THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 14515, 5 November 1910, Page 4

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

| A MATTER OF PRAYER. "JUST IN THEIJICK OF TIME." Mr Charles Carter told a. Baptist meeting at Sydney recently of a marvellous answer to prayer ho had experienced. The society he belonged to in Melbourne had had an overdraft of £24, and ho know that by the time the next meeting camo round 'it would be doubled. Ho made it a matter of prayer, and asked tho Lord for £IOO. But tho money did not come. A few days before tho meeting his faith dropped, and ho prayed: "Lord, I don't ask for the hundred now, but do send us tho twenty-four and wipo off our overdraft." The Monday of the meeting came, and ho watched for the postman, but still thero was no cheque. Four o'clock in tho afternoon came, and the Committee began to gather. His faith began to droop, but just as tho meeting was about to commence a letter was handed him. "Dear sir," it Tead, " enclosed please find chequo for £IOO for the funds of the Evangelisation Society as a thank-offering from the firm, which we trust will be tho means of spreading the Gospel, and thus bringing blessing to others.—Yours very truly, William Crosby and Co."—(Applause.) "That was lovely, wasnt it?" asked Mr Carter. "I do praise the Lord. It came just in tho nick of timo, as if the Lord had said : ' You asked for that hundred, and you ought nob to have dropped to twenty-four.'" Mr Carter is president of tho Baptist Union of Victoria. MOVING PICTURES IN CHURCH. Tho Grace Methodist Itipiscopal Church of New York, which has several times made rash but successful experiments with tho object of attracting people io religion, has now decided that moving pictures on Sundays would bo a good "draw." Dr Raisner, pastor of the church, says thero is accorninodation for 1,600 persons, and every seat was occupied recently to witness views of tho Passion Piay at Ober-Am-mergau, interspersed with pictures illustrating reindeer-hunting and logging in the Northern Countries. The service was so animated and so successful that it was decided, to give week-night exhibitions also. It is a poor policy, says Dr Raisner, to have so much money invested in the building and keep it closed all tho week. Moving pictures, ho says, make tho people happy, and also instruct them. Admission-is free on Sunday nights, and while moving pictures of the proper sort will, it is hoped, always be a feature of Grace Church, there will also be hymns and a short missionary address. The lecturer who explained tho Ober-Ammergau pictures said a few years ago the man who impersonated Christ, and also took boarders at Ober-Ammergau, charged him 3s a day for boarding, but this year the lecturer said he paid him 24s per day. The man who played Peter also raised his rates to tho boarders to a similar extent.— 1 Telegraph's' correspondent. BAPTISM AND MARRIAGE. 'The moanings indulged in from time to time by clerics of the Church of England over the undoubtedly fast-diminishing number of men attending the Sunday services are always accompanied by a suggestion that the fault is with the people and not with the clorgy. Doubtless the extension of facilities for Sunday travel and recreation have a good deal to do with tho emptiness of many churches, but in a great measure the narrow-mindedness, the autocratic and intolerant behaviour of tho ministers, and " stodgy" and vapid sermons are the cause of diminishing congregations. Of tho sort of thing that angers the average man against "the cloth" and brings the Church into disfavor we :imc of late had scores of examples. Tho latest is the unprecedented action of the Rev. H. E. Jennings, vicar of tho parish church. £t. Clements, East Dulwich. A young lady, Miss Ethel Kingham, was about to be married, and wished that the banns should bo published in her parish church, St. Clements. Mies Kingham, who is a regular attendant at the church, communicated with tho vicar. He inquired whether she had been baptised, and upon Miss Kingham replying that she had not. ho refused to publish tho banns unless she was first baptised. Miss Kingham was considerably astonished at this decision, and in her perplexity appealed to tho Bishop of iSouthwark. She was informed that tho vicar ought to give the required notices. Mr Jennings, however, refused to give way, and in her turn Miss Kingham refused to fct baptised in a hurry. According to Irs Kingham, tho vicar, when tiying to get her daughter to submit to tho rito of baptism, said that Miss Kingham has " no Christian name" by which he could announce her banns, but he offered to rend out that tho daughter of So-and-So, of that address, desired to bo married. Ho finally offered that if she would consent to be baptised ho would himself pay tho cost of a license. The Prayer Book directs i that the names of parishioners desirous of being married shall be read out by tho clergyman in church, but Mr Jennings holds that, as the Prayer Book is the book of the Christian Church, it can only apply to members of the Church, and no one is a member who is not baptised. The question now arises whether the vicar has any legal right to refuse to publish the banns. According to ecclesiastical lawyers it seems he has not. He may refuse to marry a couple, but to publish the banns is a civil function, which would enable the equally civil function of the subsequent marriage in a registry office to bo performed. As things are, Miss Kingham will bo put to some inconvenience to find other means to enable the marriage to take plato at the appointed date. QUEEN MARY'S REQUEST TO MR SANKEY. While Messrs Moody and Sankey were holding a service in Edinburgh in 1902 news arrived of tho death of tho Duke of Clarence. Lord Overtoun, who was prosiding, asked a lady present to sing an appropriate hymn, and in responso she sang 'Some timo we'll understand.' At the closo of tho service a telegram of sympathy was sent to tho Princess of Wales, now the Queen-Mother, and in the telegram the following verses of the hymn were quoted : Not now, bub in the coming years, ' It may be in the better land, We'll read the meaning of our tears. And there, some time, we'll understand. We'll catch the broken threads again, And finish what wo horo begun; Heav'n will the mysteries explain, And then, 2th then, we'll understand. In due course a telegram of thanks arrived, in which special reference was made to the hymn quoted. Some months afterwards, Jiir Moody was preaching in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Unknown to him, Princess May (now Queen Mary), with her mother, tho Duchess of Teck, was in the congregation. Beforo the service vms over she sent a request to the platform that Mr Sankey would sing the hymn 'Some timo we'll understand.'—"Lorna," 'British Weekly.' THE LATEST RELIGION. Tho "New Thought Cult," whose chief apostle, Dr Julia Scton Sears, has just arrived in London, is one of the most optimistic of the many strango religions that have come to us of late from the shores of America. Mrs Soars has great hopes that it will spread like wildfixo through England when once it has taken, a grip of tho imagination of the English people. In an interview with a ' Daily News' representative, Mrs Sears explained some of the chief tenets of her doctrine, and claimed that >'t had already seventeen millions of adherents in America, where it initiated somo fifteen years ago. "Wo differ," said Mrs Sears, *"frora the Christian Scientists in that we acknowledge the existence of disease, and we freely admit that physicians can deal with it up to a certain point; but we claim that by the influence of mental power alone the person who has mastered oar teaching can resist and conquer disease far better than if lie resorts to the use of drugß and medicine." Turning to the more practical side of her propaganda, Mrs Sears explained that the first church of her .religion as to be founded jn, London on-Oc-

