, he should" take his h'unrple part in framing.any necessary canffn. But -be greatly., feared that what happened thirty ...years ago would happen again. V\j hen litters- of business had been achr.:ally. received from the Crown to enable Convocation to deal with the question, after-- three years' acrimonious discua-;-aion it was decided to do nothing: and $ c attempt had stirred upi-the very.bit-terness-which it was intended to allay suggest- to the Church 43U a 3S wa t'that: there should, be nd atI. -tempt, to, alter Anything, in its formularies or rubrics,, but that they should & ° Ut heart of the 7 Church other'BS - T \fWmm Athene an..other, that would enable, them to live and admitted .that there -were these two ren...derlngs which could conscientiously : be given to-the message, of the- Church; of -England,, while-iheJsubstance of that message remained-the same, all ground of "bitteraesa. .would:;be taken away. Did! ■ they realise the! waste of energy involved by party spirit? There wast, .oiperarsej

I be a clear and distinct line beyond which toleration could not go, and if the authorities of the Church had no power to keep that line, their authority must be strengthened. He had prosecuted, and should prosecute again, mariolatry in public services or any use of the sacred elements unauthorised by the Church, as, for -instance, in the service of the Benediction. Hei had prosecuted, and would prosecute again,, a disorderly Protestantism which disturbed services it disliked. But the great mass of the subjects which produce friction do not touch the essentials' of faith at all, and come within the field of toleration between the two extremes. What they required in their treatment was a large-hearted sympathy on behalf of the pastor, large-hearted-sympathy of one priest with another, glad that the other should win his people by a ceremonial which he could not use himself, and a large-hearted sympathy of both with the rulers of the Church, who in difficult days had but one desire to lead the Church they loved to its best, and develop to the full its glorious heritage. Freed from the bitterness of party spirit, there was no fear for the future of the Church. It was a fair ground; it was a goodly heritage. They had a great past, but he believed they had a greater future, founded on the Rock of Truth.

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

The pilgrimage to Lourdes from Great Britain aud Ireland, which is organised annually by the Catholic Association, left London on September 12, under the leadership of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth.

One of the massive pinnacles of Bath Abbey Church. England, was recently struck by lightning, with the result thai, all four have been taken down, and are to be re-erected on a smaller scale. These pinnacles dated from the early Gothic revival, s and were disproportionately large, but the church itself, with its ex panse of fenestration, has bsen called "the lantern of England."

The liturgical "vestments" question is causing not a little troub'e in England. The Dean of Canterbury has publicly stated "that if the Ornaments' Rubric be interpreted to mean what it says ... he will have to betake himself to "sad and sorrowful separation," as the phrase used to go—at least so the "Church Times" puts it. The Bishop of Chester advocates "applying to Parliament for a new Rubric."

Professor James Denney, of Scotland, has been offered, but has declined, the principalship of Knox College, Toronto He refused (says the London "Christian World") to consider the invitation seriously, as he said he could not leave Glasgow now, "owing to the critical condition of theological exegesis in Scotland." Dr. Denney, who has been lecturing at ISorthfield and preaching in various American cities, confesses that he has not been impressed with the solidity and thoroughly Christian quality of the average American sermon. He feels that, judging by what he has heard, there is too little emphasis of the apostolic message—namely, repentance and faith; that Christ is too exclusively set forth as ideal and a pattern, while little is said about the debt we owe Him, and of the gratitude and devotion which should flow to Hun in return for all lie has done for men.

In connection with the recent Church Congress at Weymouth, a large meeting for men was held. The Bishop of London was the chief speaker. He had a fine reception, and gave a characteristic address, on "Apathy." He said that the chief difficulty in religion was not op position but indifference. Yet there were some points on which Englishmen were not apathetic. There was no apathy in regard to football, nor was there any in St. Paul's when London welcomed back the C.l.V.'s. No apathy was evident when an act of heroism was recorded or when the Hull fishermen were shot. If it was present it was because we had a rooted belief that emotion was permissible everywhere save in religion. He was there to say to workingmen that the Church was engaged in a contest which, justified a thousandfold the enthusiasm displayed in' other departments of human life. Was it a matter for indifference that their daughters should be safeguarded on London streets, or that their sons should be saved from the blighting influence of beer, betting and impurity? They could not carry on that battle without tlie rank and file and he called on them to aid those who are conducting this eternal fight against sin. When he heard men say that the Church was dead he felt a sense of tbe wrong done as a personal strain, and there were those present who would die before that should be true.

"Some Christian Aspects of Evolution" is the subject of a lengthy and abie article in the current number of the "London Quarterly Review." The writer, Principal P. T. Forsyth, chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, after pointing out that it is a .mistake to suppose that the idea of evolution in nature entered through Darwin or, even Lamarck —it .was a philosophic idea long before it was scientific— shows that the doctrine has very important limitations. It is true that it replaces, the old mechanical conception of the world by the more engaging idea of organic growth, and that it appears to take some of the gloom from the struggle and pain of existence by showing that it is not all fruitless, but there are limits within which it must move. Even supposing the "missing link" were found, the doctrine "simply registers a method of past procedure; it has no world goal. There is nothing that gives us to know the problem set us as living souls in the world, far less to find ourselves in that problem. It does not explain the world; it only marshals it." The goal of the world is a spiritual world already in the midst of the world; the final whole is given in Christ's spiritual whole.

Evolution fails in more than one re spect (according to Dr. Forsyth) to give in answer to great questions. What has it to say about the result of the struggle? "For all that appears the individual i 3 a mere pawn in the game with pur dark partner; and not the individual only, but whole 'species and races." There are great areas of existence and life to which evolution doe? not apply at all. The. great conflict of the age is the battle for a spiritual interpretation of life and the world. There the evolution principle is inadequate. In the region of moral freedom, also in the explanation of the slowness of moral, progress; in the progress of'history,'which is not unbroken like a mighty stream, but a rising scale of crises, 'working out in historical detail to an actual Kingdom of God, with its strategic centre and eternal crisis in the death of Christ"; in the area of the changeless, which is indispensable to a world ot change; evolution renders not help. Dr Forsyth elaborately 'works out *' ""I ,*** indicates s °™ Angers of a moral kind which waylay the evolutionary doctrine. "No doctrine of evoi u ti on ,» he says towards the concluSJ_l S i" 8 * or other than sectional, which does not leave place for the redeeming purpose, of God by. intervention and revolution, and t_L* M place under tU"