RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 179, 28 July 1906, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

ENGLISH CLERICS ON CHRISTIAN UNITY.

Preaching on Whit Sunday, Dr. Gore, Bishop of Birmingham, said we had lived through an age of contented individualism in politics, in our social life, and in our religious life. But now, by one of those great turns in the tide of human thought—by one of those pervading influences which possessed men's id inds in common—there was coming back upon men the true idea, both in politics and in religion, that all the individual had and was he owed to society, that the individual must never be allowed to rebel or set up his own interest against society, that fellowship in the one body was the only secret of permanent- human redemption. They had been asked specially to pray about their religious difficulties. The way to recovery was not easy or quick. They ,were very far from being ripe ior schemes of re-uniting, but there was a -Teat power in ideas. What Englishmen \vanted to do was to believe in ideas, and tho idea he commended to ±hem on that occasion was thau we |mght to be one body. The Rev. J. H. Jo wet t, preaching to '.a large congregation at Cart-'s Lane, Birmingham, said they had to recognise the fact that in human life there were inspired idiosyncracies, varieties of temperament and constitution. The difference between the Quaker and the High Churchman was not one of acquired ■taste; they were constitutionally different, and he did not anticipate a reunion wherein their constitutional differences would be removed. Where, then, lay the hope? All the varieties in Church life, their many orders and systems, and the manifold expressions of l!;eir faith, were all purposed to the production of saints. They were all systems of spiritual culture, and their justification wa3 found in their fruit. It was in this system that the spirit of reunion would bo found, not in modes of culture, hut in realised flowers and fruit. Let every church work to the heart of its own system to the turning out of saints. Let them have a noble competition in saint production. Their trouble had been that they had for ever been advertising their agricultural implements. They had shouted their virtues in the streets, and the respective advertisers had lost their tempers, and had bbspheraed one another with pieces of ihelr systems and articles of their creeds. It was not an exhibition ol agricultural implements they wanted, but a flower show. These manifold sys\ienis worked to the very heart would j produce saints of the same lineament. '.And, what was more, the saints would ' recognise their own glorious unity even amid the difference of their own culture. That was the only royal path he knew for endeavour, aspiration, and prayer, and it was the only issue which was going to imj press the world. "By our quarrellings we make the world blaspheme: by our grace we shall make the world wonder."'

Co-operating with the movement towards obtaining greater unity among Christian churches and sects the Bishop jof Lichfield preached on the subject of the re union of Christians in his cathe-

dral on Whitsun Day. The text of the sermon was selected from the narrative Of the first Whitsun Day: "And ihey Weie all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Dr. Legge, having commented on the significance of the issue of the appeal for the reunion of Christians at a time when differences between the Church of England and Nonconformist Christian communities were grievously accentuated, proceeded to remark that the story told in the epistle for that day interpreted to him the action of those leaders of different denominations amongst believers in Christ who had issued that appeal. "We are too confident of our own infallibility, too confident of the infallibility of the particuJ.ir community to which we belong," he remarked.

Having remarked that, though paradoxical, it surely was true that amongst men it was only under diversity .that essential unity could and would" be found, the Bishop proceeded to ask what the appeal meant. It was, he answered, a cail to exercise charity in all their relations with those who differed from them. They need not aim at large schemes of corporate reunion at present, nor need they treat their existing religious divergencies as unimportant, but they could ask again, as those did who listened to St. Peter, on the Feast of Pentecost, ''What shall 'we do?" Perhaps there was a message for them in the words that fell from the apostle's mouth, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation."

CHURCH NEWS ANB NOTES.

Rev. R. J. Campbell, MA.., in.a recent number of the "Sunday Strand." asked the question whether a United Christian Congress was not possible in England. In a leading article, the "Pall Mall Gazette" said, "Who on this side of the Established Church would meet this suggestion?" In the June issue of the "Sunday Strand" the editor publishes a number of letters on this subject. Amongst the writers are the Bishops of Rochester, Durham, Bath and Wells, Carlisle, and Manchester, the Dean of Norwich, the Archdeacon of London, Dr. Horton, Dr. Clifford, the Rev. F. B. Meyer, and others. It is inevitable that the education question is more or less pointedly referred to in many of the letters. The Dean of Norwich, for instance, says: : — '"Tlie amazing utterances of many of the hading Nonconformists on the education question would, I am certain, render such a gathering, if not wholly impossible, yet wholly impotent." Dr. Horton, on-the other side, says:—"At present the Fret Churches are ready for it, but the Established Church is not. There are individuals in the Anghean Church who would support Mr Campbell's proposals; but Anglicans, as a body, still think with Parson Thwackum, that religion is.idenitical with the Church by Jaw established, and would no more dream Of cooperation, or even of conference, with the Fiep Churches, than they would think of requesting the Choctaws and Cherokees to send members to the British Parliament. It is almost impossible to conceive the exclusiveness and ignorance of the great mass of the clergy and some of the lafty of the Church o*f England as far as Nonconformity is concerned."

