RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 197, 18 August 1906, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

"INDIVIDUAL ISOfiOSTALITir. j l_~ir"."7g^' ; i3r/-G«orge- Mathesqn.),-.,;' *{- :~_::*3""£ own'W^- , '3ri'jCo_. ;xfe."35.... ~ --- ■-— . "- - ■ PauTjis speaking of the sour in. "the future" State. It is the boldest "assertion: of individualism I have met: With in all; literature. ..What is it that irial.es you and mc individuals? It is not the fact that each of us has a body, but-that each of us has "his.own body"—a body different from others. It is .our difference that makes us individuals. I heardan eminent theologian once say that, in Ids opinion, when we got to heaven we shall all think the same think at the same time. This was his notion of recon- • ciling the .individual with the universal. I. should call it the killing of the individual by. the. .universal. In such a state we might have communion with God, but we should never Lave communion with one another. What, is it that makes the communion between any two souls? It is their mutual exchange of ideas. To think the same thing at the same ..time is not to exchange ideas. You may set your clocks so as to strike the same* hour at precisely the same moment. That is ' exactly what such a heaven' would -be; If the "living time-pieces in the.' many mansions of our Father's house are to " strike the" hours uniformly and Simultaneously, we shall all .be harmonious, '.but we shall. cease to . be... individuals. What constitutes mc a separate man' is just the fact that the clocks do not sound uniformly nor simultaneously. Our separateness is not our sameness, but our communion. Communion demands difference —individuality. If you and 1 meet on the load some day and both exclaim in a breath, "It is very fine weather," what have we given to each other? Nothing; we have simply ex pressed ourselves, uttered our united opinion. There is a great deal too much of this in the present world—union without communion. God says He will make it different yonder—a man will keep his own. Heaven -will restore tbe individuality which earth has broken; we shall all be self-revealing in the sweet by-and-bv.

Lord, I have heard men say that death will rob mc of my personal life. But Thou hast told mc it is this world that robs mc and that death will restore it. Here, I haye not my own body; I have the body of the community; lam wound up to speak the same words that the world speaks. But yonder, I shall be an individual soul —unconventional, spontaneous, free. I shall, have my own body —not another's. I shall not'"merely accompany the stroke of a neighbouring timepiece; my own hour will have come -the. hour for self-revealing. The fashion of this world is conformity; but the fashion of Thy world will be differ- ■ eneel Thy conformity is not a united hour-stroke but a united song. It takes many different notes to make a song; tl he a member of Thy choir invisible i must sing my own part. Let mc practise that part now, O Lord! Let mc find, on earth, my place in the choir above! Let mc not be distressed though I strike not the key of another! If I have failed to walk upon Peter's sea, let mc not be discouraged thereby! Thy part for mc may be the inland lake. If I have failed to flash Elijah's fire, let -rae not be downcast'thereby!—Thy part for mc may be the still small voice. If I have failed to climb the Mount with Moses, let rae not be-ashamed thereby! —Thy part for mc may ha the modest -vale. 1 ask not the note of my brother; I ask the.power to blend with it. May the lark keep its morn and the nightingale it 3 eve! May the wise men meet their star .and the shepherds their flock! Mal-Cana yield Thee her wine and Bethany her domestic joy and Nain her ministry to tears! The varied sounds will make one harmony in the song of Thy redeemed. RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PALESTINE. The romantic work of ascertaining the light which modern exploration can throw upon the Palestine of the Biblical age and upon Old Testament narratives adds another volume to l the library that has accumulated since these researches began in 1864. The new volume, "Bible Sidelights from the Mound of Gezer," is by the well-known antiquary, Mr- R, A. Stewart Macalister, director of excavations for the Palestine Exploration Fund. The excavations at Gezer (says the London "Daily Express".) have added 1500 years to the early history of the city, dating it back to 3000 8.C., when a diminutive cave-dwelling race, lived there. A landmark in its Biblical history is that the city was, given by the King of Egypt to, his daughter when she. married -Solomon. • • ~ - ..--■-.. --.

