OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18591, 16 January 1926, Page 12

OBITER DICTA.

[By K.] It is a great comfort to know that "the religion of the future is going to be a very simple one." So, at least, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been telling London. All intricacies, he said, were evil, and the religion of the future would have only two parts, .so that the customers of Mr Henry Ford, I suppose, will feel more at home than anyone else when the day, as it were, breaks. " One," Sir Arthur said, " was the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, and the other was direct communication with angels, to whom those in doubt could go directly. It would cut out the theologies, the exegesis, and texts, and the wars arising from such things." Dr. Thacker —I mean Sir Arthur (but it is his fault for using the accents so familiar in Christchurch) —Sir Arthur is perhaps wise in thinking that the Sermon on the Mount is insufficient by itself. He can cite a ducal precedent. "If we are to adopt the principles of the Sermon on the Mount," said the Duke, " all I can say is, God help us!" The Angels' Communication Bureau is certainly an attractive idea, but one fears it will not be automatic. One suspects that one will be obliged to ring up through Mrs X., or Madame Y. in a dark parlour, and pay a fee; and I doubt whether the angels who use these offices are quite the ones I should choose to solve my doubts concerning the Universe.

Yet even Sir Arthur has his troubles. "The cause of Spiritualism," he said, " was meeting difficulties from scientific men, religious men, and the Press." That it should thus be obliged to depend upon the unscientific, the irreligious, and the non-reading public vexes Sir Arthur, but does not daunt him. For he believes that " the great day of liberation is coming very shortly," when Sir Ernest Rutherford will gave an immense amount of time and money by simply asking an angel to tell him what the atomic nucleus really is, and the warring faiths will combine to obtain a full report from another angel, and the newspapers will sack all their staffs and employ the Syndicated Seraphs to supply- next week's news. The advantages of this new organisation for the removal of human doubts, and the settlement of .human controversies, from the French debt to the bus problem, are -so obvious that it is no wonder that Sir Arthur is hopeful. " He believed that the day was coming when all religions, under great stress and great trial, would show what they were, what their insignificance was, the day when the world woidd say, 'You people say you are in. touch with spirits; for God's sake come and help us.'" And to the tinkling of tambourines in Madame Ectoplasm's parlour, in an atmosphere in which patchouli and the odour of Madame's supper struggle in the dark, the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury will hear the revelation, " Queenie is asking for yoil. We are very happy here."

In.the has stolen a march on Sir has the advantage of terms with world, including the gm/j w«], V ' ivho h „ c the new Prince of tv, hastening Ins coming » i n f | vent another war, which i how little he thinks of w! ** i r 5 , 7 nM<l "T'tta'S' to be depend,,* on foreimZg* Like the old yokel ,h 0 J™" volume ot poetry because "wh«nT*L* a need of poetry I makes m 2 lor myself," or like the CaatJ?!' Industrial Association, Jfc WjJ lieves in home industry. training a young Hindu to bjSS Messiah, who will "inaugurate e ligion uniting all the religions whole world," and she has chasa*** i apostles already. One is glad to kZ - : that amongst the delegates wfoW gathered in India to await the of this energetic lady's hacdm*^T®r 4S home-made, saviour of mankind, fW< are some from New Zealand, bat j|j!z< a pity that the Dominion seeaj Jf: to have representation in the CdkkmE? It is possible, therefore, that NwrfcSp: j landers will feel hardly any f-rtifa,'' enthusiasm for the new omniJSg than our local Liberals feel Coates's new Ministry. ,i ; ■

"So-called " is one of the most ( ful of terms. "This so-called Government." "This so-called Soßaaa* ' It says all you wish to say TsiJJajj* ' putting you to the trouble q£ cspSu#; < tion and analysis. I once knew t, ttfo' jj of pessimistic Tory Bolshevik his bitterer moods would speak "iffy' i of "this so-called Twentieth tui'y.'' And one has often eaaqgl ' heard a man described as "a ' Christian." Generally such a naaisjS a rogue—a hypocrite, or cruel, or charitable. But this last is & ping, which is gradually coming to tensed only by the social ■, who hate dancing and the Turf, sat above all, drink. It was used this . by Mr Pussyfoot Johnson, w&rfes been visiting Turkey. In Coiat&fflSir ople, he said, 1100 of the 1400 ssUoan' I are operated by Armenians, "and other so-called Christinas.® IfcV Johnson knows that these people Christians, and although he mrr tkai: them bad specimens, his purpose I *' dragging in their faith was to eedaft the horrors of Christianity with 83 charms of heathenism. This is Mtflp! first time Mr Johnson has reported®.' 1 favourably upon the Christian' si heathen lands—not the first time bt W taken pleasure in sneering at Chfetitt , customs. With great glee he Wilfcjj cocoa party in England a years'ago that in Ceylon heiewdgfei two natives who drank beer, coaeara™|| whom a Buddhist friend said to &&£ "I thick they must be .taristaas|jj This anecdote gave tho weoarfefinaSjj ■ great pleasure. There are ■ good and sincere Christians xnaatag under the banner of one wonders whether they Raliy B# these funny ways of Mr Pussyf'flfc