RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 258, 28 October 1916, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

GOB'S FAMILY.

(By REV. DR. ADDISON IIOORE, New York.)

"God Itatti made of one blood all nations of men. , *—Acts xvii. 26. This age seems further away than any other from a realisation of the troth of this text, for nationalism has served to plunge the -world into strife and sectarianism hae made a hell in hearte where heaven should be enshrined. Sectarianism in Teligion and nationalism in politics have bred hatreds out of the conditions tihat confront mankind. In the realm of religion the days when hatred flamed into the fires of martyrdom have given place to days of tolerance, but in the realm of political life a dislike of the unlike still kindles cruelties and fans the names of war. Family quarrels a,re notoriously hitter, and bitter indeed ie the present quarrel among many members of God's family of nafionsT" The influence of religion ought to >be able to quell" the epirit of strife, 3>ut religion as now organised, or rather as now disorganised, is impotent. Nor can any revival of religion that seeks only to restore what has been succeed in creating permanent conditions- of bmoan 'betterment, for what has been can never 'be again save as it lives in'the vision and "works in the greater aims of the day that now is. Bwedex views of religion must ibe cultivated before it 'will be able to bind men in a pact of peace. It is not my view at God or your view of Him that is essestaaL it is not the approach to Him by way of the teachings of or Taokrta or Buddhists or Christians; either CathoKc or Protestant, or of JeWBOr of any creed you will that nutters. It is btrmanity that matters. It is Hhe fsct of human kinship that ia essential. Nar does kinship mean a Kkeneaa that is merely a sameness: ftwwTWfß makes a mdb, but does not make a family. In the family all are different, though all are alike. And kinairip means a tolerance of each by alii More, it means co-operation between t*hc tmlJke until the. varying qualities ot each are pat to the service of aIL Tibia is the ihonr of destiny for reEgioTL Bβ business of teaching a tolerance that ptpeo into brotherhood through the path of co-operation wae never so important as none What shall we do? Quit? Sam Beasenden rigihtly said, "God iAhnighty ■hates a. quitter." Because religion did not prevent war, shall we quit trying to be religions? Shall we say tihat all Teligion is uaelces? Shall we say thai all religion is useless save the particular brand of which we happen to approve? "Rattier let us one and all lecognise the value of individuality in religion as in all the realms of life. Then it will be easier to co-operate 'with men of many minds and many creeds, ac all men seek unity and peace through fraternity. PATEEHCE ANT) FAITH. (By Her. J. H. HOLMES, Church of the 'Messiah. New York.) ""The tiring was true, bnt tile ttone appointed w«s long."—Daniel s., L So burden heavier to be borne meets the brave prophet of the better day than that of the slow progress of his cause; no feet harder to accept, as John Morley pate than that of "the vaet space wiich erery ray of light has to traverse before it reaches the eye of the common understanding." Here is a truth to be established, a wrong to be blasted, a right to be achieved. Here is something which, we know by some intu'tion of the spirit is needed by the race for its greater security and happiness. The vision to us is clear. And, seeing the vision, we try to make other people see it. We piead and we preach. We explain and we interpret. We give money, time and strength unstintingly. For a time, perhaips, we make progress; Then comes reaction:—a worse condition than before. And at last there looms the darkness of "Hie night when we shall work no mere —and behold! we have accomplished nothing. The world is still ignorant or indifferent. Sometimes, to be sore, a reformer sees the triumph of his cause, as Cobden saw the abolition of the corn laws and Garrison the emancipation of the slaves. But more common is the experience of Voltaire, who, after a lifetime of battling against "in ■ famly," as h» called it, wrote: "I now perceive that ■Wβ must wait three or four hundred years. One day it cannot but be that good men win their cause; but before that glorious day arrives how many clkrcruste ha-ffe we to undergo, how many dark persecutions." That the lover of human improvement (will many a time be discouraged by this slow progress of reform is certain; but it is also certain that, if he be a true lover, he will never yield. Oil the confaaiy, the difficulty of his task will but: eerve to confirm his faith and strengthen ] feii" determination. He win see with clearness that the grater the ignorance of men and the mare persistent their indifference the more urgent the necessity for his cause. If all the world were ready to hear the new message there! •would be no particular need for its avowaL The cause which can be won to-day is not worth fighting for. Courage and sacrifice are needed not to teach truths already known and back reforms already acceptable, but to teach truths which men will not hear, and to back reforms which they will not espouse. The true prophet grapples with falsehoods that , ore deep rooted in the soil of ignorance! and bigotry, anxla himself against! wrongs tiiat are bulwarked by the l fortress of prejudice and custom, battle* against spiritual wickedness in high places, and, naturally enough, his^c-i tory is not a thing o f to-day, but oi the £rtant .to-morrow The time appointed fe long, as Damd well saw, but just because the tune 18 long does the J phet have reason to know that the thing for which he livee and dies S. true. The real servant of humanity craves no speedy triumph. He prays that he may be possessed only of two giftsJ?irst, patience to climb "the world's great altar stairs That slope through darkness up to God," end secondly, Jaith to know that, evei thcugh he fall upon the lowest Btaii sometime, somewhere, "These things shall be." RELIGIOUS HOPE FOR THE VANQTJTSKED. Dr. Orchard recently preached oi some considerations from the pact ac ai encouragement in the present. The; v/ere assured, ho said, even by the mos pessimistic, that victory in the war wa> certain and witliin measurable distance i'et if the great victory came—even i j$ came very soon —he did not kap'v