Among the many Old Testament stories 1 which have fascinated humanity are the idyl of Rebecca (Genesis xxiv.) and the exploits of Samson. Rebecca, who went 1 to draw water from a well, picked out from other maidens by the servant of < Abraham, who was in quest of a wife for his master's son. She thus- became the wife of the patriarch Isaac, and the > mother of Esau and Jacob. The unearth-! ing of houses at Gezer helps experts to ' fill in. the story of the wooing of Rebecca i hy reconstructing for us the home of the maiden and- her interesting brother Laban, , . The death of Samson, narrated in the Book of Judges, has been ranked as a myth, by critics who could not accept the possibility of his supposed achievement" in pulling down the pillars and killing so | many Philistines. But in a stratum at Gezer, some 300 years older' than the time of Samson, the. excavators have found a form of building which answers to a remarkable extent the conditions of the story- It is a temple with, a ■.-portico supported by four wooden pillars. CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES. Dr. Moule, -Bishop of Durham,, has written to a gentleman a3 to theatres: —" As life advances, I get more anxious. I hope never to forget that my eyes canseldom see a great subject in all its aspects,' and to allow for other men's points of view; but as regards my own view-point, I am bound to say that I •tnink the risks of the modern stage distinctly, oat'.yeigih its possible benefits for '" * he Christian man who desires 'a his standard of personal aim and thought- a s true as he can to the " ]Krf! m Lord. There are.almost inthe st assod ? ltions .' I think, between - "'the wori^ d S 7 ri P ture means-by ~ Chrkul -■ '■ 7 vrhleh should make the ' aSoS man ' t0 sa y the least Of it, *d? I _r*; atohful about ii; * For my- • y^giMlS?^™^ to tUnk oi an y - it-was _■«.«,. 1 ? ch _ I was ln terested.that I_ e ifnv■ BS *H°S d "Ol the theatre," ''"•_ for t£T orfolk has been Proceed- - erection a. *— twen ty years with the ■ 5 ■e.spense,...of .a magNorwich tl' ■ Catholic Cathedral at -Partial W f 6 -. has been" in -« lor dwine seryice. for fo.ur-

teen_years, and the Duke of Norfolk is endeavouring to complete it throughout without much further delay. With this object ha has increased his construction- allocation,,- to £1000 -per month, and-it i.Thbw expect-d'tha* the IS! 63 " 11 "mil be Anally completed- in

."_ "bigness.; even to Sunday-schools.. .At the'annual-Sunday-school procession at Brooklyn last month no less-than 125,000 scholars took part. Catholics stood alopf but Unitarians, Universalists, and. bweaenborgians Were, included. A Cabinet Minister— Mr. L. M. Shaw, Secretary ot the Treasury—received the children at the * march past," and General F. D. Grant (son of President Grant), with most of the local dignitaries, accompanied him. In view of the general relation of Government to the churches in America it is worth noting that allHhe pubhe" schools in Brooklyn were closed for the occasion by a special Act oi the Legislature of New York.§tate. Under the style of "The Foreign Legion," a. new departure, is to be made by the Wesley Guilds in England, in order to help the Weslevan Foreign Missionary Society. This'new.,activity will unite, under...one head air the missonary work of the guilds; and will aim at deepening interest in missions amo.f young people by_ organising missionary 1 readmg circles, study classes, and parliaments-. by holding missionary meetings, -.especially in villages, and by cooperating with guilds in the foreign field as well as becoming responsible for the maintenance :of teachers and Bible women abroad, i Each guild will appoint a captain, whose duty It will be to secure members, and to keep them employed in ■devotional, literary, social, or service work. _ The York Convocation Committee has just completed its retranslation of the Athanasian Creed, and the " damnatory" clauses do not appear to be much modified. Here is one of them: "And they that have done good shall go into life eternal, but they that have done evil into eternal fire." The two words eternal" are in each case substituted for and the word "but" is. m. the place of the -and-*' of tlie authorised version.