"Recently published statistics relating to marriages in New South Wales," |(says "Freeman's Journal"), "reveal a state of things which is by no means flattering to the Roman Catholic community." During 1905 the marriage rate for the whole population was 7.14 :per 1000, and the following is the rate 'per 1000 for the four principal denominations —Presbyterian 11.89, Methodist ij.0.85, Church of England 6,51, and Rojnan 'ICafcholic 5.79. J>a _,

Rt^lyy^° Tld "^ ta out that.there is inS g i Won g. m the dioice- of hymns at English marriage services. It remarks: "It is- hardly cheering for friends andrelations of the newly-wed to iSly implore them to 'Fight the Good Kofct*. and;surely -it js not encduraging to start a We wings of a dove that I might-flee away and be*for ever at-rest. ' ;.~"

A. conference of "socialistic . clergy" was held in Morecam'be (EmO fast month. In the circular of invitation to the conference, it is declared that it is the .Church's duty to inspire, encourage, and support every effort that seeks to bring- to the people a larger and richer social and economic life, as well as one more moraf and spiritual. There is also the feeling that the Church, as a whole, fails m this duty; that there is a distinct lack of corporate action on social questions: that to the vast multitude of the people the Church stands as a firnrre dumb and unheroic, without interest in their struggles for life and living. The agenda of the conference included "Ideals of the Labour Party," "Duties of the Church,' "Proposal for Corporate** Action."

Sister Francis, the popular lady evangelist of the Sydney C.M.M., has been holding a mission at Canoblas, after which she has spent ten days in Orange, and on July 22 she goes to Wellington, where she will spend a month in evangelical work.

The Bey. Alexander Miller, M.A., minister -of the Chatswood Presbyterian Church for several years, has been translated by the Sydney Presbytery to J.hat of Auckland, having accepted the pastorate of the church at Edendale.

The eight days mission at St. Mary's j Cathedral; Sydney, which closed on July 8, was a most' successful one, 3500 persons receiving Communion. Several hundred men and women also joined the Sacred Heart Sodality, their names being enrolled by the Right Bey. Monsignor [O'Haran, asiJsLed by the Cathedral priests.

The Board of Management of the Great Synagogue, Elizabeth-street, Sydney, has decided on certain important alterations, which will both increase the seating accommodation in the area and in the gallery (providing nearly 1030 permanent seats), and will improve the ventilation, acoustics, and general appearance of the interior. i Commissioner McKie said at the Salvation Army annual meeting, Sydney, on July 10, that "never, in the Commonwealth or the whole world, had a better record been achieved . . . nor liad the Army previously helped, and succoured, and clothed, and fed so many homeless, workless, poverty-stricken men, women ■ and children, as during the last year."

Many interesting messages were received at the British National Christian Endeavour Convention in Leeds. last month. One came from Lord Knollys on behalf of the King and Queen, others were from places so widely apart as Nebraska and Japan, and such diverse societies as the Sons of Temperance and the Wesley Guild. A specially striking series was presented by Rev. G. T. Walden, MA., president of the Australasian Union. South Australia sent an elaborate banner, in the centre of which was painted a kangaroo, labelled "The C.E. Animal." It was after Mr. Clark's last visit, Mr. Walden explained, when Christian Endeavour began to go forward "by leaps and bounds,' that South Australian Err'l'javourers adopted the kangaroo as their animal. One message was painted on a boomerang. It came from tho aborigines of Australia who are Endeavourers. and signified "We-all send our love to you all." Characteristically, the Endeavourers who received these messages sprang to their feet and sang their favourite hymn, "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love," with tremendous enthusiasm. Dr. F. E. Clark, the founder of the movement, was present, and had a great reception.

Another hymn-book for members of the ' Church of England, to be called "The English Hymnal," is to be published by the Oxford University Press. Its editorial committee includes Rev. Percy Dearmer, Rev. A. HanburyTracy, and four laymen—Mr. W. J. Birkbeck, Mr. I. A. Lacey, Mr. D. C. Lathbury, and Mr. Athelstan Riley. A considerable number of churches- have promised to adopt "The English Hymnal." Mr. Dearmer informed the "Daily News" that the compilation was not a party /one. It wiU include Whittier's hymns —previously excluded from some hymn-books —the Office Hymns for the Saints' Days, a hymn of G. K. Chesterton's —"O God of Earth and Altar"—as well as a selection of familiar revival hymns, such, for instance, as "Hold the Fort," "There were Ninety and Nine," j and "Safe in the Arms of Jesus." The ; editor's social sympathies naturally and justifiably account for the appcaranccof several hymns teaching the modern spirit with respect to the Christian social question. He considers that "in the past the relijrion of many hymns has been too self-regarding, forgetting tho duty of the Church to one's neighbour. Therefore, as was to be expected, wb find Ebenczer Elliott's Corn-Law hymn, "When Wilt Thou Save the People?" In the same,section also there is a hymn from Canon Scott Holland. Kipling's "Recessional" has a place in the collection, so also has a hymn of William Blake's, "To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love," set to an old folksong tune, and a hymn slightly adapted from Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"— "He Who Would Valiant Be." In a few cases -where hymns were required for special seasons and no suitable examples could be traced, the editor, Mr. T. A. Lacey, and Mr. Athelstan Riley have written new hymns, but they explain that this has only happened on rare occasions.

The Bayaraa, who live along the UpI per Congo, have a strange custom which makes life a burden to the married women. Great bras 3 rings are welded around the necks of the wives. Many of these rings worn by the women whose husbands are well-to-do weigh as much as 301b. Frequently one sees a poor woman whose neck is galled by the heavy Weight, and in places the skin is rubbed off by the ring. This is a sure sign that the ring has been recently welded round the neck. After a short time the skin becomes calloused, and then the strange ornament produces no abrasion. The weight is a perpetual tax upon the.energies. In eveiy crowd of women may be seen a number who are supporting the rin°- with their hands, and thus for a time are relieving their weary shoulders of tho burden. A ring is never put round a woman's neck until she is believed to have attained her full physical development. Once on, it is no easy matter to get it off. Women who increase largely ir flesh after the rings have been fastened on their necks are in danger of strangling to death, and instances of this sort have occurred. Some of the women regard the curious ornament with pride, imagine it enhances their importance and beauty, and wear their burdens .with light, hearts.