off THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12240, 8 April 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

off THINGS IN GENERAL.

A SOLEMN FARCE, speeches of the Hon. W. Hall-Jones, the Minister for Public Works, have a sort of ' scina for me. I always read them with • Lrest expecting to find something out of !he common in them, and I am seldom disointed. We were all touched the other 5 bv his deep concern for the lot of the oor lone widows, to whom he thinks a d slice of future surpluses should go, 3 neb Mr. Seddon in announcing his proh. hie surplus the other day seems to have ilored bis colleague's kindly suggestion. i'rlnips he had warned good Mr. Hall-Jones to beware of the widows.' The Minister for Public Works seems to have taken his chief's !• 1 for in his latest utterance he left the IndowS severely alone, and dealt with rail*iy constructionmuch less interesting, though much more necessary. His answer to the Dunedin deputation was a gem of solemn nonsense. Looking gravely through his spectacles he told that deputation which came hungering for railways, that "it was lv a question of time, and that resolved itself into a question of money." One would think that the people had been running away with the idea that railways are builtin no time, and with no money. Of course, it is a question of time and money, but surely it was a waste of time and money for business men to go to the Minister in order to bear such silly platitudes. He also informed the deputation that the less money spent on come lines the more there would be for others. 1 expected him to go on to say that if a boy had two apples, and if some one gave him two more he would have four provided he did not eat any of them— and if you took one away he would have one less. Yet this Dunedin deputation seem to have drunk in every word, and went away quite satisfied - that they had done a good afternoon's work ; and tliey were so fully occupied with the Ministerial statement that they did not notice the sly Ministerial wink to the weary Ministerial secretary, whose duty it is to flatter deputationists by ostentatiously pretending to take notes of their representations. What a solemn farce it all is ! Mr Hall-Jones need not trouble to come to Auckland to tell us that railway construction is a matter of time. A glance at the North Island Main Trunk, the North Auck Jand, and other Northern lines, makes this only too painfully clear. It is indeed a matter of time, and a very long time too; and very much a matter of money, for to getmoney for the North is like getting blood out of a stone. However, we can console ourselves with the thought that all things come to the man that waits—if he waits long enough; and if we can't keep above ground until the train runs through from Auckland to Wellington, our children, or at any rate our children's children may possibly live to see that day. " GOOD FRIDAY.

The day after to-morrow will be Good Friday. It will be observed by the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches as the most solemn day of the Christian year, ami has been so observed from very early times. It is spoken of as the Paschal Day by early Christian writers, but in later ages it was chiefly known as the Day of Preparation, or the Day of our Lord's Passion. In early English times it was known as Long Friuay, but its present appropriate name is the one by which it has now been known for many centuries. But apart from its more sacred aspects many quaint customs have become associated with Good Friday. Even riowa days many-households in rural parts of England preserve the flood Friday bun for luck until another is made in the following year. The crossed bun is thought to preserve the house from many evils, more especially that of fire. The kept bun is also said to cure all manner of diseases in men and cattle. When used as a remdy it is usually grated into a warm drink or mash, and administered towards night. Its supposed efficacy probably arose from the mystic cross it bears, which •also prevents it, according to popular belief, .from going mouldy. Hence the lines in Poor Robin's " Almanack : " — Good Friday comes; the old woman runs With one a penny, two a penny, hot cross hois." Whose virtue is, if yon believe what's said, They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread. Whatever of religious ceremonial may be neglected on Good Friday, the custom of eating hot cross buns is not likely to be over- ' looked. Ktiil. enthusiasm in this particular has considerably declined in England since the days when Mrs. Hands kept the'Chelsea Bun House, at the corner of Jews'-rownow Pimlico Road. So many people were in the habit of flocking there on Good Friday in order to eat hot cross buns that on one occasion 50,000 persons assembled there, and £250 was taken' in the day for buns alone. After thio the inhabitants of Chelsea protested against the noise and disturbance thus caused, and Mrs. Hands, fearing to be restrained by the law, issued in 1793 a quaint proclamation, stating how "... desirous, therefore, of testifying her regard and obedience to those laws by which she is ' happily protected, she is determined, though . much to her loss, not to sell cross buns on '■ that day to any person whatever, but Chelsea .buns as usual." This Mrs. Hands was some--1 thing of a character in her own way. The Royal Family and many of the aristocracy used to visit her in the mornings, and Queen Charlotte even presented her with a silver half-gallon mug containing five guineas. Sufferers from rheumatism who believe that they will be cured of their aches through wearing a certain kind of metal ring, would be surprised perhaps to hear that they are keeping alive an old superstition that owed its origin to one of the ceremonies performed on Good Friday The ceremony was: called the Blessing of" the Cramprings, and was carried out by the King himself, who went into his private chapel, accompanied only by his Grand Almoner, crawled on hisknees to the crucifix, and there blessed a ■ silver bowl full of gold and silver rings. These rings were afterwards distributed to people who were afflicted by rheumatism or epiiensy. The idea is supposed to have originated in a certain ring given by a pilgrim to Edward the Confessor, which was kept in Westminster Abbey, and used as a cure for such ills.

