ECCLESIASTICAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8581, 1 June 1891, Page 3

ECCLESIASTICAL.

" PROFESSOR - HEN'.'Y DRUMMOND AND HIS *' 'WRITINGS." '. An address on the above subject was given last evening, to young men, in Sb/ Stephen's, Ponsonby, by the Rev. T. P. Robertson. Ib is of special interest, owing to Mr. Robertson .being an - acquaintance of Professor Drummond, and a. fellow-sttfdenb ab '• one time with him in* the Glasgow Theological Club. , ■ ' ;He said an address of ; this kind was somewhat unconventional on a Sunday night; bub we must nob be slaves ;of conventionality. That was one of Drummond'3 special lessons to young men. The free loving • spirit of -. God may work", through Scriptural truths presented in this form as surely ras through , the exposition *of a - text. The Spirit delights in the living epistles of Christ as welt as in the written • epistles of ; Apostles. : Fear not; we shall not put even ; Henry Drummond, much as we love him, between you and Christ; The earnest, ; modest man, could nob endure that for ,a ' moment. But we seem to see him by our side, as we knew him in the Old Country; tall, slender, fair, every inch a frank,' genial, generous young man and perfectj. gentleman, pleading with you to become 1 true men and Christians by personal- love' and obedience to Christ. His aim, then,; that night, was very practical, not literary or critical. : Anything of that kind must come in by the way. Henry Drummond: has clung to Christ through peculiar temptations. - Poverty and hardships are schools enough, but they give motivesfor effort which easy circumstances in youth may withhold from us. How many sons of successful settlers are spoiled by comforts and luxuries. ; In spite of the success' of the well-known families of the Drummonds of Stirling, Henry Drummond has been a hard working student of nature, of books, and of the Bible. The temptations of his religious: experience and surroundings also have been overcome. Our religious surroundings may be too cold. His, in early life, he suspected, were too warm. The atmosphere of the Stiring Tract Society might have choked the life of the lad, with its noble evangelicalism spoiled by a narrow theology, and with 'its genial Christian love mingled with the fires of Topheii. . His intense love of nature, and Robertson, of Brighton; saved him. He rebelled against seventeenth century theo-J logy, but pot against Christ; and by-and-by he was wonderfully brought back to theology.again. As one who has clung to the Eternal Rock in the shipwreck of many traditional ideas, lie would say ' " Cling, brother, cling to Christ !" He has been greatly honoured by his Master through' engaging in earnest, humble Christian work. German professors live too much apart from practical life, hence many of their wild speculations. Cloister Christians too are unreal, unhealthy. Drummond avoided this danger. ~ While teaching his students geology, 1 botany, 'biology, during the week, 'he was building up a church of workingmen. on "Sunday, as the humblest home' missionary. He would not accept ministerial license. The Confession of Faith is too narrow, too definite,, too minute for him. It; is a terrible barrier in the way of the most thoughtful, earnest youths entering the Presbyterian Church' in Scotland, and he (the speaker) supposed everywhere. The .' science teaching and Sunday teaching began to mingle. The addresses 'to working ■ men make up the chief portion of 'his book on " Natural Law in the Spiritual World." ' After publishing lie went* to Africa, delighting to trace the footsteps of Livingstone, and .to : study nature on, virgin soil. . His book on Africa is more captivating than an interesting' novel. ,Ho discovered in a tent in Africa the wonderful success and fame of his first j volume. :" But neither praise nor detraction I can cool his evangelistic fervour. Hundreds I of the students,: of Edinburgh especially, look to him as to an elder brother, who has •led their feet into 1 the way of life. As the friend and companion ,of the ' late, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Aberdeen, he has an: entrance to the so-called "upper circles," and an open door for' the Gospel among .the rich and ;titled; He is not vain about his writings. - He never poses as a proud, vain dogmatic philosopher and | theologian. >He the speaker had marvelled at his meekness, and humility, when under criticism ;in f, the Theological M Club. - ,He has ' appeared, as a dove 'Among " daws,' Dr. Dods alone defending him. V.. He has learned much from Dr. Dods, specially a habit of speaking or writing to the point under consideration, excluding all else for" the time being ; a habit that has brought Dods into trouble, and that has caused, Drummond also to be suspected by the socalled orthodox. But, never mind, they would suspect not only an evil angel with a false gospel, but that angel seen in holy vision ; with the everlasting gospel for men. : Drummond found " the reign of law ",' everywhere in spiritual- experience. In nature, - even in political economy, and amidst all the complexity—as Herbert Spencer seeks' to prove our social life.: It was surely at least a beautiful thought to discover law in the apparent chaos of our religious life. He may not -prove identity. He certainly reveals'a wonderful similarity, between the phenomena of the natural and spiritual life. He knew no.better book for young ' men. • The chapters on growth.' mortification, conformity to type, and Para-• sitism, %rip mind, heart, conscience. They would make strong, healthy, thoughtfulindependent Christians out of you. His conceptions of "environment" are worth mastering in , the problem of life and death. . His brief addresses on Christian experience lately published are truly beautiful. The style seems a combination of Emerson, Ruskin, and Robertson's letters. The contents are truly scriptural. The greatest, thing in the world," cry some, has no atonement in it. What folly, when in its paffes Christian love to God and man is traced directly, to the Cross. He rejoiced that 300,000 of : this work was scattered: through the world. It must help to bring about the Christian unity our hearts desire. " Pax Vobiscum" is a slight effort, yet most useful. ' He dies nob pretend to expound the way of lost to the vuiforgiven, but the only way 0:' rest in the Christian: life. ' We must take the joys of life and the burdens of existence as Christ took them, in a meek and lowly spirit, ere wo find rest to our soul?. In a postscript to the third edition he has warned us that his views on the "prior and always greater question; of sin" - arc not found here, nor any exposition of rest for sin-laden, weary souls. Bub in pointing oub bo Christians the law of cause and effect in the Christian life—of rest from learning; of Christ—lie has done good service. The Changed Life brings the Christian face bo face with ; Christ for sanctification. Our souls, as Paul is expounded, is a mirror to reflect : the rays of Christ's glorious character ; more . than a mirror too, for we must retain them and be transformed in character by them. He rejoiced in the gold Hjine found by v Henry Drummond in his briefest writings. •; Tho money will not bo abused. His passionate love for young men makes him invite his students to the country to.study nature and find health. 1 He will find way's and means of aiding others by increasing wealth. The joy of giving is'more to him than any pleasure in finding riches.

