THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 14226, 27 November 1909, Page 10

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

AN OUTSPOKEN VICAR

A remarkably outspoken comment was recently made in the local parish magazine by the vicar of Silkstone (the Rev. J. M. S. Walker) regarding some exhibitors at the flower show. Under the heading ‘Liars,’ the vicar wrote;—

“It is no use mincing matters. Our flower show is spoilt by downright lying. It was a surprise to read tho other day that all _ exhibitors signed this statement on sending in their form of entry: ‘ I hereby declare that I shall have cultivated for at least two months prior to 14th August, 1909, the specimens exhibited by me,’ and then at the show there were exhibits which had won prizes exhibited in the names of those who had not a single plant of that species in their garden. Some, we are told, had no garden at all; others pointed openly to specimens which they claimed to have grown, entered under other people’s names. There is no getting away from the fact that, after the above declaration, the exhibition of specimens not cultivated by the exhibitor is lying > and how mean and degrading to lie in this way, for two or three shillings which ought to be awarded to another! A Christian could not do it; the warnings from the Bible are sufficiently clear. But even those who do not profess to be Christians, if they are worth calling men, have some sense of honor and justice, and could not stoop so low. Would that the membors oi the Committee, instead of treating this unmanly deception as a joke, would take drastic measures against known offenders, and exclude them from corapetition for which the lying entries arc made. VVe feel confident that it rests to a great extent _ with the Committee to free the ■show from the scandal which renders it unworthy of interest and support.”

;\T THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. The Chief Rabbi has lost ho time in making known his views on the now movement contemplated by the Jewish Religions Union. Preaching at the Bayswater Svuagoguo the other day, .Dr Adler offered uncompromising opposition not only to the holding of Sunday services, but also to the erection of a synagogue by the members of the Union, and their consequent secession irom the general body of the community. Or, the latter point ho observed Our community has had to deplore a. secession seventy rears ago from the effects of which it is still suffering today. Shall wo witness a second division at a time when a union of heart and hand is so imperatively needed? Is if, meet that a body styling itself the Jewish Rcligious Union should promote un-Jewish irreligious. disunion ’

.Naturally, however (remarks tho ’Daily lelegraph I. the Chief Rabbi regards the proposed .Sunday services as “ the most disquieting element in the movement,” and ho does not hesitate to brand them as anscriptural, and ns a direct menace to Judaism. because they are likely to prove an incentive to the desecration of the seventh- • v, >ja "bath, fie points to the experience ot Germany and America to show that although at present the Sunday services may only be intended ns supplementary to the services hold on Saturday, in rime they i it e ’ l lrel .y supersede the regular Sabbath devotions. The sermon, which is printed in the Jewish Press, concludes with an earnest appeal to the authors of the new movement to pause at "the parting ot the ways, ’ and not to persist in an action which constitutes a. " peril to the religious life of the community.” THE SIXtS OF SOCIETY. STRAIGHT TALK BY BISHOPS A\D CLERGY. In connection with the recent Church Congress the Archbishop of Brisbane said that in anotner generation or two the force °f education which had spread over the civilised world would he felt. But at present the result was only restlessness. The clopments of science and mechanical inventions opened to luxury and indulgence; and as men and women rushed in upon the discoveries of science, corruption crept iruo society. It was steadily causing character to deteriorate. Motherhood and all that was beautiful in tho home was falling into discredit. The call of tho Church y“2 s t” complete the round of knowledge. Ihe Church stood for the other half of their environment. The immaterial and spiritual attitude of the Anglican Church towards public immorality was very freely und frequently expressed. Ho appealed to the patriotism of the mem Ho felt that in the recent speeches and writings of bur John Madden, and also in the mission i j i ev ’ Mr Moolleombc, a challenge had been made to Australia, and particularly to the Church of Australia. The great fact they were called upon to realise was that the_v could not have immorality :r j /f. nation without that nation losing its f /“ • Australia was going to go down if she allowed herself to be mottled and speckled with the deadly evil that was threatening her to-day. In the first place they must remember that nothing could be done except through public opinion, and public opinion was the opinion of the average citizen. In Queensland they found that the great evil which threatened was not horse-racing and gambling, but hist. I hey had (started the formation of a council of public morality, consisting of representative citizens, who wore at one concerning that important question. There were too many of the wrong men in power. In our cities too many men in the town councils and Parliaments were on the wrong side, and when a man got into who was himself loading an impure life ho could block or neutralise those that were intending to make for good. That was happening to-day. as he knew for a tact. Public opinion had not vet realised that a man who was impure 'in hi s own Ido was not a man fitted to govern the community.

