THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 14523, 26 November 1910, Page 10

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

MISS MAWSON IN CHINA. Professor Hewrtson, in introducing Miss Mawson to tho Presbyterian General Assembly, told of the pathfinder of the most distant village, who had lived alone, surrounded by thousands of Chinese, and had won their hearts by her consecrated band. The frail little woman was set on the speaker’s box to tell her story. Simply she spoke of crowded passage boats and cruel travelling chairs, and the sight of mullatudes of women for whom Christ died, who had never seen a foreign woman, and who ran away from .the foreign devil. She told of wanderings to market places in villages of tens of thousands each, of standing in doorways to speak with those who turned aside to look at her, and how tho prayers of folk at borne had lifted her. and tho Lord, tho faithful One, had gone before her. After several years tho people at the village thirty miles away had offered her a room and the chance of a girls) school. For such an opening the mission had been waiting for years, but now no one dared say to her: “ Such a thing for a girl had never been heard of.” Bat she went, saying: “ What was I that I should stay down in Canton simply because of what it might mean. Wo there knew better than you what it might mean, bat tho work is greater than tho worker. It was ordered of God, and the sick came to be washed of eyes and be healed, until from dawn to dark these people were there, scores and scores of thorn, the Bible woman preaching to tlio patients all the tune,” ’Then came illness and rest in Canton. The last journey she made on tho newly-made railway “ tho children ran towards me. ‘ Teacher, have yon come I When is Sunday ?’ The boys were saying ‘Jesus loves me,’ to show they had not forgotten. The girls were reciting tho Gospel they had been taught to say by heart lost in their homes they should bo denied Bibles. Next morning tho whole boys’ school and the whole girls school walked out behind me in precession, with banners, along the winding reads, turning the corners kinging ‘Hold tho fort, for I am coming ’ and ‘ 0 happy day,’ for the Gospel in the Chinese villages made them helpers to their people.” Tho gentle girl had held the fort. When she finished wo blamed the brethren as cold in blood. There was surely no other Assembly that would not have risen and clamored an ovation. But we looked up and saw Moderator and clerks and professors and dry-as-dust church lawyers and fiery debaters bowed like bulrushes, their eves fixed and their Hushed faces wet. We felt that there were greater praises than plaudits, that silence and tears and thanksgiving and supplication were (he offering.-, of pure spirits in tlie sight of God of great price. We know of little like that gill’s work in the activities of New Zealanders, and it stands with tho best of (he Church of Christ. Many daughters have done virtuously, but wherever the story of Christian Now Zealand is told tlnoughout the whole world this good tiling that this woman hath done shall be Fold for a memorial of her. Fhe goes out from us to marry an American medical missionary in Canton. Tho blessing of Rebecca he upon our sister and the blessings of Abraham.— The ‘Outlook.’ THE CHURCH IN BRIGHTON. Tho Rev. Arthur Cocks and the Rev. H. F. Hinde, under date October 2, 55-rote to ‘ Tho Times ’ as follows: May wo say at once that we have not resigned our licne.fices on tho ground of the Bishop’s prohibition of Benediction or Exposition, but because we are convinced Link, underlying that prohibition, a denial of tho Catholic doctrine of Trartsubstarnation tvas involved? It thus became a necessity for us to consider whether wo tvould make a stand for that- dogma or, by submitting to the Bishop's directions, lay ourselves open to the charge that, either we did not set forth in our churches what wo believed in our studies, or that we heated tho dogma- as one of little importance. We could not thus act, and wo felt that tho need of authority for our belief and teaching was of paramount inq>orlanee. Hence in honesty and to avoid a conflict with authority, in wliioh, pace Lord Halifax, ivc should both decline to engage, wo have resigned our benefices In short, ire have made what to us is a sacrifice of no inconsiderable cost, in defence of a dogma and for tho assertion of our conviction of the need of authority for car belief and teaching. Such authority nenv seems to us only to be found in the Roman Catholic Church, hence oirr submission to it. We hope sve may bo credited with a desire for honesty, and acquitted of either pique, self-will, or the locs of mental balance, which have been so widely attributed to us. THE BISHOP’S FATE. There was a remarkable scene in the arena at Montreal when the Bishop of London addressed the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in convention. The building was occupied by some four thousand people. Ho dealt with the history of the Church of England, traced its ancient- succession, quoted Magna Chart* to show its existence long before Henry VITf. The old Church, he said, was a live Church, was alive from one end of London to the other, svas doing magnificent work in the slums and elsewhere, whore 1.500 clergy and 100,000 laymen and laywomen wore fighting its fight in tho poverty-stricken districts. He praised the other Churches, spoke of Archbishop Bourne as his friend and co-workor. He prayed that the whole Church would ho one in time, said it svas meant to bo one, and that if they prayed for union it would eventually conic. Then he broke out ; “ Why am I not- a Dissenter? Because (hero is nothing from svhioh I dissent Why am I not a Roman Catholic? Because, thank (led, 1 am an English Catholic.” Tho effect was as if the audience had received an electric shock. The whole audience were on their feet, 55-aving hats and handkerchiefs, and cheering svilh an enthusiasm and abandon never excelled in tho history of tho building, which lias been the scene of tho leading indoor athletic contests in Canada. The Anglicans of the city had got the reply they wore waiting for to the Homan Catholic doctrine that had been so inilitantly preached during (.ho Eucharistic Congress of the preceding week, and they welcomed it. as spoken words rarely have bee.n vrelcomed in this City.—‘Standard of Empire,’ October 7. TYBURN CONVENT. For some time past it has been known that tho nuns- at Tyburn Chapel, Hyde Park place, l/ondoii, have had difficulty in maintaining tho quiet little sanctuary there, and the announcement was recently’ made that it is to be relinquished. Its history is interesting, for Tyburn saw, of course, the execution of many in the. sixteenth and seventeenth centuries whose names aro held in high veneration by tho, Roman Church of to day, ae Thomas Cottam, in 1582; William Harrington, a secular priest, in 1594; Mark Barworth and Alban Roe, Benedictine monks, a few years later; and Edwait! Morgan, in 1642, who entered tho cart “ bo cheerfully and courageously as if he had mounted a triumphal chariot,” among many more. Cardinal Vaughan it was who called a small colony of tho Sisters of Adoration of the Sacred Heart from Montmartre to this convent, whore there wae little of pomp or splendor, but much quiet devotion. By special vow the convent was devoted to prayer for England and the Catholic faith, and on the opening days of May a festival in honor of the English martyrs was kept there. Altogether, it svas a picturesque and peaceful little shrine, svhich, with its fair flowers and simple music, seemed strangely restful so near to the rush and bustle of London's traffic, and there are not a few who svill regret that it has ceased to be.

