THE CHURCHES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15920, 4 May 1912, Page 15

THE CHURCHES.

ELOCUTION FOR THE CLERGY . The Anglican Church newspaper, the « n j- »in a' recent issue tttn^ofthe.^chofEn,K P the preacher has a menage he should surely know how to deliver it and to deliver it in such a way that his hearers shall know what he is talking about. This is not always the case, K&. there are many clergymen in Sydney whoso message can only be guessed at, for very much of it to the person who is unaccustomed to his peculiar tricks of utterance is lost. Archbishop Wright is a. notable exception, and his clear, incisive voice can be heard practically anywhere in St Andrew's Cathedral. This is one reason, though, of course, not the principal ono, why he always draws a big C °"^Thf a Bishop of Carlisle (says the 'Guardian') told us the other day in the Northern. Convocation that ho would have ordinands selected and trained with a view not merely to the message which they are to deliver but also to the effectiveness of the delivery. What could be more reasonable t Utterance after all is to a clergyman what his chisel is to the sculptor, his burin to the engraver. Why should, not a good quality of utterance be considered a necessary part of tho equipment of a priest? True, clerical utterance is not nearly so bad as it is often represented to be. Perhaps it is not a whit inferior on the average to that of barristers, a-nd it is certainly not much inferior to the utterance of reputable actors. It may be true that, as one of our dramatic critics has put it, elocution has fled from the Church and law court and stage alike, to take refuge in the more representative dissenting pulpite. But if so it ought not to be so. The elocution .of the clergy ought to aim at being more than the equal of that of other professional men who work with the living voice, if it were only because the buildings in which the clergy speak are by the necessities of their structure less perfect auditoria than law courts or theatres. A church which satisfied other approved demands must not be expected as a matter of course to exhibit first-rato acoustic properties. The elocution' of the clergy is in the main not what it ought to be, nor what it reasonably might bo if more attention were given to training, lhat attention will be given only when the importance of the end to be achieved is more fully and carefully considered. A priest whose utterance, is adequate ia at all points, and in his private a<= well as in his public ministrations, vastly more efficient than the same man would have been without this qualification. . : • The Divine message will, at any rate, not lose by his telling. "It -is more profitable to ask how the clergy should be trained and by whom, and at what period in their preparation for their work. The training should embrace a systematic attempt to induce an easy untrammelled production of the voice, and so incidentally to guard against the parson's whine or the clergyman's sore throat. It. should comprise the correction of offensive provincialisms and faulty pronunciations. It should make sloppiness and indistinctness impossible, and false stress, and the affectations which tend to caricature harder to acquire and easier to avoid. The teaching should not as a ml© be eiven by professional elocutionists. • These gontlemen have a tradition of their own, and an ideal which in eeneral dominates them. The stage has supplied the tradition and suggested the ideal, but there are many reasons why what may be fit and proper behind the footlights may be very much out of place, in church." If the training is to be effective, it is added, the clergy must be caught young and before bad habits in speaking have been acquired and confirmed. A faulty production of voice, a false, constricted quality of tone, is likely to be accentuated by use. ;•■;,., - A "It is to be hoped," the writer concludes, "that tho day is not far distant when every college of examining chaplains will comprise one whoso special function it will be to direct the training of ordinands in regard to voice production and reading, and whoso certificate will be as indispensable a preliminary to ordination as that of any other chaplain. '•

The Archbishop of Canterbury preached a strong sermon in Westminster Abbey on Sunday, March 10, dealing with the coal crisis. "The Guardian " gives the discourse in full. In his concluding remarks, the Archbishop, said :—" It mav seem that I am a long way off from the large questions of the. presont strife and unrest, and from the bearing of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ upon them all. I do not twmk so If we are to help to create tho true and wholesome atmosphere wherein to mend what is amiss in our common life, either industrial or social or political, it must he because wo accept personal responsibility for doing each one of us in the common round of every day aJ' that in us lies to further that high end. No task in life can be more sn.--red. None can matter more to our nation's well-being. Wo shall not do it in our own strength. But we In ve a promise from Him whom the Apostle soils 'The God of Hope.' There are those who tell you that England s -reatness is on the wane, that Her plaeo and work for God and good among tho nations of the earth can nover hereafter be what wo and our fathers have known. I do not share that fear. I believe that, at tho core, our nation's faith and courage are genuine and strong, and that the call ol duty can evoke them still. But the very peacefulness has bred, perhaps, a dangerous disregard of home danger; and the growth and range of liberty have mado some men neglectful ot the self-discipline which can alone, under the guiding hand of God, make a Christian country really free. The law of liberty is a law of God. But remember it is a law. Bring to Him to-night -upon your knees—our nations lite, our ChurchVlife. It is to Our Father, Which is in Heaven that we bring it. Tho Father of every section of His children. Bring it with a full sense of what is meant both by liberty and law And so bringing it you will find Him I ready to mend, to strengthen, to steady, to uplift, to inspire each one of us His children who comes m the Name and through the mediation of Jesus Christ-the Brother, the Captain, tho Saviour of us all."

