CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 2, 28 October 1892, Page 18

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From our own Correspondent.) The MostJßev Dr Grimea delivered, after a fortnight's interruption which was due to absence fro the city, on Sunday night last at the' pro-Cathedral, the fifth of the course of sermons on the existence of God. Taking for a text the words " I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth," his Lordship showed how the harmony of the universe reveals the existence of a Supreme Being to execute such a work as the marvellous world whereon we live and that the necessity of a first cause comes home to us with auch force that we are compelled to admit that something exists, and therefore as a logical consequence, God exists. The Bishop referred to a beautiful passage from the writings of St Anselm, and pointed out how each one of us bears the seal or impress of our Divine Maker-an idea which Descartes, a modern philosopher, developed 200 years ago. His Lordship proved that the idea of God is innate, that though the measure of the clearness of this idea is variable in proportion to the ignorance or other circumstances which affect different individuals, still the belief in God is found in every language. Man finds this belief planted in his heart. To Christianity we are indebted for the clearness and full consciousness we possess of this idea. The preacher showed that experience proves th«t in the case of the so-called atheists, men are superior to their own teachings, and that the contradiction between heart and lip P , conscience and act went to establish the fact, despite disorder and perversity, that truth maintains its prescriptive rights. "Go through the world," says Plutarch, " you can find cities without walls, without letters, laws, or houses, bnt yon will find none without temples, sacrifices, and a belief in God " This testimony is corroborated by ancient historians who speak of the religion of the people about whonf they write, and are unanimous in bearing witness to the belief in God's existence. Even Voltaire rose superior to his teachings, and called for a priest to absolve him in his ast illness, but his followers pievented a priest from attending to this request The Bi.hop dealt ne*t with what modern Atheists consider a formidable objection to the generpl testimony of nations in the existence of God-Buddhism, which 400 millions of people in Ati» are said to profess. The dates of the origin of Buddhism

vary, but it is generally admitted to have begun f onr centuries before the Christian era. Respecting the tenets, some of which are very beautiful, others extremely degrading, of this religion our knowledge was, until comparatively recently, confined to a little certainty and very much fiction. The preacher gave an outline of the history and teachings of Buddhism as far as can be gleaned from Asiatic tradition and formulating of those teachings which have been made since the dawn of Christianity. Buddha sought to make man happy by eliminating suffering, or rather by accustoming him to it by means of austerity, poverty, and long meditations. In apile of this he saw that sorrow weighs men down. He falsely imagined sorrow, suffering, and existence were one and the swe thing, and he taught that man should ahorten life, giek after annihilation, and through a series of perfections, attain to nihilism. The main principal of his teaching is to regard human existence as a curse to be evaded and to adore nihilism as the tummum bonum. The aid rendered by science to religion was here dwelt upon by hia Lordship, who paid a high tribute to true Bcience, that handmaid of religion, with which it was always in harmony. The more widely spread the knowledge of science and the more profound its reseaiches the greater is the aid that she is able to render to religion. Before China was opened to foreigners, atheists were wont to laud the teachings of Buddha and Cocfucius as the perfection of ethical codes and the civilisation, enlightenment, and morality of the Chinese as almost infinitely superior to that of any other nation oa earth. Notwithstanding the atheistic teachings of the founder, the adherents of Buddhism bavu worship, ceremonies, and prayers. They invoke Buddha and adore him as a god. The innate idea of the existence of God rises superior to their atheistic theories, and though the idea may be obscured, it really makes God the object of these invocations and religious worship. Whence comes this idea of God ? Whence did the first man or whoever had it derive it 1 The Bishop developed here by lucid metaphysical reasoning that an idea must have an objective reality, that it is a mental picture and that if no object be presented to the intelligence there cannot be an idea, that even an abstract idea is the reeult of an operation of the miad upon some qualtiy of an object which has its root in eomething which really exists. The idea of God w-ich we find in all men necessitates consequently the idea of God, bince the idea could not exist without an object. It would be absurd to say we have an idea of what does not exist. Our mind cannot have created the infinite since it cannot, being finite execute an infinite work. To say that the infinite was created would be to affirm that there was a time wherein the infinite did not exist and that the infinite was finite or limited by time or capable of increase. This would be to affirm an absurdity. His Lordship concluded with an eloquent peroration wherein he showed the need we bave of God and how the divine impress on the soul of man proclaims loudly, despite efforts to suppress it, the existence of God. The Rev Father Bell, who read and explained portions of the Pope's recent Encyclical on devotion to the Mother of God, also the mysteries of the Kosary, has, during the week, conducted the evening services in t he pro-Cathedral. The Catholic men in this diocese ac requested to follow the example of the Catholic men in the Australian colonies and to unite to draw up and to sign a congratulatory address and to forward it to his Holiness Pope Leo XIII. on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his episcopate. The Anglican Diocesan Synod was opened on Tuesday last and Bishop Julius delivered a long address on the occasion. His

Lordship said some time back when speaking on education that the noble sacrifices that Catholics make to give their children a Christian education had more than once caused him to blush. " They had saved their consciences, and lost their money, while other religious denominations had lost their consciences, but saved their money.'* The Bishop quotes in the address of Tuesday last the words on religious education of the present Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury who says :—•> I fear that if we have one single generation intervening which has no religious habits, no thought beyond the grave, no love which makes it perpetually look up to that which is above and beyond it, we shall find it a harder task to convert the children of that generation than to convert tha polished heathen." Bishop Julius proceeds to affirm that such a generation is springing up amongst ourselves.and thatit will be hard indeed toconverttheirchildren. But what method does he suggest to prevent our children from being made worse than polished heathens? Thechief means that he recommends are Sunday schools, and that his younger clergymen should frequent the State schools in the hours of secular instruction and teach toe children the elements of Christian doctrine. Such then is the Bishop's plan to prevent our young people from being uncbristianised. Needless to say that his plan ia unpractical and inefficient. When speaking of churches generally, of the Catholic Church the Bishop says : "Side by side with us the Boman Church is working, compact and strong Her voice is rarely heard in the streets. Her members never discuss her faults in the public Press. They work together as one man under authority. Therefore she is {strong, and churches, schools, and convents, staffed with efficient and devoted officers, arise whenever they are wanted. The Roman ChuTch is, in one word, the mo B t perfect organisation on eaith. We deplore her errors and corruptions • we lepudiate her claims ; we believe that her organisation is bought'at a terrible price ; bu* in so for as she is witnessing for Christ and guarding her children from unbelief end sio, we love and admire her." Does the Bishop introduce into his panegyric the charges of •• errors and corruptions," and of " organisation obtained at a terrible price," as so much pure rhetoric, as the charges certainly are or as real facts t For if he thinks that the teachings of the Catholic Church are to-day essautially different from what they were in the Apostolic time?, or that his own Church "retains the ancient structure, traditions and miaistery which Christ ordained," his Lordship has great reason to make himself better acquainted not only with the history of the Anglican Church but a?so with the history of Christian antiquity.