A TYPICAL (?) PARSON

In. one of the most incisive chapters of Mr Arthur Benson’s netv book a Yorkshire parish clergyman is sketched. He took a pass degree at Cambridge, and wont to a theological college, tvhere he meekly assimilated High ecclesiastical ideas, and imbibed a groat love of liturgical and ceremonial usage. Ho has a great many services on Sunday, reads. Mating, - ana

Vespers in his church, and gives an address on saints’ days. He preaches sermons on subjects remote from doily life, and the modem world has no existence for him whatever. The only objects for which be raises money diligently are additions to the furniture of the church. He takes a languid interest in foreign missions, but science and social questions ho frankly dislikes. The fact is, says Mr Benson, the man is a real goose. “There is nothing manly, vigorous, or sensible about him; he sometimes deplores the indifference of his parishioners to what be calls true Churchmanship, but he never thinks of comparing his ideal with the Gospel, or with tho actual conditions of the world. Ho seems to bo hopelessly befogged ; he is as certain as only a virtuous or stupid man can bo that the religious system which he inculcates is the exact and del literate development of the Spirit of Christ; and to hear him talk you would suppose that the only joy in Heaven resulted from a minor that another church was added to tho list of sanctuaries which had daily Matins.” Mr Benson lays the blame of such clergymen largely on the theological seminaries. “They have set up so exotic a standard, screwed up the ecclesiastical tone so high, that few but timid, unintellectual, cautious, and sentimental people will embrace a vocation whore so many pledges have to be given.” Wo do not know how far this explanation is sound. Wo are sure that Lord Halifax’s pronouncements contain no hoaling, no guidance, no answer for the modem world in its perplexity and unrest. —‘British Weekly.’ CANON HENSON ON THE FUNCTION OF RELIGION. Canon Honeloy Henson, .-.peaking at the opening of the new Wesleyan Mission Hall in Hull on October 6, said that that mission stood for Christianity which was atone© aggressive and undenominational. We were faced by two perils—the peril of Congregationalism or jKirochialism, and that of sectarianism, aud ho supposed that there never was a Christianity in any land so cursed with the spirit of sect us the Christianity of the English people. One of the things which were going to cure that was missions abroad and missions at home.

