THE "SECOND COMING."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19691, 18 July 1927, Page 12

THE "SECOND COMING."

SYDNEY'S AMPHITHEATRE. SEATS LEASED FOR 25 YEARS. [FROM our own correspondent.] SYDNEY. July 7. At the beach at Balmoral, one of Sydney's leading watering places, is an amphitheatre which, alike for its novel architectural design and the motive which legend has built round it, has excited a good deal of attention. A cablegram concerning it has served to focus fresh attention upon it. The cablegram supports what was a fairly general belief locally, that the quaint building was erected by the Order of the Star of the East for the purpose of witnessing the second coming of Christ over the waters of Sydney Harbour. The fact that this idea is now dismissed unequivocally as fantastic and absurd will serve to divest the amphitheatre of quite a lot of the glamour which surrounded ' it, at least on the part of the general public. A largo number of the seats in the building have been leased for 25 years. Front row seats cost about £IOO each, and those in the last three rows, £lO each, with intei'mediato prices for the intervening rows. The real object of the amphitheatre, it appears, is to provide a suitable place, "ready for the Teacher to carry on His work." In other parts of the world, it is explained, theatres have been erected by the Order, to serve a similar purpose in the world teaching which, it is believed, the Teacher will carry out. Members of the Order say they feel that, by providing buildings specially erected for the reception of the Teacher and His teaching, such as the amphitheatre at Balmoral, effective service is being rendered, "as the population is led to anticipate the comirg of the Great One, and a place is ready where He can meet, teach, heal and bless the people." The fact that the amphitheatre looks out upon Sydney Heads apparently lent colour to the idea of the actual coming of Christ across the waters.