RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 42, 18 February 1905, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

THE BIBLE. Py Eev. C. H. Gryndy, M&-, Vicar of J St. Peter's, Brockley, «nd Rural Dean of Greenwich.) "Search the «crJptures."--Johii r., 38. The Bible is a sacred library, not a look. There are sixtysix books in the Bible: The Bible took at least fifteen hundred years to write. Suppose the first book had been written centuries before Alfred the Great's time, and the last hook had just been finished this year, it would seem a long time. Some of the oldest writing in the wprld is in the Bible, and the last book was not written till about A.D. 96. You may call the Bible both ancient and modem. In' the olden days there was no printing, and men copied manuscripts, and they made mistakes in ignorance or carelessness, so that we find it hard sometimes to know what the writers really meant. The Bible never cays, "I am inspired .»nd free from mistakes," Christ says, "Read the Old Testament and you will find it talks about Me. It says that I shall come." Moses and the Prophets looked for Me. "Search the Scriptures and you will find them full of things about Mc," Alas! people don't search the Bible. They read books and tracts and about the Bible, and what can be said agaipst the Bible, but they are too lazy to search the Scriptures for themselves. People who preach on the Bible claim for ' the Bible what the Bible does not claim for itself. What is the object of the first chapter •of Genesis? To show us God a? th© Maker of the world. The real revelation is the firsj; verse. The rest qf the chapter- is. detail. Supppse the word translated day should' be translated period, and may mean a million years, what does it matter to you? Suppose the order of creation has got mixed up, and that what is gaid to have taken place on one day happened on another day, what does it matter to you? Did God make the world? tnat is the question. Does He govern the world? Does 'He love the world Hp has made? Did intelligence create the wotld? Or did 'the world produce intelligence? Or has the world always existed? To jne it is easier to think of an In•telLgence producing matter than to think of'matter- producing intelligence. The . great miracle is, that anything ever began to move about on its own account, and then began to grow, and then began to think, and then began to work, and to cook, and to pray, and to invent ■until--we have man with all his wonderful . powers governing' the world. Why! The miracles of Christ are insignificant compared with the miracle of our being there at all, with our steam, electricity, an-d wireless telegrlaphy. The Bible Kays God is the origin of us all. "In the beginning God;" put Him as far back us you like l r-millions and billions of years back for anything I care, but you will want' Him "in the beginning." The good old catechism states it very well. "First,..l learn to believe in God the Father , , Who hath mad« mc and all the world." The Fatherhood o* God is the opening of the Bible, and it is the first le3son"we teach our little boy or girl,' for out of the Fatherhood of God comes the Brotherhood of men. Why should you take tne trouble to be kind to mc? Why should J take the trouble to be kind to you, unless we belong to the same family? I£ lam hungry I may kill an ox, but I may not kill yon? Why not? Because we are brothers. But who says we are brothers? The Bible teaches the brotherhood of man. The first twP questions in the Bible *re remarkable. " The first is, "Where are thou ?" the sepond is, "Am • I my brother's keeper?" The first sin in the Bible is against the Fatherhood of God; end the second pin in the Bible is against the Brotherhood of man. And this is the teaching at the opening of the Sible, in a Book very, very old, and often "sneered at. Truly the Bible begins welj and is true to human nature. Then as the Old Testament shows the wickedness of men, the awful wars, the sad selfish? ness, the cruelty, the murders, the lust of man, one is inclined to despair. But the New Testament brings before us Jesus, pbedient to His Father and kind to His ieliowman. Here at last is One . Whose life shows us what life ought to be, and what society might be if we followed out His teaching. Obedience and kindness are the essence of life: Some workingman may read these . linep on a Sunday morning while his wife is.getting.the dinner ready and his children are at church or ajchbbl. I ask him. What does he wish for in his home? Obedience, oil the part of the children to him arid their and that tjiey should be kind, to one an™ other. .'.'.■■ What is wanted In the workshop T Obedience to the master, and kindness amongst the men to their mates. What is wanted in the . nationt Loyalty to the throne, and kindness ' ampng all .classes of society. That the employers should study the welfare of the employed and give them a fair day's wages for a fair day's work, and that Mien should put their best work into whatever'they have to do. That -there be no "sweating" on the part of masters and no "scamping" on the part of workmen. That conferences, conciliation and kindness should exist between capital and labour; that the brotherhood of mankind should be felt in all the relations of life. "Search the Scriptures," and you will find that "the labourer is worthy of his hire;" that "if any would ■not work neither should he eat;" that Tjch men should be "ready to give and glad to distribute;" that "children ought ■not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children;" that chjldrpn arc to "obey their parents;" and that we are all to ,; be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love." If men followed the rules 04. the good Oid Book, life Tvould he worth living, strikes would be at an end, drunkenness -would disappear, men's wages would be spent on "their homes and their wives, thrift would be the feshiqn, children would be clean and obedient, and homes would he full of the fear of the Lord, the gladr ness of love, and the blessing of peace. CETISCa HEWS AKD HOTES. The consecration of the Eig-ht Revl Dr. Macleane to the See of the ancient and combined dioceses of Moray, Ross, and Caithness took place in the Cathedral of. Inverness on- December 21, the PriHius. ..of Scotland being the eelebranfc,.assisted by the Bishops of Aber-"O.e.H-1 lati.d-Argyll; :■- - . \ What is--understood to he "an authorised'biography" of Father Ignatius. 0,5.8., the-celebrated monk oj LlarJ 1 $B9?Yi nas recently been published in England. He is an Anglican priest, hiit -only -recently- several English rectors or incumbent-were forbidden to allow hhn to cocapy their pulpite.

