RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 101, 27 April 1912, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

DIVrNTTY of commonplace. (By the REV. J. H. JOWETT, ILA.); ■ Echoid. tie bush, burned with fire."— M<*(*■* stood before an ordinary 'bush, &:. : he became aware of God; Jeremiah =-t'. L-i before a budding almond tree while ail .iri.;.-nd was dead, and he became avi.ir-' of God; Wordsworth stood before a 1 ::> primrose on a rock, and it became to him : ■ c count of the Deity. Mrs. >e!i.»rs. the wife of an eminent Pr fi-.-sor or Humanity in my University <:n . - iji Edinburgh. hac= recently publisher! her rpminisceni-es, In these remini6cec:et- she hi- much to say about a certa.:i brilliant daughter of a brilliant pro-fe--»nr of <i[-<vk at one of the Universities of .v-ocland. She was once asked to j •XT I* , in a birthday-book the greatest Tvi- ; - of her life, and she wrote. '"That life to mc may never lose it« halo." Her

prr.-ver wa. j tiiat nverywhere *he might ;.!■■" ". X- eyes to ~c-r Divinity in the comlEonplace. the mystical in the practical, thf spiritual in the material.

1" only we had the right sort of eyes. th. eye* that are anointed with the eyesalvp "I <hM. we should fee haloe everywhere. Nothing , would be commonplace: everything wmiM bo touched and quicker, -d '■■;>• grace and power Divine.

HAL') rPOX CY>MMOX HOLVMTY.

It only wo Had the. right sort of eves •wo should see the halo upon common humanity. No being in this universe would !«' seen without a halo or mystic n'mrbu*. In the old masterpieces of art a nrrrjivi.- i-> put round about the head- of a .-eiev few. but those surrounding them err bereft -of it; they are merely commonpiece, with no relationship to God or to glory. Our English poets of the eighteenth century could only see the halo on the exceptional, the sensational, or iho sublime: but when the Lake school of poets arose they recalled us to the (Divinity of the commonplace, and began to show us the flame in the .bush, the glory of the hillock and of the little meandering stream. This was particularly tie ministry of Wordsworth, -who eang of commonplace people, and showed thnz everybody is the beginning of a lit:lf lane, that l<vads into infinity. THE CHILD. THE PRODIGAL, AND THE INDIVIDUAL. Have we got that kind of eye? Can we see the halo on a little child? That does not seem difficult. ''Heaven lies about us in our infancy." "Of such is th- kingdom of heaven." But I do not ih.ak we have quite learned to sec- it. If we had the right sort of eye we could n.it see a. little child without being tilled ■with awe, without the unspeakable dignity of it calling our soul by its name. But even although that might be comparatively eas\. how stands it with the j>7 xliga I. Commonplace enough—dirty, ■broken, rough, and poor— we had the right sort of eye? we ehould see the halo litre. The man who goes into the slums oi the great cities and has not the eyes to see the halo on the prodigal will not do much for the Lord. That is not the f\ c of (rod. We see the halo on the prodigal when he returns as a penitent, but •"when he was yet a long way off. his Father taw him." The old torn bush by the wayside is a poor thing, but it is tenanted by a Divine Guest. And we should see the halo on our?fhe.not the halo conferred by a, lisli nine senate or by an applauding multitu>lp. Listen to the words of a man who i- looking at his halo: "Now are we the .-•>:!- of God"; ""When He shall appear we - : .1' I ■• like Hhn'-; "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed ::;-o!i us. that we should be called children of God." Here is a man so conscious of his own private dignity and glory that ')(■ scorns to be mean. "God's blood runs in my vein?/' a man should be able to «v: "I am heir of God and joint heir with Christ": and the man who sees that h;i!o about his 'brow will walk with a 'mc. dignified stride, and will never stoop to do the mischief of the devil. COMMON EXPERIENCES.

