RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 12

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

WESLEY AN CONFERENCE. NEW PRESIDENT ON GREAT PROBLEMS. The English Wesleyan Conference commenced its business in Century Chapel, York, 011 July 16. The ex-presidentj the Rev. John S. Simon, welcomed his successor, tho Rev. J. Scott Lidgett, to the presidential chair, and handed to him the symbols of bis office—John Wesley's Bible, his seal, and tho keys, which were symbolical of his right of entry to every Methodist heart.

The'new president acknowledged tho kindly words of the ex-president, and expressed his gladness that they had back with them the Rev. C. H. Kelly, after a most trying illness, and that Dr. Rigg was still present to give them his counsel. They wero there to affirm their own share in the great Catholic life and movement of the past, and to affirm that, without the force of tho Methodist revival, the Evangelical force of Christianity would have nearly evaporated. They saw the inter-dependence of 'all tho great Christian forces. Catholic truth was too great to find expression in any form of denominational truth. They were not there to justify their existence; their lifo would justify itself, and ho urged that the corporate action of the Conference should ho rcoogniscd as an inherent part of the great Church of Christ. They must act on the highest ideal ifi as a Conference, they would fulfil tho promises of tho past. They "had the problems of Church membership, and they must in this keep clear of all party spirit and strife. _ They must seek the remedy of any evils by seeking the restoration of their ancient spirit of fellowship. Their future was dependent upon this. They must also be prepared for an advance in foreign mission work, and they could not accomplish this task with a less income than a quarter of a million annually. The ' problem of tho t education of the young was yet unsolved. Ihey would stand by their claim for public control. Ihey would not yield to any demand for a secular solution, and the elimination of Christian teaching. On the licensing, question they saw at last that a Government had raised a national' question from politics to morality, and they had embodied in their Bill that for which all the moral forces of, the country had been crying. All the resources of which thoy were capable would be unwoaryingly called to tho. support of the demand for the public control of the liquor traffic. - The War Office, of the Church was in constant need of reform, and they- must adapt themselves to the new conditions of the work constantly arising.' Social ovils were present on every side, and the only cure was tho " old Gospel "—the love'of God and the love of their neighbours; arid this rule must bo not only a personal aim, but must be shown in their national and municipal life. Tho greatest need was all unworldly Methodism, and before it. luxury, frivolity, and half-beliefs would dio away. Dr. Pope brought in the report on Home Missions, which showed that, the income' had not increased, and they wero not able to .entQr ■ on. an t v .heroic efforts. .The number of school circuits had decreased from . 320 to 280. They had 60 lay agents,.mostly employed in rural districts. ' ' A'loan of £10,000 for twenty years_without interest was sanctioned to meet the financial needs of the Leysian 'Mission, London. The Rev. Marshall Hartley submitted the report of the Twentieth Century Fund Committee. The effort is now completed ,and t)ie funds distributed. Sir Robert Perks said .that it. was ten years since the Century Fund was authorised at the'Hull-Conference. ■ They had raised £1,005,258, Ireland had raised and spent £52,000, and the Foreign Mission Stations had raised and spent £16,000. Tho total was £1,073,782. Less than £600 had been lost tbrougn failure of promises by death or misfortune. Tho interest they had received reached £89,216. They had; lost, none of their capital; but had they accepted advice of some friends and put the' wtfole' into Consols they would have lost over £200*000. He estimated the savings of the Methodist people since the inauguration of the schemo to be at least one hundred millions.

Sir Robert added some interesting details on tlio position .of the new Church Hall at Westminster. They had reserved all the ground they wanted, but had already sold £200,000 worth of land, and there is_ still 85,000 ft. of land for sale. They had sacrificed eight or nine licenses without asking for any compensation.' They were well on with the foundation, and lie hoped that within two years the whole building would'bo complete. As to the Great Hall, it was a delusion to imagine 'that it would be used for any other than Evangelistic'purposes. They hoped to have £4500 in rents from offices. He trusted to their Mothodist friends to secure the decorative panels and busts, and already promises had been received from Canada and the United States. A vote of thanks was passed to Sir Robert Perks, who, in his reply, referred to his scheme for an international brotherhood to deal primarily with emigration" and education. The Conference appointed a committee to consider practicability and possibility of such a brothorhood.