THE KAISER AND THE CRITICS. , : The extracts published in the Herald .the ; other day regarding the Kaiser's views von J .. tie Higher Criticism and Professor Har- ' nack" dignified comments thereon, interested ['' me greatly. Whenever I read of what the '£": German Emperor is doing I always ask myI V'; se.i what this remarkable man will do next, iv. but to, answer that question would puzzle a I- r prophet. As an English newspaper puts it, ( this versatile ruler, from drawing up tabu- | . .... lated statements of the strength of the Brill" tish navy, passes without any sense of incongruity to make public his opinion on the W . effect of Babylonian discoveries upon the is, general view of the Bible as an inspired v: book. But in questions of history and scientific theology there is no royal road to know- '.', ledge, and the opinions of kings and em- ,'., Peiors must be taken just for what they are ' worth; or as Professor Harnack in his ',' courageous replv puts it: "On such delicate and sacred subjects no word of command can , be issued, nor 'can theology neglect questions of this nature which demand for their con--1 sideration earnestness and liberty of judgment." It is just such wise words as these • that one would expect from Dr. Harnack, ; ; ; who has won for himself a world-wide re- > putation as one of the finest types of modern '. Biblical critics. Many English people are ~/ inclined to regard all German critics with :•-. suspicion, but Dr. Harnack, though he would not perhaps wish to be regarded as an orthodox divine in the English sense, has been , ' working his way back from the revolutionary ' Tuitions of the school which dominated , German theology some 30 years ago ; and his ' conclusions in°his "Chronology of Early Christian Literature," are the more interest- • ing because he does not start from the point * ■ ?f, view of the Church tradition. In semi-, ing his " Chronology " to the Dean of Westminster he wrote that he hoped that as to , its main positions they (himself and - the ' ', ■Dean) would find themselves in agreement, V , a nd that differences would henceforth appear in the interpretation of . the books rather than in the problems of their date and authenticity. • Such a measure of agreement between two great Higher Critics, one of thp. English and the other of the German school, ? significant. '•"■■ ,: " ' " t "" '

HIGHER AND LOWER CRITICISM nJ a tW g + £- the Higher Criticism, reminds used but httle understood. I feel sure that if In llt ?V n , dmtood - J feel street J . - Sked the aVerae an in the sheet what is meant by the Higher Criticism you would put him in a bit of a quandary. The general impression is that L n-u° me !, t0 do with discrediting case r l % B " 1 t ° f , C l,rSe SUch is » ot «ie case. Dr. Sanday, the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford, ha! recently put the matter so simply and so clearly that his definition is worth giving He says the criticism of any work of antiquity fliSir^" ° l ancLe 7 Which are ' commonly distinguished as the Lower Criticism and ' he Lower Criticism With the .smaller questions of words and text its problem is to determine as "T"; y a^ -«. b what - the author really wrote. J.he Higher Criticism deals with the larger questions of authorship, date sources, composition, literary and historical character. Its problem*is to set the writing in its place among other writing : to determine where it comes in place and time, and what are the relations of the parts that compose it to the whole, and what are the relations both of,the parts and the whole to the surrounding literature and history, that is, broadly? to the intellectual, and in the case of the New testament to the religious conditions of the time. lhe names Higher and Lower Criticism are not altogether fortunate, for it leads the unwary to take the Lower Criticism as meaning the inferior and the Higher as meaning the superior Branch of the science. The Lower Criticism is apt to seem a work of drudgery; but it is better to dismiss any such associations as these and to treat the two departments as being what they are. simply two branches of one science that come into the days work each in its turn, 'it is just as well to have these matters properly defined, so that when we, the non-experts", talk on such high themes, we may know —more or less—what we are talking about. TEACHING OF ■ HISTORY. I am sorry to find that, according to a recent report placed before the Board of Education, only "fair work is being done in the .teaching of history," and that one inspector says it is "poorly known, in most schools," while in other schools history is being dropped. By a capable and sympathetic teacher history could be made the most interesting and instructive, morally and mentally, of all the subjects taught in our schools. In the absence of definite religious teaching the moral judgments of history are invaluable for the purpose of character building, and how can children be expected to love their country- if they do not know that country's history?- Should not the heirs of all the ages know something of their marvellous heritage. A great modern historian has pointed out that the student of history must work out for himself some definite idea of the characters of the great men of the period he is employed upon. The scenes of history cannot be realised, the lessons cannot be learned, if the actors are looked upon merely as puppets. A living interest must invest those who played a part in making the world what it 'is; those whose very existence has left indelible traces on its history must 'have had characteristics worthy 'of the most careful investigation. And this personal history, the story of living men and women, is what children can understand and be interested in. Of course there are some who contend that history can all be explained beforehand, being merely the resultant of certain known forces. This theory of course overlooks human .free will, but Dr. Stubbs, whose judgments on historical characters are so impressive and conscientious, scorns such impersonal views of history. He says:—"lt would, I am aware, be more in accordance with the philosophy of history to base the relations which subsisted between England and France during the later middle ages upon general principles by a reference to those general laws which are so convenient a revelation in the ignorance of facts; by adducing the natural antagonism between insular and continental nations, between Teutons and Celts, between trading and agricultural peoples; or the jealous rivalry which is, of course, the normal condition of States, which, having no common object of ambition, are always in active competition ; or any of the elaborately ingenious arguments which are so apt to show that all things would have been exactly as they are if everything had been diametrically opposite to what it was." The General.