RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 November 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK.

THE LIVING BODY.

CHRISTIANITY AN ORGANISM.

A Church of England writer has an interesting and illuminating article in a recent literary supplement of "The Times," on what he calls "The Living Body of Christianity." The following are extracts:—ln these days, when freedom of judgment is exercised without restraint, it is natural that some who claim the Christian name should attempt to shape a religion of their own bv joining some parts of Christianity" with various elements of different religions, hut in doing this they lose vital factors of the faith they profess. For this faith, with an infinite variety of expressions, refuses to be counted one religibn among many, never acknowledges a rival, and cannot be dismembered without destruction. Christianity is not an organisation, but an organism. It is a living body, often transmuting into its own substance that which its environment supplies, but never allowing anything to change its life. _ It is doubtful whether sufficient attention has been paid to a declaration recorded in each of the Synoptic Gospels, and evidently considered of special importance by the early Church. We read:—

No man seweth a piece of undressed cloth on an old garment: else that which should fill it up taketh from it, the new from the old, and a worse rent is made.

With this saying there is combined another:—

And no man putteth new wine into old wineskins; else the wine will burst -the skins, and the wine perisheth and the skins: but they put new wine into new wine-skins. - >,

Commentators do not always agree in the details of their exposition of these striking if enigmatical sentences, but their general meaning is clear. The first saying by an analogy insists on the folly of employing outworn ordinances and laws in a living religion, for which no patchwork of ancient rules can be adequate. In the second it is insisted that a new life with vigorous faith must be free to express itself in its own forms, and only by so doing can it be preserved.

A new thing dawned upon the world when Christianity was offered to mankind. It was sui generis, in life, doctrine and form. It is true that it sprang out of Judaism, and has always borne the marks of its origin, but it made no attempt to appropriate this or that element of the old religion. All things were to be made new. Philo, the Jewish Platonist, attempted to do what is hereccondemned, but with little success.

No attempt at patchwork, no endeavour to put the new wine of the Christian life into the old bottles of tradition has proved satisfactory. Men must accept the truth it has to teach, and though they may shape it into divers- forms—for it is capable of the most varied expressions—it must always remain itself and work in its own ways. All truth and all that is morally sound, whatever may be its form of expression, finds its place in the Christian life, but only so far as men are willing to acknowledge the supremacy of the one Lord.

Every Christian must take this fact into account. Just as the faith of the Gospel is not offered to men in sections, and no one can choose part of it and reject the rest, so no one can add anything to it from outside*.

A MAN TO BE COPIED.

;(By S.)

We find no fewer than fire centurions '(officers corresponding to our captains), figuring on the pages of the New Testament, and all five are, what Marcus Pods ealls, attractive specimens of the manly, serious-minded, generous Roman. Take the centurion of Capernaum. He was engaged in a profession that brought him a good deal in contact with men who were coarse minded, and coarse tongued, yet he was characterised by a jbeauty and childlikeness of character that surprised and delighted our Lord. Tn those days when, what has been called the execrable sum of all villainies was in operation, he was kindly even to his slaves; that was- not a feature of most slave owners. It is said of a Roman official of high rank that he used to signify his pleasure to the slaves of his household by a nod or a gesture, and, that if more were needed, he was wont to put it in writing, lest his voice should be degraded by addressing creatures so abject. In this centurion we meet with a noble exception to the general rule; he not only relieves the barbarism of the age, but sets an example to masters for all time. We gather, too, that he was a devout man and gave practical demonstration of his piety. On one occasion he even built a synagogue and presented it to the town. Generosity in connection with their religion has always been a marked feature of sincerely religious men whatever their persuasion has been. As far as their means have allowed, they have shown themselves open-handed. Though his faith was crude and faulty, it was bo childlike and so real that it astonished and delighted our Lord; it was the most remarkable faith He had witnessed in all Israel. Is it not a comfort that faith in Him and a sincere life is infinitely more pleasing to Him than accuracy of knowledge, or loftiness of intellect ? Then to crown all his other qualities, he had a very modest estimate of his own worth. He is the only man in the Gospels who thought himself unworthy to speak to Christ in person, and his house unfit for Him to enter. We may be sure that his humility delighted Christ 1 as much as his faith did. Humility was one of His Own most striking characteristics; He was lowly in heart; He made Himself of no reputation; He/sought not glory from men; and here, in this Gentile officer, He sees a _man who comes far nearer to Him than '"the men who were for ever bragging of their connection with Abraham, and of their understanding and practice of religion'. What a delight men and women would be to Christ, and what a blessing tliev would be to themselves and others if, 'when they were young, they were taught that humility is the ground-work of every virtue—that no one is really great or really good who is not like the centurion and the centurion's Saviour — sincerely humble.

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS.

