CHURCH NEWS ANT NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 36, 10 February 1906, Page 10

CHURCH NEWS ANT NOTES.

\ j Earl Eoberts has consented to become I the president of the Soldiers' Christian j Association. England, in succession to the late Sir George Williams. The life of the late Sir George Williams is to be written by his grandnephew. Mr J. R. Hodder Williams, of. Hodder and Staughton, and that of Dr. Barnard o by his widow. It is announced that Mr Pierce, aY.M.CA. secretary from Washington, U.S-A- has been secured as general secretary for the association in Melbourne, and that he. with Mr- D. A Budge, from Montreal, will arrive in Australia, early in April. The Rome correspondent of the "Tablet." London, states that of the countries contributing Peter's Pence to the Holy See Germany occupies the. first place, followed by the United States and Belgium in the second and third places respectively. The Rev. Wilbur Glen Voliva, who' has been for four years in charge of Zion in Australia, has been recalled by cable message from the Rev. J. A. Dowie, of Zion City, and appointed deputy general overseer of the entire city organisation, which includes the rulership of Zion City. It is understood that this action virtually means that Mr Voliva has been selected as "the prophet's" successor, in consequence of the attack --of paralysis which was reported some months ago while Dr. Dowie was on his way to Mexico. The Rev. J. S. M'Cullagh, of Auckland, N.Z., is to succeed Mr Voliva in Australia. Dr. F. E. Clark, the founder of the Christian Endeavour movement, is at present in Germany for his health's sake. Writing to the treasurer of the New South Wales Union, Mr J. B. Spence, he expresses the hope that he will be able to revisit Australia in the near future. The next world's conven-. tion of C.E. is to be held in Genera. An influential committee is being formed in London, says a contenipor-' ary, to promote and carry out the scheme of a memorial building to the late. Sir George Williams, the founder of the V.M.C.AS. of the world. A prominent feature in the proposal is, the erection or provision of a hostel, or residential club, for young men. The" scheme will cost £ 100,000 to carry through, and in addition to the above will include a home for the Central T_M.C_A.„ London. A new feature in connection with the Methodist Forward Movement in Eurone has been originated by the Bradford Central Methodist Mission. It is called -"The Central Mission Brotherhood," and seeks to unite all the men interested in, or under the influence of, the mission, for social, philanthropic, and evangelistic purposes. In connection with the Eastbrook Central Hall, Bradford, the Brotherhood has a membership of 2500, and recently a Sisterhood, worked on similar lines, was started, and within six weeks 800 women were enrolled as members. The organisation has not only taken with tbe men and women at Bradford, but has spread like wildfire in England. It is now proposed to inaugurate a similar organisation in connection with the Sydney CM_M., at the Centenary Hall and the Lyceum. The Rev. Thomas Spurgeon"s attitude to the Baptist World Congress, held in London last summer, has been the subject of much comment in America, the belief being that he was wholly unfriendly. Mr Spurgeon has written to "The Western Recorder" correcting that impression. ''Let mc say," he writes, "that I did all that lay in my power to pTove that I was not unfriendly to those who came from far. The fact is, of course, that I do not belong to the British Baptist Union. That made it a little awkward, the more so as my church also is outside the Union. I was invited to take some part, but it was a part that I could not conscientiously accept—viz., in connection with the unveiling of my father's statue. To that project I had shown no sympathy, for it always appeared to mc a most stronge proceeding to set up a statue of the man who had protested and withdrawn—unless, indeed, some admission had been made of his warrant for doing both. There had been no such expression—quite the contrary, in fact." Mr Spurgeon adds that" he intends to remain outside the Baptist Union while the present state of things exists. "Had I another 30 years, I should give more earnest heed to style, and especially I would enrich my mind by daily study of its great masters, so that as a farmer quickens his soil by nitrates, one might enrich his mind by the assimila-' tion of noble language." These are the words of Dr. John Watson ("lan Maclaren"), when referring to preaching in his third article in the "British Weekly" on "What Might Have Been." "Our hearers," he continues, "are only puzzled and enraged by unintelligible technical terms a__d fastidious preciosity, but they are most grateful both for felicity in expression and for grandeur in the note. Their ears may be tickled by smartness, but their judgment condemns it in the preaching of the Gospel. Their pulses are stirred by a royal word, such as Milton loved to use. It may not be the dress for their own thoughts; they feel, although they may not say it, that this is the becoming dress for the message of God. They are themselves ennobled by hearing such language, and they respect the preacher because he has honoured the Gospel. Splendid words occur* ring from time to time in our discourses are like, embroidery of gold upon the hodden grey. They fill the people's imagination, and cling to their memory: iv their golden pomp they are the fitting heralds of Christ. Nothing has degraded preaching more than tawdry appeals ,in wElch the pathos has no passion, and the argument no force. Evangelistic preaching has seemed to mc to be, as a rule, careless to a scandal and almost squalid in style, with vain repetitions of hackneyed words by way of exhortation, and with incredible anecdotes by way of illustration. But I am moved at present to judge this difficult and delicate form oi preaching with the utmost charity, when I review the glaring deficiency of Shy i ! own style and the repeated evidence of , unfinished work. Let mc record my sol- \ emn conviction that in the day when he gives in his account the preacher of the"Evangel will be held responsible, not j only for the truth which he declares, but Jar £_r_-_l____- with which he dotted at.* ,