THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 11724, 5 April 1902, Page 7

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

THE CORONATION OATH. At the Methodist Conference that sat at Melbourne recently a proposal to alter the terms of the Coronation oath came up for consideration on a motion by the Rev A. Madsen—"That with' evc-iy feeling of Christian good-will towards our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, this Conference are convinced that the King's Protestant declaration, which has been in use for 200 years, cannot hi repealed or altered without endangering the Protestant succession to the throne, and that the surrender of any part of the King's accession oath would be a step towards the surrender of the nation's Protestantism, which is the safeguard and glorv of the British Empire." The Rev. J. Marsland objected to the motion. He was a Protestant, but he could put himself in the place of a Roman Catholic, and if he found his religion branded a.s idolatrous, blasphemous, and superstitious, could he love the King of the land? The Rev. J. T. Kcarns said Roman Catholics were good Englishmen in proportion as they were not true to their church. The Rev. E. 0. Knee moved an amendment—- " That with every feeling of good-will to our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, this Conference are convinced that the King's Piotestant declaration, that has been in use for 200 years, cannot be repealed without endangering the Protestant succession to the throne." The Rev. A. K. Clifford said he had met Roman Catholics whose Christianity was equal to that of any member of the Conference, and it would injure the tender affections and insult the best sentiments of these people to continue this declaration, The Rev. E. H. Sugden said they could gain nolhing through hard words to their fellow-Christians of the Roman Catholic Chnn-h. The amendment 'was negatived by 64 votes to 19, and the motion was carried. THE CENTRE OF THE EMPIRE. The Bishop of Stepney recently conducted a Browning Hall party through St. Paul's Cathedral. When the vsiitors were under the dome the bishop spoke very appreciatively and sympathetically of Sir William Richmoinrs work, pointing out that the colors of the mosaics were proof against the sulphurou.- moisture of tho London climate, and thai it was not practicable to do here what might very fittingly I>2 done in Italy. Standing by Nelson's tomb down in the cyrpt, the bishop said: "Here we are in the centre of ihe cathedral, and the great, cross |hat surmounts the building is in a direct line above the coronet on this tomb. Perhaps you, as South Londoners, will nut agree. with me when f say that St Paul's is the centre of London : but I. hold that it is. And so here we stand in the centre of the Empire—a fit resting-place, surely, for the man who, by giving us the sovereignty of the seas, made onr Empire in its present developments possible.'' THE JESUITS. Lord Salisbury has caused the following reply to be sent to the Protestant Allf ance, who inquired if any measures were to be taken by the Government with regard to the Jesuit invasion :—T am desired by the Marquess of Salisbury to acknowledge your letiit of tho 19th December, and I am (o say in reply that his lordship is not aware iliat any legislation is likely to be introduced in regard to the subjects yon mention.—Yoi rs faithfully, R. T. Gttnton." The Protestant Alliance, in acknowledging the Premier's answer, express their regret and alarm at learning that it, is not the intention of the Government (.') take any measures for the protection of "this Protestant kingdom," and His Majesty's Protestant subjects, from the Jesuit, invasion,. " My Committee," continues Mr Brett, the* secretary, "would respectfully remind your lordship that the presence of members of the Jesuit Order in any kingdom or' State has been so detrimental to the, public interests that they have been again and again expelled fiom Roniar., Catholic countries, and that in consequence of the representations of the King of Portugal and other Roman Catholic Sovereigns, the Jesuit Order wa.s formally suppressed for ever and its property confiscated by Po|h> Clement XIV. in 1775, It was publicly declared in the Papal Bull that this course had been reixlcred imperative in order to prevent Christian peoples from being incited to acts of violence by the machinations, plots, and false teachings of the Jesuits. The Constitutions and doctrines of the Jesuits were exposed in a celebrated trial in France in the year 1761; and the writings of the most noted members of the Older were, in consequence, commanded to be burned, at«d were actually burned by the Public Executioner in 1762, a.s containing principles dangerous to the sacred persons of monarebs and destructive of public morality. The most prominent of tho principles and teachings of the Society of Jesus were, and are: il) The end justifies the means; (2i probabilism; (3) directing the intention; 14) equivocation and lying; (5) murder; and (6) regicide. Next to self-aggrandisement, the supreme object of the Jesuits is to subvert Protestai ilism, and to reduce all Protestant Sovereigns and States to subjection to the Pope. This being notoriously the case, the Committee of the Protestant Alliance regard with alarm and indignation the fact that His Alajesty's Ministers —Ministers of a Sovereign whose Royal house holds its position on the condition of maintaining the Protestant religion—intend to allow the Jesuit Order, aid members of other Romish Orders, to settle down undisturbed in this country and, pursue their anti-Protestant and anti-British designs with impunity. Such a policy exposes His Majesty's Government to the suspicioc. of complicity with the Jseuit plot, taken in conjunction with the persistent flooding of the Established Church with Popery by the - appointment to the highest offices of members of the Romanising partv. It is regarded by the Committee of the Protestar.'i Alliance as at once treasonable to the Sovereign, danperous to the country, and provocative of the anger of Almighty God. The calamitous condition of affairs at Home, the humiliations of our diplomacy, and the disasters to our arms, cantot, in the. opinion of the Committee, be regarded otherwise than as indications of the Divine displeasure." THE POPE: A PEN-AND-INK SKETCH. Mr Hall Cainc, contributes a very interesting article on the Pope to the Christmas number of ' Household Words,' which iuis recently been acquired by his son. In the preparation of ' The Eternal City' Mr Haii Caino had many views, public and private, of His Holiness. Here is a sketch of Leo XIII. in the Basilia of St. Peter's:—" The effect he produces there depends entirely upon the religious bias of the observer. If you bring to the great Roman temple the spirit of Luther, of Montaigne, or of Milton, not to speak of Goethe as he

