LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3574, 12 September 1922, Page 62

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. -—The Problem of Christian Union. — For many years past religious leaders have given anxious thought to the hindrances to Christian progress arising from the disunion and often antagonism of Christian Churches, and have pondered the possibility of a union based on the acceptance by' all of a simplified creed containing only the doctrines that all churches a o ree on as pertaining to the essence of Christianity. In 1920 the heads of the Anglican Church held a conference at Lambeth to debate this question of union, and as a result issued the “Lambeth Appeal to all Christian People,” setting forth the need for Christian unity, suggesting a doctrinal basis on which it might be framed, and appealing for sympathetic cooperation in its cause. In March last a reunion conference/ representing the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches of Australia, was held at Sydney to consider the Lambeth Anneal and the question of Church urJon in all its bearings. An official report of this conference has been published (Angus and Robertson, 3s). This report contains the discussions at tile Sydney Conference, and is entitled "Australia and Reunion.” So far the question is practically limited to union of the various Protestant Churches, though the Lambeth Appeal looks to the inclusion of the two ancient Churches, Catholic and Greek, that together account for the largest number of professed Christians. Without such in elusion Christian unity can only be very partial, but in the meantime it would be ■a. gain if it could be realised for Protestant denominations. A basis of union between these alone presents sufficient difficulty, as is amply shown in the discussions at the recent conference. The Lambeth Appeal proposed as its basis acceptance of the Holy Scriptures as the rule and standard of faith, and the Nicene Creed as a formal statement of doctrine, with the sacraments of Baptism and the Communion. It also' holds as essential “a ministry acknowledged by every part of the Church as possessing not' only the inward call of the Spirit, but also the commission of Christ and the authority of the whole body,” and continues: “May 7 we not reasonably claim that the Episcopate is the one means of providing such a ministry? It is not that we call in question for a moment the spiritual reality of the ministries of those Communions which do not possess the Episcopate. . . But _ we submit that considerations alike of history and of present experience justify the claim which we make oh behalf of the Episcopate. ' This quotation illustrates the difficulties in the path of union if union is held to imply homogeneity. Non-episcopalion Christians will never be convinced that episcopacy has Gospel authority, nor that, even if, as the Appeal continues, “exercised in a representative and constitutional manner,” it is the best form of church governance. The obvious view regarding the great problem of Christian unity seems to be that it is hopeless to expect- men to think alike on questions of religious doctrine and ordinance, just as it would be to expect them to think alike on political and social questions. The Protestant Churches own the supreme authority of Scripture, but differ endlessly as to its interpretation. Then, various forms of government and observance will be congenial to different communities of Christians as best meeting their needs and ideals. The true note is struck by the closing words of the Lambeth Appeal. “We do not ask that any 7 one Communion should consent to be absorbed in another. We do ask that all should unite in a new and great endeavour to recover and to manifest to the world the unity of the Body of Christ for which He prayed.” This aspiration would be satisfied” by mutual brotherly recognition of all Christian bodies agreeing on those vital doctrines that- constitute Christainitv, full liberty being left as to doctrines" which, though important, are not vital, and as to government and observances. Such unity would allow of members of one church joining with those of another in the sacrament- of Communion, and of co-operation of both clergy and laity in all forms of Christian work. The discussions at the Sydney Conference fall under the following headings: Episcopacy, Ordination. Possibilities of Immediate Action, and The Creed. There is an appendix reviewing the progress made towards union between tile Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches. All interested in the question of Christian unity will be repaid by reading tlie thoughts on it of many religious leaders as here set- forth. The volume sent to the Witness comes from Messrs Stark and Co., Princes street. A small pamphlet on the origin of t-lie Gospels, printed by the Australian Baptist Publishing House, is sent for review. It is entitled “Contemporaneous Origin of the Gospels. (The Synoptic Problem.) A Lecture to the Students of the Missionary and Bible College, Crovdon, Svdnev N.S.W.” ' - The author maintains that the four Gospels were written during the life of Jesus Christ on earth, whereas even the more conservative Bible scholars commonly hold that they were written later, and subsequently to the, Acts and Epistles. He asks us to think what men in the position of the evangelists would do in our days, i In ", would certainly put on record the acts and savings of their Master without delay. Mr Palmer holds that the disciples were sufficiently accustomed to writing to I>. able to make rapid notes of our Lord’s discourses., arid that the discrepancies in different. Gospels about the same event or discourse are just what we might expert from independent narrators roll setting rani illy down whet specially ■truck him. Bible students will find Mr Pa liner's lecture worth reading cm u if they are not led to accept his main thesis.

