The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY; JUNE 22, 1911: HAROLD BEGBIE'S RECENT BOOK.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12766, 22 June 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY; JUNE 22, 1911: HAROLD BEGBIE'S RECENT BOOK.

' Ik the Hand of the Potter is ono of the two latest books from the swift pen of Harold Begbie, the London journalist and novelist. ; It. was the theme of the address in the local Baptist Char^h. lugestre Street, on Sunday night. Mr Wilson mostly occupied1 his time with : Begbie's able and .thoughtful' introduction, and stated that though in disagreement, with the author on one doctrinal point, ho would heartily ' commend the book, which was procuraible at the local booksellers. It is a companion volume to the remarkable book written last-year, " Broken Eai'thenware." Referring to -that book the Anglican Bishop oi London in commending it said, " Your sceptical.-friend has got to answer this book of '.modern miracles." " Broken EarthenSvare." is said to have been.the most widely discussed book for many years. In that work described as "The book that was written with a burning pen.'' the testators were all men of the humblest classes in the community, some of them the very lees and dregs of society. In the present book most of the stories-concern ..women, and in all cases the strata of society is above the depths. Mr. Begbie, who had made some mark as n writer fer the "London Times'' and other newspaperSj has achieved a distinct success as a writer of fic£ion. He paused to write two books of wonderful fact. The two books abr>ve referred to are therefore not novels, but substantiate the remark often made that " truth is stranger than fiction. .As the address on Sunday night pointed out the books are upon the fines of modern psychology, which has caused " the fact of conversion. to be a matter not only "of the theological hall, but of science. The piling up of one modern miracle, upon another in the testimony —of transfigured lives of men and women is an jirgument of the most powerful kind for Christianity This reminds one of the-remark in "Ecce Homo* — "When ■'the'church loses the power to. save the lost, it ceases to be the church." The jitirpo.se of the book ; then, as Mr. Begbie says, is to ; show by the various testimonies that the evidence of the Divine origin of Christianity must be found in changed lives and that these results aro in-constant evidence where Christianity is alert and alive. He insists that Christianity must be unwavoringly and authoritatively declared to be a miracle'working religion; a religion able to cleanse the heart and convert the sotil of even the most' degraded human being. If this docs not eventuate, its inevitable tendency will bo toward the tmprofitable region of speculation. There its light, which-has for so long lightened the world, will surely flicker miserably away, for some generations at least, into the shadows and dispensable mysticism of an inadequate theology. "To make Christianity, as is the tendency in these present times, something so common and compromising that a man may get through the experience of life almost as avcll without it as with it, to make it a bracket in religion with Hinduism, and a conjugation in philosophy with Platonism, not to insist upon it as something sole, single, and sublime, not to declare that it makes a unique demand and confers an exclusive benefit —this is most surely to darken the light of-the world, and to turn men shelterless again into 'the night of Paganism. It is to destroy Christianity. Christianity, irresistible as a religion, is vulnerable at every point as r, philosophy." The introduction .0f the book, jvhile of course not so arrcstive and interest-compelling as the narratives, is bracing and live writing.' He deals well with las comparison between Buddhism and Christianity and in other parts spares neither the dbc-trino.-drugged. pn>fossol \ nor the sacerdotal enthusiast. " Unconsciousk." says he, " and with all mistaken sreal. than enthusiasts for sacerdotalism have'obscured tho light of the'world. While they should have been seeking and saving tho lost, they have been altering tho fashions in church millinciy and composing a now etiquette foi \hc altar. While they should have been turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, they 1-avo been searching the musty service books of mediaeval ism for a new cringe " He goes on to say that unless proofs of Christipnity of an incontestable kind can be brought to the heart und understanding of men, they will persist -in regarding Christianity as only ono out of many religions; only as one of many superstitions, or as only

a philosophy which may or may not be a good g'.iess at the truth of things. Is it possible for Christianity to givo such proofs? The body of the book is an answer. Christianity, he declares in triumph, as he with fine delicate touch and strong skill sets forth his characters in their death • grapple with vice—Christianity does what it is dcc.lared to be able to do and what no other religion and no arm of science can achieve. The graphic life pictures in this book are selected from the great work' carried on by the West London Mission, so closely associated with the lamented Hugh Price Hughes. It is impossible to read of the sisters of our race, some-so deeply fallen, without a heart of deepest pity and a. deeper understanding of the cruel hand of circumstances roughly holding them down in their pit of shame and woe. "The harlot's cry from street to street

"The harlot's cry from street to street Shall weave old England's winding-

sheet; rliie winners' shdut, the losers' curse, Shall*dance before- dead England's hearse."

Just to touch ono of the life stories: " After her betrayal for six years she walked the hard London streets. One night, tired of walking up and down the crowded streets, sick of looking up with forced invitation .at every face she passed, the poor weary girl, making sure that no policemen were about, went and stood for mere rest of body in ono of the doorways of Piccadilly. As she. stood there, a woman walking slowly along the thinning pavement;, suddenly paused, and then quietly approached her.. She was dressed in uniform, and carried, a single flower in Her i hand. It, was Sister Mildred of the West London Mission. . . .The Sister, came close to her.; 'This is my last flower,' she .said; 'would you like it?' The girl in the doorway took the simple gift and said, 'It's six years sim.»> I was given a flower.' Then she added, It's six years since a. respectable woman spoke to me.' The Sister looked, at her ■'''Who gave yoli the flower six 'years'ago'?' 'The Sister who was "hero before you.' 'And you are still ''here?' 'Yes. still here" 'You arc not vory happy: can .1 do- anything for you?' „ 'No: .tliere'is nothing, to be done.' 'Perhaps there is f think about, it at any rate; yon know where I am to bo found, don't you? Come and see me some day; como to tea. with me.' The Sister passed on ; the, worn mi returned to her lodging, ( looking for business, with the flower in her hand.

.;,. , When she woke in the morning tho first thing tor'meet her gaze was the fiowet of Piccadilly. She looked au it, let her eyas . ; rest npoii it and ,betamo gradually aware Hurt "she was ihterested only in one thing about ifo: The flower was white. The idea of this whiteness pervaded • her coiiseiousness. She made a contrast of the whiteness of that flower and the spreading*' ilarkness; of her own soul. She looked at the white flower .through-"-a. mist ot pain and sakl to herself: '1 wish I could be pure.' She went out into the traffic of the streets. In tlie midst or it all she was still pursued" by the thought of the white flower. It was like 'tho hound of heaven' uuescapable s.nd pitiless." For henv she sought out Sister Mildred and how she was converted and transfigured, the reader Is referred to the book itself.