BOOK REVIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOOK REVIEW.

THE ROAD TO ROME. STORY OF DR. ORCHARD'S CONVERSION. In "From Faith to Faith" (Putnam) Dr. Orchard tells the story of the religious development which led him from a mission church in London to the fold of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the story of a conversion, of a soul turning Godward, and the successive steps which led him from his ministry at the King's Weigh House to his acceptance of the Roman claims are all stages in the one process of conversion. Dr. Orchard tells in detail how he was led lo accept Christ as his personal Saviour at a mission service in one of the poorer districts ■of London. He realised that the acceptance of Christ's power afid presence was necessary for the completion of his personality, and ho made a definite decision to accept what he believed to be Christ's personal offer. In this chapter the author has much of interest to say 011 the value of these Evangelical services, and he thinks modern methods have not proved quite so effective in inducing religious experience of a definite kind, or in

producing the same kind of conviction. He has also a word of commendation for Moody and Sankey's hymns. He says they express a very real devotion to our Lord, and arc quite clear about our need of His atoning work and the constant aid of His grace. Interesting chapters follow on his preparation for tho ministry and his work at Enfield.

Gradually Dr. Orchard became attracted by tlie usages of Catholic worship. Ho placed a crucifix beside his sermon case when preaching, he crossed himself before the sermon, he erected an altar with cross and candles on it in his study, and burnt incense. At the Communion service he adopted a definite consecration prayer, and also wore, as ho confesses "rather foolishly and quite unsuitably," his doctor's scarlet robe. His preaching became more definitely doctrinal. At the King's Weigh House his preaching attracted wide attention, since it provided an indictment of vague and indefinite Christianity. The war caused him to believe that Christians needed to examine afresh the foundations of their faith and its implications. He gained a new sense of the need for a Catholicism that would bo both international and supernatural. Then follows the story of his visit to Rome and the reasons which, led him to accept the Roman claim to be the one true Church. The issues between Evangelicalism and Catholicism are clearly set out. To the Evangelicals, Dr. Orchard says, the Church is secondary compared with the Gospel. Individual souls, not the collective body, and experience rather than doctrine are their concern. The Catholic Church claims to be the body of which Christ is the head, so that, inspired by Him, what it decrees is His mind. The writer concludes his book with a chapter on the application of Catholic theology to some of the wider issues of to-day, and he affirms his belief that the Catholic Church alone provides the supreme society that can satisfy the needs of man. This book naturally challenges comparison with Newman's "Apologia," and a Catholic paper had hailed Dr. Orchard's conversion as the most important since Newman entered the fold. The record, however, has not the subtle charm of Newman's work, nor the faultless style; but it is an arresting revelation of the successive steps by which a scholarly and inquiring intellect was led to find not merely a haveri, but also a philosophy in the great Church of the West. It is one of the most striking contributions we have had in recent years to the history of religious thought.