RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 166, 13 July 1907, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

(By Henry F. Cope.)

WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

Sirs, what must I do to be saved? . . S^? V k ° n the Lord ,lesus ChrlFt aQ d thou sliait be saved." — Acts xvi., 30-3 L The answer that satisfied that particular man at that particular time may not satisfy every man to-day. At any rate, when the honest inquirer comes with such a question and receives an answer in the same terms, it is likely to him to seem like no answer at all; he turns away with a puzzled look, as if, instead of helping him out of his difficulties, the answer had but increased them. The man who asks this question in any verbal form whatsoever means certain definite things by it. Ignoring theological definitions of' salvation, he seeks to find freedom from certain habits; he would wipe out a tormenting, haunting past; he would prepare for a better future. He is not shaking with apprehension of a yawning- pit; he is filled with loathing at an unsatisfactory lite. the true man to be saved is something other than being taken just as he is and lifted to some sheltered spot where he may be protected from the consequences of his own evil doings. He desires a change in character rather than in condition; he would turn life from its briers and tangles, its passions and sorrows to some way that is lifted clear above the fear, follies, and failures of the past. He is not worried about doctrines or opinions; he is not fearing punishment for intellectual vagaries or eredal shortcomings. So if you answer his deep questionings with, a demand that he accept certain doctrines, that he force himself to faith in certain facts about even the greatest of the sons of men. your remedy seems unrelated to his disease; he turns away empty and unhelped.

And yet the answer that satisfied men long ago has in it all men need to-day. But it contains more than we realise. It means something more by far than the formal intellectual acquiescence with certain historical statements. No man even solved the problems of his life or found firm pla-ces for his feet by seeking his way through any intellectual propositions.

But if we can but see the significance of that life lived long- ago; if we can but receive its wonderful message, then we find life, we overcome the past, and enter upon our own salvation. It is not ■words about Jesus that save men; it is taking Him and all His Irfe as the word, the message, about God and man, about I the way of life, and the truth of all ■ things, that leads the life out into full *glory and freedom.

Here was a life lived on the plane of our own, meeting our need?, sorrows, and assaults, yet marvellously clear, uninterruptedly in touch with heaven, revealing supernatural sources of spiritual strength, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but showing the possibiiit3 r of overcoming them by yet closer touch ■with the infinite. Here was a life that ever turned its face to the Father of all; a life that looked up and lived up. Sin is living down, missing, and falling away from the mark of man's possibilities. Salvation is living up. growing, going forward, reaching toward the mark. Catch the trend of that life, look on life with his eyes, turn in the direction he faces. In other words, believe that he is right and set yourself with him Here was a life that ever believed in. the possibilities of better things. Jesns had faith in the possibility of goodness; he believed in virtue, honour, truth. He may not have seen much of these things in others; but he believed there couAg fe more, and he looked on the virtues: things not unattainable for himseiS. 1 i man indeed is lost when he has ceaSi t o believe in the possibility of gooesis $ for himself or in his fellows. Nea* ifas this all; here was a life in ,'the tel juty of harmony and helpfulness with ai other men. He was hated by , the breeders of discontent and prejudices because he was by his own life teaching men to live together as brothers. His ■was not only a face turned toward a Father in heaven; it wa3 a tender face and a helping hand turned toward all his fellows. To believe on Jesus Christ may have little to do with questions of history or of philology; it has to do with seeing in Trim and in his life the best interpretation of life, the secret of our living, the message for our own manhood; with seeing life through his eyes, setting the face in the direction that he lived, seeing God and man as He saw them, N finding in Him our teacher, following Him as our Master in the art of living. CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES. How many Catholics are there in London, and in what districts are they most numerous? These queries are the outcome of remarks attributed to the Hon. Charles Hussell, and a letter to the "Tablet" by Father Higley, of Commercialroad, E., who thinks that the estimate of 400.000 is too large. This number, according to Father* Higley's reckoning, ■would make about one Catholic to every ten of the population, whereas, he argues, in Tower Hamlets, where the proportion is supposed to be greatest, the ratio is one to fifteen. The year 1910 will see the jubilee of the Anglican. Church Congress, and it is very probable that its celebration ■will be at Cambridge; if so, the occasion will be of unique interest, as it was there that the first meeting was held in IS6O. Dr. Cunningham, the new Archdeacon, is already using every effort to bring the Congress of that year to the university town. It is interesting to note that Dr. Cunningham, of Cambridge, is the successor of Archdeacon Emery, who was practically the founder, and has been well designated the 'TTather of the Church Congress," for he was not only present at its inception, but has attended the yearly gathering so regularly without intermission ever since, that the Congress would have been considered incomplete withont his well-known presence and wise counsel.

The Key. Joseph Parker, of Eagle Junction, Queensland, sometime Congregational minister at Auckland, has returned from his holiday trip to Japan much improved in health. He is now contributing some very interesting articles to the "Auckland Star" on his travels through, the East. With reference to the resolution of the recent Methodist Conference to confer with representatives of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches with a view of formulating a basis of union— a question which has been before the New Zealand churches for some years— it may be recalled that at tbe Congregational Union meeting in Dunedin in February the committee in charge of the subject was re-appointed and given power to negotiate with the committees of the other churches and submit a report to the council at the next meeting in Wellington in 1908,

Tie Rev. R. F. Macnicol has, at his own request, been relieved by the Presbytery of the Epsom charge, which he has held successfully for fonr years past. The Presbytery has decided to send a special minute of appreciation to Mr Macnicol, expressing the hope that he may be long spared to see the results of his work. He is retiring from active work after a very long service in the ministry for several decades.

