RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK. (Contributed.) ... , MAM'S PLACE 3H THX2 VXITISSE

SERMON" BY BISHOP WEST-

WATSON.

At St. Mary's .Cathedral last Sunday evening the Bishop of Christchurch (Dr. West-Watson) preached a very impressive sermon to a large congregation. He took hid text from Romans viii.- 22: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now . . . waiting for -the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Dr. WestWatson said:

Are St. Paul's words only poetry, or are they a wonderful flash of inspired insight into the long story of created things as God sees it, Working from the humblest origins to the redemption in Christ? '.They are of special interest to tip * nowadays, ; when the w searches of science seem to' have knocked doWn the comfortable/ walls which closed us in and to haW driven us "out into the vast spaces pf time which have passed over our planet, and the history of life upon it. To many the result has been the feeling that God is farther off than before, heaven emptier, and man more insignificant. Indeed, considering the vast shocks civilised man has had to face these last few centuries, the wonder is that religion has such a deep hold as it has. First of all came the overthrow of the idea that the earth was the centre and focus ofthe universe. And it took time for man- to realise that size was the unimportant thing and value the important thing.

Time Limits Thrown Down.' 'And now -we and. our fathers .have to see the old harriers and limits of time thrown down and man's history reaching bade probably hundreds of:,thousands-of years. And in theeanfusion many are tempted to think that such a creature of earth cannot 'really rue above his origin. But here, again, as thought steadies itself, mu realises" that it is not length of time any more than extent of space whidi matters, but experience of God— that immortalityisnot j«at a very long time, but j sharing in the eternal life of God. And we know in our' own lives how timeless an experience of joy or sorrow or personal union with a kindred soul may be. And St.. Paul's words help us further to see a purpose and plan in it all—to lift us above the despair which says, "well, if man. has so poor and mean a history and origin,. be can have no great future." On the contrary, reason and experience tell jk different story. We do not throw away the seed.or bnlb because they are ugly or me«L iWc know they have a destiny, a glorious, flower. * The Eternal Valaes. And in man's story we can see a progross.aa his mind; develops and matures. The physical becomes less important, the mental more important. What was seen developing in the lower stages 6i creation becomes mature in man—purpose and thought. Man moves on a different plane ■thof-shneer creation. But-that ,is sot all. What arethoae values .of tiraih and k>ve, of gUrtneis and beauty, which hsmnt Mat and uplift him, and sometimes judge and condemn him? They urge him to sublime deeds of pity and merty, and even to loie of life itself. They contradict common sense often and all the maxims for getting en in this world. They seem .so coutradictory—-so short of meaning if this life be all. I cannot see how tlwy minister to the: material progress of the race merely. They seem sometimes, to hinder it. And St. P&ul gives us a clue. What' if each stage of creation, imcon* sciously or consciously, looks up to atid ministers to that above .It,T What if man himself carries with him ill the treasure of the creirtion summed upin humanity, all the patient toiling, all the; suffering, groiuiing and travailing, all the purpose, all the sacrifice of lower things-rcarries it as a ssyered trust to invest in spiritual things?' The eyea of all look up .to him to crown the long effoit, to give a meaning to it aD. Bnt how;? - The Answer. "i.

And the risen , and '■ ascended Christ seems to give us just the answer. I can Bee nothing in the development of body or mind in this world which can ewer satisfy such a creature as man, for he has this spiritual hunger, this haunting sense of being not quite at home here. : And the ascended Christ points the. way and explains the puzzle. "I go to pre* pare a place for-yon." "Our citizenslnp is in heaven." Mania only. half.la creature of earth.- -Be stands tiptoe on the threshold of the- heavenly. Just aa man first-trod, the earth, then-sailed the sea, and now scales the air, so man rises through the bodily and .she mental, and aspires to tSs spiritual. It lures him, it beckons him on, and Christ says, "Come." And it is just , this haunting lure which gives the point to :our present pain, "groaning within ourselves. We wait forsomething. Wehave the earnest of the spirit, but our . wings are heavy, we cannot mount far. But ww know our destiny in Christ, and already we know soinethingof tha glory Of God in .the face of Jesus t Christ. Life has a meaning. We have a destiny.

THIS TERRIFIC UHtVBBSE. AM) MAN'S UNCONQUERABLE MIND. Sir #.11. Jeans, one of the Cam uultMnitkniitimng, hu pub* lfshed n book entitled "Astronomy and. He : ;v "Ac itinipl*! vxW model may help ua to ▼jtnafise tW of the gulf which divides lh« ptartctp jfroof 'Ibc jstttri. " If we represent the earth'* orbit by £tircte of the size of the fall atop* of the type used this book (circle* of « hundredth of an inch, radius), the sua becomes an entirely invisible speck of dust and the earth an ultra-microscopic particle a millionth of an inch in diameter. dta this same scale the distance to the nearest Star, proxima CentauH, it about 75 yards. whije that to Sfmng is about 150 yardi. 'Wr lwe rhrilly the Isolation of the solar 1 system In space' and tba Immensity of the gap which separates the planets 1 from the stars. ■ Before jisttiaf from tfiis model, let us notice that •tk distance of One hundred million lightyears io the iarthest object sofar dlacuseed.by astronomy is represented an Etf"? «al* by a» distance of about a million mika* In this akodel, then, V* *?*** >>■ millioas of milss in

to consider the probable objective JBaportance of this speck, of-dust to .the scheme of the universe as •a^whole.**

Picture or Artist?

