RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 18

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK. (CONTRIBUTED.) PSYCHOLOGY, FAITH, AND LIFE. ■■ 'svehologv and Religion" was the till' 'of .!( address delivered by -Mr. •'. W Sl'.iw to i he Congregatiiiii.il Union. Mr s'i.'.w n irnnvod his subject to the 1.,-:, :,« of the results of modern psycho. 1,.... o:i Christian faith and life. He said i;,,' mil : *ior ought to be and fore- | in..-I. uot an expert on theology, but :in cm.: -I on the soul. But only the Roman ( nth iNc Church reali.-es thai. The knowledge of man. not only thr.■>!"■!. persona] contact, but through,! the ...li i.d and classified results ol r: .."em ;>.-,\. hology in becoming increasing. • v necessity to the leader ol tlio.'iL'ii: :.! an age when ex cathedral del: i era pecs are looked upon with suspicon. :.: 1 nil external authority H ]..-.■ I.e. religions were roundly ascribed , to . ho devil. In the most primitive; mini there is a religious impulse. As; run; ascend-, the same impulse lends ! him to c.er l:;gh"r forms n! religion? j iln,..■•!.' and practice and ritual. The j hc..ihcri wilh his crude theology, bow- j i-c-r to his Hiumbo.jnmbo, is following j G.e same universal human urge that i a!--, finds its manifestations in the | lr/ic-t fa ill. find forms of the most ell-j lig'.|i..ie,l religion*. Alike they tire ex-j pre - : ,.o- of something fundamental in human personality. The human race is a unily: the differences arc of degree and not of kind. That is a great i gniu: perhaps here we r:tn find a prin- : oh.'., of toleration that Christian rhnri'y. alas, has not hitherto been able j QUACKERY ANB HIAGIC There arc two chief results of this contribution of psychology and the study of comparative religions. Many as;.." *s of modern Christianity are simply the expression, in other terms, of tendencies that have expressed themselves in somewhat different forms, in otlcr religions. We smile at the credulity of people whose faith is not as) cms. while we perhaps display that sweet simplicity that takes the latest religious quackery from America and c.ilh it the good old Gospel. Modern life is full of that, and there have even been cases when this enthusiasm for the good old Gospel has led some of i:s self-constituted champions to display a singularly beautiful Billingsgate mind and Billingsgate vocabulary in | characterising the "slimy curs" that venture to disagree. It is all very pitiful, but it is a natural survival of the days of savagery, a tuatara in the religious world. Another such survival is the fascination of magic. There is much ] of it still not outgrown in the advance ' of the race. The exaggerations of ultra-sarramentarianism have probably that stronger root so difficult to eradicafe. For many people the Bible is still not the Word of God in any ra- ' tionel intelligible sense of the phrase, but purely a book of magic: history wCttcn beforehand: a collection of J magical formulae and incantations. The same tendency in the human heart is ( revealed in the attitude of some to the ministerial office. There are still survivals of the awed faith in the yitchdoctor as the. guardian of the tribal j mysteries. In another form the old ' faith in oracles inseparable from the ' earliest types of religion manifests it- ! self in speculations on the end of the ' age and in an obsession with eschatology. These strange survivals from before the dawn of history will doubtless be left behind in the evolution of the ' race. J HABIT. ' To leave the theoretical side and come to the practical psychology can give a multitude of hints on the cultivation -, and development of the Christian life, j Life is largely made up of habits. Habit j makes evil easy, but makes the good h rr.sy too. Tt provides the rails on which | the human life can run with a mini-U mum of friction and of effort and a \\ maximum of speed. The practical work I of a minister should be largely a continual effort to induce people to make! t habitual the characteristic Christian!, attitudes and relations and actions. The I t Christian life is not a scries of spasmo-L die j'rks. Unselfishness can be made I habitual and that without becoming : mechanical and losing moral quality.'. William James gives a recipe which is practically infallible: (1) Launch your-1 s.-l' on the path of the new habit with asj j strong and decided an initiation as pos- ~ sible. I2| Admit, no exceptions. (3) Seize every opportunity for practice.]