tober 2, and in the meantiino Mrs Sears is prepared to undertake the treatment of all ailments according to tho system she has practised in America Her public meetings will be held chiefly in theatres and secular halls, as she is anxious to draw to them all creeds and classes without distinction.

SUNDAY OPENING OF MUSEUMS. > Tho secretary of tho Lord's Day Observance Society writes to tho editor of ' Tho Times' as follows : We have now received the last of the reports of the National Museums and Art Galleries which are open on Sundays, by tho authority of Parliament, sinco 1896, and all of which, since last year, have been so opened in the winter as in the summer months. Your readers may bo interested to learn what {'mount of appreciation of those enlarged opportunities has been shown by the public, and 1 therefore append a comparative table of the Sunday attendances recorded in tho reports published in 1909 and 1910. Thoy register tho attendance in tho previous year, except in tho case of the Victoria and Albert and the Bcthnal Green Museums, which relate to the next preceding years, 1907 and 1908.

OO• O O ' ,SE§ -SSSJ (HHH Kwr-( Victoria and Albert Museum 1,981 835 Bethnal Green Museum ... 1,341 1,214 National Gallery 1,491 1,297 British Museum 1.429 1.244 Natural History Muse'im 1,269 1.182 i National Portrait Gallerv 443 402 Tate GaUery "... 1,208 1,096 "ALL YE ARE BRETHREN." The Brotherhood movement, which is holding its conference this week at Bristol, is really tho " Pioasant Sunday Afternoon " movement under another name. Its success has been very remarkable. Tho " Brotherhoods," as the Sunday after-meeting societies are now calling themselves, have now a National Council, supported by twenty-nine regional federations, to which 1.400' brotherhoods are already affiliated, with a bona fide subscribing membership of about 300,000. The total number of societies meeting weekly in this country is about 2,000, with probably half a railion members. Moreover, the movement has spread to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South and West Africa, India, and the United States, and is now planting itself on the Continent of Europe. It is a Christian Socialist movement, minus the name. A strong attempt is mado to avoid party names and tests of every kind; and it is also undenominational, members of all churches being eligible to hold office. Many* of the members would disown the name of Socialist, but many others are politically Socialists of the most uncompromising type. According to 'Tho Times,' the great mass of the membership would applaud every demand for " social reform on Christian lines" in general, and even the application of this phrase in certain ways which avowed Socialists would consider quite sufficient. The adoption of Christian principles by the individual and the application of these principles to social life—these constitute the programme of tho Brotherhood, who accordingly welcome addresses on all sorts of social as well as personal questions from a Christian standpoint-. The motto of the movement is: "One is vour Master, even Jesus Christ, and all ye are brethren''; and its aims and objects are officially set forth thus: "To lead men and women into the Kingdom of God; to unite men in brotherhoods of mutual help; to win the masses of the people for Jesus Clirist; to encourage the study of social science ; to enforce the obligations of Christian citizenship; to promote the unity of social service." Tho largest Brotherhood in London is one at East Ham, with over 2,500 members, and at an Hl'ord church there is a membership of 14,000. In Yorkshire and Lancashire many brothorhoods are from I,CCO to 1,800 strong. The members pay Id a week, and share at the end of each session m a distribution of books. Many a society is row buying from 1,000 to 1,500 books in a years for its members' homes. Many oi the societies maintain savings and burial and sick funds, and at Blackburn the holiday fund is no less than £15,000, at Ashton £12,000, and in several other brotherhoods from £5.000 to £IO,OOO. In almost each case the Brotherhood make a grant to tho church where they meet, and members subscribe collectively for hospitals and charities. A lew of Id a head per annum covers tho expenses of each local federation and the National Council, for all tho work is done by honorary officers. It claims to be in fact, tho largest organisation in the world managed entirely by unpaid workers. Thus while the middlo classes are dropping away from tho churches by thousands, the Brotherhood movement is bringing the working classes into closer touch with religion, and half a million of them are now° enrolled in this league of Christum citizenship.— London correspondent, September 23.

