A CONSECRATION DIFFICULTY

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14758, 30 August 1913, Page 16

A CONSECRATION DIFFICULTY

A curious situation, probably without parallel in England, has arisen over the proposed Consecration of the now colours of tho 4th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. It appears that tho new colours wero to havo been presented on Juno '22nd, when tho regiment was at Ballyshannon for the annual training, and, a-s is customary on such an occasion, tho Consecration ceremony would have been ]>orforincd by tho representatives of the Anglian and Roman Churches. Tho Bishop of Clogher, Dr. Day, expressed his willingness to take part 111 the ceremony, but tho Roman Catholic Bishop declined on the grJjnd that an Anglican Bishop's participation in tho ceremony would bo "a desecration," and therefore no cleric or prelate of his Church would countenance it. As a consequenco tho presentation of the colours ha-s been temporarily postponed by tho War Office. This attitude of the Roman Church conditioned by its environment may bo explained by a passage which Mr Lecky quotes from Veuillon in his "Democracy and 1 Liberty." "When you Protestants are the masters we claim perfect liberty for ourselves, as your principles require it; when we are the masters we refuse it to y(\i, as it is contrary to our principles." | THE VALUE OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS. Dr. Sanday, in a very interesting article in-the. "Expository Times," sums up his view of "The Value of the Subconscious." The clue to all he bas written on the subject of Divino influence in the subconscious self he finds in the experience of the avorago man or woman in regard to answers to prayer. There is not usually any sense of the direct intervention of God, but tho man rises from his knees, calm, strong, hopeful, and in some strange way, after a little while, difficulties have vanished, and what seemed impossible is done. Thero has been a Divine influx in the subconscious or unconscious self. All tho great changes in men's lives seem to havo a comparatively long subconscious, and in part wholly unconscious, preparation. Tho changes may involve groat and far-reaching alteration—of mental attitude and understanding— and cannot be explained by what has happened on the surface of consciousness. Much of the mystery of human experience, Dr. Sanday holds, is involved in the sub and unconscious, and a considerable part of the Christian's subconscious and unconscious motions are associated with "the indwelling of the Holy Ghost." Was there not then something analogous in the b'fe of Jesus ? We are sure that His relation to the Divine Father was tho essence of His being; yet how reticent and reserved Ho was in regard to His Messiahship. To Him there may havo been a mystery, a subconscious element, in the Divine influx, analogous to the Christian's experience. Thus behind what ho has written on the subject, Dr. Sanday still thinks there was a nucleus of substantial truth. •

MR A. C. BENSON ON FMMOR- , TALITY. Speaking to a large audience at tho Kingsway Hall fellowship meeting recently, Mr A. C. Benson said that as far as 0110 could follow tho records of liistory and archaeology tho funeral arrangements of litimanity had testified to ti.o belief in the life after death. It was not too much to say that the ordinary man believed, probably in a hazy sort of way, in the preservation ot' nis own identity. It was difficult to imagine any conditions under which disembodied life was possible, but it was stiU more difficult to imagine tho cessation of one's own consciousness, because it was, perhaps, the only, thing o> which, one was'perfectly certain. Mr Benson proceeded to refer to a vivid experience of his own, he said, converted him to belief in immortality. Ho had a long illness, brought on by overwork. He could noitiior writ'o nor road, and ho was the victim oi groat hopelessness and dejection. Yet ho gradually became aware that all tho time lie was caring for the same things and thinking the same thoughts, and was not realiy concerned at the failureof his intellectual machinery. Ho realised that everything was just as ■ beautiful .and interesting as over, and ! as he was healed ho came to see that the real essence was untouched by illness or disability, unimpaired by any failure jof the corporeal structure. Ho grudged not an hour of ti.at enforced inaction. "What, then," said Sir Benson, "is it that- I believe? I believe, life and conscious thought aro of their nature perennial, and 1 can concvivo of no process by wliich my sense , of personal* identity can l>o extinguished.' , Mr Benson added, that in this address ho kept cbnr _of any assumption of iimnortality'derived from religion, because he thought it was our duty to take that claim, back to life and" ask ourselves candidly and fairly whether there was anything in our experience which contradicted it. No claim made by religion could br> substantiated in "the face of science., and in opposition to it. I