RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 299, 16 December 1911, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

REDEMPTION BY SELFRESPECT. (By DR. FRANK CRANE.) "It Is hard for a man to respect himself when he is denied respect by all around iiiiu." —\V, IS. I'hnnning. The foundation of character is setf-xe=jje-.-t. Xhe citadel of virtue is a profcti pride. Uut of self-contempt flow bitterness, Biisyicion, yielding to sensualities, and the acceptance ol low standards. Self-re-spect is not egotis-m, but resembles it abo at us a good apple resembles a de<a,,., one. istlf-respect is sound, sweet, and 11 ea thy. .Egotism is morbid and sore to the touch. Self-respect is tough; egotism is tender. Call a child low, and bad, and lazy, and you make him so. All accusation, and scolding, and punishment is unpedagogic. It never did any good. To punish a child by beating simply proves to him one thing, to wit: that you are a bigger brute than he. The whole business of breaking the •will, taking down the pride, humiiating, and subduing people, is uttterly immoral, and that whether applied to children or grown up people. >io human being was ever, morally helped in his weakness or morally cured of has perversion by any other means save one—that is, by appreciation. It is that -which reaches down into the soul and .raises the prostrate will; that and nothing else. love is the only creative, healing force. Hate and. all the arts, and actions of hate are vicious. Anger and condemnation are devastating always. Hence our whole orison system is ignorant and the most fruitful manufactory of criminals ire have. Prisons are holdovers from the dark ages. They are vile, stupid, and poson fountains in society. Any watden of a penitentiary will tell you convicts are not reformed in his institution; they axe punished. • That means their self-respect is broken down by afl. the ingenuity of devflishness Bociety will allow, and the setf-de-spising wrecks are turned loose again on the people. Any system of justice that starts from the principle that a criminal is to be punished is unscientific, unintelligent, and immoral, Puniehment simply means vengeance. To send a criminal to the horror of the penitentiary is of the same trade as kicking a horse in the stomach because he shies or balks. ■A criminal is such usually because.he has lost his gelf-respect. And the prison ought to be a place where he can regain it It ought to be a school for weak "wills a • training house . where human . nature could learn a rittte: dignity. It is refreshing ". to JttOte that attempts are being made' ip this direction m some States with most encouraging results. The worst blot on our civilisation is that we have made so little progress in .the cure of the unsooialry unsound. Our theology is practically past condemning souls "to eternal, punishment; but our actual sociological practice can still find no use to make of a depravel man but to vent our hate upon him by sending aim fox from toja; lifetime -to a hell on earth. Society still has got no further along than to strike back when it.is struck- But i* ought to be the glory of organised justice to be free from this bestial heat for revenge, and to do ■with the lawbreaker precisely what is for the best" interests of the community at-large. And those interests never demand that he.be tak ei » ttnd hardened into a professional pervert, but that he be healed and" set right, \»

That we do not know how to do this is ignorance and pardonable'; but that we don't try nor wantf to know how is disgraceful and" unpardonable, Jesus was;right. Tolstoi was right. They were not-crazy nor Utopian. They were in line with sound common sense and with the known truths of psychology. God help us! We apply modern science to transportation, and cooking, and lighting, and to all forms of dublness and comfort, but not' to the cure of fallen self-respect, exactly where it needs most to be applied. We have left off flogging children.and hav« bejrun to study them. Let us leave off bnrtal'raing and Btnnttag men and women and begin to study how to help them. CHURCH NEWB AITD NOTES. Dr. Lavington Hart has resigned his position as principal of the Anglo-Chinese College at Tientsin. The Eev. C. E. Becroft has indicated his satisfaction at the invitation to be-i come minister at Mt. Albert, in the Pitt-street circuit, in April next. | The premier Sunday school of tho| world is stated to be that in Brazil, Ind.,; 4000 out of the 9340 ibeing an the .Metho- j dißt Church Sunday School. No less than j 1200 are in the men's class. j Archdeacon Boyce, of Sydney, writing] oh the question of "Do the Churches , Jail?" pointed out that in a broad-mind-! Ed way her mdnisters generally have, j time after time, led or joined in forming societies with benevolent aims and usu- | ally free from all sectarian bias. Was hot the first hospital, begun in the; fourth century, distinctly a Christian pro-! duct? With a liberal policy they have ifostered brotherhood in carrying out the. principles taught in the parable of the! Hood: Samaritan, and have rejoiced in •uniting to aid those -of any or no creed . in the hour of darkness and distress. The j point- has been strongly in evidence in j recent times. The present readiness to j help the poor as never before, and es-: pecially the sick, is mainly due to the' Church. Was not the feeling here very different one hundred years ago, when the lash was in constant use? Would it have been possible fifty years ago to I hare passed so beneficent a measure as { an Old Age Pension Act? Canon Blackley was the pioneer of the movement .in . the Empire, addressing about 400 public] meetings in England on its "behalf, and j every old person should lovingly treasure his memory. Here, but only following ham, the pioneer was a clergyman. Now two million pounds a year are spent in Australia alone in this crowning act of philanthropy and generosity. Is this failure? The spread of the feeling of compassion, as seen in that and other movements, is one, among others, of the clear signs of the increased influence of Christianity and of the growth of the principles taught "by our Lord Jesus Chris+,. Certainly w=e see marked success. .The pulpit* of the Churches have commonly been clear and emphatic on that dxfjjy, and not a few have said with T>rcmrmoud that love was the greatest thing in the world." A Maori , chief connected "with the Methodist Church has offered, on behalf of hTs tribe, ». block of 200 acres of firstclass land on\the Main Trunk line as a site for the ntw college which is to replace the Three Kings School