Dealing with missions at home. Canon Henson said that there sveiro economic causes bringing together gloat masses of people into the cilice, and side by side with these was a segregation which began when they were mice gathered together and which associated them in bodice according to trade, religion, race, and language, and had the effect of strengthening the prejudices svhich ought to bo broken and Ssvcpt away. The only imifymg force to oppose to these was that of religion, and, as a citizen, ho had to consider how best to purge men’s minds of the influences s'liich made them bad citizens by coming together in these great aggregations. The Itond of neighborhood svhich svas so great a help to right Jiving svas severed, and these missions extended the band of sympathy and help to men svho svcro thus severed from their old surroundings. The times were revolutionary and materialistic, aud in the svesterff world the democracy which had recently come to political power was apt to exaggerate tho value of political action and to show a touching belief in the jxnver of laws. He had been much struck in Ids recent American tour with this, but the cry of tho people always was (hat they could not guarantee the supply of honest men to administer the hisvs. The Christian religion svas needed, and in it alone had the nation or the State any hope to secure for itself that auxiliary condition without svhich its own distinctive efforts svere bound to end in failure. To-day we had groat tmsottlemeut of mind, great social discontent, and great loss of religions faith, and sometimes they svero tempted to believe that the nation svas turning its back on religion. He svas more than ever convinced that the Church of Christ must save tho nation, for they had got the secret of selfcontrol, the secret of social content, and tho secret—the most mysterious of all—of remaking brokeu human lives. REFORM IN THE CHURCH. Lord Robert Cecil, speaking at a Church Defence meeting at Bt. Albans on October 3, said 550 bad much to bo thankful for iu the existence of tho Church of England. No one could fail to be struck svilh hs enormous activity, comparing it with svii.u i*, was a century ago. Incumbents then lived the life of an ordinary country squire of the better kind. Nowadays their time was taken up from beginning to end of the svcek with tho duties of tho parish. The Church had begun to realise in the last few decades its groat imperial position. If lie had any criticism to make it was that the machinery and organisation had not, perhaps, kept pace or had not been expanded cpiito sufficiently to meet new requirements and new activities. There was a certain sense, he svould not say of power! arm ere, hut of difficulty of discipline and organisation, in tho Church at the present time. ISo-called dis-xmlere in the Church were grossly exaggerated in importance and oven more in extent, hut still they existed. Some of the most saintly ministers of Christianity, who were doing splendid work, felt the need for a fuller and more elaborate ceremonial than that ordinarily associated with tho English Church, and some of them overstepp'd tho, bounds of legality iu their desire fer that fuller ceremonial. There svcre men who voro moved to extravagance, not by a deipcr sense of devotion, but by egotism and self-will. In IwUi these cases a procea; of treating them us criminal, or semi-criminal, was madness, ;uid could never lead to any good. Such procedure had all tho appearance of persecution ivithout any of its effectiveness. It excited sympthv for those ivho were attacked without affording to those ivho were trying to enforce the law any adequate and effective method -of obtaining their wishes. In all cases of doctrinal or ceremonial disorders, or negligence, or incompetence, or tactlessness, aud quomlsomcncttg there was no method of obtaining redress and improving matters unless things got to such a point that criminal, or seuu-criminal, prosecution could bo launched with hopj of success. Wliat was really wanted was a reconstruction ol tins parsnis five-hold. In theory, it could not be justified that there should be this vast hodv <U men holding offices of great importance absolutely lot life unless they committed .M-midliing winch closely approached lo bleach of ciuhum law. He would like to see wine modilic.i lion bv which the institution should ix lor a term of five or ten vcJifc. bucli il.aiig-, would have to be inUodiiu'd grauualJv, and with great precaution, and certain conditions svould certainly have to accompany it. In tho first place, provision would have to ho made that the views ol the laity "eu sought by the establishment ot church councils in every’ parish, and there would need to bo a great increase in the numU-i of bishops. That he believed to be almost tho most essential reform that could possibly be made in the Church of Eng land. GLEAN LN'jfi. The ’ Susrex Daily News ’ of October 4 announces that Hi© Rev. U. R. Ilxmly, who had for some time past oa>isted the eJeigy of St. Bartholomew’s, Brighton, without th.© sanction of the Bishop of Chichester, was on Saturday received into the Roman Catholic Church by the Very Rev. A. Coventry at Our Lady of Seven Dolours, Bognor. Mr Honly tvas formerly vicar of Wolverton St. Mary, Stony Stratford, but svas deprived for ritualistic practices by the Bishop of Oxford. He 5m ordained iu 1884, and served curacies iu Chelsea and Westminster.

Viscount Halifax, at the Church Congress (Cambridge), speaking on tho subject of cheaper divorce said : No doubt recourse to the law should be as available for the poor as for tho rich, but the remedy in this case is not to make easy for the poor that which is a curse in the ease of the rich, but to put out of reach of rich and poor alike, bj getting rid of divorce with potver to reaiarry, facilities which were the occasion of ruin to so many.