NOTES IN PASSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTES IN PASSING.

A Text.—"The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear (R.V., thy trouble)."—lsaiah xiv, 3. The ages of the old ladies in the Salvation Army's Eventide Home in Auckland range from 65 to 92. Wise Sayings From Thomas a Kempis. —"Now or never is the time to do well." "Get thee a quiet conscience and lift up thy mind unto God." "We never so lightly omit spiritual exercise but we greatly hinder ourselves." "What are we the better to live long if we prove not better by our long life?" The President of the Methodist Church Conference, the Rev. E. P. Blamires, -recently wrote to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, in the name of the Methodist Church. In his letter to Mr. Savage he mentioned that the Methodist Church in Great Britain had presented a resolution to the Home Government pressing it tci take action in the direction of having an international conference convened to grapple with the causes which were threatening war, and he suggested vhat the New Zealand Government should take part in its constructive work for peace. The letter to Mr. Nash was an earnest request that the Government should, in the future issue of New Zealand coins, rectify the omission of the letters D.G., and be in accordance with the Home coinage. A Roman Catholic priest, a rabbi of the synagogue and a Presbyterian minister, says the "New Zealand Methodist Times," recently. completed a nationwide tour in the United States, in which they "emphasised spiritual concernments" and ''pleaded for the preservation of civil liberties and human rights for all." They addressed 110 audiences, aggregating close on 50.000 people, in addition to audiences in open meetings, university, college and high school assemblies, fraternal and social clubs, cinij'ch and synagogue congregations and university and college faculties. They also held innumerable conferences with individuals and small groups, and delivered radio broadcasts in every city of importance.

lii the course of a reference to rationalists in one of his recent Stuart lectures in Dunedin, the Rev. D. D. Scott remarked that "unbelievers, whether rationalist or others, are by no means wholly guided by their logical understanding, and it is a mistake to imagine that an unbeliever is perforce more scientific than a believer. The mental temper of Canon William Sanday was more truly scientific than was that of Professor T. lE. Huxley. Prejudices and phobias dating back to youth, due in one case to a somewhat narrow upbringing, in another to misunderstanding, and yet again to a desire to be rebellious against some venerable authority, have to be reckoned with." "Mr. J. A. Lee's 'Children of the Poor,' " he added, "is quite obviously affected by a Presbyphobia."