RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 245, 13 October 1917, Page 14

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

CKTJSCK NEWS AND NOTES. The Re\. Donald Mel.ennon, a Presbyter:;: ii Minister formerly stationed in New Zealand, has just died in Sydney. The Rev. W. 11. Roberts, who resigned the North-east Valley charge to go to the rront as a chaplain with the New Zealand Forces, has been appointed to trie cure of the parochial district of Mosgiel and (ireen Hand. The Rev. Ceorge Harvard Cranswick. 8.A.. re.-tor ,■:" St. Paul's, Bcndigo, has 1"-. -i unanimously elected to the bishopr!-" of Gipp-land, in succession to Xi- iop I'.iin. The Bishop of Nelson declined that bishopric, and it is a curious coincidence that Mr. Cranswick was revt'-r of a parish in which Bishop Sadlier was curate for seven years. "lhe well-known Evangelist. Billy Sunday, recently said: "" I think those pe.ple *ho ar.- raising their voices against registration or conscription border pretty clo«e to being traitors. I have no sympathy with those so-called pacifist meetings. The time for those meetings is j ast. A\ c are in the war now. and tr-.-re is nothing to do but stand by and ;_-i the limit." Two British nurses, who gave their lives fir their patients, have had the French Croix ,le Guerre awarded them. During an aerial bombardment Miss ' an_aret Pcwar and Mi-s Mary Mars all w,-re trying to protect their piticnts m an Knglish hospital in Iran-,-, when one was killed, and the other mortally wounded. "Greater love than this hath no man shown." The congregation of Te Aroha having r-- - nt.v addressed a unanimous call to ti- Key. 1.,'.,. W. Blair, of Wanganui I-.,-t. a meetiug was held in the Eastown Presbyterian I hurch last week, when a petition containing the names of over one hundred members and adherents of the church, urging Mr. Blair to remain in his present charge, was presented to him. At a time when ministers of religion are being ,-v, .npte.l from military servi c ,i: New Zealand it is interesting to i -or.! that the Rev. G. Ingham Berry. pastor of Park Congregational Church. Kamshottom. eniisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers last summer.'and is now a second-lieutenant. He stated it was his duty to go in the fighting ranks rater than as a chaplain or worker with the V.M.C.A. Lieut.-Col one! Vamamuro. chief secretary of the Salvation Army in Japan, h::s _one to England to discuss with 'ieneral Booth plans for the advancement of Salvation Army work in his native land. He has been decorated by the Mikado, and commissioned to inquire ar; . report to the Japanese Government upon the moral and social conditions of J__g!___d in war time, and the measures Ejopted by the British Government for their improvement. Since the war began the Y.M.C-A. has administered £4.000.000 through the National Council for War Purposes. Mr J. J. Virgo, speaking at the Mansion House. London, on his 60,000 miles journey, declared that no less than £30,----000.000 had now been invested in Y_M. C___. buildings throughout the world. The Association has as many as 20 huts at some of the base camps. It has 27 huts on the Suez Canal, and they extend right up to the north-western frontier of India. The report of the Army and Navy Board, presented at the Wesleyan Conference. London, showed that the present number of Methodists serving in the Forces was—in the Army ,1055 officers and 155.046 men: in the Navy. 500 officers and 10.577 men. The number of chaplains was 205. nearly all of whom are at the front. Since the beginning of the war l-"),-5_4 Weslevan Methodists had fallen. it it were not for the British Fleet New Vor'. would be in ruins, was tbe prejjnant utterance of Billy Sunday, the Evangelist, when addressing a gathering in that city during the recent campaign. .he Key. R. M. Ryburn, as Moderator cf the New Zealand Presbyterian Church, i- visiting the North Island, thus fulfilling a resolution passed at tiie last Genera! Assembly for the moderator to visit th, various churches, especially those in isolated country districts, for the purpose of fostering a feeling of nnitv. The ulaces Mr. Rvburn will be jnostlv engaged in will be"Poverty Bay. Hawk'e's Bay. Bey of Plenty, and the centre of tiie North Island. The tour v.iM extend over six weeks. In the Lower House of Convocation some keen discussion took place on the- proposal to omit certain pa.-spL'i-s from the Psalter used in Anglican ' lurches. These were described as heir..' uncharitable and vindictive. It was claimed by tbe Dean of Canterbury that denunciation of wrong doings and calls for vengeance, as contained in the Psalms, were, in many cases, peculiarly appropriate to the present time. Canon Aitken. mi the other hand, argued that many of tbe passages were most unChristianlike in character, and even if th» Cermans bad steeped their hands in infant blood, it was for us to pray: "i-.itiiir. forgive them." To use such expressions as. " May I dip my feet in the blond of my crimes", or. " May his children be fatherless, and his wife be a ■widow," was an insult to Divine Majesty. .Archdeacon of Sudbury contended that the Psalms were a mirror of human nature which was precisely the same to-day ns in the time of the Psalrn ; -t. He considered that to omit the righteous call for vengeance was not only to misrepresent Christianity, -mt to fall out of touch with the whole moral feeling of the country. A movement has been started in the Old Country having for its ohjeet the saving ot infant life. Speaking at Westminister Abbey Cnnon Gamble said it was on tbe children of the future that the nation rested. The nntional per.l was one of depopulation. The presence of the woman in war factories and the absence of the fathers accounted for it. In the professional classes 50 babies died in" infancy out of every 1.000. In the artisan classes the figure was 150. What "was the cause'- Simply the surrounding- in which they dwelt. A woman had written tr. him saying: ' When you are: pTeaching on Sunday, don't forget to jireneb justice and righteousness. Most of our children are being slowly starved! at. the bands of the profiteer. 'Our children v.,.u1,i look as well as yours if only we had our rights. While our husbands p-re being murdered in France we are being starved here. I waited with my; little ,-hildren three hours to get sugar y-sterdav, and at the end I was only allowed half a pound." When would all that mrse end? asked Canon (.amble Tt was not the will of Cod, but was due to the folly and ignorance of man and the rallou-n<-ss and apathy of society. He hoped the hearts and consciences of the people would be roused during the week to th» need of saving the lives of the children. It was a problem for Church «nd State.