"Although we; gaze aghast into those dimly-illumined antres of infinity" (says the "Morning ?yet man, with] his unconquerable mind, can conquer the incredible distances" and periods of this terrifiq cosmogony. , Imperfect though his vision be, and aided only by imperfect inventions, he can nevertheless weigh the most distant stars, define their chemical composition, take their, temperature, and describe the unseen movements of a double or triple stellar system. Looking at the stupendous, uncomprehending masses and forces of the terrifying world without, Mr. Jeans himself, asks the question: 'Are we merely part of the same picture as they or is it possible we are part of the artist V The-mere fact that this book was possible, that its author can prove the apparent chaos to be a cosmos, admits 'man to the nobler' "destiny. There may be, there must be, other intelligences such as ours at work in the stellar wildernesses. Creation.still proceeds, 'and they may well prove to be, collaborators with us in.the purpose of the Great Artist, in whom every .astro* nomers must needs believe."

A BLACK TEACHER. STORY OF WILLIAM HARRIS.

From time to time reference is mad? to the success of .the mission-work on the Ivory Coast of a native of Liberia, named William Harris. It was in the year 1014 that wtiliarn Harris announced that the Angel Gabriel had instructed him to go to the fetish worshippers on the.lvory Coast and convert them to Ghnstwmty. It is .ft singiiUur titing that Mohammed also professed to have received communications from the Gabriel, and even here in New Zealand the Hauhau movement was stated to be started at the instigation of Gabriel. Harris believed in his vision and the results of his labours have Jwea won* derfuL He started out with 7/6, carrying a Bible in one hand and a leng bamboo m the other, with a croeepieee at the top. He would not take any money or presents from the people, but accepted the hospitality of the villages in which he sojourned. His principal message was "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand* As the resulted the labours of this black teacher he now 120,000 followers on the Ivory Coast and downs of churches woe started by him. Ia some place, twelve disciples were appointed to run the church and conduct services. A number of what are tenned "Harris Christians" have since, asked lor European festive-

M" r--' . cuwubt xoin. ; , D _ ■ •- - 1 - • - * - . ecen yy *raiOß» in Cingalese were I debvend by three Bhuddist monks to ™!" • Bd »®®oi converts.' The monks went from Ceylon to Km. land, in order to found a monastexy-there. "TTI r. 0n _I_t,l1_ t,l l T * lotl< ® <* to* Ber. 'w. J. S , HSS«. *^ ngt<m bedded I®.**"# »w»en as elders. Mr. Coesrie said it would toe generally admitted I!"*** of women in public §ptt*ringp .made. <6r sanity and. goed leeHn «-. .-V •. •.. - - ~ i ,-j-j . ,• Mmt l&ry Andrews, MIX, BJS" daughter, of Btr. C. W. Andrews, missionary secretary; .'and nenelf, a missionary to China, from which country she had a remarkable escape last year, has been awarded the diploma in tropical end hy. giene at the Royal College of Surgeons. In -view of the way in which "flappers? have been referred to by son* ministers in their SersMns it* is: interesting to cull the following statement by theßov. D. Ewart Jones, of Southland:J "The trouble of the world is not fe women bnt its men. flown tunes I feel wo- are only after, women andchildren: in our churches. We do not make a straight enough the men."/. :• - . __Mrs. Fanny Jones, of Ammanford, West Wales, who died recently* was the mother of five Church of England dergymen. Mrs. Jones, who was in her 94th year, was a Baptist, but fire of her sons entered the ministry of the Church of England. One was tiie late Rev. William Jones, of North Wales, while the others are the Rev. John Jones (vicar of Itton, Chepstow), the Bet. Edward Jones (vicar of ■ Newchurch, Csnnarthen), the Rev. Ivor v Jones Worth Battleford, Canada), and the Rev. Alcwyn Jones (St. John's, Quebec). The annual .pastoral address to the Rimitite Methodist, churches, written by direction of the 'Conference by : the expresident (Rev. .George Armitage), while reporting, progress in many directions, states with regard to the Sunday schools that decreases are again reported in schools, teachers, and scholars.' It is a serious fact that .20,000 scholars have been Tost to the Church in recent years. The Conference appealed to the thousands of educated and religious young people to devote .their: talents to thi*' noble work. ' • _ ' .7;, Dr. R. Horton, preaching at Lyndhurst Congregational Church, said: "I maintain that the great service which the critical study of the Bible has done for mankind in these later days is this.' , It has enabled us to distinguish ; between the truth, that Christ .taught and the. things that an. attributed to Him. It enables us to see where human error, sind the ignorance of those who have heard : and reported, entered in to blur the great teaching that Christ gave us. It is only a critical study of . the Bible that will everdeliver men from the awful darkness in , which thev are involved by ignorant and foolish interpretations of Scripture."-. The King's interest in the work of the Actors' Church Union is shown by the following letter:—."Dear Bishop of Willesden: 1 have laid before the King the eopy of the annual report of the Actors' Church, Union, which His Majesty was interested to see. The; fact that now. utter a life of less than thirty years, the, so<9ecy has its chaplains in all large tewns at home and overseas, as well as jMW foreign countries, is astriking 2?°'J* tho worth of the organisation. ™ rsabsee the comfort espsdS actors and actiwsM, gi towr orelsewhere a otherwise weald Wjity aad aaak^t - porailv absent £ the abroad, and His success to. the admlmfcfap>fe^g£f