RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 156, 1 July 1916, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

CHURCHES AMD THE WAX.

HAVE THEY FAILED? What have the churches made of the war? What will the war make of the churches? These are questions which both friends and enemies of organised religion are revolving at the present time. Bishops in council and preachers in their pulpits are asking in a chastened mood whether the churches are exerting any such potent effect (as against revue and cinema, for instance) upon the- thoughts and lives of the people as is commensurate with their high spiritual claims. Perhaps one might hazard tie verrtret that while Christianity had gained and will gain from the conflict of these days, the churches had lost, and will lose.

Of course, it is an easy thing to assert the failure of the churches. In a true sense the churches are bound to fail. If they were not failures, there would he ■no need- for "their work. They preach an unattainable ideal and testify to a hidden spiritual truth. They carry a treasure in frail vessels, and we others appreciate the frailty of the vessels, which we see more readily than the treasure we do not see.

It is only fair to cay that part ofthe! failure of the churches has been due to the fact that we are all of us puzzled as to the attitude which the Christian, private, or. official, should take tip in regard to waT. The Society of Friends alone among Christian bodies gives what may be thought the obvious solution— Christianity demands the turning of the other cheek; Christianity is the absolute negation of war. The most of us, however, feel that though this is the ohvious Eolation it is tie unworkable, and therefore the wrong, one for us. We rightly accept the practical judgment of our consciences that there was no other reply to aggressive force but force, and that despite the actual material horrore and crimes cf wax, the warrior in a good cause (or ewn, it must be allowed, in a cause .thought to be good) is in fighting doing ...a, -just, even a holy, because a necessary thjjag. TSETE CHALLENGE OF WAR. But we still feel the incongruity of the whole business, feel that somehow the Church ehould stand ont of it all, and the sceptical and cynical point maliciously to the spectacle of official Christians on both sides solemnly demanding the blessing of the God of Battles on their arms. "" As a matter of fact, as a thoughtful apologist has recently pointed out, there fa-a Tery good case for a Christian nation accepting the challenge of war. The doctrine of this taming of the other Aeek is a doctrine of personal application onry—I am to turn my own pereonal cheek if struck. And th'fc is a high bat possible morality. Rut I am not to assist at the striking of other people's eheeke. An obvious effect, say, of England's withholding herself from the war vouM have been to submit to the striking- of the eheeke of Belgium and France by a. pitiless aggress.;, r. There is a soand point here, and less need for the Church 'and druTchtoen to be shamefaced about the relation between war and Christianity than they, in fact, appear to be. Perhaps the most obvious failure of ■efigious duty, as it appears to the outside critic, is the fairare of a Pope, who claims a universal jurisdiction and the power of binding and loosing, to protest in the name of Justice against the rape cf Bergimn. This is not to go the length of dsetanng that the cause of the Allies fc so conspicuously the right cause as to leave no one free to support the other sffle—though that ie war own very natural feeling-irrt, at least, this one tad business of the Belgian outrages demanded the exercise of a power which toe Church of Rome has always claimed. iSrTAU, THE CLERGY SIGHT? In England we have widely commented •n the apparent contradiction between toe anqing by prominent Churchmen of fie sapreme dnty of taking up arms for tie sacred earae of Eberty and the general refusal of the bishops to sanction tte entry o f the clergy into the ranks of file combatants. The work of the military chaplains has been generously praased, bnt it has been felt, again by fl» plain man, that if to fight for freeton and josfcice is right, then the man of military age in holy orders has no cart of reason to be exempted. If it is taiong, then he hae no business to sanction fighting m otbera; still less to urge them to it. Tie whole attitude of the Ghurch, indeed, shows that sense of puzzlement to which altasion was made above. She has not thought out her poeafcion in .regard to war, and she is snfieraigaccon&gry. It does not seem Kssanabfe to suppose that there ie any epintnal vahre from the ministrations or Hie ctergy at home which would b< greater than the force of their example as comrades at the front. The Church of England has newer been comfortable *Ufl any theory which asserts any magic of ordere. The Chnreh is for the nation not the nation for the Church, and a combatant clergy woold a reasonable expression of this old and truth. CHUKCH JTEWTS AITD MOTES. Hie jnfeflee of the Metholist Pitt areet Church ocenrs befare the end of the present year. Already preparations are being made to celebrate this in a fitting manner and worthy of Auckland ■Hethodiem. The cause of the decay of Congregationalism, said Rev. F. A. Enssell at a Hiee Church Councfi , meeting at South■purt,- was disloyalty to Congregational ideals during the last thirty years. They bad been exploited by politicians. Rationalists, and a woolly-headed democracy. The Church was narroved and debased by political demagogues calling themselves ministers. Rev. Dr. J. D. Jones, the. distinguished Congregationalist minister, preached the Wesleyan Method iat Missionary sermon at Kingswuy Hall, London, this year. The preacher dealt with the text, "And in none other is there salvation," and made an earnest appeal for "apostolic narrowness." Dr. Jones said he did not want any other narrowness, trat he was not so sure but that toe 'Church had not lost some of its driving power because of its broadness. "While our khaki men are in the trenches I have felt that we ought to bq in tire benches. While thpy, with their quick-firing gnus are mowing down the enemy, we with ours ought to be storming heaven. Bnt I fear we lack the miiriifions of prayer." In this fashion Father Bernard Varrghan opened a conference on "The Call of the War to Prayer.." which he had convened on April 4. " Among thnsp present were King Manuel and Queen Augusta, Queen Aroclic. tho Duke and Duchess of Norfofk, the Jarpaneßß Ambassador and Marchioness Inotrye, and' many other \reß known.-people.