At the recent social of the Auckland Sunday School Union teachers, the following diplomas of honour from the Home Union, for long and continuous service, were presented:—Miss Brigham (St. James' Presbyterian Sunday School), 29 years; Mr A. J. Entrican (St. James' )', 26 years; Mr Steel (St. James'), 31 years; Mr Richardson (St. James'), 34 years; Mr David Goldie (Alexandrastreet Primitive Methodist), 44 years; Mrs Bodle (Ponsonby-road Churches of Christ), 45 years; Mr Ryburn (Paterangi Presbyterian), 30 years; Mr E. Wood (Mount Eden Congregational), 45 years; Mr W. M. Trigg (Mount Eden Congregational), 34 years. The Auckland dent (Mr C. M. Calder) presented the diplomas, and congratulated the recipients. The Auckland Methodist Union is contemplating- a forward movement in respect of the youth of Freeman's Bay and the vicinity. It is proposed to establish a central meeting place there where the boys can be given physical and mental as well as religious training. Partly the proposal is' to found a brass hand. A committee, consisting of the Superintendent (the Rev. Mr Wilaoa), Messrs A. C. Brown, J. Tyler, J. Holmes, and E. Hutson has been appointed to deal with the matter. The Rev. Mr Fowler, curate of St. Aidan's Church, Remuera. returns during September. The Rev. Mr Connolly then becomes the Rev. Mr Beattie's curate. The condition of the Rev Mr Purieu, vicar of St. Thomas' Church, shows no great improvement, and is occasioning some anxiety. "The special feature that will make tie Methodist Conference of 1907 memorable," said the Rev. W. Slade. in an interview, "was the outburst of missionary enthusiasm displayed." £4100 was subscribed at the Conference for the extension of njission work to India.

The Key. Jos. Berry, whose death at Adelaide was reported by the cable this week, used to be minister at Pitt-street Methodist Church. He was the first minister to be transferred from Xew Zealand to Australia under the system of interchange instituted some years ago.

A unique instance of the value of the Bible was given at the Maori Health Conference on Wednesday. Mr Symon, of the Health Department, gave a lecture to the Maoris on the "Hygiene of the Bible," dealing with the Mosaic laws regarding health. This so impressed the Maoris that one of them —Hori Pukehika—got up and said that if they had known these facts were in the Bible they would have had less difficulty in persuading the Maoris to observe the hygienic rules. They had always regarded these rules as being impositions of the Government, but now that they knew they ivere the rules given by God to the Israelites, the average Maori, who respected his Bible, would be more willing to obey. The chief regretted that the missionaries had not taught these laws to the Maoris more consistently. Mr J. E. Fleet has been received by the North Shore Methodist Church as an accredited local preacher. A committee has been appointed by the Pitt-street Methodist C'ireuit to arrange for a musical festival on the occasion of the Colonial Conference in Auckland next March. The Rev. G. Fussell will not take over the new Anglican Home Mission district of Hikurangi after all, because he has decided to remain in the parish of Cambridge. This he has been induced to do on account of the rule of the diocese that a curate should not resign his first cure for two years. The Parish Council has decided, therefore, to allow him to withdraw his resignation. The vacancy caused by the death of Father Lewis, vicar-general of the Wellington Roman Catholic arch-diocese, has been filled by the appointment of the Rev. Father O'Sbea. Father Lewis' funeral ■was attended by a great concourse of mourners. As stated in this column recently, the Thames Presbyterian congregation has submitted a call to the Rev. James Milne, formerly of St. Andrew's, Auckland, and now in England. The Presbytery has sustained the call. The stipend offered is £250 a, year and manse. The Key. J. Ervine has resigned the charge of Pnkekohe on account of illhealth. He has been ordered to take eighteen months' rest. The Presbytery has acquiesced in the resignation with regret, and the charge will be declared j vacant on August 4. I The call presented to the Rev. E. J. J Evans, of Mahurangi. by the congregation lat Bulls (Wanganui Presbytery) has been accepted by him and ratified, by the Presbytery. Archbishop Saumerez-Smith will leave for London early next year to attend the Lambeth Conference, and it is his intention to resign his office as Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia. At Sydney it is regarded as probable that the successor in the Archbishopric will be the Bishnp of Gippsland (Dr. Pain), who, with Archbishop Clarke and Archbishop Donaldson —the Metropolitans of Victoria and Queensland respectively— will be eligible for the office of Primate of Australia.

The Rev. Fr. Bowen was presented with a purse of sovereigns by his Whangarei friends, of all sects, as a mark of esteem from them on his departure to enter on his new duties in the Dargaville district.

The Methodist Mission started the quarter just ended with a debit balance of £206. It starts the third quarter with that debit reduced to £41. This is the result of steady and energetic work by the Mission members.

According to Bishop Julius there are two kinds of church worshippers-^the

" fair weather " Christian and the " gaslight " Christian. '"There are far too many of the former species," remarked the Bishop at. a meeting of parishioners,

" but one oi my clergy recently told mc matters with him were the other way round, that is to say, he had too many ' gaslight' Christians, or, in other words, people who only go to church for the evening service. It appears that he had previously suffered from scanty attendances at the morning services, and he had kept, on drilling into his parishioners the fact that they ought to make a point of putting in an appearance in the morn-

ings, instead of only in the evenings. So much did the communicants take this to heart that the clergyman now found that his trouble was large congregations in the mornings and small ones in the evenings. He approached one of his parishioners with a view to finding out the cause of this state of affairs, and the reply was, ' Well, sir, you see you have been so persistently denouncing " gaslight " Christians that I didn't care about being one any longer. 5 "