ifJu CV V^( r crcer (Melbourne) spoke on he Call of the Moment.’ and said he oid not believe that men wore irreligious, but rather that they were tired of all the humbug taught in the name of religion. He dealt with what Sir John Madden had called attention to as the “ nation’s gravest national peril, immorality,” and quoted figures showing the number of illegitimate births m Victorian institutions. It was not nice to read those things. But it Avas worse to know that there were amongst us men who did their share in writing that I black page in the history of our national 1 ,lfe - . Ifc was said they could not make people moral by Act of Parliament. But they could make it easy to do right and hard to do wrong The community needed a censor of literature, for there was bein" poured forth from the printing presses of Australia, and brought in from abroad a vast flood of filthy literature. They found it in some of tho newspapers, magazines, and current novels, and looked forward to the time when there would be a censor of I literature who would bring to justice persons who purveyed such impurity, and would, if necessary, confiscate their* machinery to prevent them repeating the offence. Thcv should also endeavor to minimise another evil by preventing the sale of certain drugs except to properly qualified doctors and nurses Ho urged mothers and fathers to tell their boys and girls the w-onderful secrets of Nature; not to leave them to get that knowledge from their companions, perhaps to bo wispered into the ears of girls by some blackguard.

j THE CRUSADE AGAINST DIS- | ESTABLISHMENT. At the recent Church Congress at Swansea the president (the Bishop of S. David's), referring to the threat of the Liberals to disestablish the Church in wales next year, said it was as nni as it was without precedent for j Parliament, without the consent of church- ' men, to cut off certain dioceses from the histone unity with tho rest. Two broad facts emerged when they looked back on tho thirty years of controversy on this subject. The first was that the Church had made remarkable progress throughout Wales during this period, and the second that the respect of tho people generally for it- was much greater than it was thirty years ago. It was difficult to express adequately the magnitude of the changes in Welsh life and thought which had taken place, duo to three causes—shifting of population, tho advance of the • English language, and the establishment

of'intermediate-and higher education.. In this period of profound change the fullest benefit possible from the definite doctrinal stability of the creeds should bo given to Wales, and it would seriously impair the efficiency of tho Church if Parliament freed them to deal with problems of this magnitude and complexity in isolation, apart from the Church in' England. It ought surely to bo possible for all Christian. communities to respect each other’s religious convictions, and to work in peace for the spiritual welfare of Wales as a whole.

—The Challenge Accepted.— Tho Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking of tho proposed Disestablishment Bill, said it was an attempt to take from them the privilege and opportunity of foremost service which the Church had had, and to destroy the distinctive organic position it occupied in the nation’s life. It would be faithless, culpable, ho would almost say insane, on their part if they did not accept the challenge thrown down. Not a single harsh word should fall from him, as he considered that many opponents were _ men of honorable intention, but lie believed they had not properly probed tho question. Interference with an ancient trust could only bo justified by one of three possible conditions—viz., either that the trust originally given, could bo no loVigor fulfilled or the fulfilment would bo contrary to public welfare or morals, or that the custodians were faithless and incompetent. Not one of these things could be plausibly contended by those who wore attacking them. They wore willing to learn what good disestablishment could do to their opponents, and what good it Could do to tho nation, but it was really the Church’s business to say what it meant and what it could do for themselves. They had a definite responsibility for the souls of those who lived in that bit of country. They dared not surrender the privilege of holding the front figthing rank against wrong in any corner. They pledged themselves to stand by Wales in the impending struggle, because they believed that a retention of tho solemn trust of their special responsiblity was at this hour their bounden duty. They believed that the principles they contended for were righteous and just and true, and because they believed that their assertion at this hour was of incalculable and entire benefit to the whole of tho people of the land.—(Applause.) A PAPAL INTERDICT. _ A sentence has just gone forth from the Vatican which recalls very ancient history. At the instance of tho Consistorial Com grogation. Cardinal Cavallari, tho Patriarch of A onico,' hits laid an interdict upon the city and suburbs of Adria tor tho space of two weeks. For a. fortnight, by this decree, it is forbidden to celebrate mass in the diocese of Adria, to ring tho church bells, to administer the sacrament in public, or to perform any public religious ceremony whatever.