I At the age of 82 the Bishop of Hereford has just celebrated his episcopal "majority," and has received from the Free Church ministers of Hereford a letter of congratulation.

Rev. John Eanies, minister of Lewisham Congregational Church, having broken down in health, has been granted nine months' vacation. lie sailed by the Kuahine for Cape Town, and is expected after visiting the Commonwealth to arrive in New Zealand about September. The "British Weekly," speaking of the Weslpyan Methodist missionary meeting at Albert Hall, London, says that there has been no finer missionary demonstration for five years. Dr. IL Haigh reported wonderful prosperity for the year just ended. Five thousand new members have been ad<led in the mission field. More than 11.000 adults were received into the Christian Church by adult baptism. This exceeded the next highest number for the year by 1.500. "People are coming in masses." said the doctor, "to obtain the salvation of Christ and tho shelter and discipline of His Church." The income from the Home Department represented an increase of £5.600 on the previous year, and is the largest total for one year in the society's existence. The committee proposes to signalise the year by organising a new mission to the Mohammedan world. Tho income of tho Church Missionary Society for the last financial year was £352.045, an increase of JC24.052 on the previous twelve months. Concluding a series of sermons at King Street Church, Yarmouth, on, "Is the Doctrine of Non-Resistance Kciidly Christian?" Rev. Cγ. McLuckie said the man who insisted on the literal interpretation of the Sermon oti the Mount was faced with tho fact that Christ did not take His own teaching literally. If "resist not him that is evil" must be literally interpreted, so must "Give to luin that asketh." To act on literal interpretation of Christ's words would dissolve civilisation into anarchy. 'Bie whole attitude of the New Testament was to resist the devil even unto blood. Resistance of tho most fiery kind was consistent for Christians so long as there was an absence of malice. The strong arm of the law put dowii duelling, garotting stopped with the application of the cat, a terrible war abolished slavery. There could be no non-resistance ■until -tlie devil was dead or a world ■federation was established. Then if any nation threw down the gauntlet, as Germany had done, she must be treated as a dangerous lunatic until she showed signs of returning sanity. At a Weeleyau .Mrthodist young people's missionary meeting in England Rev. L. T. Sadler stated that a circuit in the Transvaal was the biggest circmt iv Methodism. It contained 270 preaoli- | ing places, 7000 local preachers, andj J 26,000 people gathered in tiheir churches on Sundays. At the same meeting Key. S. Douglas Grey told how he had trekked to the spot where Livingstone died, and close to it found a grandson and granddaughter of the famous missionary at work.

Mr. Arthur Spurgeon, speaking at Chapel Field Road Church, Norwich, in May, made some vigorons references to "conscientious objectors. Couseience, ■he said, was not a password, and you had not settled the matter when you pleaded a conscientious objection. As a man might be colour-blind, so Ihis sense of moral issues niig-ht- bo perverted or warped. Happily, not many were sheltering themt-elves under the plea that they would not fight because they had too great a regard for the Bacredness ot human life and the brotherhood of man. Was it not for these very things we were fighting? A man who would stand by and see evil done had a conscience that nceiled educating, and England expected that that education should be carried through without doiay. England also expected that while her sons were fighting the men who stayed at home should do their part by keeping the unity of the nation intact. Rev. M. K. Gilmour left Au<"4cland last week for Papua, J»ew Guinea, where he has been resident for many years. Mr. (Srlmour is elrairman of the New Guinea Methodist Mission district. Illhealth compelled him to rest in tho vicinity of Auckland, but he is now much recovered, and on .Tune 18Ui preached twice in Auckland pulpits. When Dr. Broiniliow was visiting Auckland some years ago, lie stated publicly that Mr. Gflmour was "one of the finest missionaries in the world." Continuing the striking sermons at St. Martin's, the Bishop of Kensington ahnost startled his congregation by the warmth with which he blamed the Ohureh for the hostility of working men. The Church, he said, had not stood for social justice. They had never tried to understand the aspiratione of organised la-bour, and the (result was that the workers looked upon the clergy as obsequious minions of tae capitalist, and the worshippers in the pew-rented olaces of worship in the West End as identified with a system of smug middle-classdom that bolstered up the employer.

A young man of fine physique, although having served in the Army for a month, appeared before the London Appeal Tribunal recently in the dTess of an evangelist. He explained that lie had come in private clothes not out of disrespect to the King's uniform, but out of a feeling that was more consistent

with his position. A mistake, he said, was made by the 'local tribunal, who sent a notice saying that Ms claim would not be heard on the eve of the time he wae due to join the colours. "I prayed kxr an hour and a half," he added, "and eventually, although I fett I was grievously wrong, I presented myself at the White City." For a month the Army bad had his body and to obedience, but they had not had his will, and his conscience had been gravely injured. He could not put on khaki again. He had given his last military salute. "So if you refute this appeal," he added, "the military ivill claim mc and 1 shall probably have to go to' prieon. Whether it is for two or ten years I shall have to bea-r it." The tribunal decided that they could not help the applicant, and refused the aijpoal. In his inaugural address at ttie annual meeting of the Cheshire Oiugregationai Union (England) the ehuinuan (Mr. George Brownsou) said that new ideals of life and duty were being conceived, and it was for the Churches to rid themselves of the things that Jiad alienated men from tiuan in the past. He believed the Churchee would gain in influence and usefulness by joining farces and forming in each village one strong, united Free Church, lien of all classes and of different nationalities join loreee to fight the common foe, and the Chrietdan Churches should not have a divided army in the -battle against sin. Amusement should be kept in its proper place, and never 'be allowed to interfere with the work of life. A sofietv organised on the liasis of pievure shows, football., or sing-song eojdd not come to nraoh, and would prodoco in time a race incapaWe of vsps&ting the hiitory of the ipaet