THE POPE AND THE " SILLOX." Somo months ago we published (says the •British Weekly') an article describing the remarkable movement which, has grown un in Franco around the organisation known as the "Sillon" (the Furrow), which was founded by Marc Sangnier. It has now been aruwunced that tho lopo has condemned the work of tho Sillon, and Marc SangnieT's submission to l.omo was roported. Readers of his most valuable book, ' La Lutto pour la Democratic, published in 19C8, and of his other volumes, 'La Vio Proionde' and 'L'Esprit Democratique,' must recognise, m tlw> founder of Le Silkm, an earnest and spiritually minded Christian. His purpose has boon to prove that social progress j/i not necessarily bound up with irwligion. Passionately attached to tho Church of Home, he has sought to rally tho workinc men of Franc© around its banners. Of modernism, in the ordinary senso, his writings show not a trace. His books are inspired with a truly evangelical piety. Though repudiating Socialism, he has been, in tho highest (jense, a Christian social reformer. It will be a bad thing for Franco if tho energies of such a man are stifled. As tho 'Debats' remarks, the condemnation of the movement by Rome is likely to convince the masses that tho Roman Catholic Church cannot adapt itself to tho forms of modem social lit'o. It is possible, indeed, that tho lofty religious ideals of Marc Sangnier have not inspired tho whole mass of his comrades in the ranics of Sillonism, but of his own pure motives and genuine devotion to tho Christian faith thero is no doubt whatever. UNITY OF CHRISTENDOM. Twenty-four. American Episcopalians have undertaken a tatk eo big that not one of them expects to live to see it completed. Their undertaking, which has been formally incorporated, is to bring about a union of Christians all over the world—Protestant, Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics, everybody, everywhere. Tlic "Christian Unity Foundation," as the society is called, would discard all names and sects, and make simply ono big religious body. Twelve of the twenty-four are ~ clergymen and twelve laymen. Of the first twelve half are bishops and the other half presbyters, and all schools —High, Broad, and Low—aro represented among tho laymen, wlio include lawyers, men of science, business men, capitalists, and one each from the Army ami Navy. I'he bishops aro those of New York, Albany, Newark, Chicago, Southern Ohio, and Bishop Courtney, formerly of Nova Scoria, now Tector of St. James's Church, New York.

The first meeting which led to. the launching of the project was held on February 20. About twenty people were present, and a committee of organisation was appointed. Bishop Courtney presided, and after the incorporation will be elected president of the foundation. One layman has underwritten the initial expenses to the extent of £2,000, and a campaign to establish an endowment will be begun forthwith. No series of public meetings will be undertaken just yet; only research work will be dene, and conferences of the leaders held. Information concerning Teligkras bodies will be published, methods of co-operation suggested, and tho evils of division pointed out. Ccnf-rencep have already been held with the Greek Catholics, and an effort is being mado for a conferenoe of the leading Presuy.terioiK this autumn.

Greater hopes are entertained of bringing tho Episcopalians and Presbyterians together than any others. The tremendous difficulty of tho task is indicated -when I explain that in the United States alone we have nearly 200 independent Protestant bodies, and each year sees additions. Organic Christian unity is recognised almost as an impossible, perhaps an undesirable, ideal. Not a few declare that one organisation would be unwieldy and probably tyrannical, and that moro divisions would result. Some critical New Yorkers aro condemning the now Christian Unity Federation as ''still another sect," and cxpressinc; the hope that endowments may not be diverted from hospitals and umveTsities, to which, in America, most, of them go. — New York correspondent 'Daily Telegraph.'