RELIGIOUS PROGRESS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1921, 15 May 1913, Page 4

RELIGIOUS PROGRESS.

In a new magazine called Faith and Doubt, published in England, are some excellent articles on religious topics. The views expressed are interesting because they tend to indicate th>>t among christian nations generally there is a profound moral and religious awakening. It is rather a welcome change from the pessimis m of tbe pulpit. A declining church membership is too often taken to be an indication of a falling away from faith <md a lack of interest in things spiritual; whereas it ma? be tbe result of a deeper, more critical study, and analysis of personal religion. This forward movement referred to by the writers in Faith and Doubt, is not measured by church statistics. In regard to America for instance the writer who deals with that country says "The outstanding fact in the religious life of this country at the present moment is the increased critical knowledge of the Bible among scholars. . Iho American people are making up their minds whether they will be a highly religious people or not, it would seem. Religion may develop to be a characteristic of the national gem us. There are many things which *eem to indicate thai this will be the cage)" The German letter says:— " Kor some time past the interest in religious matters in Germany has been steadily increasing. Strange as it may seem, this increase has not in the least bean due to the societies or groups or agencies that in general are considered as the originators of revival movements. It is remarkable evidence of the way in which Providence wo k"- out its p'ans even out applying to th > e who may suppose that they are the only proper organs of its act'on. The most distinctly vi-ib e and audible prom oter of a renewed gen -a! interest in religion la widbi districts among intelligent people WdS not a theologian at all. >nd;ed. he was a professor of phiiosophy at Huideiberg. . In Germany to-day the number of people who are reading religious writings, listening to sermons and to religious addresses, and taking part in debates about religion, is very large." Professor Paul Sobatier writes of France: "We find ourselves to-day in the presence of ttie beginning of a profound moral and religious awakening. The soul of the French people is weary of tbe obvious superficiality of rationalism and ti ed of those reformers who, while they p-oudly call themselves free-thinkers, a e full of intolerance and void of thought. . . • The

tendency in my country, though it is still subconscious, is to become more thoroughly aware of our secular, moral, and /eligiou? tasks, in the belief thai these tasks will constantly enlarge. Nob to abjure the past, to march ahead vigorously toward the future, this, it seems to me, is the dominant purpose we find to-day in our scientific and literary activity, and in our poiisical life as well. From this point of view our notion of dogma transforms i'self. It loses its character of absolute metaphysics and tationalism to assume an his/ toricct, bu.. at the same time a relative, eal, an>! living character."