! (4 Keep the faculty of effort alive by L a little gratuitous exercise every day. | In a matter of six weeks or so it will | be easier to do the desired action than I, not to do it. In a word, the habit has , been funned. Habit can be made a mighty instrument fur righteousness. I , William James saw that repression j, of emotion had disastrous effects on thoj moral life of man. "Never sutler e\. sinrrle emotion to evaporate without \ exacting from it some practical service." I The soul is choked with the ashes of J dead emotions. The emotional preacher may easily debauch mind and soul, and , thnt with the highest intentions.': Emotionalism that does not lead to, 1 definite action chokes the soul and docs the devil's work most effectively. THE VITAL PART OF MAW. ; ! Freud, the high priest of psycho-!, analysis, finds in man a threefold con-i, Bciousncss. There is the small surface : . life of man. a second just beneath it; t able to be called up, and the real man,! c the unconscious—all man is. The unconscious is a mass of hereditary in- | BtiuctS, crushed perhaps, but still fuH ! j of potentiality, the sum of man's amy-try end his experience. ThiF. then, \ is the vital part of man, what counts in for most. I , Freud sees a constant conflict between' ccriaiu primitive instincts in the modern ] man, repres.-*d in the unconscious by the , ■will power of the individual and by the; cultural standards of the race and time.! INlan is a member of a society which has ! carefully codifk'd ideals and require- j , ments. The primitive instincts in him l", must be held in check, and all reprcs- ! . sion produces tension; and strain within 1 , the personality produces results on the, physical constitution. It is Freud's doctrine of sublimation that chiefly con-:. ecrus n- here. It is obviously impos- j s.il c to let the impulse have free course. I, That would bring chaos again. But it is , possible to sublimate it, give it an avenue j of expression that will relieve all ten- j sion, and not run full tilt against the]] cultural ■standards and sanctions of fcocieiy. lor example, fiery temper . checked completely becomes mild futility j and n. disordered, nervous mechanism; j gi.cn full expression leads to mad passion .. and rage: sublimated becomes righteous . in.'irrnatiim. the motive force in ail moral ; reform. And so with dozens of other , c instincts. Here is the religious value of l c Freud's theory of the unconscious. L

LOVE OF A TIGHT. The Church has often failed because it has not appealed to the love of a fight, and the accompanying love of the heroic in the heart of man. Christ called his Church not to afternoon tea in the draw-ing-room, but to war. Ami-everyone was called for active service, lias the chance been given in religion to that universal lighting instinct? Docs the Church let the world know there i.s a war on? And a war not of compromise and truce, but a war to the death against evil. The work of Christ slill largely waits to be done —wo confess with sorrow. Hut give the real man a chance, let him know there is a war on and be is called for active acrvicc, not to get a cheap insurance against possible trouble in the next world, no! tn wander in a round of aimless futilities here, but to take his place wilh an army in the field, and the volunteers will come in. it is a poor compliment to humanity to make religion easy. Freud tries to liml out what is cntt-ing n..u1.1.• in the unconscious. Colli; tries to insert into the unconscious new sources of bencticent energy. Every thought sinks into the unconscious, and then become an clement of our being, i'oue doe* not try to carry the unconscious by storm. His system of aulo-siigLrc-tion seeks to slip into the unconscious, thoughts that will heal, thought•; of health, thoughts of beauty, thoughts of victory. Obviously the great problem is to get the unconscious to accept these beneficent ideas. His system is too new for any dogmatism for or against. If he is right, then he lias put on a psychological basis the whole system of spiritual and mental liealing. -And if Gone can reach the unlo.isciiuis with thoughts that, will heal -.l:e bo.ly, there is no reason why man, in his battle for spiritual end moral health, should not find invaluable reinforcement through the same channels. It is worth while watching developments. If God has put in every man a power of self healing, surely any exercise of that healing power has as much right to the title Divine as the laying on of hands before the altar. CURRENT NOTES. The Rev. K. 11. Hobday. M.A., has abandoned his intention of going to Colombo and will take charge of St. C'olumba'a parish, Grey Lynn. He will be instituted by the Bishop on the Sunday after Faster at the evening service. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have appointed a special committee to consider the question of the copyright of the new Prayer Book, when it has passed through all the revision stages. The twisted spire of Chesterfield is being restored, just in time to secure its safety. There are other twisted spires, is at" Little Walsingham. The action of the sun, warming always the south side, | on a lead and timber spire, is respon-i ?ible for such deflect ions, of which the Chesterfield example is the most remarkible. When the Catholic Cathedral in Quebec vas destroyed by lire, just before Christmas, Dean Shreve offered the use .f the Anglican Cathedral for celebra:ion of the Christinas midnight Mass. A reunion of old scholars of Ponsonby Baptist Sunday School is to be lold'next Sunday. Some of the favour-j te hymns of past anniversaries will lie i sung to remind the visitors of the by- I rone times. An Italian Presbyterian Church has jeen started in Chicago with 50 moniicrs. It was organised at the Garibaldi nstitute, and the Rev. P. R. de Carto s the first minister. He was formerly iebl representative of the Church Exteu•iou Board. Sir Henry F. F. Proctor, for many ears president of the Bombay V.M.C.A., las lieen elected president of the National Council of that great organisaion. He succeeds Lord Kinnaird, who ield that office since 1005. Since 1*115,' ; ir Henry Proctor has been treasurer .!' the National Council. Sir George Croydon Marks. M.P.. ecently said: "The' Sunday School has lot lived up to the development of the imes. and there is need nowadays as icver before for teachers to be awake md alert: they must be open to new dcp.s, and re-energise themselves for heir work." The Rev. Robert Blair, one-time Sunlav school extension agent for the Presivterian Church in New Zealand, has ■ompleted his examination for the degree .f Bachelor of Religious Education at Soston University. Dr. John Robertson, of Cincinnati, ins resigned from the Presbyterian '.'Lurch as a protest against the Presbyery of Xew York supporting Dr. Henry •'n.erson Fosdiek against the charge of leresy brought against him. Dr. Robertion has been a minister of the Presbyerian Church for 37 years, and after icing at the City Temple, Glasgow, for 2 years, went to America in 1893. He las taken part in world revival ours. Dr. Robertson announced it was lis intention to apply for holy orders n the Protestant Episcopal Church. Bishop AYclldon. preaching in Durham "athcdral, said the clergy must live, md they would live all the better if hey kept themselves, in their early , liinisterial years, free from improvident nnrriages. The 'Church would never . igain compete in point of pecuniary ! 'inoluments with the great secular avo- j •ations. It was not for the love of: noney but for the love of souls that . .•oung men would choose to take Holy j Orders. ; The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.] •vnndall Davidson, has completed the I wentieth year of his Primacy. He was j lominated as Dr. Temple's successor on j lanuary 8. 10(13. and the acutal trans-i ation from Winchester to Canterbury | the first since 1333) took place a few I reeks later. H« is the longest Primacy ] •ince that of Dr. Charles Manners l nitton (1805-1R28). Four Primates only ! u.ve held ofiice for a longer period since i he Reformation.! namely. Cranmer, I iVhitgift, Moore, and Sutton. I The Catholics of the British Empire ' otal 14,430.041, an increase of 253,630; m last year's figures given by the ' 'Catholic Directory." The total for the ' \merican Possessions is 20.015.774 (an i ncrease of 1,820.104 on the total for; 0221. which, with the figures for thti Iritish Empire, makes a grand total 1 if 43,455.715 Catholics in English-' peaking countries. The Catholic popuation of England and Wales (estimated n 1021), was 1,005,787, an increase of 13.700 on the previous year's total: that, ■f Scotland (estimated in 10201. 001.! 104. The - Catholics of Ireland (mdi ■ ated by Oovernmeut returns for 1011 I mt of a total population of 4.:w0-219), |; lumber 3,242,070. I