that he would be left happy. There iraa the danger that victory of a material 'kind "would only re-establish in- thtf niodern mind a trust in material things. One wondered whether there might be more religious hope for the vanquished than for the victorious. Much depended upon whether the great sanction whjoh our preachers and theologians were willing to give waa really accepted by the whole spirit of the nation, and it was difficult to know because so few people were Baying what they really thought.

After recounting epochs of backsliding and decadance in both Hebrew and Christian history, due> usually to the witness of obscure and persecuted individuals, Dr. Orchard affirmed it to be- very probable that soon all eyes would be opened to the fact that Jeeus Christ ther Holy One had been crucified' afresh. Men would forget all that they were saying. The thoughts of the present- hour would: not last. It might be that a- new ambition would suddenly appear among' the - nations, and one of them would-, say, 'It was my fault here/ and no sooner would this be said by one nation than another would , own up also; and" : yet another, and the pres«»ii.t Imrdnea* of. mind would-be loosened far more quickly than it had gathered. Dr. Orchard, pleaded with hie congregation jiiet tothink, for, he said, it- was' thought, that went out into all tie world, and touched: the balance,, and tinged the colour of thing?, and turned the doors on their hinges;

CHTTBCH Ktiws AHO JtfOTES.

Dr. F. E Clark, fattier of■ the Chri- a tian Endeavour movement, ha* returned " to his American home aftei a visit to the n Chinese National C.E. Convention ay Hangkow. While theTe the involution i broke out, and he was marooned 1 for a> a month. The Vkar of CoarVille has decided to abandon his sermon on Sunday, evenings, and answer questions instead', ua-yn the c "Daily Newe." -If you are as tbed 1 of a hearing sermons as I am of preaching," he ;. said to his congregation, "you" wilL agree f with the euggestioni" g Sir W. H. Stephenson, w*o ie knewn £ a? the G-.OJt of 2fewcaetle-on-Tynei. ode-b-.ated his eightieth birthday recently. He went to Newcastle at the age , ol ( IX, t and was ejected Mayor when 30 yeeraold. Since then he has filled the <avie j chair six times. As a local preacher and .- a generous supporter of Wesleyan causes, he is the most prominent Methodist lay- j man in the North of England. g Dr. Clifford, the eminent Baptist minister, who is now over 80 years of age, J n a recent sermon said: "To mer there- i* nothing so dieastroue about British reli- . gion as its timidity. We dare not fol- v low the truth. Men go about wearing fc the fetters of Queen Elizabeth. A » \S T ational Mission' is started, but ccc tha B ' timorous fashion in which it is handled, b First, to appease the High Anglicans, the £ Free Churches, the largest religions half * of the nation, are omitted from tbc c plans, and then a commotion ariees as to the place women (the larger half left) are to take. The one thing that affects I mo is this timidity of religion; it enters t into my very soul." 1 Conditions in Europe, in part created I by the war, are said by a Catholic pastor \ to account for the ban put upon Church t dancing by the Pope. The entire Church a in foreign lands, as -well as r tho XJhjucli' iij j" the United States, ifl iricludeC% .t»fis > I order of the Consistoriai Congregation. I A letter iseued by Cardinal F*rley, con- I 1 sirtent with one issuing from Cardinal a 1 CTConnell, of Boston. Cardinal Gibbons, . 