CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Star, Issue 10851, 8 February 1899, Page 4

CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Second Day.—Tt/esday, Febrt/ary 7. At the afternoon meeting a paper was read by Mr Thomas Webb on ' The Kingdom *>f God in its Relation to Current Conceptions of Society.' The Kingdom of God did not, he said, mean merely a salvation out of something over yonder into something over yonder. It did not mean a fire insur-' ance policy purchased at the lowest possible premium. It did not mean the acceptance of a dogma simply—the utterance of a shibboleth—the saying with all the unction possible "Lord, Lord, Lord." It did not mean the wearing of broadcloth, or adherence to a creed, however hoary or however orthodox. It did not mean church polity, or church government, attending church, or even church membership, long prayers, or sentimental fervency. Some of these may be helps in " the Kingdom." But " the Kingdom of God is within you." It was the Kingdom where God dwelt, and God is love. It was in every heart: it was in every life that, touched with the spirit of the living Christ, has passed or is passing from the death of selfishness to the life of unselfishness; who was born again from a life of meanness to a life of manliness; from a life of self-seeking to a life of self-surrender. It was in every heart, it was in every life, that, catching the Christ spirit, has realised that the law of service to one's fellows is the fundamental law of life. The Rev. H. W. Miller read a paper on 'The Kingdom of God in Relation to Government and Administration.' This will be the subject of a special article in our Saturday's issue. THE TEA MEETING. There was a large attendance at the public tea meeting, and the ladies of the church kept up their reputation for efficiently attending to the provisioning department, the tables being bountifully supplied and tastefully set out. The Rev. W. Saunders, the retiring chairman, presided. In the course of a brief speech he congratulated Mr G. Fowlds on the fact that he was taking office when the prospects of the Congregational Church in the colony were brighter than they had been for many years past. The speaker also referred * to* the indebtedness of the church to the fidelity and courage of its laymen. Mr Fowlds had rendered fine service during many years, and well deserved the honor which the denomination had conferred upon him. The Rev. W. Saunders further called attention to the fact that in England Dr Horton and others had signalised their year of office by instituting some good scheme. It was hoped that Mr Fowlds would do something of the same kind for the church in New Zealand.—(Applause.) The principal speech of the evening, being the annual address from the chair, was delivered by Mr G. Fowlds, who took as his subject' Progress Towards L T nity.' We make a few extracts from the deliverance: " As most of you are aware, immediately after my election I left the colony and travelled right round the world. Almost everywhere the evidences of growing unity forced themselves upon me so prominently that nothing short of an amalgamation of all the religious _lenominations of this colony into one National Church of Christian Believers could have surprised me on my return, while the continued opposition of Captain Russell and Mr Seddon in politics seemed almost unnatural. Let me mention a few instances by way of illustration. As a coincidence, I commenced mv travels in a Union Company's boat, and landed in the United States of America, and there, where a few years before I had found the bitterest hostility to England and all her wavs, I found on my arrival the flickering flame of friendship and unity, which grew and grew during the two months I was passing through the country, till it fairly blazed by the time I reached New York, where the combination of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes in places of amusement almost drove the people frantic with enthusiasm. One of the most pleasant memories of my trip is derived from the fact that I was there to see, and to participate in, the development of this great transformation, which is fraught with such wonderful possibilities for the future of the Anelo-CeH-ic race, and, indeed, for the whole world. While passing through the States I had mv attention directed to some marvellous results obtained by scientific research in bridging the gulf between matter and mind, which gives promise of unifying results in the future, and which I hope to refer to later on. There also I came in contact with the Christian Scientists, who claim to have discovered the most complete oneness of matter, mind, and spirit; while in the domain of economics the growing recognition of the close connection between land tenures and social conditions augurs well for unity of action in the future. In the religious sphere, one of my first duties a day or two after landing in Scotland was to visit, as your representative, the Congregational Union of that country, where, for the first time since the final completion of Union, the Evangelical Unionists and the Congregationalists were sitting together as one body. I also found that arrangements were practically completed for the amalgamation of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches of my native land; while across the Border the Free Church Council, with Dr Clifford at its head, was carrying on a noble work in the way of unifying the Free Churches of England. In the realm of politics, that wonderful manifesto issued by the Czar of all the