Tμ connection with the ' Capetown Cathedral Memorial Fund a circular letter, signed by Lord Roberts and Princess Christian, appealing for the suppbft .necessary to bring }t to a speedy eomplejf£pn, Itas 'been issued. It is -that the. work in connection., witlt the; hew cathedral has been begun, liui upwards of £14,000 is still required to -complete the under taking, which is estimated to cost £35,000. An ordination took place in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on Sunday, December 18, when 40 candidates for the Anglican ministry were received. The Rev. Dr. Bcvan, the pastor of the Collins-street Congregational Church, Melbourne, with Mr atid Miss Bevan, will probably leave for England by the s.s. Drayton Grange, on Febraarv 22. Lieufceiiant-Colonel Ulsworth, leader pf the Salvation Army in Victoria, had received orders to vacate his presout appointment and to take up the supervision of the arrangements for the visit of Cjeneral Booth to the Commonwealth centres and Xew Zealand. The General will arrive in Sydney about the middle of May. Official figures give the number of Roman Catholic priests in England at Christmas time as 3704, compared with 3711 twelve months before. Qf this number, 2514 were of the secular clergy, and 12S0 of the regular clergy, The number of churches, chapels-, aud stations in Great Briiain, which was 19-54 in 193, has reached 2003, this being the first time siaee the Reformation that 2000 has been topped. One of the Methodist, circuits in Fiji, to Cakandrove and Macuata, has .ouched the high-water mark in its contributions to the Foreign Missionary Society, having in November and December last given the magnificent sum of £1020. Pf this sum about *20 sro European contributions; the balance represents tie native free-wjU offerings. Mr J. R. Macdonald, ©n$ of the official interpreters attached to the British expedition to Lhassa, has informed the Bible Society that many of. its Thibetan Gospels have been distributed both, to monks and laymen in Lhassa. He relates that the day he left Lhassa on the return march he sent three of these Gospels to the present ruler of Thibet, with whom he also obtained an interview, and found that he was very anxious to know about "the white man's religion." The latest Irish census (1D01) shows that, the population has decreased during the past ten years by 5.2 per cent., the numbers given in 1891 being 4,704,750 and in 1901 4,455,775, showing the actual numerical decrease to have been 245,975. In the former year the Catholics numbered 3,547,307, and in 1901 they are returned at 3,308,661, the decrease being in the ten years 238,646 persons. These figures are supplied by a Catholic contemporary. The Bishop of London, addressing a meeting in aid of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to Assyrian Christians, "described that Church as the oldest, the most persecuted, and the .poorest church in Christendom," wMgd. looked to England to help her, because England would not attempt to absorb them, ps the Roman or Greek Church, woulq , do, but help her to preserve her natural idiosyncrasy and character. The old Assyrian Bishops, he was told, tilled the soil in rags, they are so poor. The vicar of St. Saviour's Anglican Church, Eastbourne, in the Chichester diocese, one of the most fashionable congregations of the p!ace, declined to pronounce the Benediction oa Sunday morning, December 18, because the people persisted in "the habit of preparing to leave j before the benediction," after he had remonstrated with and warned them. The Lawrenca-University at Appleton (Wisconsin) has renounced all claim to the bequest of £20,000 under the will of Mr. W. W. Cooper, who perished in the 6re at the Iroquois Theatre, Chicago. No reason is given, but it is conjectured, says a contemporary, "that the refusal is due to Mr. Cooper's attendance at a theatre, which is contrary to the general sentiment of the Methodist Church." The appointment of Dr. Gore, Bishop of Worcester, as the first Bighop of Birmingham has given great satisfaction •throughout the new diocese. Dr. Gore, who preached his farewell sermon in Worcester Cathedral on Sunday, December 18, referred to the loss Birmingham will, sustain by Archdeacon Diggle's appointment as Bishop of Carlisle, The Archdeacon received over 1000 telegrams and letters of congratulation. Rev. W. O. Barrows, vicjiw of Ist. Augustine's, ha 3 been appointed Archdeacon of Birmingham. In London great interest was being excited when the last mail left in religious circles by the mission which Dr. R. A. Torrey and Mr, Q. M. Alexander were to open on February 4th at the Albert HalL A choir at the Albert Hall, which was to number 3000 voices, p waa being actively recruited. The hall has been engaged for two months. The hearts of Free Churchmen, says "The Christian World," as well as Anglicans, will warmly respond to one pas-sage—broad-minded and fine in spirit— in the Primate's New Year address to his diocese. He has been speaking of great events in our national history. If in the light of these great occasions of the past, says Dr. Davidson, the New Year resolve is made: "That, God helping us, we jf the National Church will still, in every oest and wisest way, spend and be spent for the well-being of the English people as a whole; would resolve that no pettiness shall come in to thwart our large intent, and no taunt shall goad us into unworthy reprisals or unkindly temper, but that it shall be our unflinching endeavour to bear forward unsullied the standard which has come down to us from the best men——whether clerics or laymen—of former times-r-then I hon? estly believe that we should find the opportunities of service multiply to our hand a hundred-fold." The address goes on to urge that in this sacred cause every ennobling memory, and every present ad? vantage shall be used in a spirit of deliberate and generous sympathy with brother Englishmen "who see not eye to eye with ourselves, but whose final aha U identical with our own." To all of which all English Christians will heartily say, Amen. Congregationalism has made consider? able progress in the Old Country during 1904. There are now 4891 churches with 1,754,089 sittings. The membership stands at 482,678, an increase of 8041 (hiring the year. There are 734,384 Sun-<lay-sehoo] scholars and G7,620 teachers. The churches have increased by 44 during the year. Of the ministers who died during the year the average age was C 4; and the average length of pastorate 35 years. There were 59 new ministers settled, during the year, of whom 51 were from the.colleges, fou.r passed the County TJniop examinations, . and two only entered the ministry previous theological training jji npt given in the «Y«*r •book." .