r There was a rousing scene in the City Temple at the beginning of last month when Dr. Francis Clark, founder of the Christian Endeavour movement, rose to address the vast audience which had assembled at the annual gathering of the London Federation. The cheering went on so long that the doctor had to make mute appeals- for a hearim- by pointing to his watch. Dr.. Clark°har* now been eight months in Europe,' during the greater part of which ho has been at Munich engaged upon his book giving the history "of the movement. He was to visit the Worlds Convention at Geneva at the end of July. Mr. D. A. Budge, who completes his visit to Australia this month, has been conducting a series -if conferences in Sydney on V.M.C.A. work, including five different subjects, and a meeting with ministers. By the steamship Nikko Maru, Mr. Christian Mitchell and Mr. Patrick Purcell, of Kensington College, Sydney, left for Manila, Philippine Islands. They have affiliated. themselves to the arch-diocese of Manila, where they intend to devote themselves to missionary work. The self-denial week of the Salvation Army in Great Britain, held a few weeks ago, established a record.' She sum ol £73,000 being collected this year, which is £10,0-00 -in advance or -that of the previous year. Staff-Captain Dntton has been promated to the rank of Major in the Salvation Army in N.5..W.; and Adjutant Laurenson and Adjutant Ford (manager of the People's Palace) have each been promoted to the rank of staff-c.piain. The Methodist Board of Missions has authorised the employment e of Missionary Sisters, in Xew Britain, who will be engaged specially in educational work amongst the women and children. lieutenant-Colonel Mary Beid and Commissioner Booth Tuekerj of the Salvation Army, were married in London last month, They will reside in America, and conduct the operations of the Army there. Mr. Booth Tucker's first wife, who was a daughter of General Booth, was killed in a railway accident in the States. The sins of society have been smartly hit off by London "Punch" in a letter, in which a lady of fashion makes her excuses for neglecting public worship: "Of course, it does seem sad that 'the West End churches are empty.' But is it all our fault? Sunday is such an impossible day for church. About the fullest day of the seven. And, besides, we're hardly any of us in town. If the services could be changed to a more wnvenient day, say Tuesday, when we're all back from weekending, I'm sure we'd simply roll up, especially if a Reformation sermon were on the programme."

Rev. R. J. Campbell, of the City Temple, London, has given up the tkeologiail correspondence column in the "British Weekly." His "broad cburchism" has uiacle many of his replies recently to be perilously near downright heterodoxy, from the strictly orthodo*. point of view. The column is tp be carried on by Rev. David Smith, M.A., of Scotland, the author of "In- the Days of His Flesh; a Life of Jesus Christ," which has been highly praised in many quarters. 'The Rev. Dr. Brown, general secretary of Methodist missions, who was granted by ■ the general conference 12 months' leave of absence for the purpose of engaging in literary work connected with missions, has had that leave extended to the next N.S.W. annual conference. A pastoral letter on betting arid gambling was read from the pulpit of each of the. Anglican Churches of Victoria on Sunday, August 5. It appealed earnestly to all communicants and adherents to discontinue every form of gambling. Dr- Torrey and Mr. C. Alexander have been conducting evangelistic services at Atlanta, and among their converts were a number of persons holding high political stations. The black population, of whom there are 50,000, were not invited or expected at the Torrey-Alexander meetings at Atlanta. This was against Dr. Torrey's own expressed wish, hut the "colour line" is strictly drawn in Atlanta, and the Mission Committee would not arrange a reasonable hour for meetings at which Dr. Tovrey would have addressed the coloured population: The incident has created some illfeeling. "".•'.'"■ .''.,".. ' ,-_

. Canon Barnett succeeds Bishop ,Weldon in the canonry at Westminster! His leadership in social work.has made his name, familiar to. everybody. After a 10 years' curacy in the West End, he was for nearly 20 years—lß7s-94—vicar cf St. dude's, Whiteehapel, and whilst there was.one pf.the chief founders of Toyn-bee-hall, -of which he has been warden since ISB4. He has always mingled good sound sense.with his philanthropy, as the excellent book he published, with his wife as collaborator, "Practicable Sobears witness. . The / many schemes he has promoted for brightening and-uplifting the. life of East-Enders have..been-objectrlessons for the whole country.'" , *_ ' * ■ ' *• „ 7