RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 18

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

SCIENCE AND FAITH. A rablcjriam was recently published in i the "Star"' staling that" forty distin- ' p:i.= ' a American scientists, clergymen vn.l |.i.'jl;Vi>ls iiii vc i~sued aetatcment iletwecu si-iei.ce and religion. This is the oitl.i.iiiu •■! ;i keen controversy that has j ! -■• .i :::.in,- over th« theory of evolii- :. :i. A large section of the clergy in j America .-till a--ri"t that evolution ean- »!■•• ' •• nvonoiliMl with the Christian fuith, nbile others, especially the clergy v: in. liutcstunt Episcopal Church, are whole-hearted evolutionists. In England . the h.utle has been fought out in the ; churches, anJ wen by the evolutionists, j The .•:•-? for the Christian evolutionists I in Aγ • ri."i is convincingly stated in "The ' World's Work" by President YV. H. P. J:ii!ii ■>, who ne-orts that the theory of evolution is now as firmly established as trie law of gravitation "lie doctrine of evolution, rightly un- ; dorhtnd ami interpreted, is to-day (he vvites) ono of the most powerful a : N In religions faith. It has delivered thousands from perplexity amounting to derp.iir. Ii lias supplanted the old para- I lysinj* conception of a 'world-machine, , n ivjrlil mechanical and lifeless, grind- j ing uiit human destiny without end. In place of that soulless mechanism we now have a growing organism. In the words of John Fiske, "The s-imib of the watch has been replaced b> the simile of the flower.' A developing world, still in tho process, ceaselessly unfolding, etill ti; he shaped by human purpose 1 and effort—that is the inspiring concep- | tion now placed in the hands of the ' church by niudern science, a conception which formed the basis of the first Chris- : t::tn parable of 'The Sower.' Science I is not yt able to discern a world-soul | or a creator; it. leaves that to religion. | It has nothing to say about the purpose an.l goal of life or the spiritual presence in all things, which is the vital breath of religion. But it has shown us a universe alive, progressing, climbing, with many 'backward steps toward ' : one for-off divine event.' The doctrine of development has cleared away most of the difficulties in Old Testament ethics, and enabled u=; to reconcile teachings which, i given in different centuries, arc yet united in one book. It has furnished the church with a powerful apologetic, which many of our leaders are now using." COPERNICUS AND COLUMBUS. Thfi burden of obstruction is not all on the churches, for Science, it is ad- i mitted, has at times been quite as dogmatic as theology. "Copernicus and Columbus were opposed by the ecienco of their generation as mihtantly as by the current theology, and they were pelted with passages from Aristotle as ' freely as with texts from Genesis and Isaiah." Rut now science is offering to | religion theories which may he so interpreted as to afford a powerful defence of the fundamentals in Christianity. President Taunee says:—"Rightly understood, this doctrine brings back the ! divine into the daily and hourly changes j of the physical world and gives us such I n vision of the spiritual element in human life as the world never had before." Little, we are told, do the literalists realise the harm they are doing to the struggling faith of the young men and women of America. "Tens of thousands brought up in Christian homes are struggling to keep the faith of Galilee amid the larger horizon of America. They are sincerely desiroua to maintain Christi- j anity while gaining education." On Sunday they attend church, and on Mon- j day they visit the Museum of Natural History, "where they see vividly pictured the slow ascent of man from the simplest forms of animal life." They read their Hibles and their books on science. A GREAT SURGEON'S TESTIMONY. "We have received an address to theological students by that famous and ■well-beloved old surgeon, Dr. W. W ; Keen, of Philadelphia, the master and ' the representative of American surgery, I whose work lias long been honoured over here," says the editor of "In America, he says, there is a mischievous 'recrudescence of the warfare over evo-' lution , ; and he sets himself, by sixtytwo years' study and teaching of ana- j tomy and surgery, to confute such I people as look for their science to the i Book of Genesis, and say that man was 'a separate direct creation.' He finds it easy enough to establish a more reason- \ able view. The distinctive mark of this : address is, however, Dr. Keen's determined will to le as strong in the Chris-1 tian faith as in his reasons touching! evolution. 