The.question of a fresh "vision of the Now Testament is in tho *"•*s? a writer in the "Christian World. A deputation has just weighty memorial to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking.for a corrected edition of the Authorised Version for use in tho public wonhip- ot tne Church. At present, tho Authorised Version is generally Mgjjg *»£J vised \ersion is S iaUua W hoso w ho more and more into use. Ihosonn are conscious of the literary *•??» and value of tho Authorised Version are concerned lest *s splendid impressive diction should be '*™ the coming generations. » ' ramabeen recognised that foolisn s*» .. tical pedantry over trifles> spoilt tno English of the Revised New W taent, and that the revision. »ouiu have to bo done over «f a 1- , lone ? question is, what is now to oe d _ Sir Edward Clarke-who. f™ n *X cZmits ho has no qualifications ot 6 larship—has produced a lament ifßveral books of the New Iqstai b.v altering the Authorised vo. where ho considers the Revised \ ersi ,

■makes a material correction. • This he uses in reading the lessons In church. But something genuinely scholarly and more authoritative is needed. At the Primate's suggestion, a Greek and an English scholar have set to work to prepare as a specimen book a new version of the Epistle to the Hebrews. That is better. But surely if the proposed new version is to supplant the "Revised New Testament it should bo prepared on a rather broader basis. Half-a-dozen to a dozen scholars, chosen simply for their competence without any reference to their ecclesiastical connections, with ono or two at least qualified to judge as to the literary stylo of the E"£~ lish translation, would do the work in a much more permanent way.:

Sunday, May 12, is to be the International Honour Day for everybody and every land in connection with the " Mother's Day " movement. It will be honoured all round the world this year. The observance of Mother's Day appeals to all social, fraternal, civil, military and religious organisations alike, as well as to persons who honour a home or a mother.

The Pallium with which Archbishop Kelly was invested a fortnight ago is strictly personal to each Metropolitan, and constitutes his official insignia. The material, is woollen, tho form is that of a collar or cordon resting on the shoulders, and reaching a little downwards. Six crosses are worked into the fabric, and a short annex identical in material and texture is attached to each of the parts which descend to the breast and back. It replaces the ephod Of the Jewish high-priest. Tho Roman Catholic Church reserved the Pallium to the Pope, and to some chief pastors' appointed*by him. The Pope may assume his Pallium , universally; patriarchs, primates, and • archbishops only within the territory of their juns- ' diction.

Sir Ho Kai, upon whom King George has conferred a knighthood at the. opening of tho Hongkong University, is, states the "Christian World," the son of the late Rev Ho Tsun Shin, of the London Missionary Society. Sir Ho Kai was educated in England, studied medicine at Aberdeen, and married an Englishwoman, Miss Walkden, daughter of Mr John Walkden, of Blackheath. To commemorate her memory he rounded the Alice Memorial Hospital at Hongkong. After practising as n physician, Ho Kai studied law, and was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn. He has taken a prominent part in the founding of the New University at Hongkong, where he represents the Chinese community on tho Legislative Council.

In a pastoral letter to tho Roman Catholics of New South Wales, Archbishop Kelly gives the following statistics of the archdiocese of Sydney:— Districts 76, churches 192, secular priests 123, religious priests 76, religious Brothers 123, nuns 1438, ecclesiastical seminaries 3, boarding schools (girls') 26, superior day schools _ 52, primary schools 253, charitable institutions 32, children in Catholic schools 24,771, Catholio population, about 175,000.

I Yuan Shili-Kai, the President of tho Chinese Republic, announced that he would be pleased to receive four dolegates at the Foreign Offico on February 23. Accordingly, tho Revs Cheng Ching 1., of the London Mission; Chem Hung Te, of the Methodist Mission; Li Yuan Ho, of the American Congregational Church; and Kii Tien Wen, of tho Presbyterian Mission, were appointed. Tho first-mentioned was tho spokesman for the deputation, ho being a member of the Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh Conference. He congratulated his Excellency on tho great service ho had rendered in bringing order out of chaos, and the help he had given in bringing the war to a speedy termination, and assured the nowly-electcd' President that Christians were praying for him. Yuan Shih-Kai (says tho " Christian, World") oplied in a delightful manner, assuring tho deputation that religious liberty would be fully assured, and efforts made for the building up of a strong • country on lines of progress. At tho 'same time he thanked the deputation for the assurance .o£ their prayers. Before leaving Yuan Shih-Kai announced that ho had deputed Hu Wei To, of the Foreign Office, to attend a mass'meeting to be held by tho Christians in celebration of peace. Such honours hare never before been accorded to the Christians of Pekin.