The thanksgiving service at Beresfordstreet Congregational Church resulted in an offertory of £4l for the Home Mission Fund. A sale of work was held during the week, which resulted in further augmenting that fund. The Victoria University of Toronto has conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity on the Rev. W. Williams, F.L.S., ex-president of the Australasian Methodist Conference. A tour of the universities of Australia and New Zealand is to be made next year by the Rev. F. L. Paton, Foreign Mission Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. The Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, who was pastor of the Auckland Tabernacle, has recovered his health sufficiently to undertake, on Behalf of the trustees of the Pastors' College and the Stockwell Orpnanage, to represent these institutions throughout England, and urge their claims for public assistance. These two great institutions were founded by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. The Rev. A. S. Devenlsh, M.A., has been chosen chairman of the Victorian Congregational Union for the year 1912. He was educated at Adelaide University. Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the Republican leader in China, said some time ago at a meeting of students: "My brothers, applied practical Christianity is our trufc need. Away with commentaries and doubts. God asks your obedience, not your patronage. He demands your service, not your criticism."

At Manchester the new diocesan Church House has been opened by the Archbishop of York. The House, which has been built in Deansgate at a cost of £48,000, includes a hall, seating over 1000, a chapel, library, and club-rooms. Such a house, said the Archbishop, ought to be recognised as a necessary party of the equipment of a living Church at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Archbishop of York, addressing the diocesan conference, said the question of the distribution of wealth was a social problem which called for redress. The long and surprising patience of most of our workers was being broken. It was open to holders of capital to be content with smaller dividends, and if by this sacrifice they could Becure for their employees a decent wage, and at the same time keep the industry going, was it too much to expect that they should be willing to make the sacrifice T An interesting gathering was held at Three Kings on Saturday last in connection with the annual break-up of the Methodist Maori College. About 30 of the students rendered a suitable programme of songs and recitations to a company of people from town, which filled the schoolroom. Mrs. A. C. Caughey distributed a number of prizes for proficiency in school work, catechism, and especially in farmwork. The principal, Rev. J. H. Simmonds, outlined a scheme of extension whereby they not only hoped to provide fuller opportunities of training to a larger number of Maori yoijtlu, but would also have a branch for native girls, and some provision for destitute orphans of European parentage. The Rev. W. A. Sinclair gave suitable advice to the students who were leaving the college, and afternoon tea was dispensed to the visitors. The work of the school was never more efficient than now, and larger numbers of natives are desirous of participating in it.

In response to an appeal from Do- j minion Methodists, arrangements are being entered into with the Itev. Vallance Cook, of the British Conference, to conduct missions in New Zealand during 1913. Mr. Cook, who is a junior brother of the Rev. Thoe. Cook who visited the Dominion in 1895 is likely to spend nearly the whole of the year in New Zealand work. It will, in all probability, be the year of complete Methodist Union, and the time will be opportune for a combined and yigoroue advance movement. President J. W. Garvey, for many years head of the College of the Bible of Transylvania University, died recently at the age of 82 years. He was a well-known preacher of the Churches of Christ. Speaking at the 27th anniversary of Bishopsgate Chapel, Mr. Samuel Figgis, J.P., said that young business men of to-day were risking failure and disillusionment by neglecting the rest and refreshment of quiet Sabbath worship. Occasionally reference is made to the frequency of the threepenny bit in toe collection plates, but at a recent service in St George's Church, Liverpool, tther-o were 4SO in the offertory. The Rev. John McNeill, when referring to that fact, added: "If I were a gas meter I would not work /under a penny."

A letter was received from the secretary of the Chapman-Alexander Mission by "the Ministers' Association on Monday, advising that the tnusionera had taken passages by the mail steamer via Suez, arriving on 12th March in Melbourne, and would commence their mission in that city. This is an unexpected and sudden development, as they were expected by the Vancouver mail, arriving in Auckland on 12th March. No doubt the missioners have substantial reasons for this change of front. Further information is expected from Melbourne next week. Parishioners of St. Chad's Church, Hanley, Staffs, were mystified a few days ago when the parish magazine made its appearance with the following paragraph from the pen of the Rev. S. J. Selwyn, MA, curate-in-charge:—"During this month the curate-in-charge will undergo a somewhat delicate and temporarily painful operation which he has been wont formerly to perform on others. The symapthies of fellow-sufferers of the male persuasion will doubtless be extended to him. To recover from this operation he will need a period of ten days' convalescence. He hopes to be restored to his flock again sound in body, if not in mind, about September 28." ' The key to the riddle was furnished when Mr. Selwyn, who is a grandson of George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, was married at Handsworth to Miss Phyllis Graeme (ERcklitrs. second daughter of Mr. C J. L. Hickling, of Handsworth Wood.— ("Daily Mail.")