RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 12883, 4 August 1906, Page 4

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

A FAMOUS PREACHER

Tha once famous and popular preacher Arthur Mursell, whose jubilee was celebrated in May, commenced life as an assistant in a publ stairig-house in London, devoting the who.e of hu spare tune (o Btudy As the conviction that he wa.« destined for the ministry grew upon him. he went to Ab rdeen University fur a omise of study, supporting hinseif in the meantime by teaching. He ltained theology ul ti.e Brii tol Baptist College, although in after-life he liad not that respect ior theological study whieh characterised his earlier yeaie. At the age of twenty-five he was called to the pastorale of the Urosvenor street Baptist Chapel, Manchester. Before he was thirty he had made a national reputation as a lecturer. Inheriting a capital memory, and cultivating a pictorial style of oratory, be soon (surtaxed itte popular ear, and hi*

Sunday afternoon lectures in the Freetrade Hall became the talk of the town. In fact, hei was one of the first to see the possibility of interesting the working man in religious subjects when the dry-as-dust manner and matter were discarded for the pleasant and attractive. He set the vogue for Sunday afternoon lectures all over thrcountry,one of the first to follow in his wake being Hugh Stowell Brown, of Liver }>ool. Of course, the free-arid-easy and jocular style of the new preacher and lecturer laid him op.-n to a good deal of adverse criticism He was accused of frivolity, treating eacrod subjects with undue fovity, and so forth. But the youn<r pr, acher was never very susceptible to the criticism of the fathers-, and held on his way without turning a hair. The result wis his ju: tification. He had the Freotrade Hal! crammed to the doors every Snndin afternoon. His lectures were reported iii the papers, and nrwde excellent copy. Wheii they were issued in book form they had a large sale. H:s London mini try at Stockwell, while not so outwardly successful as that at Manchester, was of permanent va-'ue. inasmuch as he was instrumental in building up a strong and agarcsive church \Vlh-ii he wiiit to Birmingham to the old Cannon sti\et Church he repeated his Man che.-ti-r success- s by filling the Town Hall at his Sunday afternoon lectures. In 1887 he returned to his London charge at Stock well, where, he has remained ever since His fame as a lectin er reached the ears of the 'cute American .ngent Major Pond, and in response to an invitation which amounted almo t to a command Mr Mursell crossed the Atlantic in 1878. and lectured in many of the principal towns of the States, to the great delight of the large audiences which everywhere crowded to hear him. He is now in his seventy-fifth year, and is thinking of retiring from active work. NORTH -WEST CANADA. Before returning to Canada the Archbishop of Rupert's Land wrote as follows to the London 'Times': "I desire, through your columns, to endorse very heartily the effort of the S.P.G to raise £20,000 for the asii tance of church work in Xoi to-west Camda. Ido this all the more earnestly because in some quarters objection has been taken to this effort. My attention hnn been called to comments in a London newspaper; "and also in a Canadian paper, to the effect that it is derogatory to the dignity of the Canadian Church to appeal for help in England. My visit has at-o been ieiened to us if it were a ' begging missiou' for my own diocese. Everj- ' Canadian' is asked to ' frown down' the effort. Well, Mr Editor. I hope I am a ' self-respecting Canadian,' and yet I cannot agree with the views outlined in these articles. In the first place, I am not here on my own initiative, nor am I appealing for my own liocese of Rupert's Land alone. I have come over to England on the invitation of the S.P.G. This noble society, rt-cognuing the great open door of opportunity for planting the Church in North-west Canada, started this special effort on its own initiative, and invited me, as representing all the dioces. s of the West, and not only my own diocese, to come over and give mfor--nation, and, if possib'e, to quicken interest in the undertaking. As to the contention th;it it should be beneath the dignity of the Canadian Church to solicit aid from the mother Church. I will simply say this: If there were merely a normal development in needed Church extension, there might be justification for the view taken. But everyone who knows anything about the situation knows it to he absolutely abnormal and unprecedented in the history of colonial settlement. The immense tide of immigration which is turned into Northwest Canada at the present time, the vast area covered by the incomini settlers, the enormous railway development which is on, making openings for church work at almoot innumerable centres—all these circumstances render it imposMble for the Church in Canada adequately to cope with it all. The simple fact, with which those of us who are in actual touch with the work are confronted, is this: Notwithstanding all the help which the Church in Eastern Canada is ab'e to extend to us (and I believe she I- doing all she can), the bishops in the Wtst have not nearly the meanrequisite for meeting the 'demands for Church development in their various dioceses. This is a known fact to those of up on the spot, and we fee' that it mav be a very serious fact for the future of the Church in that vast and splendid countrv. which is destined at no distant dav to be the home of millions of people. There is a spring-tide of opportunity for establish mg the Churrh there which if? beyond con ception. Should the praiseworthy effort, then, of the mother Church to assist her daughter in this critical epoch in her history be 'frowned down'? Will it be.unbe coming on the part of this ditighter, or will it be a Inuring of her self-respect to accept temporary help from her mother at this admrted crisis in her history? I sav *° ,-. And ,. T M >' [t - tflo, as a ' «:if-respect-m? Canadian.' On the contrary, I verr strnnely nrtro on my folW-Churchpeople in »b» Motherland to support generously and promptly this worthv effort of th'n S P.O. T say promptly, for things aremov '"? so f ast in thrrt new countrv that the opportunity. un*aieakablv trreat as it te at the present moment, will soon be lost un less it is takrn v.r> at once. ' Redeeming th* time, buying up f or ourselves the oppornTtv.,—that sho " ld be the motto of the Church just now, else it wUI be in rears to come a sorry attempt to buy back opportunities when they will not bo redeemable but lost for ever. It is a case of * Bi« dat qui cifo dat.' One pound eiven now in these planting and sowing days in that new country which is advancing with leaps and bounds will be more potent and fruitful for good than many pounds offered when the opportunity is past."

