Attack on Orphanages.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XI, Issue 12, 1 June 1921, Page 287

Attack on Orphanages.

A conspiracy was lately unearthed m Dunedin to pass legislation declaring orphans and. illegitimate children the wards of the State. Ha<T it not been for the vigilance of someone m Dunedin, this legislation would, -no doubt, like 1 the Divorce Amendment Bill, have been introduced next ses-, sion and rushed through before we had had-time\to protest. The "Otago Daily Times,", the " Dunedin Star" ' • and. the Presbyterian "Outlook"^ ,have revealed the 1 plot, and»the clergy and ministers of all denominations "m Dunedin, together with others interested mv charitable work, have met and: expressed themselves vehement? ly. The "Dtago Daily Times' " af-

■''>'•'•/■■■■ ■ , ' ' '. : . ■ tide will probably be reprinted m the " Churchman, V-'those who wish/ ■ to" study : the matter more exactly , should get a copy of the '.'Outlook" of May 16th and* read Mr Beek!a " explanation" m the "Dominion" •of- May 20th. - ' Briefly, the facts are as follows : — Mr John Beck (Officer m Charge : of Special .Schools Branch, Education) reported to the Minister on the subject of orphanages, etc. He thinks the present methods , of enforcing observance, of the recommendation's of Inspectors, of Orphanages; air c inefficient. He admits the earnestness! of religious bodies m social work/bufe says,, they "have started put on "a: system that has been condemned and abandoned m the most enlightened countries." "The State has al- * lowed private enterprise under the. ■ guise of benevolence to step m arid-" handle the Children of the; State: under a system that is obsolete without any,;; Government supervision.'' ''There j^i great need for co-ordination of methods under a Central Government authority." "For -the. child who is permanently bereft of his parents" the orphanage is unsuitable because "few, if any,. i orphanages possess an adequate system of after care supervision." He thinks "It is : the duty of the State to deal with , all such children by providing, permanent foster homesfor. them.' He suggests legislation for the "State guardianship of illegitimates and all orphan >and permanently . destitute > .children. ", Lack of space forbids an adequate criticism of this extreme Socialistic idea, that the child who has unfortunately lost" his parents belongs body arid soul to the State. We know only' too well the kind/ of life children lead m State orphanages under red tape officialdom and, managers who serve for hire and train by machinery. In these no family life, no; independence, no natural expansion or individuality is possible. We. know too .the abominable • conditions -"'of chilr, dren boarded out m ordinary poor families: objects of contempt of natural children of >the family, kept merely because of, the gain to be ..: squeezed out- of the Government allowance for their, support, or for the drudgery work they are able to perform' for their mas fcer's and mistresses: the absence from siich . " homes " of love and religious influence. i-We knqw -that the .'' class of people who^cah be prevailed upon to take the children for pay, are people who are already so v badly off that they cannot provide „ decent food or clothing for their own children, are usually ignorant of -the. simplest rules of hygiene and absolute strangers to the science of child study and by favouritism and uncertainty of temper (beg&tett of the trials of poverty)

tHe whole question is being fbrought put this year by Dr. Hugh White, of the American Presbyterian Mission of Shanghai. ♦ Dr.^A. T. / Schofield, of Harley street, London, a mental specialist, m. his book " Modern Spiritism," fully, recognises possession as a fact m this century, and m England. So do Dr. C. Williams, of London, , and a ; doctor, living m this diocese. It is of no use shutting one 's, eyes and refusing, to see what we are up agairfst, and then saying there is no such thing. A clergyman now living m New Zea- •) land, who formerly worked as a mis- / sionary m India, told one recently/ that when preaching m that country he., and his companion were on sev-: eral occasions followed by persons who called after them like the girl • mentioned m- Acts 16, but ■ that ' they had not faith enough to deal with them as they felt they should have done. A leading Brahmin afterwards taunted them with not believing m the Jesus whom they preached, ' giving as his reason the fact that they did not deal with these cases of possession as Jesus m the Gospels had bidden them do. Some 25 years ago I came across cases among the Maoris which I felt almost certain must be demoniacs. They were considered cases of insanity and were sent to mental hospitals. In recent years the number of these cases is increasing at an alarming rate, and during the last 2£ years not a few have been set free m the Name of Jesus. . One of these, a woman of 40 years of age, who had been a sufferer ever since she was a little child, was'deliberately brought to us to see if we could diagnose her ease and east out the evil spirits. The friends knew what was wrong with her, but they did not tell us this till five months after she was set free. ' The husband at the time said, "It is a veritable miracle." Thank God it is. She is now filled with the Holy Spirit. What if we had failed to recognise it as possession or -to deal with it as such? Towards the end of last year another of our European clergy m this part of the diocese had two,- experiences with a Maori girl to whom he was called. On both occasions the demon spoke to him and to others, and. it gave its name to them. The ,girl was unconscious, m a kind of trance. The first time only prayer was ujsed, and after a, considerable tijtne the demon departed, On the second occasion,, four weeks later, it said it had brought other evil spirits ' to help it kill her-,,and it refused to go out for prayer. It argued that the had not faith enough, nor authority, 'to cast it ouL These were claimed, : and finally, after a long, (Struggle it was exorcised m the

