THE CHURCHES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16606, 18 July 1914, Page 8

THE CHURCHES.

VISIT OF MR DAN CRAWFORD. ' MISSIONARY, EXPLORER AND' AUTHOR. Mr Dan Crawford, F.R.G.S., the famous Central African missionary, explorer and author, who is expected to arrive in Ohristchurcli this morning, has had a romantic and adventurous career, and has seen sights which fall to the lot of few white men in these modern'days. A test on the wall of his mothers cottage, written in the handwriting of David Livingstone, burned its way deep into his soul, and led him to resolve to devote his life to Africa. The text ran: " God had only One Son, and He made Him a foreign missionary." When a youth of nineteen, contrary td the advice of friends, he went to Africa, with the fixed purpose tp reach the place which was Livingstone's objective on his last tragic .journey. The new arrival was entirely without and was broken in health. In the wake of,a caravan of Portuguese slave-catchers ho bored into the interior, living on the produce of his gun, on the food left over by monkeys (who are dainty eaters and know by instinct a wholesome from a poisonous forest fruit), or as the guest of barbarians and cannibals. This probably was the making physically of the daring Scottish youth. For Mr Crawford declares that "to bo much in Africa, Africa must bo much in you." In other words, an imported diet is often fatal, while an African dietary is wholesome and safe. As a rule the African forest is a dependable butcher's shop, gamo being plentiful. But when anything goes wrong with the seasons, famine soon stalks through the land. At such times Mr Crawford has been reduced to the necessity of a diet of grass seeds, which he has eaten made into a form of porridge. Clothing is another problem of life in Central Africa. native's garment is his good black skin. When Mr and Mrs Crawford's boots gave out. they made their own from; antelopes' skins, and their head covering was of African grass. Their wardrobe was occasionally replenished by the welcome gift of an article from the scanty store lof the occasional traveller. He and Mrs Crawford also learned to weave a I coarse African cloth, which did them j service for outer garments. For twenty-three consecutive years Mr and Mrs Crawford continued-their 1 work in Central Africa, and during this I time saw few white people, ana few I of the symbols of the great outside | civilised world reached them on those \ lonely frontiers. But they lived a strenuous and acutely intellectual life. Mr Crawford became master of thirteen languages. He created for. the Bantu tribes a written language; and translated into it the Bible. He built schools, constructed roads, planned model native houses and superintended their erection. It was only a combination of political circumstances which: demanded a visit to London that led j them to emerge from _ the " long grass," as Central Africa is termed by j tho natives. Mr. and Mrs Crawford _ arrived at I the mouth of the Zambesi about ejgh- j teen months ago,, and in a few weeks'j time were in London, where the change 1 ? of twenty-three years made,a great.impression on the visitors. A lecturing tour through .the United Kingdom followed; and overflowing iudiencas greeted the .speaker at' each meeting place. Mrs Crawford, who had received a medical training in Glasgow, then decided to remain in England, and her husband"., continued his journey "to America, where the same triumphal tour took place. The. lecturer is stated to have thrilled the people by his picturesque addresses, and is claimed to j lie the .best missionary speaker ever heard in tho Anglo-Saxon tongue. As an author Mr Crawford ranks high. Tlie success of his remarkable book. " Thinking Black," issued during his visit to London, was shown by the fact that, though a large first, edition had been prepared, a second impression, larger stilly was called for on the day of publication. Most of the manuscript was written in' the flare of ; African camp firos.'and it contains an! account of the twenty-two years' ex-1 perienco in Central Africa of himself, and his wife. The work was most fa-! yourably received by tho reviewers, and it was predicted by manv that it would take a leading place amoner ihe classicsj of missions. A second publication is- • su°d a few months ago is entitled, I "Thirsting after. God," and that also was a great success.

_Mr Crawford will remain in this city for four dnvs, and. during that t<me he will deliver lectures at the Choral Ho 11, to which there wil 1 bo no charse for admission. According to present arrnngements, the tour of the dominion .will terminate on August■ 2. when he will sail for Tasmania, and then visit the cities of the Commonwealth. When he leaves Australia he is to inept his wife in South Africa, and together they will again enter tho " long grass " in thin interests of the Christiau relitrion. They intend never to return to civilisation, but will live the romninder of their lives in Darkest Africa, preaching the faith they love so well. s ! DID JESUS »t«W p RO M THE . DEAD? j ADDRESS BY MR RALPH GEBBIE. j Preaching at Moorhouse Avenue Church of Christ on Sunday evening, Mr Ralph Gebbie said that Strauss, an eminent theologian, had •: declared that the resurrection was the t touchstone of j Christianity. All .Christendom was! astray, continued the speaker, if Christ had not risen from the dead. One of the most plausible books written in modern times against Christianity devoted only nine and a half pages out of 408 to the resurrection, although everything rested upon this vital question. I Some opponents of Christianity sought to prove that Christ was a myth, but there was no historian to-day who would stake his' reputation by asserting that Jesus never lived. It was a matter of history that He was delivered by Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judaea, to be crucified.