If Xβ had the right sort of eyes we should see a halo resting upon our comon experience. What we most need is t" .see the light of the Eternal upon the commonplace road, brightening for us t:ie apparently..monotonous wearisome drudgery. .', " " :. And we shall see the halo resting upon oir common work: We appreciate the sanctity of the minister's calling, but hiw many of us lave seen the mystic halo on the grocer and the tailor and the bool:tnak.ex? ' vVe.ghiJuld see it in the workshop as'we have seen it in the sanctuary. In-Millaie' -picture, "The Angeh:~." in which it-is shown how the influence of worship .comes and the labourer: at wb'rk. a little ray of the ili'parting .sun has-'fallen upon the spade and illumined it.- I like that; it ie the halo upon the common implement of industry. We need to see this, and we should see it if we had the right sort of eyes. We each need to pray, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." And we should see a halo upon the commonest of our common experiences— sorrow. A minister knows more intimately than others what a tremendous j difference it makes to sorrow when the light, of God falls upon it. Have you ever >«-pii the wings of a starling in the sunlight? You have there the effect of the lijrlit of Rod upon black sorrow. I have j often visited a glorious old member of j my congregation. She had always had a terrible time, and was finishing her days in .in ahnshouse. yet she was always Paying, "His tender mercies are over all hi-; works"": and she could see it.

There is another great commonplace— tie greatest of all —death. Have we seen the halo upon death? Why not? The Lord Jesw Christ has given death a new i.icr. We no longer look upon it as eomethung to quench our hope and put out oar light. ' He has transfigured death, and we can go right up to the old terror and can say. "0 death, where is thy s'inp , ?" "O grave, where is thy victory?" We ran put a halo upon everything, even vpon death itself, through Jesus Chriet cur Lnrd.

And then if we have the right sort of rvps wp should see the halo upon all our God-given environment. W-e should see Ihe halo upon the common flower and upon th-p sky, and upon all the common Ihings with which God has surrounded

OBTAINABLE THROUGH PURITY.

How can we get the sort of sight which was given to Moses? "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see ..." — the halo on the ordinary commonplace people, the halo on the humble. lowly experience, the halo on the Goddriven environment. "Blessed are the pure in heart," for they have got the lens, and through the lens they see the halo. The Rev. J. N. Saunders, M.A., who was inducted" into the charge of St. David's Presbyterian Church. Khyber Pass, on Thursday evening, is a native of Wales, a country that has sent out Biany fine preachers. « j

Therefore, what -we need is to 'become pure. Every lower grade in degradation impoverishes and impairs the vision, and every higher grade in purity intensifies the vision. And you will never become pure in your own strength. Therefore, you ccc where I bring you to. I bring you to Christ. In him yon will say, "Old thingc are passed away: behold, all things have become new. , ' There shall be a halo upon everything. CHUKCH NEWS AND NOTES. Thp Sunday School of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle raised £165 18/7, during the last year (including the Bible ilas=e» and the C.E. Society) towards Home and Foreign Missions. Miss Kendon, after serving the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle Sunday school for nearly fourteen years as Bible-class teacher, has been called to work in the mission field in Chin?.. Professor Edmund T. Whittaker, M.A., F.R.S.. and Royal Astronomer of Ireland, who has re?n appointed to the Chair of Mathematics. Edinburgh University, is an elder of the Presbyterian Church.

One of thp results of the ChapmanAlexander mission in Dunedin was that ISO young men offered themselves as far the ministry, and 12C young women for service in the foreign mission field.

The Presbyterian Church at Whangarei ha~ "ailed the Rev. W. Day to the pastorate. Mr. Day was for fourteen ypar> in charge of Mount Eden Congregational Church prior to joining- the l*resbyterian body.

The Rev. Father Charles O'Connel, who died recently in Melbourne at the age of 72 years, was at <jne time lecturer on mental and moral philosophy, Sydney, also taught at Riverview College, and later at Xavier College, Kew. He was especially noted as a linguist.

