CURRENT NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1927, Page 22

CURRENT NOTES.

The Rev. Thomas Scouley, Nottingham, at the age of 90 years, wa3 still preaching.

The Re 7. Hugh M. Butler, of Magi lligan, County Down, Ireland, reached his hundredth birthday last December. He has been a minister for 75 years.

Dr. William C. Poole, president-elect of the British National Christian Endeavour Union has been invited to attend the Australian Convention in UJiIS.

Dr. Wardle Stafford said recently: "Christianity is more than pew holding, anthem loving, or sermon tasting. It is often a march into the very iaws of hell."

A fine suggestion has been made by the Grahamstown Mothers' Union. It is that a fund shall be raised by the Mothers' Union members to train their sons so that they may take Holy Orders.

Mr. Stephen C. -Bailey, hon. secretary of the International Bible Reading Association, recetly reported that he had issued more membership cards to date for 1927 than had been the case for a similar period last year.

A census taken by the "Daily News" in the early nineties showed that only 10 per cent of the people of London attended any place of worship. Ten years later another census was taken, but the returns were so bad that the results were not published.

The Rev. James Griffiths, of Calfaraia, Aberdeen, Scotland, recently completed the fortieth year of his ministry. Mr. Griffiths stated his opinion that the moral character of the pulpit to-day was purer than when he entered the ministry, hut its teaching was not so pure.

An anonymous contributor, who hides his identity in the letters S.H.A.P., has forwarded to the financial secretary of the Presbyterian Church, England, £1000. The Home Church, Jewish Mission, Continental and Westminster College each get £100. The Foreign Mission Fund and the Aged and Infirm Ministers Fund eet £300 each.

"The prophet Micah said, 2500 years ago, 'What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' Modern science, of the real sort, is slowly learning to walk humbly with its God, in learning that lesson it is contributing something to religion."—R. A. Millakin, in the "Yale Review."

"John Milton, Poet and Patriot" was the subject of an interesting 6ermbn preached by the Rev. Ivan S Stebbing last Sunday night at Greenlane Congregational Church. The hymns sung were thoee written by Milton. Mr. Stebbing stressed the great part Milton had with Oliver Cromwell in laying the foundations of religious liberty now possessed by the British people.

The Rev. McEwan Lawson, in addressing the North Buck* Union at Stony, Stafford, on "What Young People Hate and Like," said he thought it wa3 wrong to Say that the young folks were not interested in religion. He considered they simply wanted to know what life meant, and whether religion was genuine. Mr. Lawson said he would rather the young people played cards and danced under Christ than "that they should do it at some threepenny hop or public house.

Candidates for the ministry are reported to be more numerous in Wales than has been the case for some years past. Eleven passed the entrance examination for Brecon Memorial College towards the end of last year, while BalaBanger and Carmanthean College were stated to be practically full. There were 40 candidates at Aberystwyth College, and more than 100 at various preparatory schools.

The Methodist Mission in the East End of London has never been so prosperous as at the present time. There is no debt, and the principle has been laid down that no new enterprise is to be undertaken until the necessary funds are in hand. The mission employs two doctors and a dispenser, who deal with over 700 patients each week. Free breakfasts are provided for poor children, and thousands of garments are distributed each year by the old clothes department.

The old Brew House, adjoining Lambeth Palace, where, until about 40 years ago, beer was brewed for the Archbishops of Canterbury, is to be demolished, and a parish institute for St. Mary's. Lambeth, erected in it? place. The present building dates back to 1750, but Professor Jenkins, Librarian of the Palace, states that a brew house stood on the same site or near by since medieval times. Mrs. Randall Davidson, wife of the present Archbishops can remember the beer being brewed, and an eighty-year-old retainer speaks highly of its quality.