The reason of this punishment is itself reminiscent of tho Middle Ages. Adria, one of the most ancient cities in Northern Italy, which once gave its name to the Ad riutic Sea, has fallen greatly in importance during the last centuries. Though the seat of the bishopric, its population has been surpass*'! by that of Rovigo. now the official capital of'the province in which Adria. is situated. For reasons of convenience tho Bishop of Adria, Mgr Boggiani, obtained permission .from the Vatican to remove the archives of the diocese from Adria to Rovigo. The people of Adria, however, fearing that the removal of the archives was a preliminary step to (he transfer of the bishopric itself, not only protested against their removal, but violently attacked the bishop's carriage as he was driving to the station, inflicting severe wounds upon the bishop himself. The answer of the Holy See is this interdict.—‘limcs’s’ Rome correspondent. SPREAD OF RATIONALISM. At the Catholic Truth Society, Manchester, on September 25, Mr Leslie Toke read a paper on ‘ Rationalistic Propaganda.’ He said it was becoming a commonplace that England was no longer a Christian country. They still had an imposing religions organisation known as the National Church, and there remained still among the three hundred odd Protestant, bodies in the country enough life to break out in a flame of fury against the supposed advances of Catholicism and even to hypnotise a great political party, yet tho great mass of ihe working classes, largo sections of the younger members of the lower middle, the commercial, and professional classes, and a still larger proportion of the plutocratic classes, had drifted or deliberately moved outside the conscious obedience of Christianity . lu plain words, the country was rapidly relapsing into heathendom. What were the causes? The first direct cause was the existence of the divisions and quarrels of Christendom. The far-reach-ing subtle effects of nearly four centuries of the great “Protestant Tradition” created an almost insuperable obstacle to any unbiased examination of Catholicism as a possible alternative. —The Platform and Press.—

Secondly, there was the Rationalistic propaganda by means of the platform and the Press. The groat newspapers of England, which, like the international news agencies, were largely owned and edited by Jews, Freemasons,* sceptics, or rationalising Dissenters, formed a means ready to hand for the discredit of Christianity. Whether the great influence ol the Press was deliberately used for that purpose bv those who controlled it he could not, of course, say. But more important than the platform and the newspaper was the organised dissemination of cheap but wellwritten books and pamphlets that attacked the very ‘ foundations of Christianity. Among the indirect causes tending to Rationalism Mr Toke placed first ihe system of public undenominational education. A great and ever-growing part of the nation, he said, had been deliberately taught by daily suppression, by daily avoidance, anil by daily habit that religion was merely a matter of private whim, and that it might quite properly be left entirely aside by the individual and must bo ignored by the State. More serious in their effect had been the social changes of the last few decades. —Worship of Mammon.— At no time had it been so necessary as at present, to emphasise flic- antagonism between Christianity and Mammon and the adverse effect of the money power and the money lust upon the moral, physical, personal, civil, and political liberties of the people A materialised, pleasure-loving society look eagerly to a philosophy that justified its earthliness. Moreover, the raising of the average standard of life out of all proportion to the rise in the average income, coupled w-ith that softening of moral fibre which came from the pursuit of superfluity and the love of ease, had resulted in a widespread practice that was more morally degrading and anti-Christian in tendency than could be indicated in plain terms. Ho meant the sordid blasphemy against life reflected in the sensational fail in the birth-rate. This .vile practice, Ihe deliberate murder or proscription of tho unborn, was rushing like a black death throughout the country. More quickly (ban anything else this sin brought about moral anarchism, and he believed its wide dissemination was one of the causes of the modern growth of antiChristianity. Catholics, in face of these opposing forces, must make use of modern methods and modern instruments. They must have cheap literature, they must not neglect the public Press, and*they must make use of the lay apostolate. The people would not fail them if they but went to the people. "gleanings. Far from “paganising” the boys of tho Dominion, as some critics have suggested, the Boy Scouts movement does not neglect welfare of its members- A Bible, with a cover specially designed, is supplied to Boy Scouts. It bears a picture of a Boy Scout on the cover, and on the back is the badge of a “Scout” with the motto “ Be prepared !”