Russias for the disarmament of Europe almost startled the civilised world, and should prove a valuable assurance to those who are looking for a spee 'y advent of the millennium, and, however much subsequent events may indicate the improbability of an early attainment of this ideal of Unity, the Christian world will not readily permit to fall into oblivion a proposal so far-reaching towards the time when there shall be peace on earth amongst men and goodwill. Whence cometh then, and whither tendeth, this great movement towards Unity, which promises not only to produce unity of thought in the different branches of human knowledge, but to corelate them all into one complete and harmonious whole? The Rev. Alfred Rowland, in his address from the chair of the English Union last May, referring to the decay of the denominational sentiment, as we have known it, which he predicted would not long outlive the dying century, gave as one of the reasons for its disappearance the fact ' that Christians generally know each other far better than they formerly did' ; and it is this growing knowledge of our fellow-men and of the laws of the universe in which we dwell that is enabling men everywhere, and on every conceivable subject, to see things eye to eye more completely than they have ever done before. Imperfect knowledge invariably begets diversity of opinion, and freauent strife and dissension; fuller knowledge brings greater unanimity of thought, and perfect knowledge, as far as that is attainable by finite faculties, brings complete unitv. ' Nothing is ever settled until it is settled right' is the expression of a neat natural, moral, and spiritual truth. The humanitarian effects of the marvellous discoveries in the domain of physical science, in bringing the whole race into closer touch with one another bv such agencies as steam and electricity, can hardly be over-estimated, and the peace proposals of the Czar may well be considered as only an indication of greater movements in'the future, making for the solidarity of the race, as the result of a growing intimacy. If we could clearly comprehend the stages and agencies by which we have arrived at our present position it would probably help to indicate the direction in which we may expect to make further progress, and a clear conviction of where and how we ought to go will make our efforts more fruitful in results." " I believe the development and application of economic knowledge to be the special work of this generation, and here let me say that I fully believe the law has been observed and formulated which will give unity of thought in this direction, and only awaits the development of men's minds for its general acceptance. It is a law analogous to the law of gravitation, ruling in the economic world with the same (invariability and universality as that law rules in the physical world, performing similar functions. This law might be expressed in these words: That the growth of mankind in numbers and capacity exhibits itself in increased land values. This will hold good whether the growth in capacity be of a physical, mental, moral, or spiritual kind, and every child of God has a right to an equal opportunity of

participating in that growth and the value which it creates. To me, the facts which demonstrate this law axe as clear and complete as those which support the law of gravitation: and with this as tt basis, believing in the Fatherhood of God, to whom each one of His children is equally dear, I cannot believe that He approves of a system which enables a very few of His children to monopolise all the advantages that come I from a growing knowledge and power over the productive forces of Nature, and to use ] that advancement as a whip to the backs i of the rest of their fellows. Of course, the question whether the present system pro- j duces this result, and whether any proposed change would bring improvement, is one on which many of you would disagree with me, but, being profoundly impressed with the belief that all involuntary poverty, with all the sin and suffering attached to it, is the direct result of tho violation by society of God's benevolent and eternal law in this connection ; and, further, that the method of complying with the law and escaping those evils has been demonstrated; believing this, I soy to refrain from speaking of it would be moral cowardice in me, the betrayal of a sacred trust, and, in the Master's name, I now demand of you to at least examine the evidence available regarding the possibility of securing for every child of God a reasonable human existence in this beautiful world of His, which He has furnished so abundantly with all things necessary to man's comfort and happiness. Perhaps some of you may object that this is not a subject for a religious gathering like this, but I know of nothing marking out one sphere of man's interest or knowledge as sacred and another as secular, and I am thankful, as an evidence of -progress towards unity, for the rapid disanpearance of the striking contrast that used to be drawn between material, as secular knowledge on the one hand, and spiritual, as sacred knowledge on the other, and believe it must ultimately pass away entirely." "We ought to signalise the birth of the coming century by some move towards closer Christian unity in this colony. What should stand in the way of a closer union with our Baptist friends: We could each bring to such a union elements of strength, and our united forces could make a more gallant and successful fight for some of those cherished principles we both hold dear. And