“A Soul’s Comedy.” By George Stevenson. John Lane. It is quite refreshing to come on a novel absolutely free from eroticism, intrigue, or sex problem—one whose interest turns on quite other things from tlie fact of sex, which has become such an obsession in our times. There are engagements and marriages in “A Soul’s Comedy,” but there is next to no lovemaking. And the lovers are honourable, and the husbands and wives of the hook ■are uniformly faithful and mostly happy in one another. Air Stevenson is known already bv four other novels—“Topham’s Folly,” “Jenny Artwright,” “A Little World Apart,” and 'Benjy,”—all thoroughly wholesome, pleasingly fresh in conception, ai:d treatment, and. distinguished by good character drawing and genial humour. The period of the present story is shortly before the war, -and the scene is mainly the twin villages of Upper and Lower Fairthorn, Yorkshire. It opens with the induction of young Frank Uowood as vicar of the well-endowed parish of I airthorn. His “Soul’s Comedy” is serious enough, approaching tragedy at one time ; but it ends happily, and thus satisfies what has been taken as the essential distinction of a comedy; while the treatment shows tlie mixture of trivial - ; d incongruous things with grave proiileins which we are familiar with in real qfo. Frank is an orphan, who has been brought up bv bis aunt, Lady Bowood. She is the parish autocrat —a village Pope indeed, n.s another nephew terms her. I hree of her brothers are clergymen—two in the neighbourhood, one in London, — and she regards herself as truly a pillar of the church. She belongs to the oldfashioned Anglican school, and, with one of her brothers, holds approaches to Popery in abhorrence. Frank, as a delicate, rather solitary child, had an unusually strong sense of religion, of the reality of the spiritual world. The vision faded as he grew up, and he used to wonder whence it had arisen, for the religion around him was of the most conventional, lifeless order. He is still shy and diffident when he becomes pastor, and lets his aunt dissuade him from his intention of instituting early communion services in Fairthorn Church. But he is still deeply in earnest about religion and his duties to his parishioners. What troubles- him is that no one seems to have any need for religion except as supplying practical social needs. A young farmer falls ill of pneumonia, and is given up. Frank calls to see him, but is not- admitted. A visit from a clergyman might only upset the patient,, says the young mans mother-in-law. “You can’t do him any good, and you might do him harm.” Frank’s cousin, much to the disgust of his Popery-hating father, has become a member of a High Church brotherhood in the vicinity. Their vows are not binding, as he explains to Frank, and later he avails himself of his liberty to quit the brotherhood and marry. Frank meanwhile allows himself to’he manoeuvred by his aunt into an engagement with Hugh’s sister Phyllis, though he had been rather averse from the idea of marriage. However, the two love one another, and are very happy for a time. Then trao-edv comes m the sudden -death of their 'first baby. Phyllis had previously hurt- Frank by her utter want- of any ’ sense of the spiritual reality of religion: now she renounces religion absolutely.' “Show me a faith which explains pain,” she says to her husband, “and I will accept” it.” Frank has previously been startled hv the views of Phyllis’s father, the London rector. Having heard Frank deliver an Easter sermon, he counsels him to avoid dogma No man of science would have believed a word of his sermon. “But don t you ?” asked Frank. The vicar looking round as if to make-sure no one was within hearing, answered impressively, 1 believe in these things as symbols, notas facts” “Even the resurrec- ,! on •,, Frank. “Even the resurrection, said the rector, though in a whisper Frank, surrounded with evidence of the hollowness of the religion of his own people, is drawn towards Catholicism. He. has already come in contact with members of a lately-established monastery near Fairthorn, and has centrasted their certitude and earnestness with the vacillation and insincerity around him. Ihe young widow of the farmer to whose deathbed he had been refused admittance, a sensitive, spiritual creature became a Catholic and joined a sisterhood The Catholic religion, she tells b rank, explains life and death. In a book of another kind Frank would have been made to fall in love with this voium " idow, who is so much more congenially minded than the woman he does marry we like it all the better that neither "of them has -any idea of such a thine. Before long Prank s decision is taken • he resqgns his living and becomes a Catholic. i- - v , *?.’ f !n s PRe of her renunciation or belief was quite ready to continue bong a model clergyman’s wife, is at first indignant. “Lou are mad,” she tells her husband : and n e has a time of hard trial -hough this is but. lightly touched upon bv the author. But Phyllis still loves her /.a.‘-band, and m time romes to see as he part froni them happy in one another. Phyllis no longer regretting the PO'-itim, Of prestige she had enjoyed in ITb'b’n'"; "’ here hor brother Hugo and Ins wife now reign. “Miracles r Vm ''in' '" N ' J faitb w one and m e anot.il, r Ihe book shows the weak-m;-s of Anglican liberalism, and indeed V.. t,: " 'A ,lenl T nt '» :l!l the churches. Ae an shown the efforts of the London 10 .’'Hi'act people to the church bv in.-,l.ug It an entertainment hall The vn-w is ready to try either a kiuematogniph or a la-'ly pro:,.-her hv wav of -,j traction. Hugh, after his renunciation 'of the monkery, expounds to Frank the urrioet liberty enjoyable within the Anglican foil. “Yon can think anythin,.- you like believe what you like, live as you like.’ . . . Of course, there are always people who will call 0,,r liberty chaos.”' 1