CURRENT NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

CURRENT NOTES.

Industrial depression in South Wales has emphasised the needs for re-group-ing the Methodist Churches.

In a welcome issued to visitors, the Bishop of Norwich points out that the Norfolk churches are full of antiquarian interest, and adds that it is from, the ruined Abbey of St. Benet's on the river Bure that the Norwich bishops draw their claim to be the only surviving abbots in England.

The Bishop of Manchester, at the Jerusalem Conference, referred to Mr. Gandhi as "perhaps the greatest man on earth." The Bishop added that Mr. Ghandi would better succeed in finding his own ideal in moralising and spiritualising Christian civilisation.

Dr. J. Montgomery Campbell, when addressing the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on the urgent need for unity, said the Scottish Church of the future ought to include in its membership every branch of the Church of God in the land.

Dr. J. C. Ryle, who was Bishop o 1 Liverpool from 1880 to 1900, once wroto an article on evangelical religion, in which was the statement: "The clouds are gathering round the Church of England. Her very existence is in peril." In view of the recent discussion over tho Revised Prayer Book, this article, which sums up the principles of the Protestant Faith, was recently reprinted in pamphlet form.

Speaking at the Industrial Christian Fellowship meeting in England, the Rev. G. A. Studdert Kennedy, said it was useless to deny that there were antagonisms in the modern world—sex antagonism, class antagonism, the antagonism between th« old and the young, national antagonisms. These conflicts could not be overcome by political jugglery or evei by education, but only by supernatural grace.

Preaching at his thirtieth anniversary as minister of Boardway Tabernacle, New York, Dr. Charles E. Jefferson said he had never cheapened or vulgarised the Tabernacle pulpit. Dr. Jefferson added: Broadway loves stunts, but I have never performed one. Broadway yearns for a sensation, but the Broadway Tabernacle pulpit has declined to be sensational. There are enough cabarets and vaudeville shows on Broadway without a church adding to their aumber. I have never shortened my sermons to please the fancy of a sermonette-loving age. I preach long sermons because I deal always with large themes. No pettyj subjects have had a place in this pulpit."

In his book, "The Seventh Dominion," Colonel Josiah C. Wedgwood, D.5.0., and ! Labour M.P., states he has boundless faith in the ability of the Jews to build up a prosperous Palestine, provided they are given adequate opportunities for its full development. In this connection he criticises the British officials in the country on the ground that they have retarded progress and put obstacles in the way of the Jews. He recognises the "repugnance" with which the administrative classes watch the modernisation of the Holy Land, but at the same time he feels the Zionist is justified in wanting Palestine to be "a land filled with prosperous settlers and teeming factories."

The Rev. J. Ernest James, Congregational minister, who visited Auckland a few years ago, was asked at Home if he liked Australia better than England. The reply was characteristic of Mr. James. He said: "That's like asking a man whether he likes his wife better than his mother! Australia is Britain in the southern ocean—Britain in a new environment. One of the biggest problems of to-day is the international problem. Undoubtedly one of the biggest factors making for the peace and progress of the world is the existence of the British Empire. I'm no flag-wagger, but, I'm no Little Englander; I believe in the British Empire and its mission in the world. Australia is really in the adolescent stage, and so is sometimes Inclined to kick over the traces. But we have much to teach one another. You are talking here about closing shops at eight; in Australia we close not only shops, but drinking bars, at six."