A MUSCULAR PARSON.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 80, 28 December 1907, Page 10

A MUSCULAR PARSON.

■ Quito 0110 of • tlio strongest and most remarkable men in.tlio Church of Kngland uf to-day (says "M.A.'IV') is the l!ov. Arlliur .Toluv Waldron, Vicar. of Brixton Parish Church (St. Matthow's). Mr. Waldron is not only a magnificent preacher; ho is, par excellence,' tlio" champion 1 of Christianity against the atheists, and agnostics of tlio parks',, and as such lie is- known, loved, feared, adored reviled, from John o ! Groats

to Land's End. A man of immense originality and forco of character, -ho lias had tho pluck to discard the conventions of the Anglican Church. Ho has, so to speak", taken off his jurplice, rolled up:: his shirt, sleeves, and plunged into tho rough and. tumble of open-air debate, to emerge .the victor of many a hard-fought and sometimes even bloody field. For when Mr. Waldron tackles a blasphemer, he hits hard'and ho hits-often, and a free fight has morb than onco followed upon his fiery denunciation of somo foul-mouthed. blackguard. He 1 has often been tho centre of a howling inob,- and' in self-defence has had to uso his fists—ho can uso tlieni. Jlr. Waldron is unconventional to a degree, and-his career has been as .unconventional', as . himself. : Ho comes of a family bf Plymouth Brethren, and was brought up in tho rigid tenets of that scct. Whether it was a -case .of causo and effect, or merely, a. most independent - character asserting itself ;'Mr. Waldron as e gating man svas anything but > a-/believer. Educated at Birmingham College and Oxford University, where ho devoted himself mainly 16 science, ha early came under the. influcnco of 'Charles Bradlaugh and Mrs. Annie Besant, and at ono timo there was probably no greater sceptic in England than tho,man who is now tho most powerful and accomplished- foe unbelievers have. And so far as , a career was concerned, lie was divided ; between scicnco and politics.' .However, as he says, lie could find no real happiness in scepticism ; ho mado ono of his first appearances as a public speaker as' tho opponent of Bradlaugh, and, to cut the story short, he was ordained deacon in 1899 by Dr. Talbot, Bishop of Rochester, and-priest 'tho following year. His first, curacy . was at St. j Luke's, Camberwell', where ho made his mark in .men's; work ; in* 1902 theßishop of Rochester appointed him Missioner and Evidential Lecturer for the diocese, and four years later ho was appointed to his present incumbency. ! REV. R. J. CAMPBELL AND THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. . .: | 'NO MORE ROTTEN INSTITUTION.' .' | Tlio liov. R. J-. Campbell has been tilting at all sorts of institutions, of late, and the most.rccent is tho Religious Press. •Preach-, iiig.on "Insincerity" at tho City Tcmplo to a crowded congregation, ho said: —"Takotho case, of the religious Press. Wo liavo been hearing a great deal lately about tho enormities of tho secular Press, but to my mind they aro not so dangerous to truth and righteousness as, somo of tho .methods of that F.cction of modern journalism which makes its nrofits out' of. the church-going, public. . The secular Press is', at least unblushing in its unquestionable methods of making money by pleasing . its. constituency. Tho, religious Press in doing . exaptly the samo thing has to protoiid . that it is actuated by tho loftiest motives/ : To expect sincerity and straightforwardness in the. ordinary newspaper is to expect tho impossible. It has to consider, and docs consider, first and foremost, what will pay. It traffics in tho samo.things for tho sako of private gain. It may bo asserted that preachers do tho : samo thing, and there is truth in tho assertion; but tho charge fails utterly if tho preacher is faithful to bis re-, putation and his bread and butter. Tho religious Press champions no causo that re'aily requires championing. I feel it may bo said that tliero is no, more rotten in-, stitution' in this country to-day than that portion of tho Press which is supposed to represent religion." "