Niame of Jesus, and the girl was set free at, once and Regained consciousness. Although she ; knew these attacks were coming upon her, and at once appealed for help, yet when she revived, "she was ■ quite unconscious Of anything that had occurred of that had ...been said' with her own lips /'while she was •under control . of the / demon. The voice / was ia male voice,! and the name of the demon was, given. These "were definite attacks upon a professing Christian, girl, with the avowed object of taking 'her life because her father had with-: stood a certain tohunga, and it took ten people to hold her down ! , 2iUS YMPTOMS AND • PHENOMENA OF POSSESSION. It is very difficult indeed to describe the symptoms' whereby ■'- one may know cases of /possession. My belief is that one pan, drily, learii; by personal experience, and under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit'; and this N means a very definite arid whole-hearted consecration of oneself to the Master 's service m order to be filled with the Holy Spirit; and, further, a continued and .very close walk with , God m living union with our Lord Jesus Christ, m order that one may be guided and used m 'the awful, and yet blessed, work of discerning and exorcising the evil spirits. So far,/ in my experience, hardly ' two cases , have shown quite the same symptoms, arid it looks as though this were of set purpose m order to deceive and puzzle us as much as possible. '.■■■■ Some cases behave, while possessed, like 1 animals, and imitate the call and movements of some particular animal. Others, on the other hand, may as a rule seem quite ordinary human beings — at times themselves, and then quite suddenly and without any apparent reason they ,reveal some quite ' different personality. One bright, clever girl, for instance, would suddenly show a stupid ignorance of every tting and her face assume a most silly, expression. At another time she would suddenly be seized with violent paroxysriis-; of temper without any apparent She -has -been healed for/over two years- " now. .•■''■ ■ ■ ' ■ X " •--.,' ' In some cases the sufferer goes of£ into a trance, and a different voice ; speaks from the mouth — a male voice coming from a femaiej;or vice versa.. In others the patient.,, is only under pairtial control and answers questions m his (or her) own voice, and the difficulty -then is to deal directly wifcl; the controlling spirit v The sufferer is aware of a controlling or energising power but apparently is helpless. Only the asking of" the right questions seems to help m such' cases, Of the pressing for a definite decision for Christ reyealsthe control. \Again,

some become deaf, or dumb, or the eyes or other organs become controlled. In fact) from personal observation ainorig the Maoris it seems . fairly clear that any, organ, or function, of. the b6dy can be controlled . or- upset by evil spirits. I believe that by working along these lines we .shall find the remedy m the Name of Jesus Tor v.cry many of the ills of humanity— at any rate among the Maoris. .'■■"'". • ■■■•^•T.,.W^Eatana, a layman of the v Church of England, has for-the past ""'twelve months been working on this hypothesis (or fact) and- there have been very many marvellous cures of both Maoris and Europeans. He affirms— whether it be true or not-^ y that nearly all the troubles of the ' Maoris are caused by the interference , of --these evil spirits, that they can affect or control any organ of the body, and' that, the only hope of the Maori people lies m a return to the • true Faith m God. There appear, further, to be cases . where the .symptoms closely resemble those 6f insanity, epilepsy, and heart troubles, and it is difficult to discern w,hettier it is evil spirits that are the cause.. They seem to seize .upon every possible means of hiding their presence; but God is teaching His servants m many countries of the world, to-day. ■''•■■■ ■ 3— THE REMEDY. . The only effectual remedy for cases of possession is believing prayer and exorcism. -That is my opinion. In Dr. Nevin's book all the, yCases . were apparently treated with prayer alone, and only by Chinese Christians—Lnone by European .or American missionaries. And m some cases the demons returned and got possession again. Only where the sufferers were willing .to destroy v all idols and become out-and-out followers of Jesus Christ were they kept free from a return. Our ■', experience m New Zealand dur-~ mg -2i years : seems to bear this out, as m the case given above. Therefore exorcism should be used m addition to. prayer. 0o ; far as I am aware ■ the child referred to h*as been quite free ever t since the demon was exorcised m the Name of Jesus, six months ago. 'Evil spirits have been thus-exorcised By at least two of our native clergy, * by ian Archdeacon, and, by myself, . here, m New Zealand. Two other Maori clergy have used prayer with success, but I do not know if they have tried exorcism. It' is necessary to give a warning here, that it is 'almost fatal (if not quite fat aiy to have anyone assisting —or even m the room— who does [not believe (1) m the fact of demon jjbssession'/ or (2) m the power of Jesjus ' ' Name to least out evil spirits. The