RELIGION AND DOCTRINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 17

RELIGION AND DOCTRINES.

VIEWS OF BISHOPS. GRADUAL REVELATION. “ THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY.' (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 5. The Bishop of Durham (Dr H. Hensley Henson), preaching at Westminster Abbey, said that all phases of religious development co-existed in human society at any given date and probably had their representatives in every Christian congregation. It was precisely this circumstance that created for the teachers of religion the peculiar difficulty of their task. It would appear tiiat many simple Christians, more devout than well-informed, were considerably troubled in their minds when they read the notable address of the president of the British Association. So clear ana confident a declaration of faith in t.-it-Darwinian doctrine of human origin? seemed to them to conflict sharply with the first Article of the Creed. Thev had an uncomfortable suspicion that, in professing themselves Christians, they were going into opposition against the teaching of science, committing thenn selves to a position which they would not finally be able to maintain : and there were not lacking persons, claiming to speak in the name of Christianity, who confirmed their fears.

It was the will of God to make the truth about Himself known to men “by divers portents and by divers manners,’’ teaching them by graduated stages as they were able to receive His lessons. There had been an advance in spiritual apprehension, and this had reflected itself in theological belief. The same 'law of gradual revelation which governed the history of Israel had governed also the history of the Christian Church.

FUNDAMENTAL INTEREST IN RELIGION.

The Bishop of Winchester, preaching at St. Paul’s Cathedral, said that the controversies of the moment had exposed the fundamental interest of their people in religion, and, at the same time the very inadequate conceptions of God which were rife amongst us.. It was important, no doubt, that they should be aware of their animal ancestry, if only to keep them sensibly humble; but it was much more important that they should think rightly of the precious gifts in the Holy Communion. But behind all there was the idea of God, for on their ideas of God, in the long run, depended the behaviour of any generation—its neglect if order and its capacity for righteousness and truth. A few days ago a com petent observer reminded them of the necessity for speedily reaching a decision in reference to the Prayer Book, in order that the Church might give her full attention to the things that mattered more, and among them the fact that there was in soma quarters a definite repudiation, not merely of the Christian doctrine but of Christian morals. EASY TO BE OVERWISE.

The Bishop of Norwich (Dr Pollock), preaching at the Temple Church, took as his text, “ For now we see through a glass darkly,” and said that if disciples of Christ were to be banded together they must share some doctrine, and consequently a statement of that doctrine was necessary. A church which desired to unite the world in a common brotherhood must have doctrine and dogma. Dogma was only an attempt to express eternal truths in human language, but it must never be forgotten that our instruments were unequal to the task. Every lino drawn to give clearness left somethin'? beyond jt. The expression of our thoughts in formulated doctrine only approximated towards the reality, partly hiding and partly disclosing it.

We could not treat the subject as capable of proof by mathematics or science, because we were not in possession of the necessary facts. In regard to th. Sacrament of Holy Communion, our faith had always had in it an element of mystery and awe which in itself constituted a source of strength. “It is easy here to be overwise, over-clear in the terms which wc employ, to exclaim with a confident exactitude ‘ Lo, here is Christ or there,’ to circumscribe the eternal with the temporal. In this feast of fellowship we seek union with Christ, union with one another in Him, but a union not physical, but moral, not local, but heavenly, not mechanical, but spiritual.” A SERIOUS INDICTMENT.

Preaching to undergraduates at University Church, Oxford, the Bishop of London said the greatest need of the Church to-day was to retain a belief in the glory of God the Father.

“ Wo have almost entirely forgotten the splendour of God,” he said. “In the Anglo-Catholic centres of London to-day they have learnt to believe in the Blessed Sacraments, but they have forgotten to believe in God the Father.” ■ BACK TO ROME.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham, speaking at York, .said there was no dhubt that the vast majority of their fellow-countrymen were without a loader. They wanted truth, and were beginniug to see that there was something in Catholic truth after all. Members of the English Church had no definite belli f at all. They would remain in that comprehensive establishment so long as they had no definite religious belief, but they were beginning to get it in the direction of Romo. Cardinal Manning once prophesied that tho time would come when the Church of England would go to pieces on the question of the Divinity of Christ, and we were getting near that day. Cardinal Manning meant that the Catholic Church was not sufficiently strong then to step into the breach and take its place; to day it was.