God was in 'Christ so completely and in such fashion that the acts of Christ were the acts of God, His sacrifice God's sacrifice, His love God's love. As we gaze at the Crucifix, and remember the words of Christ, "He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father," we • know, in spite of all the difficulties in nature ana experience, that God does really love us. The proof is one of perpetual validity; it stands unshaken through every age and every generation. To all the sorrowing and all the doubting, to every youthful heart eager and generous, to every weary heart burdened and dark, to day and here, as nineteen hundred years ago, God proves His own love.towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

When we make the Sign of the Cross we should remember that we are using the symbol which the Catholic Church has adopted from the earliest ages as the distinguishing outward token of Christian discipleship. It .was with this sign that the martyrs went forth to victory, and Christian people generally fortified themselves against all the temptations of the pagan world that surrounded them. Tertullian, who lived towards the end of the second century, tells us how universal the practice was among Christians in his day: ."At every step and movement, whenever we comc in or go out, when we dress and put on our shoes, at bath, at table, when lights are brought in, on lying or sitting down, whatever employment engages our attention, we sign ourselves with the Sign of the Cross."

To make the holy sign thoughtlessly, as a mere act of external ceremonialism, is of course useless—as useless as a thoughtless prayer. But it is not useless, it is a great aid to recollection and piety, if it be made with reverence and care, as a reminder of the love, the forgiveness and the self-sacrifice of God, a symbol of lofty duty and unfailing comfort, to kindle our aspirations, and wake in our hearts a more fervent love and loyalty to Jesus. From "The Fiery Cross," the Anglo-Catholic monthly, which is incorporated with the parish magazine of St. Thomas' Church, Freeman's Bay.

NOTES IN PASSING.

A' small leak will sink a great ship, Watch the little weaknesses.

Sister Esther gave 547 parcels of clothing and 716 parcels of provisions to people in necessitous circumstances in September, and, in addition, relief in money to 326 people.

The Bishop of Norwich says in the "Sunday Times" that those who are most aware that the Bible stands apart from other books in its greatness are those who have first read it as they read any other book.

A writer in the "Christian World" says there yere men who spat upon Jesus and that it is wrong, therefore, to say that men "needs must love the highest when they see it"; they often hate it and spit upon it.

w il do not read much in the Old Testament about the beauty of Nature suggesting the beauty of God. We get that in the words of Jesus, and we get it in poets and seers like Wordsworth, but there is not much of it in the Old Testament." —Dr. J. D, Jones..

"Aren't you sometimes apprehensive, so stern and severe does life appear, that you may lose sight of all its poetry, all the tender little wisps of memories that used to cling about your quiet moments?" This is how a writer in a Home weekly'begins an article on keeping quiet.

Maud Royden in an appeal to young men and women in "The Guildhouse Monthly" to range themselves on the side of international peace, says that people who have never been in Central Europe have little conception of the boiling and seething hatreds that still exist in the world.

"Many people require in their spiritual life to be reduced to desperate straits before they turn their thoughts to the truths which are eternal . . . the resources of God are left untapped until poverty or ill-health or crushing moral defeat turn their thoughts in the right direction." —Archdeacon Chisholm, D. Litt.

An American minister who has been on a visit to Russia and the adja,cent countries, says that the outstanding impression made on him was that the young people of Russia, in striking contrast to those of Germany, Britain and America, took life far more seriously and were putting forth all possible effort to make their country great in a sense in which it had never, been great before.

D?. A. C. Gai'vie, principal of New College (Congregational), London, is now in his seventy-first year. • Lord Morley, better known as John Morley, writes in his memoirs of visiting the principal when he was plain Mister Garvie and a minister in Montrose on the east coast of Scotland. He speaks of him as "a young man highly intelligent and cultured, knew six languages, regretted to be so far from centre of intellectual and literary activity. ... It did me good to think of a bright light of thought, knowledge, interest, burning away on this far off shore."

A book on archaeology and Bible history of very great value for all who are interested in the study of the Old Testament is Dr. John Garstang's "Joshua and Judges" (Constable). Dr. Garstang has discovered many evidences of the geographical accuracy of these books and prolonged study has convinced him that their historical narratives are based on fact. He suggests the explanation, based on his knowledge of the country, of how the Israelites were able to cross the Jordan, and of how the walls of Jericho gave way, and is of opinion that as the Egyptians and Hittites had their public records, the Hebrew leaders adopted the system of writing that was in use in Canaan soon after they settled in it.

Dr. Grenfell, of Labrador,.says that he considers the privilege of prayer one of his most cherished possessions. In the quiet of home, in the heat of life and strife, in the face of death it is, he considers, inestimable. Bishop John H. Vincent believes in sometimes writing our prayers. "Do you ever write prayers?" he asks. "Of course you would not do this writing for anyone to read but yourself and the All-Seeing Eye of Omniscience. It is a wholesome and helpful thing to do. It aids life in training the concentration of attention. It developes faith. It strengthens will power. It helps in prayer when your energy is low and your faith weak. Try the experiment." Dr. Alexander Wliyte once asked a young minister: "Do you ever write your prayers!! I often write mine."