rovcals himself in his letters from Rome, you will probably he conscious of ; better than the presence of a painfully feeble old man, withered, white and emaciated, carried shoulder high on the backs of; bearers, rising and falling in a. spring-bot-tomed chair, and lifting at intervals, with semi-paralytic gestures, a gaunt and stiffening hand to bless bis shouting people. You may even see with Zola nothing but cunning in the glittering eyes and watery mouth, and the wild clamor of the frantic crowds may seem to you to be little better than the idolatrous worship of a Pagan image. But if, on the other hand, you have brought to the ceremonials of the church tho devout spirit of the Catholic pilgrim, you will only be aware of a semisupernatural presence, a saintly being more j angel than man, a venerable human crea-1 ture who seems to have- lost all trace of the burden and influence hi the flesh, and, in ; the spiritualising atmosphere of the Holy of Holies, to be aiready halfway to Heaven." Of the Pope in semi-privacy Mr Hall Caine writes a.s follows:—" Leo XIII. at a privato audience is a much simpler personality, and the effect he produces there is less open to doubt. If the room is not larger than the throne noom of the library in the Vatican, and there are not too many visitors, the Pope leaves only one impression—that of the simplest and gentlest, the sweetest and tendercst of old men. He speaks quietly, without effort, and with no appearance of making a speech. If, happily, the nearest, to his chair is a young student, or. still more happily, a woman (for the souse of sex is strong in him), he. strokes the hand that rests on his knee and drops his voice—the relic of a great raid ■ durious organ—to tones of (he softest tenderness. He is fond of talking, of'telling a storv. and—like other old me!:—of lookr.ig back into the past. His memory is wonderful. . . . Visitors leave his pre>ence with swimming eyes and choking throats. He exercises the'mystic spelt of the man who is great, not merely by place and rank, bufc. nature. I. have seen the Pope very many time-, and such are (he impressions he lias made upon me. They arc impressions made vipon a Protestant, at least a non-Catholic—a very firm and resolute non-Catholic—who sees no human probability that he will ever allow himself to be anything else."

".ASHAMKI3 OF ITIK CHURCH'" Speaking recently at the annual meeting of the Hostel of St. Luke (the clergy nursing home), the Bishop of London-said he had occasion lately lo publish an appeal in which he stated 'that nearly 1,500 of tho beneficed clergy received less than £67 a vcar from their livings, and that there were nearly 5.000 whoso incomes were under £lss' a year. He asked people to picture to themselves the slowly drawn-out misery of trying to keep up a respectable appearance "on'£67 a year. The thing was impossible, it was this state of affairs which had made necessary the introduction of what he called the new kind of simony. It was often necessary before appointing a man to a living to" ask if he had private means. It would be a bad tiling ii the clergy were rich, but they ought not to have" those carking cares which unfitted them for their work. If a man were thinking contiually how he could find money to clothe his children, sometimes even how he could give them moat once a week, iiow could lie go about his work alertly and cheerfully? This was not the ease in other Christian bodies, lie had received letters stating that in the Free Church of Scotland every minister iiad between £2OO and £SOO a year and a house, and in the Wesleyan body men had almost invariably £SOO a vcar and a house. He was asha'med of the church to which lie belonged that thoso things were possible.

