NOTES IN PASSING

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTES IN PASSING

The Oxford Group Movement is reported to be making striking progress in Norwav.

Archdeacon Holbrook lias entered on his twenty-second year as parish priest in Grey Lynn. One of the best known men in Auckland, he has been a tower of strength to his Church, and lias taken a deep and active interest in the welfare of his parishioners.

Here is a fine saying of Thackeray, the great novelist, about cheerfulness. "It means a contented spirit; it means a pure heart; it means a kind, loving disposition; it means humility and charity; it means a generous appreciation of others, and a modest opinion of self."

How many people in the Dominion have ever heard of a church in Blackpool, Lancashire, called The "Scottish"' Baptist Church? Yet there is such a church. The building and membership, dating back 130 years, are equally small and form the smallest church and congregation in the north of England.

The "War Cry" does not exaggerate when it says of Major Holmes, who, with Mrs. Holmes, has retired after many years of faithful and devoted service, that, during the last few years, his name has stood for something in Auckland, and that by his character and manifold activities he has greatly helped the standing of the Salvation Army in the city. Major Holmes has won golden opinions by his work as Samaritan and Police Court officer, opinions that have been voiced by all who came in contact with him, in the conduct of the Police Court and in connection with the Unemployment Relief Committee. He and Mrs. Holmes are to spend the evening of their days in Palmerston North.

Dr. Mackintosh Kackay is one of the best preachers in Scotland and lias published several popular books of addresses. He published recently through Hodder and Stoughton a new volume with the title "Problems of Living." Referring in it to the tragic death of Uzziali, or Uzzah, as he is called in the First Book of Chronicles (which was considered by the people of his day a Divine punishment on account of his spiritual presumption, issuing in irreverence and sacrilege) Dr. Mackay makes this comment: "Spiritual pride is one of the most serious hindrances to the religious life. It destroys in a man's heart that sense of Divine need which is the root of all religion." Religion, as lie says, has been well j described as "a sense of infinite dependonce: but." lie go on; "when a. man is filled with his own importance, lie has no need of anything else. It is for this reason that the Old Testament 1 makes so much of the contrite heart. I