'I believe that man, himself, will only attain his final development in the future life beyond the grave. In that wondrous life I believe as fully as I do in my own present existence. . . . i Bodywise, man is an animal, but, thanks be to God, liia destiny is not the same as that of the beasts that perish. To develop great men, such as Shakespeare, Jlilton. Washington, Lincoln, and then by death to quench them in utter oblivion ] would be unworthy of Omnipotence. To I my mind, it is simply an impossible conclusion. Man's soul must bo immortal.", THE BIBLE AS A BOOK. (By Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 25. An address of deep interest alike to those of the Jewish faith and to adherents of other religions was given 'yesterday by Dr. Ilertz, Chief Rabbi. The lecturer considered the Bible under a number of heads; the land ot the Biblo; the people of the Bibie, the Semites to whom tribute hp-d been paid , t>y persons so diverse as Tolstoy, Motamed, and General Smuts; the lan-; puage of the Bible, that Hebrew tongue in which, said Dr. Hertz, "it is difficult , to lie." Quantitatively and qualitatively the Bible had been a book of great influence. Shakespeare's works had been ] translated into 3,"> or 40 languages,! Tolstoy's into 55. the Bible into 450. j Alone among bocks, the Bible created languages and laid the foundation of literatures. Nearly every European language begun with a translation of the Bibie. Not only was the Bible a 'book; it "was a library, written by princes, warriors, prophets, priests, peasants, courtiers, dreamers, martyrs, sages, merchants, and underlying this great variety of writing, stretching over a period of at least I'2oo years, there was a ■wonderful unity in the conception of God and of the godlikeness of man. The be- ' of modern English literature, i Dr. Ilertz pointed out, were with Chaucer, about COO years ago. To read Chaucer ono already needed a glossary! The Bible was, too, the great book of dpmocracv. Huxley had called it "the Magna Oinrta of the poor and oppressed." While among nations contemporary with tho Hebrews the mighty oppressed the weak and nothing was ' Paid, such things immediately called up j the indication of the Hebrew prophots, who denounced what they con- | Eidered to he contrary to the nature of | things. The supreme hope had always been before their minds—the unswerving

Nfpssianic idea, which was a belief in tlie omnipotence and irresistibility of righteousness. So it was that a statesman like General gmuta could say: •The father of the League of Nations is Fsaiah of Jerusalem." ])r. Hertz dealt at some length -with the formation of the Canon; and went on to ask how we could accept the text is genuine? Tiie usual course in a case of doubt about, say, iSiielley, was to go to the Bodleian or' the British Museum —or America!—wherever the manuscript happened to 'be. There were no autofjraphs or re-ally early manuscripts of the Old Testament, 'but'the. .lows had preserved their Scriptures intact through the "professional guild of scholars known as tlie Scribes." They memorised Lhe Scriptures verbatim, punctuation et literatim. It was a capital offence for them to forget Ihe text. We forgot, said Dr. Hertz, in these lays of cheap newspaper and ephemeral novels, what achievements the memory ivas capable of. There must 'be in Lonlon to-day a thousand people who could repeat the entire Hebrew Scriptures, not >nly the words, but the musical accent, unci two or three dozen who knew the entire Talmudical literature by heart. It was through such people as these that the Hebrew books had from the beginning been preserved with microscopic fidelity. CURRENT NOTES. The Rev. .Sidney Berry has been nominated for the secretaryship of the Congregational Union (England). By a stringent policy of retrenchment, the British and Foreign Biblo Society ended the year with a surplus of over .10000. The total income was and the expenditure £360,012. Dr. P. B. Meyer is expected to return from Australia to England via New Zealand. He should reach the Dominion about the beginning of October, according to the "Christian World." The Wesl'oyan Methodists of England paid out the sum of jCSI/iS'J to 320 superannuated ministers and WO wido vs last year. Special gTants .imciinting to £1177 were given in addition. "I suppose I am a very optimistic man," eaid Roy. Joel Wair tall, M.A., M.0.L., of Delhi, when speaking at the Baptist Missionary annual