The plainspokenness and deep •arnestness of Canon Bickersteth Ottlev (writes a correspondent of the "Record'") must bo making a great repression wherever ho preaches on bo hnlf of tho Imperial Sunday Alliance. At Bow Church on Friday, for example, addressing the congregation as "Gen.t'omen," ho talked in his quiet, free-

nd-easy way about the disregard of Sunday in its relation to industrial unest. From many papers he quoted cxracts to show that the Press was hepinning to realise the importance of the matter. "For five or six years," he said, "I have been travelling about he country gathering facts,, and I am onvincod that one factor in all this ocial discontent and class-bitterness is the insolent, unabashed, disregard to Sunday by those in responsible ositions. The toilers gonorally have o desire whatever to get rid of the gentry, but they oxpect the gentry to show'a little love for God and a little kindness and sympathy for their employees." The Canon told a signifiant story. The other day a wealthy lady whose servants had given notice, bscause of her many Sunday entertainments, went to a registry office and Baid: "Can't you get me a cook without a soul ?" •

" The mission has become a real force in the town," writes Principal Ritchie, of Nottingham College, in tho annual report of the Nottingham Mission; " and under the leadership of —r Gautroy the work done by his predecessor has not only been maintained bub ady vanccd, and especially consolidated. The report, which, covers the fifth year of the Rev Moffat Gautrey's ministry in Nottingham, has been prepared by Mr Denis Crane, who has inspected tho work at all points, attended the services, interrogated tho workers, and has come to the conclusion that i'ts prestige was never higher,, its ministries never more comprehensive, its success never more indubitable nor more intensely spiritual than to-day. The mission has on Sunday tho largest Methodist congregation in the city., and perhaps tho largest of any denomination. In the morning from 400 to 900 are present; in the not only , are the 2400 numbered chairs occupied, \ but often several hundred people are content to stand. Mr Gautrey regards as the chief institution of the week the devotional meeting on Monday evening, • which is popular with the young people, who attend in considerablo numbers. "It is," Mr Gautrey says, " the ral-lying-ground of the Church." Among the many branches of the work is a Junior Brotherhood, started to form a link between tho Sunday School and tho men's meeting, and now numbering over 100 members; and a men's class on Tuesdays, an assembly of derelicts, whose home is tho cheap lodging-houso, i led .by one who was himself raised from | the depths by tho mission. The Sisterhood has 300 members, and the girls' parlour 150. Five years ago Mr Gautrey was. en-, trusted with the tasic of reconstructing the premises, which had been destroyed by fire during the ministry of nis predecessor, tho Hey J. E. ' Rattonbury. In those five years tho membership has grown from 359 to 610. ■ !

Preaching at St. Ann's Church. •Manchester, recently, Bishop Welldon dealt with Spiritualism. He remark-

ed that certain prejudices existed in Christian minds because of the strange forms which Spiritualism was apt to assume. There was the Spiritualistic seance, with its postulate of darkness as an indispensable condition of revelation, and with utter fatuity of the revelation when it was made. Nevertheless, Spiritualism, unlike secularism, had got hold of the right end of tho stick in that it believed in the spiritual nature of man. _ He only wished Spiritualism, especially under tho guise of Christian Science,, would be true to its original principle of seeking to remedy, not only human sickness, but human sin. Ho would 'not have his hearers discredit even such evidence as was adduced for spiritual appearances, and especially the appearance of a person's spirit at the time of his death to another person. It was not unreasonable that now and again the spirit evidenced itself by actual objective appearance. It was wiso for Christians to welcome with grateful hearts whatever light might be shown and from whatever source upon man's immortality. The spirit did exercise a power over the body. They might 'go to such a place as Lourdes and see what were set before them as evidence of supernatural cures. There • was no reason to discredit them. Enthusiasm and devotion were quite strong enough in certain human beings to effect a cure of certain maladies. Tho cures brought about by Jesus Christ upon sin and suffering, whether they chose to call them supernatural or not, were the effects of His own personality, and if a personality like His wero to appear in this world again the same cures would undoubtedly be effected. When a wholly Binloss being appeared in the world of man such a being would work cures of suffering and disease.