is it not possible for something to be done in the way of uniting for aggressive work all those sections of the Christian Church which, in England, are known as the Free Churcheslike what has been done by the Free Church Council at Home? Surely oUr conditions in these new lands are such that we might lead the van in this unifying movement. We have no State Church hanging round our necks like a millstone, our children mingle in the public schools, forming friendships unfettered by the narrowing influence of sects or creeds, while our nearer approach to equality of social conditions should help us in a more, united worship of the one God. In my travels round the world I came into brotherly relations with men of all shades of religious belief, fraternising with ministers of the Free Churches and ministers of the Anglican Church, with Roman Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbi, and everywhere found we could meet on common ground around the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, so that forms and organisations, systems of church government, and even speculative beliefs,. seemed to take a very secondary place, and character seemed all in all. Character which has pbwer to transform the world, to bind man more closely to his brother man, and establish the most filial relations with his God. . Character which is essential in the lonely student prying i.nto Nature's, deepest secrets, as well as in the man of public life, buffeted about in the turmoil of contending factions, and the product of this character is the great work of the church universal. The formation and development of character is like the attunement of the soul of man to the great soul of the universe, forming the link which unites man's life to the life of God, and just as the receiving instrument of the Marconi rays must be adjusted, or attuned to the generator before it can receive and ! repeat the message, so must our heart and ! life be in attunement with God before we 1 can receive and repeat the message of His ' eternal, all-embracing love to man. In thus advocating unity, do not think I am desirous of seeing our individuality lost, through absorption into some of the larger bodies, and our distinctive principles cast aside. No, we must not throw away the fragment of the jewel we possess, because the whole world would be incomplete without its part. Even amidst the evidences of unity of which I have spoken, there are instances of retrograde movements—cases of reversal to type, as it were—which demand our most diligent attention. You know it is frequently necessary to take a step or two backward to gain momentum for overcoming some physical obstacle that lies between us and our goal; and so it is in moral movements. We have had several backward movements of this kind in England during the past few years. First, we had the Education Act, where a great political party sacrificed the national welfare to the bigotry of a sect, handing over large monetary grants to schools admittedly inferior, over which the ratepayers had no control, and where doctrines were taught in which many of them did not believe. This ruthless destruction of the compromise of 1870 has reopened the whole question of education, which will not be closed again until an advance far ahead of all previous arrangements has been made. Next, we had the Landlords Relief Bill, where a Parliament of landlords, in emulation of the brigandage of their fathers, who robbed the people of England of their patrimony by the Enclosure Acts, passed a Bill to further enslave the people by repudiating the obligations which formed part of the conditions i under which they held their vast possessions of land. This has reopened the whole question of landlordism, and the recent census taken by the ' Daily Mail' in London, as to what should constitute the programme of the Liberal party, when the taxation of land values came out second on the list, shows pretty clearly how the final settlement of this question must go. Then we have the great Ritualistic movement, which has been eating like a canker worm at the heart of the Established Church in England for a good many years; it seems to have come to a head, and, by drawing public attention to the anomalies and flagrant breaches of the law within the Establishment, is raising in an acute form the whole question of the relationship of Church and State, and the final settlement of that question can only mean emancipation. With these instances of retrogression before our eyes, it would never do for us to think of relinquishing the fight for freedom ; we are the inheritors of a noble record, and we are called to deeds of valor which shall prove a rich inheritance to our children. Our past work in this colony has contributed a good deal to robustness of life and character; its influence is reflected in our magnificent system of free, secular, and compulsory education, and the democratic character of our institutions generally. The prrand heroic struggle of our forefathers in the cause of freedom, for liberty of conscience, must inspire us to add fresh laurels to our name, by taking a wise but valiant part in the greater struggle vet to come for the larger freedom, for industrial libertv, and so hasten on the time when the whole world shall be joined together in the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace, when ' man to man, the world o'er, shall brethren be and a' that.'" The Moray place choir sang two anthems during the evening, Mr J. Jago sang ' The soul's awakening,' and Mr D. Cooke played an organ solo.