SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 87, 19 April 1913, Page 8

SUNDAY COLUMN.

When is a minister “too old?” The question (writes the London Christian World) has been raised by a Bradford minister, who says the Baptist, Congregational, and Unitarian Churches arc remorseless sinners in their affront to age, insisting, when a pulpit is vacant, that only a “young man” shall be considered. • He might have added that there is the same complaint by curates in the Church of England—the man over 40 has no chance. Several ministers have expressed the opinion that the accusation is exaggerated. There is, however, some truth in it, but perhaps the churches are not entirely to blame. Age is not merely a matter of years, but of vitality. The minister past his fortieth year, with, say, 15 to 20 years of service behind him, must not allow himself to get stale. He must, amid the routine drudgery of church work, light to keep his sou! alive. There is no age at which he can afford to leave off laying in new stock and keeping his mind fresh and flexible. It does happen fairly frequently that a minister in mid-life—-and it is not peculiar to ministers—lets his enthusiasm cool down and his vision fade, and then the armchair becomes too comfortable. We have only to look around the churches, however, to find many ministers well past their sixtieth year, who are still young-hearted and young-eyed, virile and inspiring, with a knowledge of humanity and a mellowness of personal experience that make them more welcome than ever to their churches. The minister to-day muot he an adaptable man, able to lay his finger on the pulse of the age, and to adapt himself, his message, and his methods to living people of the twentieth century.

In a farewell message, published in the Sydney Central Methodist Mission newspaper, Rev. W. G. Taylor, who has just retired from the superin tendency, says: “Between 42 and 43 years ago I commenced my active ministry in these lands. To-day I retire into the restful and honourable ranks of onr supernumeraryship. Whilst full of regrets over the failures and the sins of all these yearo, yet I want to strike a joyous note of praise. Had I ray life's work to choose over again, I would elect to walk just the pathway of these 43 years. Mine has been a happy ministerial life. Sunshine best describes it. As pastor and preacher, in carrying out the discipline and the ordinances of ray Church, in the midst of many revival efforts, and in the building of many churches, I have been face to face with vast spiritual verities that give to the Christian ministry its dignity, and an influence unknown in any'other calling. For all this, I this'day, with a grateful heart, than 1 , God, and now'stand aside to allon of younger men to enter the trencher or to build the walls of our Jerusalem.”

llev. J. 0, Feetham, Bishop-desig-nate'of North Queensland, is to he consecrated by the Archbishop cl Brisbane on April 25th, arid enthroned in Townsville Cathedral on May 4th.

The London Spectator has been delivering itself on the “Problem of the Godless Good,” certainly a most perplexing one to Christians, and not perhaps capable of a quite satisfactory solution while we continue to know only in part. “Not a little of what our contemporary .says,” writes the Guardian, “will commend itself to the religiously minded. But when the writer speaks of ‘the latest discovered attribute of God, His magnanimity,' we wonder whether he holds this to he a discovery of the present age. Of course, he may think that the last word on the subject was spoken in the Sermon on the Mount, as indeed it is difficult to go higher than the spirit of St. Matthew, v. 45. Then he reckons that a ‘vast’ number of good people are not religious. We are not so sure of this. The matter must in any case remain one of opinion, and opinion depending on the conception formed of goodness. For some it must sound a contradiction in terms to hear of ‘the goodness often displayed by those who speak bitterly and scornfully not only of the Creeds of the Churches, but of the very foundations of religious thought.’ And to the extent to which such persons speak bitterly and scornfully of sacred things they cannot ho called good, while they may work far greater evd than the dissolute or the fraudulent.’

Monsignor Bonomelli, Roman Catholic Bishop of Cremona, has published a pastoral letter, entitled “The Pope and Italy, the Church and her Policy,” denying the infallibility of the church authorities in political questions, and suggesting that the Church should enter into relations with all Governments. Monsignor Bonomelli winds np by regretting the conflict of the Church with the Italian State, which causes many to believe that it is impossible for Catholics to be also good patriots, and expresses the hope that the conflict may come to an end before his death. It is expected (says The Times) that the Pope will pvt Monsignor Bonomelli’s pastoral on the Index. The grand total of the Anglican Church’s offerings in 1912 in England „r, 4:7.704,177 3s lid. a scnmwhrt smaller amount than that of 1911. accounted for largely by the fact that interest on investments is not included. The figures arc taken from officially authorised returns, ami ■ have been contributed to diocesan organisations, and raised by church collections and parochial machinery.