The Methodist Church in Xew Zealand has now a larger number of ministerial candidates receiving theological training than it has ever had before. The number i= 10, some of whom are in the institution, and others are employed in circuit work. The Rev. C. H. Garland has taken up his work as principal of the institution.

The Rev?. C. E. Beecroft and C. C. Harrison commenced their ministry in the Pitt-street circuit last 'Sunday by preaching to good congregations at Mount Albert, Avondale, and Kingsland respectively. Welcome meetings have been held at Kingsiand. Mount Albert, and Pitt-street, and the new ministers have been received with great heartiness.

The insignia of the order of the Lady of Grace of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, has been conferred by His Majesty on Miss Mary Griffith, of Brisbane, in recognition of devoted service in the cause of charity. The recipient is a sisttr of the Rt. Hon. Sir Samuel Griffith, Chief Justice of Federated Australia. The report of the English Wesleyan Chapel Committee states that £105,635 has been paid off trust debts during , the year. Since the committee. was formed in 1554 no less a sum has been paid off chapel properties than £3,472.----725. The number of new chapels to be erected is 51, against 48 last year.,.and of these 21 are to be buil£ in places where there was no Methodist chapel. The rest are to supersede former erections. In the list of new erections are 33 village chapels. Speaking on the subject of ministers' salaries in the Lancashire Congregational L'nion recently, the district secretary (Rev. G. Shillito) said the churches could raise any amount for organs and decorations, but did not seem at all anxi- | Otis to increase the salaries of ministers to a real living wage. Frequently they | would hear the statement: ''Our pastor | has £120 a year, and a working man does not get any more," but they refused to let their ministers live like workingmen. He contended that when churches could pay £400 for mere luxuries, £150 should not be regarded as the maximum salary for a minister. The Rev. Robert Mitchell has accepted! the call to the pastorate of Beresford-! street Church, and expects to take up bis duties next June. Mr. Mitchell has done excellent work in the Te Kuiti district for some years, and is at present chairman of the Congregational Union of New Zealand. During his residence at Te Kuiti Mr. Mitchell made many friends, who whIV rejoicing that he has been called to the premier Congrega-1 tional church of New Zealand, will, from i personal reasons, resret his removal from a church where he had done such excellent service.

The jubilee of the Pitt-sireet Methodist Sunday School is to be held tomorrow. Special meetings will be held during the week, and on Sunday. May sth. the celebrations will be continued Iby further sermons. Attention is called jto the fact that the gatherings a.re the j jubilee of the work at Pitt-street only, j and do not include the eommiyieement of Methodist work in Auckland. Methodism was planted and carried on at High-street many years before Pittstreet was opened up. The strange thing is that none of the local Methodist churches include in their reckoning the period covered by the High-street records.

I The success of the Congregational ! Church at Green Lane, under the ministrations of the Rev. E. Bridger, may be gathered from the fact that it is already being enlarged. It is not very iong since a resident collected a few children into his house and held school on Sunday afternoons. Since then the movement has grown, until a building was erected which was afterwards removed to a more central site, and now in less than a year it is being enlarged. The rapid spread of population to the suburbs renders it imperative that provision should be made for those who are leaving the city churches to worship nearer to their new homes. A new religious movement is taking deep hold of the people of Scotland. Originated by the Pocket Testament League and sometimes described as ■"Carry your Bible ,, movement, it seeks to get people to carry about with them a Bible or Testament, and to read at; least one chapter daily. Great progress has been made by the movement among all classes in Glasgow, where about 450 policemen, 300 tramwaymen, 100 soldiers, and 100 telegraph boys now carry small Testaments with them on their rounds of duties. Thee hief constable of the city is one of the 50.000 members. The central idea of the movement is to j bring the country back to the intimate! knowledge of the Bible which prevailed in times past. The crusade originated; a, number of years ago in Birmingham. '' with Miss Cadbury as sponsor. Then, before being taken up in Great Britain. I it spread over America and Canada, and even gained tens of thousands of converts in China and Japan. In March, after the quiet working of pioneers, the whole of Scotland fell in with the movement.