RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

NEW YEAR MESSAGES. AKCHBISIIOLVOF CANTERBURY ON CITIZENSHIP. The Archbishop of Canterbury and York and many of the other ilnglish Bishops issued New Year messages to their respcctivo dioceses, in which they touch upon subjects of importance in the life of tho Church and nation'. Tho Archbishop'of Canterbury writes: —"If over, in . tho unfolding of our people's life, it was at onco a duty and a possibility for thoughtful men and women, as individuals and not mero partisans, to faco our larger problems, secular and sacred, with deliberateness ' and hope, that time is now. Cut the steady eye and tho buoyant spirit aro rarer than they ought to be. One man has an instinctivo apprehension that .every chango must needs bo for-the worse. Another is oddly blind to tho value, tho dignity, the high iniportanco of what comes'down to us from ancient', days, dinted'perhaps and scarred by conflict and long, use, but the' more venerablo for thosoVyery!- scars.' -)-Another is, all for short clcar, quick, decisive solutions'of: whatever is obscure, or -ambiguous," or, illogical, or ; ahiiss. And : yet,. iri the history of our country or" our Church, few; lessons arc more clearly taught us than tlie danger and even tho. futility of' rough-and-ready solutions and of imnctuous short, cuts.

"Inheritors, 'ill our fair island story,' of V continuous and ennobling history both" in Church* and ' State, wo : are likely in the coming year to need, to ail exceptional degree, both steadiness of vision and hopefulness of soul, if wo ■ aro to steer' a reasonable' course in what may easily become a stormy sea. Neither; in Church nor. Stato are the conditions of to-day the same conditions as' our fathers knew. To take one instance'only, bulwarks which have safeguarded,' albeit imperfectly, the purity, of ' English homes are. threatened or undermined, and wo must enlist every arm in their defence. Happily in many, matters of our Christian faith ' and order, and of our ancwerableness for the spreading of 'tho Gospel messago, the basis of our common'- action is widening every year. .Tho - lessons of our students' .movements and of the great Edinburgh -.following, as that confererico did, iiriori tho memorable Church gatherings 'of ' 1908, - arc neither few nor insignificant. To read and to use these lessons aright wo-necd cburago as well as i caution, quiet 1 -and deliberate prayer, as well as firm resolve'. ' . ' .' . .- '■ \ ,

"In expectancy and hope :we invoke the blessing of-the Lord of Hosts upon tho whole national or Imperial life, at Homo and across the tea/ in a year when our kinsfolk from afar will gather in our central shrine to join their, prayers with ours in the sacrificing of otu- King, It is such prayers and aspirations and resolves' which' make all - the difference? iii our common effort.' -They'are tho things which matter to our'common good.; 'It. is not a vain thing fbr us,.it is our life.'.'. 1

i SERMON BY DR. JOWETT. A large congregation • gathered for, tho New; Year's service at .Can s Lane. Dr.' Jo>vett preached from .the third versa: of tho sixty-first': chapter of Isaiah. ?; ; that theso' heaiifening, and. inspiring words were i spoken- to an . exiled people bereft of comfort and hope. . i'ho message was applicable to our own day, as so many were in tho "far country": of moral and spiritual necessity/ The word "mourning" is the'cry of defeat, the : 'j^roaiiin£ , !of!nien'jahd:"'iTOmen who have fallen'. Thb' :r 'dil''faf 'joy" is restored regality, the' sovereign' power making us lords, of circumstances, commanding the world,. tho' flesh,, and tho devil./- Tlio < : ;o'rd translated '('heaviness'! is used several times for smoking. flax, it is suggestive of failing light,, fainting flamo, and the Lord says Ho will touch their gloomy v attire and they shall . - be clothed'in tho bright and radiant garment of praise. - In concluding,' Dr. Jowott said,' "I never brought to this pulpit and congregation a more: glorious mpssage.r L.tflll you wo can, 'all ■ bo transfigured,--and in - our-, own ■ homes wliero; people/know us'best' they will see, ! the"radianco "