THREE GREAT MISSIONS. ADVERSE ATTITUDE OF FREE CHURCH FEDERATION. As efforts are being made to promote no fewer than threo schemes for the holding of great ovangclistic missions in London nest year, the executive committee of the Metropolitan Free Church Federation mot on July 10 at the Memorial Hall, E.C., to consider tho subject. The Rev. Geo'rgo Hooper, of Duhvich, president-elect of tho Federation, occupied tlio chair, Mr. Allen Baker, M.P., the. president,. being in Canada. Alter a lengthy disoussion, it was resolved to tho following effcct:— . _ ' "That, in tho opinion of tho executive of the Metropolitan Free Church Council, tho effort of the evangelisation ■of London by great central meetings is at the present timo most inopportune; and that tho General Purposes Committee be instructed to organise a series of conferences during next year, in the first instance for ministers only, for tho deepening of spiritual life, with';, the ultimate object of quickening tho evangelistic spirit and inducing tho Churches to do their own evangelistic work." / The first of tho three schemes is suggested by a committee, of which Lord Kinnaird is chairman, and tho Rev. Prebendary Wobb-Peploe, tho Rev. F. S. Webster, and the Rev. F. B. Meyer are among tho members ; the second by Mr. W. R. Lane, a wellknown mission preacher, who is getting together a committee; and the third by Mr. C. Alexander, of the To'rrey and Alexander mission services, who had proposed to bring over. Dr. Wilbur Chapman, another American evangelist, to conduct services with him. Dr. Chapman is likely to visit New Zealand in the near future.

AN INTERESTING INCIDENT. At tho service in Westminster Abbey in connection with tho opening of the Lambeth Conference tho Dean of Westminster (Dr. Armitage Robinson) walked in the procession between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. Referring to this incident, tho "Church Times" says:—ln two respects this order illustrated tho continuity and past history of the Church of England. In ancient days the Abbey of Westminster was "immediately subject to tho Holy Roman Church, and, thereforo, exempt from all Episcopal jurisdiction.' The lattor privilego has been rigorously maintained to tliis day; and thus on Sunday morning the Dean of Westminster walked together with the two Archbishops; and, wo may add, betweon them, as if it wero to maintain the peacc. For Westminster Abbey was again, m tho twelfth century, tho soeno of ono of tho most striking episodes in tho long rivalry betweon the two Sees. When at a synod in tho Chapel of St. Katharine, tho Archbishop of Canterbury having sat on the right hand, of the Cardinal Legate, tho Archbishop of York seated himself in his brother's lap, but, as tho Westminster historian, Widmore, tells us, "got his robes torn off his back, and himself well thumped by, the other Archbishop's servants for liis pains." ■ The controversy was settled by the compromise that each Archbishop should bo

"Primate of England," Canterbury, however, "of all England"; and thus to-day they walked side by side. Further, Westminster being neutral ground, each Primate had his cross borne before him, the usual rule being that if the Archbishop of York has his cross carried in tho province of Canterbury, he must pay a fine of £50 to its Archbishop. Each Archbishop was also followed by a body of chaplains, and as the two bodies were side by side, they thus marched four abreast. Among the eight Chaplains of Canterbury walked former Chaplains of Archbishops Tait, Benson, and Temple; his Grace of York had only seven chaplains, among whom wo noticed the Dean of Grahamstown; and tho Rev. W. H. Frere, the Superior of' the Community oi the Resurrection.

VATICAN REFORM. . An important Pontifical decree for the r&. formation of tho organisation and working of tho different congregations has been issued. Great Britain, Canada, Holland, and th 6 United States,' are removed from, tho jurisdiction of the' Congregation of the Propaganda, and will therefore no longer be considered as missionary lands. A new congregation is created for the regulation of the discipline of tho sacraments, including questions of marriage, while the dogmatic side of the sacraments remains under the direction of tho Congregation of the Holy Office. This -includes the question of mixed marriages—that is, when either husband or wifo is'not a Roman Catholic. A special body of lawyers has been formed, the members 'of which pledge themselves to assist poor people gratuitously. Poor people arc also exompted from paying Court fees, which are likewise reduced for people in moderate circumstances. These reforms will be followed by a new code, comprising the whole 'of the canon law; on ivhich a Cardinal has been working for four years.