THE VATICAN AND THE MODERN MIND. The Vatican has issued a document of the lughest importance, hearing Cardinal Rampol'la's signature, dealing the deathblow to the young Christian Democrat party in Italy by suppressing personal initiative and subjecting all Catholic social organisations lo the absolute control of bishops. These lengthy instructions, which have been issued only to cardinals and Italian bishops, declare that the restoration of the Pope's civil sovereignty must henceforth constitute the-, leading motive of Christian democracy. The document adds that the new aspirations of the modern mind cannot be approved, and admonishes all Catholics to cultivate an abhorrence of tho innovating spirit of modernity. DEATH OF A FAMOUS FRENCHWOMAN. Madame Clemence Rover, who hasi just, flied at the age of 72 years, was one of the fir.tst intellects of France, and indeed one of the profoundest thinkers of our time. Before t'aiis'aliiig in 1862 Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' she had attracted the attention of a small and distinguished circle by her verses published in Parisian reviews and by a famous pamphlet entitled 'What a National Church should be in a Republic' Previously, at Lausanne, in 1860, she had shared with Prudhommo the prize offered bv the Government for an essay on the theory of taxation. But- it was not until she came before the world as the French translator of the epoch-making work ol Darwin and the populariser of Ids ideas that her reputation was established. To this translation of the 'Origin of Species' she

prefixed one of the most famous eftsavs in contemporary French thought. From this J time onwards her place was among French j savants and men of science. It is certain that but for her sex the author of 'Le Bien ' et la Loi Mottle' (1881) and of her magnum I opus—'La, Constitution du Monde' (1900), J a hrillliant and truly philosphlcal synthesis j of the laws of atoinia movements, not to . speak of the numerous original memoirs on i archrcology and anthropology, would long ■ ai»o have been a mjmber of the Academy of: Sciences. In 1895, indeed, she was given I scientific recognition, which mu&t have filled ! hei with joy.' MM. Berthelot, Aulard, Th. ! Ribot, Ch. Richet, Letournoau, and Levas- '; senr solicited for her the Cross of the Legion ; of Honor, alluding to her thus:— "Sav&nte ct philosophe d'une valenr rare e'est unu des illustrations feminines de ce siecle." i This decoration Avas not given her, how- j | ever, until 1900, when the Minister of F.du- i cation (M. Leygues) officially bestowed it ! at a banquet organised by Mme Clemence j Rover's Breton compatriots. She was an ftrdent odvocate of the political enfranchise merit of Frenchwomen.

GLEANINGS. The Salvation Army will this year make a tremendous effort. The intention, announced by General Booth, is to save 100,000 souls, 5,000 of whom are to be habitual drunkards. The names of the latter, as far as known to the police, arc to be obtained, and they are to be visited at all hours of the day and night and forcibly hauled off to "gxui'rd rooms" and brought round by Army officers and Army tea. Meetings' are to be held in public-houses, ynd the Army count upon the assistance of both police and publicans in their gigantic crusade. Mr Robert R. Green, who was dean's verger at St. Paul's Cathedral for close upon half a century, died worth over LIB.OOO. His opiwrtunities for adding to

Ids by no meah9 excessive income were imioue, and he apparently made the most of them.

It is officially stated that the circulation of the 'Young'Soldier,' the organ of junior mehberx of the Salvation Armv in fcngiaud, is nearly 130,000 weekly. The periodical contains no fiction. The Army's Life Assurance Department has issued its seventh, annual report, which shows thai the premium income has increased from £96,000 to £lll,OOO. . The official statistics of the Scottish Episcopal Church show that for tie year elided 30th June last the congregations, including missions, numbered 349, and thai the membership of the church had, as a-'ainst the preceding year, risen fror* 116.296 to 119,418. The amount raised by (he various congregations, including income from endowments, amounted for the year to £108,600, as against £102,080 for the previous vear. the Colonial Missionary Society of the Kn«lish Congregational Union appointed then- secretary to visit the churches and mission of New Zealand. Leaving early in June the Rev. 1). B. Hooke will come by way of Cape Colony, so as to confer with the Congregational Union of South Africa on fiuinges'' in the work in that country which will follow the war.

There are 103 incumbents of churches in Kudand who have occupied the same livings for fiftv years or more, and of these twelve have lield their places for >ixty \ears. Their average income amounts to £260 a year, and in sixteen cases the in- ! come, after fifty years' continuous service, i is between the'limits of £76 and £152 a ! year. .