RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 239, 6 October 1923, Page 18

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT DAY OUTLOOK. (Contributed.) THE HEALING MISSION AND REUNION. In one of his addresses in connection with the Spiritual Healing Mission, Bishop AveriU made cordial reference to the sympathy and co-operation of many other religious bodies. The mission provided an opportunity for members of all the churches to come closer together, and the opportunity was not lost. Whenever Mr. Hickeon spoke of the need for reviving the healing work of tlie Church, ho was careful to explain that ho used the word "church" in its •widest meaning—the whole body of Christian people throughout the worldIn churches of many different denominations in Auckland sympathetic addresses were given and prayers oftered for the mission. Special intercession services were held in some of the non-Anglican rfciirch-? Ministers of these churches were uriiSfir.! . ; the mission services, and some : LheM icted as Stewards. It was an >■■ :fF? . exhibition of the spirit oi ■ Lwi e i ! 'wi fellowship which will help to :t 1) :' unity, peace, and concord. A '.!..• • ;. ■ her of patients came from outsifle '.' a Anglican Church, the Bresbyter.i .n 'iiid Methodists being specially well .• t .r2i..'uted. Other denominations re-r.r.->senn;il were: Congregationalists, Baptists, Salvation Army, Roman Catholics, Church of Christ, Spiritualists, and Brethern. BAPTIST CONFERENCE AT STOCKHOLM. The Baptist World Alliance, which Jnet at Stockholm recently, formulated a statement of its working faith. The section dealing with social questions is as follows:—Our religion is not only for the salvation of the individual, it is also ethical and soical. The new life in Christ creates a new moral character and a new sense of social responsibility. The Christian ideal is God's Kingdom. He is to reign in all realms of life. His will is to rule in the family, the church, in industry, in society, in the arts, in the State, and in international relations. There is widely apparent in the ■2mrch.es to-day the growth of a new conscience in relation to social problems and a new quest for the will of God in modern society. We are realising afresh that the purpose of Christianity 13 the purification of the entire life of humanity, its end a community truly and completely Christian. The noble and self-sacrificing work of caring for the social wreckage of our time, the poverty stricken and the outcast, must not cease. But our duty does not endthere. Xot simply by doing an honest day's work, or by cultivating relations of 'brotherhood with one's fellowworkers, important as these are, can the Christian obligation be fully met. We must strive also to the end that the organisation of society itself shall accord with Christ's will, as well as that one's calling within society shall be conformable thereto. Baptists gladly recognise the Christian duty of applying the teaching and spirit of our Lord to social, industrial and family relations. While not committed to any of the varied and conflicting theories of economics, we affirm the Christian conception of industrial relations to be co-opera-tion rather than competition. Life is a stewardship held for tho enrichment of all, and not simply for personal gain Christian stewardship rests upon thefoundation of God's ownership of ourselves and our possessions. "Ye are not your own. Ye have been bought with a price," is the divine declaration. All wealth is to be held in trust as God's gift. It is. to be used, as He commands. The right of private ownership of property by the Christian does not mean the right to do as he wills with his own, but rather as God wills. The mere accumulation of wealth ia not the aim of the Christian business man, but rather the use of wealth in the service of God and men. Under the old dispensation the Jews gave at least onetenth of their income to the service of God. Christians are not under law but under the gospel. But surely their obligation requires giving upon a scale equal to that of Jews. One-tenth, however, does not exhaust the Christian's obligation. All that he has belongs "to God, and his giving should be in proportion to the needs and requirements of the Lord's work and his own ability, whether it be one-tenth or nine-tenths or even more of his income. CURRENT NOTES. "Anglo-Catholics would be criticised, and this was good for them; they must not mind it. There was a story of a man called Balaam, who was rebuked by an ass; but they should mark that the ass was right!" (Laughter.)— Father How, of Cambridge. The Rev. Philip Carrington, a son of the Very Rev. Dean C. W. Carrington, lias been offered the position of warden of St. Barnabas College, Adelaide, and preacher at the Cathedral. At present, Mr. Carrington is assisting Archdeacon J. A. Julius at Timaru. Professor A. F. .Simpson, who occupied the chair of Old and New Testament Exegesis and Criticism in the Scottish Congregational Theological College for many years, died last August in a Nursing Home at Edinburgh. He was in his eighty-first year. Professor Simpson only retired two years ago. Br. Neville Talbot, Bishop of Pretoria, Kpeakinn- in a Baptist Church in London on the Bible, said whilst the fundamental truths remained the same they were Vieins cast in a new mould. He added that the Bible was in the form of a metal which, after being- hard and fixed, goes into the furnace and becomes fluid. The Bishop of Zanzibar has written to Anslican papers in England justifying his message to the Pope as carryinn; "feed's command that, as far as lies in us, we should follow peace with all men." The "Guardian," commenting on tins, adds: "Had a message of Christian Greeting: been sent also to the President of the Wesleyan Methodists, a Scottish Moderator and General Booth, most nf the hishop's critics would have been disarmed. The parallel of the Lambeth Conference seems to us singularly unfortunate. The report was sent to the two moderators of the Scottish Churches, and to the heads of all tlie Churches—about eight in numberrepresented in the Conference of the Evangelical Free Churches of England."