It had been said that theologians, when dealing with the resurrection, no longer argued from the empty tomb. That statement was not correct, said the speaker. The empty tomb had to bo reckoned with. If Jesus did not rise from tho dead, what became of His bociv? Renan's hypothesis was that the bodv was taken away by some of the disciples and carried by them into Galilee, that those disciples who remained in Jerusalem did not know it, and that consequently they circulated the storv that Christ had risen. But it was impossible to carry the body some sixty miles without any", of those through whose country it passed being aware of the fact. Besides, it the. body had been stolon, the disomies at Galileo would hare told the other disciples at Jerusalem. Then, again Renan supposed that the Jews might have stolen the body, but had that been so thov would have admitted it on-the day of Pentecost. All that they had to do was to exhibit the bodv to prove that Chvisf.hnd not risen. It required more crcdulitv to believe R<mans story than to believe that Christ rose from ■ the deJ Mr Gobble contended that the disc pies could < not possibly have had any motive for deception. Much had said about these men not possesstion was not required to enable them *° SefitSfiS' »ad been ad- %^\^™&£™ ZhL imp**™ •«w° n :Bu *****

as to make them believe He had risen from the dead. As against this, however, Strauss emphatically declared that it would be absolutely* impossible for Jesus, weak as He was, to have made that impression on His disciples. They believed in His resurrection to such an extent that they were ready to die for their belief, which was shared by thousands of others in Jerusalem. The Apostles were . cowardly men before the resurreotion, but afterwards they were strong, stalwart defenders of Christ. How was that to be explained? The only explanation was that Jesus had risen from the dead, a fact which they preached with all the power of their. being.

CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST. RAPID PROGRESS OF, Y.M.0..A. MOYEMENT. Whilst many leaders: of religious thought in Australia and England are looking with considerable misgiving upon the manifest spirit of indifference in the community to the work of the Churches, in Japan and China many leaders in the business* life of the great cities are looking to the religious organisations to help them secure the efficiency and integrity they know to bo essential to their national life. Professor Inago Xitobe, of the Imperial University of Tokio, declared recently that the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association was realising universal brotherhood, and its religious work was uplifting the masses everywhere throughout. the Empire. In the same city §SOO post office employees have been furnished to/the Y.M.C.A., as a special school, to be taught efficiency in work and moral betterment. The Association is carrying on a big work amongst the railway men of Japan, in additiou to its city and student work. In the city of Amoy, in China, the Chinese business men expressed their willingness to do anything, even to raising £SOOO for an Association building, if a secretary was sent to them. In Nankin scholars are training their brilliant minds on the Bible. Enrolled in the Y.M.C.A. Bible classes are 151 Bachelors of Arts, six Masters of Arts, and thirty-five who have been officials. On the evening of the organisation of these classes there was, it is stated, a stampede to buy Bibles, which overwhelmed the office force.

WESLEYAN APPOINTED AN ANGLICAN CHURCHWARDEN.

. A remarkable case was heard in England last month. It is not uncommon there, for a Nonconformist to be elected or appointed an Anglican churchwarden. As parishioners they are legally members of the Church of England.' Tho legality of such appointments, however, has just been raised in the Chester Diocesan Chancellors Court, and it has been decided by Sir Philip Baker-Wilbraham in the affirmative. The rector of Thornton-on-the-Moors appointed as.his warden a Wesleyan, Mr Joseph Littler, to whom objection was made - by the people's warden and a parishioner. The Chancellor ruled that'if Mr Littler could sign the declaration with his religious views that was a matter for his own conscience, and not for the Chancellor, '"' but he was bound to hold that there was no actual disqualification for the office o 1 lug to .the mere fact that Mr Littler was a Wesleyan." Mr Littler signed the'declaration, and was declared duly admitted. ' '