JOTTINGS. Concerning the ultimate, re'-union of Christendom, "East and West" mentions the opportunity that exists in Jamaica for Christian intercourse with the Arabic-speaking Syrians, who are members of the Orthodox Church of Syria, of whom, about a thousand are sojourning in Jamaica for businoss purposes. With the warm approval of the Syrian Grcok-Orthodox Bishop of Brooklyn (N.Y.), the spiritual head in America of the Syrian Church, some steps were taken in Jamaica," two years ago", towards "constituting a mission of help, as_ the Syrians had not could not get a priest of their own. The bishop's words ,may bo interesting, as a sidelight on the. much-debated question of the inter-relation of tho Orthodox-and Anglican communions. "He writes Thank you very much for your noble object to help our GreekOrthodox Syrians in Kingston; Jamaica, who aro at present without a priest of their own faith.,. . . According to my opinion, the only Christian Church which deserves tho profound respect of every intelligent Orthodox Christian Is tho Catholic Church of England (tho Episcopalian Church);. and meanwhile, till' tho proper timo come for the complete intercommunion and desirable union between the Orthodox and Episcopalian Churches, I am willing to advise our Orthodox Christians in all America, who have no priest of their own faith, to prefer tho good services of ', the Episcopalian priests, as they are the most friendly to our Orthodox faith." . , The Rev. J. Gibson-Smith's work', "The Christ of the Cross," has been responsible for much agitated : correspondence in the stronghold of New Zealand Presbyterianism, Otago. A slashing criticism has appeared in the "Daily Times," over tho pseudonym " Carpus," which is understood to veil the identity of a well-known minister of the church. "Carpus" thinks that "Mr, Smith's version is a crude, cruel, misrepresentation of tho faith once delivered to- the saints. In his attenuated gospel there is no redemption for a guilty doomed. sinner." (This Mr. Smith would at once deny.) "Carpus" concludes: "This sadly curious book of Mr. Smith's may bo," in the providence of God, a scourge to drive the Cnurch in this land back to a deeper faith in the old evangel."

Many of the-American delegates at the International Congregational Council in Edinburgh did not disguise their disappointment or even annoyance at the exclusion 6f Rev; R. J., Campbell, of the City' Temple; London, from tho deliberations at Edinburgh. Mr. Campbell, they said, was" the one Congregational minister in England whose utterances aro ever cabled across tho Atlantic, and though they might have disagreed with any utterance ho might have made at Edinburgh, they did not expect that he 1 would be omitted from the programme. His exclusion, they argued, indicated that tho programme and the selection of British speakers fell into the lmnds of tho conservative theologians, and the catholicity-of tho conference was impaired bv the failure to give him a place on the platform. The London " Christian World" says:—"Now that the bitterness aroused by' the New Theology controversy has died away, tho boycott might'well be, withdrawn. We are glad to see .that Dr. Horton and Dr. Clifford are leading tho way towards reconciliation by preaching at tho City Temple during Mr. Campbell's vacation." " . " Tho Westminster Confession has. long ceased to express even approximately the living faith of the Church." What is wrong with it? " Simply this, that, being in entire harmony with the thought of its day, it is for that reason out of harmony with the thought of these days." This is the deliberate opinion of a Presbyterian minister (Rev. A. J. Campbell, of Lerwick, Scotland), about the great Confession formulated _in 1647, as expressed in an article in the " Hibbert Journal." But what is to be substituted for the Confession? Mr. Campbell has no solution to offer. But he thinks the Confession must go, and that the adoption of modifying formulas will not check the movement of modern thought towards liberalism.

Tho recent appearance of Mr. John Dillon, M.P., in the pulpit of Whitefield's (London Congregational)' has been made the occasion, in tho correspondence columns of the '" Standard,'' of a number of protests against tho preaching of what are called "political sermons." Tho initiator of tho correspondence referred to Nonconformist places of worship being used for the propogation of "Radical-Socialism," and was indignant at the idea of tho minister, Rev. Silvester Home, inviting tho head of militant Irish Roman Catholicism to fill a pulpit once preached from by Whitqfield. He suggested further," that Nonconformist preachers are in the habit of. "placing'the interests of their. political party first, and tho interest of their faith second.'' Other writers followed, mostly in a similar strain.

At both the Pan-Anglican Congress and the International Congregational Council in Edinburgh,, the American delegates loomed very largely, and made some of the brightest and ablest speeches. Generally speaking they were of the advanced type, but there was a sprinkling of conservative theologians who-flourish oven in such a liberal thought community as America. At the council, Rev, H. Foster, Olivet, Michigan, in the course of a paper on "The Doctrine of the Socialists," said it was vain to found doctrines upon merely verbal arguments. The ' discourses of Jesus belonged, as to many of their details, to tho historically unknown things'of tho past._ But if ho laid less emphasis upon the historical .Twits it was to lay more on tho ideal Christ. Tho Rev. Dr. Scott, Chicago, said the man who would throw away his white necktie at . the right placo was the man who was going to lead tho hosts of God forward towards a greater union. He had recently entered an English Cathedral, and ho found there 40 choir boys and men, three clergymen, three ancient sisters, and three gentlemen who had drifted and gathered together to worship God: and he said to himself, that was the worship of heathenism of two thousand years ago. Until thoir pastors and teachers not rid of tha liittlo Englandism or the little Popery, or whatever it was, progress would not be made. The Lord was not a clergyman. Ho was a layman.