'of Baltimore, and 13 archbishops oi 1 America, forbids "under eevere penalty 1 ' all dancing at Church entertainments, c 1 whether arranged for already or planned li ■ for the future." " Rev. Dinsdale Young, Wealeyan i» ; Methodist minister, the Central Hal., d Westminster, is eloquent and fervidly 1 ' patriotic He gathers about him large l< ' congregations, of which soldiers and sail- C ore always form a part. Few Sundays l< pass when he does not welcome some a ' brave lad from New Zealand, Canada or t .Australia. Recently Mr. Young com- " 1 pared Germany to a great mountain, J "a strange, talking and bragging mcronj tain, a most boisterous and boastful 0 mountain." He applied to her the J prophet's question: "Who art thou, O great mountain?" He is confident of " * victory, though he does not want a** patched-up inconclueive peace. j Rev. John Chatwin Jones, MJL, who « D nearly 93 years of age, ws» elected * chairman of the Spalding Board of Gnar- ' dians for the ensuing year, a special vote ° _ of thanks being passed for the able man r ncr in which he had presided over the ■ . Board for many years past. Mr. J<n»ei f has been a member of the Board for 53 years, and prior to hie retirement some time ago hid held the pastorate of the Baptist Chirreh at Spalding for Sβ yesrc f The Rev. Leyton Richards, MjL, who \ _ at one time ministered at Collins Street ? Congregational Church, Melbourne, re- ' t cently resigned the pastorate of Bowden ] 3 Dowse Church, Lanarkshire, as the out- , come of preaching , pacifism. While in I Australia he was opposed to compaleory 1 military training: la England he ac- ' I tively identified' himself with the no-con- - * seription movement, and was on the earn- ] ' mittee of the Fellowship of Beeoaeilia- j tion, which holds that Chriaiiaaa aw. Nat j ' j free to take part in war. In a letter re- j '■ signing his charge, Mr. fitehar de made it , ' quite dear that he had not been forced , Iby pressnre to relinoTiieh Wβ oh arch. < r This is also shown by the fact tfaat hie a ' resignation waa received by the Chnrch ) _ with "the deepest regret, , " and a reaohi- i tion was pawed expressing admiration 1 dor Mr. Richards "ac a preacher, a pastor ' and a man." He gave am hie reaaon far ' resigning a dwindling of the eongrega- j '; tion, and a general loosening of tii ties , j that hind the members of the Chord*. 'I A correspondent writes ia the "British : Weekly":—A personal friend's tribute ; ' to the late Lord Kitchener -was paid by . the Weeleyan Chaplain-General to , the ( Forces, Rev. J. H. Bateaon, when, speak- : : ing in the Victoria Hall, Sheffield re- ' cently. Practically all Mr. Bateeon's , life has been spent in religious work ■ g among soldiers and sailors, and Rev. G. i B H. HcNeal, who presided, referred ap- ] preciatively to his work during the pre- ' a sent war Mr. Bateeon referred to the ] c hrte War Secretary's kindness to him , » peraonally, when he was so ill that 1 CTeryon,. ga, e up h for g,, nt mc mto has house and wae a father to t oi St. Paul's and tCwSt of tw than warrior, or stated ttat """^ stood at the foot of the a?» ™ s at vv° an : memorial service to Gordon and »» in ' out the hymn 'Abide with B .iV' ey favourite—the man „,„„, >3t since the war began, used to loviTnu! ae to go to his rooms and talk to him a.boni :e. men. That was a man. He stood foi if tho beat things. He wu one of ,tke >w I greatest men a nation ha* ever kaftwa."