meeting in Enjland last Maff; "but I think that there is n. great future for Christianity in India." Di\ T. R. Glover, public orator at Cff-Cvidge, has been elected vipe-prosi-lent of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and next year will sue:eed to the Presidency—exactly 40 years I liter his father, Dr. Richard Glover, of Bristol, who died four years ago. Mr. Joseph Kenningham. of Wands.vorth Common, who was in his ninetysecond year when he died recently, had Dcen connected with church choirs for uoro than eighty years, and was for j ■nnny years solo bass in Salisbury Cathc- I iral. He had sung at every Handel Fes- i Lival since ISG2, when he first made his lppearance under Sir Michael Costa. Thp Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated on April 7. his seventy-fifth birthday. Letters and telegrams conveying greetings to the Primate arrived at Lambeth Palace from all parts of the country, while numerous messages,. mainly from personal friends, were sent to him in the country, where he spent the day quietly. The ex-president of the British Westayan Conference, Rev. J. A. Sharp, is j intending to take a trip round the world. Re will leave England about August 4, >nd will include Australia and New Zeal«nd. Further particulars are not -yet i available but his fellow-Methodists in j I his Dominion will be glad to welcome ouch a prominent minister, and one who has won such a good degree as a stro.ig j.nd active social reformer. Rev. Sam. Chad wick telle the story that ane of the churches asked him to give them some services. He said he could not go, but that one of his college stalT, Mr. Dunning could serve them; "but," said Mr. Chad wick, "if Mr. Dunning ivent there must be a revival, for Mr. j Dunning would not go anywhere with- I )ut." "Oh," was the reply, ' ; a revival ! would not be convenient just now." : k> Mr. Dunning did not go. . At luncheon with Gipsy Smith at Shof- ' field, Dr. Jowett stated, he had received a letter from a certain Church of England lady at a time when he was announced to preach in a cathedral. This communication ran:—"Sir, my boys have been brought up to think of the man in the cathedral pulpit as one who will show then the way to heaven. If they sec you there it will be like seeing one who shows them the wa)' to hell." The return to Christian belief and practice is observed in many t'tehls. The 'Methodist Times" (England) says that the returns of membership which are to be reported to the forthcoming synods !ire uniformly encouraging, and that there are solid grounds for buoyant hopefulness. As regards the Church'of England, the Chester correspondent of the "Guardian" states: "From every quarter come reports of increased communicants for Easter. People seem to be regaining something of the balance lost during the war.'' Equally encouraging reports come from other dioceses. The Protestant Federation of France has taken possession of the building at 47, Rue de Clichy, Paris, which is in large measure the gift of the Protestant Churches of America. The several Huguenot and Protestant organisations have entered into o?cupation of the new headquarters, which contain more than forty officers and a large assembly room. Libraries and reading rooms are to be installed. The new- church house will lie of great convenience and value in relation to the work of the various central Protestant organisations finding their homes in Paris. The Rev. Sam Chadwiclr, in reviewing 1-ts year of office as president of the English Free Church Council, said he had preached in more non-Methodist churches than in all his previous ministry. He rejoiced in the evangelistic spirit that had been revealed. Sir. Chadwick then went on to speak on evengelism generally, beginning by a reference to open-air work. One of the principles laid down was that there should be no collections at open-air services. Ho was not in favour of bands or banjos, or tambourines, or very much singing. It must be a challenge in the name of Jesus Christ. It was a time for reasoning and pleading. He had learned most of his theology on a chair in the street. Men attacked and questioned you, and this sharpened your wits. This was the method of the Socialists. This had made the Labour party. Men like Tom Mann and Ben Tillett and Rameay MacDonala had been developed on the paveme-.t. The crowd always admired pluck, and the courage of a man who would stand up ,and plead for Jesus Christ would always command respect. He believed that this was the reason why the common people heard Christ gladly.