GLEAJsTNGS . The negro churchmen of Georgia, who include eight clergy, twelve lav readers i.023 ooimmjnicants, and 779" scholars have, at their own request, been given a sne.-nl organisation called a. convocation whirn is distinct fmm, yet a constituent of, the diocesan convention. A proposi] to provide nogro missionary or suffrapan bishops his been hmnght before the convocation and rejected. _ A London vicar conceived the idea that it would deepen the interest of his honso imld servants in familv worship if thev were orcnsionnlly allowed to select a hymn Ac-ordinr/lv, one Sunday evening the coo' was called upon to make her choice, whicl "he did to the compMp satisfaction of he mistress. Asked how shi '•ame to make «n orcellent a selection, con' explained: "Well, you see, mum, thr "f f.V hymn was the number <>' my policeman."

At ar; Orange meeting at Sydney on Ji*K 10 n statement was made bV the Rev. Dr Dili Macky, who said tha among the audience in' the Town Hal' that night, was one of three girls who ha<' made their escape from a convent neai Sydney. She was originally a Presbv terian, but she went as a servant to r Roman Catholic presbytery in the eoTm frr. While there she became a Roma; Catholic. At the end of six months sh< desired to come hack to Sydney. Thr priests tried to persuade her not to return to the city, but, as she persisted thev gave her a letter to the mother ir charge of a convent near Sydney, osten sihly to provide her with a home. Thr mother superior took away the girl'? clothes and her money, and put her under lock and key for a vear and nine months--The pit] was forced to work from fonr ir the mornine till at niprht withnr payment. Eventually she and two othn girls made their escape disguised. Thes< girls had furnished information that abort 100 eirls were in that convent nnder simi lar conditions, en?"2ed in lanndrv wortand some of tT»> inTiat.es «*pre only nir>> years of age. He promised fhat the res' of the storv woidd be told later • n.

Carry religions principles into cbmrroj life, and common li r e will lose its tram toriness. The world passeth away. Tii. things seen are temporal. Soon business with all its cares and anxieties, the whnl< "unprofitable stir and fever of the world." will be to us a thing of the past. BntTre ligion does something better than sigh and moan over the perishableneas of earthly things. It finds in them the seeds of immortality.