"It does not seem to mc that quite the I highest characters come to the top in any profession."—The Dean of St. Paul's. Recent census figures for the canton j of Geneva show that the Roman Catholic Church is now nearly as numerous as the Protestant in Calvin's own land. There are now 79,983 Catholics and 85,185 Protestants. The explanation given is that more than one-half of the Catholics in Geneva are foreign born. Ti<2re are 25,095 French and 14,912 Italians living in Geneva. Liberal Judaism, in the opinion of Mr. C. G. Moriteflore, aims at universalism. Those who accept its claims will take their place as citizens of different nations, faithful to the land of their birth, but joined together in a unity of faith purified from everything merely legalistic and local, and preserving all that is highest in the vigour and purity of true religion. "If the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament obscured the omnipresence of God in the wsrld in general, then the Sacrament was idolatrous, and had in it the nature of sin. There was only one spiritual life, and that was the sacramental life, the sacramental life in its fullest, widest, and deepest sense, which meant the consecration of the whole man and all hia human relation? ships to God."—Rev. Studdert Kennedy. "I hope I shall live to ccc the whole business of Confession and Absolution lifted right out of this appalling rut of controversy on to its proper plane," said the Bishop of St. Albans (Dr. Furse) at the annual meeting of the Guild of Health. The bishop went on to speak of Christ's war against sickness and evil, in which mciv were combatants. "He wants us to have good, fresh air—but you block His purpose if you do not open the windows." The abrupt termination of the recital of the Lord's Prayer by the act of the hangman in pulling the lever that releases the trap door at executions was strongly denounced by Robert Bickerdike, former M.P., at a meeting of the Canadian Prisoners , Welfare Association at Montreal last month. "The Lord'e Prayer is actually used to assist legalised murder," said Mr. Bickerdike, "and I cannot understand how any pastor can dare to use this prayer on such an unChristian occasion." "Once we get our Christian names we cannot change them whether we like them or not, even although we had no say in the choosing of them, but a Chinese boy when he is born gets a temporary name, and then when he comes to years of discretion, if he does not like it, he can change it to some other name," was what a Chinese missionary told a number of children at Auckland. An Anglican correspondent writes that the above information, which U now going the rounds of the New Zealand Press, is inaccurate. It is possible in the Anglican Church to change a Christian name at confirmation if desired. A solemn visitor once complained to Principal T. M. Lindsay of the sense of impropriety he found early devoloped in children of tender years. "What did Daniel do in the lion's den?" he had asked some school children, and one had answered, "Please, eir, he chased Susannah!" The Principal endeavoured to. console his visitor by suggesting that the boy had simply a confused recolr lection of "the chaste Susannah." It was in vain. The solemn-faced one rebuked him for taking serious things too lightly. Mrs. Echarlieb, M.D., speaking at the Anglo-Catholic Congress, said: "Divorce is impossible for the practising Christian, because Christian marriage is a sacrament which 'confers character,' just as once a priest always a priest, once a father alwaye a father, once a spouse always a epouse. If, therefore, one partner in a Christian marriage divorcee the other partner and takes another, the second union is a civil contract, not a Christian marriage. The deserted partner, even if guilty, is badly treated by the parties to the second contract, because he or she is thereby prevented from making reparation, and is by this debarred from, a full repentance." The question of Methodist Union in England has been advanced another stage. The annual conferences of each of the three bodies, the- Wesleyan, Primitive, and United Methodist, have all held their sessions. In each case, the report of a denominational and of a combined committee was received and dealt with. It was agreed to give further consideration, during tile year, to a scheme which had been before the quarterly meetings, and to certain suggestions which had been made in relation to it. The combined committee is being asked to present a complete scheme to 'each conference next year. The crucial division in the Wes'leyan Conference showed a majority of 178, the oting being 342 for, and 164 against. The preacher at the concluding service of the Anglo-Catholic Congress was the Bishop of St. Albans, who aaid, "If ever in the course of the history of this land we had cause to thank God and to take courage, I believe it is to-day." He saw a change coming over the whole Christian outlook, nnd not least in the Church of England. There was a new spirit abroad, finer, bigger, more generous, and more Christian. There was a growing spirit also, of unity-and toleration, the beginnings of which he traced to the last Lambeth Conference. It was very apparent in the National Assembly, and lie had experienced it recently in his own synod. The latter part of the sermon was a plea for greater priestly efficiency among the ciergy. An article in the "Christian World," August 2nd, 1923, pn Church Union in Australia, gives details of the inhibiting of Dr. F. B. Meyer, by the Anglican Bishop of Adelaide, from preaching at Holy Trinity Church when invited to do so by the 'Rector. The Rev. F. Webb extended the invitation never dreaming that his action would not be approved by the Bishop, Dr. Nutter Thomas, who has been very keen on reunion discussions, and had even invited Free Church laympn to give occasional addresses in the Cathedral on Sunday evenings. Dr. Meyer had accepted the' invitation of the Rector, when the Bishop interfered after it \hnd been extensively advertised. Dr. Nutter Thomas held that the time was not yet j ripe for anything in the way of pulpit interchange. Dr. Meyer, however, addressed a crowded assemblage in Holy Trinity schoolroom, "in which unconsecrated place-." artds the writer in the "Christian World," "no harm could ensue." It would seem that tifcere is! a gulf fixed between the sacerclotalist I conception of Christianity and the I .evangelical one. I