The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1914 SCOTTISH CHURCH UNION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 126, 28 May 1914, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1914 SCOTTISH CHURCH UNION.

For tha cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, ' .For the future in- the distance. And the good that we tan io. I

The present i- an age of :inr.ilgamatioos and aggregations, iv almost every sphere of human activity. In the case of nations, the tendency finds expression in ialliancfs and grouping?., tiud the motive power k called international .polity: in business, the, movement assumes tbe sinister form of ''trusts" and "combines"; in trade union affairs it is called federation, and frequently it takes tbe shape of "syndicalism"; with the Churches, religious union is the name, used to describe, the integrating movement. Viewed from the philosophic standpoint, this tendency to combination is pronounced to' indicate j weakness, or at least <1 a consciousness of comparative weakness. There can be. little doubt that in many cases it is m. The question of Church union in Scotland, which is referred to it! our cable messages to-day, has. however, progressed beyond the stage at which it can be. said that combination is advocated ,ir- a means of protecting the weak against the strong. The union nf the Free, and United Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, which was effectcri some twelve year., a_o. was in part due to a conviction that a joining of forces was advisable in order to copo more, effectively with the. li.ablished (imrch. with its "valuable endowments and -patronage. There -b._s—since then grown up it movement, for the. union of the Free and Established Churches, and this year's ('iftifliral Assemblies of these two le.adin™ branches of Prcsbyterianism, which take place rimultaneously in Edinburgh, have been marked by further advance towards agreement. There is in this mo - .omen'., no rivalry, for the two Churches arc almost equal in strength and influence. Tbe Established Church has about U.i.000 communicants and lSi5 ministers, while the L'nited Free Church has -iOi.llOO com nmnicants and J.:!.1 ministers. It might bo thought that the Free Church is actuated by a desire to have, the Slate Church ,-yst-in abolished, for it was opposition to th.it- system th.it led In the creation of the Free Church: hut this [ year's vote on the question, of union- | shows that, if this motive operate-, it ! has onh- a subsidiary influence: for the Free Church Assembly rejected by an oyr.rohelming majority an amendment providing that disestablishment must be antecedent lo union. There are nn doctrinal differences whatever between ihc two Churches, which arc divided solely nn tbe question of State connection, and as both art- equally curliest in I heir desire for union, it is fair to conclude that the. movement is based Upon true brotherly feeling and upon .1 sincere wishto make their joint w.ork more efiicient. Perhaps to a large extent, also, the j drawing together is prompted by a fcellin<» of .-hame at certain scandalous facts ! nnd conditions of religious life in Scotland that have become painfully npparicnt, and which have been emphasised by lhe secular Press. fine of these scandals is the multiplicity of places of worship in small town and suburban district-. There are three or- four minor seels of Presbyterians in Scotland, in addition to the Methodist, Baptist. ("ongregationalisl. Anglican, Roman Catholic, and other communions, and Cich must have its separate place of worship. The story, probably apocryphal, that is told of a. small town in the L'nited States aptly illustrates the position. A traveller, accosting a native, comment, 011 the fact of there being twelve ehurebc-s iv the place, and asks if he rightly interprets this a.s a proof of the deeply religious 'character of the people "No." replied the native: "it is a proof of cheer cussedncss."' It certainly is not. a symptom of brotherly feeling to find a community so divided. The. other side of the scandal in Scotland is that there is a deplorable liuJc of church accommodation in the large centres 01" population, while in *omc country and suburban districts the churchgoers are provided for live or six times over. In (ilasgovv, for example, the Ivstablisbcd Church provides only mic clergyman for every 10.000 of the population, while in the rest- of Scotland the proportion is one minister for every 270(1. In Edinburgh matters are worse than in Glasgow. Within 111. past twenty years eleven churches' of the United Free Church have been extinguished in various parts of the city. This, tiie "Scotsman" declaro.. was not because there were no people, but because the people refused to support the preachers. The suburb of Morningside is filled with churches, while in the crowded Cannongate district there is only one EstaHished Church to every 5000 people. These grim and startling facts arc declared by the "Scotsman" to show "that the Churches as at present organised, are incapable of grappling with the problem of tbe poor and massed" population," and it adds: "Until the two great.. Presbyterian Churches will repent, of their misdeeds, ceaso ihe.ir senseless, rivalry, and unite their forces, things will continue as they are, in spile of Prcsbytdry conferences and reports. Churches will go on being built "for"suburbs that can pay for and gn-pport them,-.while the poor wiUJbe

eft in great measure unprovided for. and L'he ministers who seek to serve them will be starved." Reform movements ire often provokingly nlow, and that now proceeding iv the strongholds of Scottish Presbyterianism has assuredly not been marked by impulsiveness: but its progress is gratifying, and ought soon to lead to the desired consummation.