NOTES IN PASSING.

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTES IN PASSING.

A Text: "1 had fainted unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, bo of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart."— David. A book well worth reading is "The Message of the Parables," by Professor J. F. McFadyen, recently published by James Clarke and Co. Perhaps no force is stronger in Christendom to-day than the desire to realise the unity of the universal Church. —Bishop E. A. Knox. The "History and Destiny of the Jews," by Joseph Kastein, a Jow, has been published by the Bodley Head. Mr., Kastein gives the history of the. Jewish race from earliest times to tho present day, and shows their present position.

Dr. Scott Lidgett, the ex-President of the United Methodist Church, told a representative of the London "Observer" that the mutual confidence of the United Churches, so strikingly demonstrated when the union took place a year ago, has not only remained unbroken, but has steadily increased. "Jesus is saying to every one of us: Tollow thou Me; I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without the Way there is no going; without the Truth there is no knowing; without the Life ; there is no living. lam the Way which thou oughtest to follow; the Truth which thou oughtest to trust; the Life which thou oughtest to hope for and copy. , . . . O Lord Jesus, forasmuch as Thy Life was narrow and despised by the world, grant mo to imitate Thee, though the world despise. For the servant is not greater than his Lord, nor the disciple above his Master."—Thomas a' Kempis.

It is one of the insufficiently recognised gifts of modern science to religion, says the "Christian World" in a leading article on the Holy Spirit, that it has given back to us, enriched and clarified, and made comprehensible, our belief in the Holy Spirit. In the majestic panorama of evolution which it unveils and unrolls to our half-numbed imagination, in the illimitable sweep of law and order, controlling not only the mighty stars in their courses, but the tiniest atoms in their orbits, it offers to us a world which is only to be understood in terms of the creative spirit of God. To-day the intellectual dice are more heavily loaded against unbelief than at any previous period in the world's history. To-day it is literally harder to disßelieve than to believe.

In the twelve years ended in 1932, says D. M. Mackinlay, in the "Nineteenth Century," about 125,000 Jews entered Palestine, and of these 75 per cent remained there. During the same period the percentage of Jews to the total population rose from 0.5 to 17.5 — the highest percentage in the world. The Arab population also increased, though not eo rapidly, for, while the Jews nearly trebled their numbers, the Arabs only added a third. Palestine has paid off all its external debts. It has bought and paid for all the railways constructed by British troops during the war. It has no unemployment. It has no income tax. It has a Budget eurplus rpproaching £1,000,000. It is the only country in the "vorld to escape the general depression. Scientific farming has. taken the place of casual cultivation. The motor car has ousted the camel. Foreign trade has grown from insignificant proportions to a value of £3.000.000 a year. There is no room for doubt that it is the Jews, aided liy the stable conditions imposed by the (Jovernmcut, who arc responsible for this transformation, " j