" MAN'S PLACE;IN NATURE." . : v. '-} The Rev. H, J. - Lewis, of tho Congregational Church, Newton, gave a lecture las; ovening, on tho abovo subject, from tho passage in Lite Psalms, " What is Man ?" He said he knew that while man had certain characteristics in common with other animals, he had also certain peculiar characteristics of ..his own, by which there is "a great gulf fixed" between him and thorn. Comparing man with the animals mosifc nearly allied to him* they would find between him and the highest of them certain' great chasms which 110 discovery of science had yet bridged. He differed in erectness of gait, in size and weight of brain; and tho number and intricacy of its convolutions in power of speech, in sense of personality, of conscience, and will. All these wero "great unbridged chasms" between man and tho lower, > animals, and which shows man to bo .an. heir .of immortality. The speaker amplified these points at considerable length ; but; said the agnostic, there is no positive proof of : the existence of a spirit world. lie replied if by positive proof was meant an intellectual demonstration as irresistible as a proposition in Euclid, the agnostic was right. But then if that was tho only positive proof, then we had no positive proof of the reality of the beauty they saw in a landscape, or heard , in an oratorio, or felt in love. They could not write out a cast iron -.' demonstration of the reality of the: beauty of the panorama that lay before them ou the top of Mount Eden,

when sky and sea were flooded with sunlight; or of the richness and compass and flexibility. of , the human voice when they listened to singing such as had been * holding thousands.of men and women spoil-bound night after night during the 1 past week, or of the love that looked down from a young mother's eyes on her first-born babe. If anyone asked him what was the. proof of the reality of these things, he replied the effect they exercised on our nature, and the proof of ; the reality of the spirit ;world was ,the effect the ■ thought of it exercised on our nature. The full illustration of this point, would carry him beyond the province of the present lecture, ; Ho. asked each of them to follow out for themselves the 'thought of the light, which the belief; in God casts on the three darkest mysteries of human life—temptation, sorrow, death. The proof of the reality of the spirit world was its power to lift the bereaved from the abyss of deep sin to the sunlit peak of hope, and that was what it was " doing every day. Last Wednesday week*one of the most honoured of Auckland's citizens was followed to the grave by a, long line ; of mourners who buried him not with groans of despair, but" with songs of triumphant hope. The influence of the Christian faith kept their hearts from breaking. Ib * is; a fact that man has personality, conscience, will. It is a fact that personality, conscience, will, are not animal appetites. It is a fact that the man who possesses them is a spiritual being, ■ and belongs to a spiritual order. The constitution of man's nature was the best clue to his origin. As surely *as 1 his body showed traces 'of its origin from the world of matter, v. so : surely did the spirit show traces of I its descent from the world of spirit. There are divine elements in man. There are human elements in God, and the two meet in the GodMan. In the incarnate God was brought down to earth, and man lifted up to Heaven. : There .-i was . the secret of ' man's dignity, the explanation of his, origin, the revelation of his dignity.

Mr. R. J. Sayce, of the Society of Friends, delivered an address : last I evening fits the evangelistic services, held in tho City Hall, from ■ Isaiah ■ i., 18. Mr. Brakenrig presided. There was a large attendance, principally of' men.