RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 811, 7 May 1910, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

SOMETHINC MISSING. REV. J. H. JOWETT ON PREACHING. I Tho Rev. J. H. Jowott, M.A., of Carrs Lane Chapel, Birmingham, is the President of the National I'Veo Church Council this year, which met recently at Hull. His presidential address dealt mainly with the quality of the 1 preaching in Nonconformist pulpits. "Everything is not right among us," ho said. "We may be very busy, but we are not impressive. Wo may interest, but we hot constrain. We may tickle men's palates, but we do not make them feel the bitterness of sin. Wo may offer them entertainment, but we do not ainaise them with tho overwhelming glory or God. We may seek th.e crowd, but wo do not make the convert. The Crip of tho Invisible Hand. : "If in our place of worship this awful power is absent,, if men do not,feel tho arresting '• grip of tho invisible hand; if, in short,'there is no conversion —and by conversion 1 mean • radical transformation of character, revolution in. thought and purpose and life, transfiguration of all the common relationships—if these are wanting, it is because we aro stinted in the Divine resources, and the responsibility for the impoverishment must be sought at our own doors. "Take Spurgeon," ho continued. "You may not .like his theology. You nia> resent somo of the phraseology in which ids theology is enshrined. But with Spurgcon's preaching as your guide, your movements; are not limited to sonui formal exercise in a barren asphalt area, or confined to the limits of some small backyard. Hear him on the love of God, on the graco of Jesus Christ, on the communion of the Holy Ghost, and you have a sense of vastness kindred to that which awes you when you listen to tho Apostlo Paul. Every apparently simple division in the sermon is like the turning, of tho telescope to some new galaxy of luminous wonders in the unfathomable sky. "Or take Newman. What was it

that held the crowds in St. Mary's enthralled amidst almost painful silence? I know there was the supremo genius of the preacher. There was also that mysterious fascination which' always attaches to the mystic and the ascetic, to those who are most evidently detached from the jostling and heated interests of the world. But above and beyond these there was the vastness and the inwardness of the themes with which he dealt.. His hearers were constrained from the study to tho sanctuary, from the market-placo to tho holy place, oven to the 'heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' The preacher was always moving,in. a vast world, the solemn greatness of life was continually upon him, and there was the call of tho Infinite even in the practical counsel concerning the duty of the immediate dav. .

:s "Yes, that was Binney's way, Dale's n way, tlis way of Newman and Spurgcon li -HJiey were always willing ;to stop at if the villago window, but they always d linked the streets with the heights and •. sent your souls a-roaming over the •v eternal 'hills of God. And this it is 0 which always, impresses one, and im:s presses oiuv moro and more —the s solemn spaciousness of their themes, the glory of -tlieir junveilings, their wrest--1 ling, with language to make the glory known, the voice of . the Eternal in " their practical appeals; and this it is which so .profoundly their liear- '■ ers to 'woiider'/'iove,' an'cl praise.' " r ■ Tiie fiotp of Vaotituda. ' . Comparing . tho preaching of to-day, . Mr. Jowetfc • said that', they needed to s recover the note of "vastitude," the . ever-present sense and' .suggestion of } the infinite. Even when they were s dealing with what they sometimes lin'fortunatcly distinguished as "practical" duties, .they needed to emphasise tho 'rootage -in the eternal. It was at the gravest peril'that they dissociated theology and ethics, and separated the thought of duty to men from the thought of relation to God. All this meant that they must preach more upon the great texts of tho Scriptures, the tremendous passages wlioso vastnesses almost terrified' them as these were approached. • 1 AN ARCHBISHOP'S SUNDAY. I MR. A. C. BENSON'S CONFESSION. I* A curious confession of a future ' Archbishop's failure to. make his cwn 1 children love Sunday occurs in Mr. A. : 0. Benson's causerie in the current issue of "The Church Family Ncwsh paper." Discussing the preservation • of Sunday observance, Mh Benson lays : it down as a first principle that the ■ young generation should be brought up to love Sunday. "My father" ' (afterwards Archbishop Benson), ho ; says, "loved Sunday very much; it was 1 to him by far the happiest day of tho week, and there was about him on Sun--1 day a ccrtin tranquil and cheerful air, ! which made itself felt, in all Ito did or said. He took very great pains, I now see, to .make us love the day, and it is pathetic to mo to think that he did not succeed in doing so. The truth was that lie laid out every detail of the day lor usy and the result was that instead of being in any sense a holiday, it seemed to be a day of con-, straint and continuous engagements." Mr. Benson urges that no sense of discipline should overshadow the day, and that there should be .variety and change in its • bccunations. He deprecates "long walks and no scampering," and tho banning of week-day books. Other suggestions which lie makes for tho prnlifablo use of Sunday are, first that all ordinary work should bo reduced to a minimum; second, that it is equallv a Christian duty to set apart a definite oart of tho day for religion (aiming, however, at quality rather than quantity); and third, that tho day should afford a real change to everyone. "I have no desire," lie says, "to see Sunday secularised; but the worst secularism of all is to make it a purely unoccupied day, for that is the soil in which tho worst weeds of tlio . soul flourish." DUTY TO THE CHURCH. "KNOW ITS HISTORY." Tho Rev. Sivevn Macqueen, who succeeded Professor R. G. Macintyre to tho chargo of iJic Woollahra Presbyterian Church, New South Wales, speaking at the .animal .meeting of the' Woollahra Congregational Church, gave a stirring, ■ reminder to his audienco of tho duty they owed the Church to which they A great deal, lie remarked,, had been spoken of tho wonderful time that was t coming when there would be neither < Congregationalism nor Presbytorianism ' ■nor.Methodism, so far as ecclesiastical ; differences wero concerned. What an 1 extraordinary world it would be! He ' believed that their ecclesiastical- differ- i ences had their origin in the constitu- I t.ion of the human mind. There would < come the day, in which, by the spirit of ! Clod, they would all stand shoulder to i shoulder as one real Church planted 1 upon the earth. That time was not yet, f and it would not be brought about by r I "ho devious ways of men's work, if i they belonged to a Church they should ; httoV why tliar belonged to it. ilajiy t

accepted churches because their fathers and mothers had done so. That was an excellent reason, so far as it went. No ono should rest satisfied with that as being the solid reason. From his observations, he had • como to the couchision that the young people of Australia. did not seem to have any special (\esiro to find out the root- and origin of their belief, and the principles for f which others had nobly fought. There „ wore no pages in British history which told of nobler service rendered the 1 British Empire than those relating to f Cnngregationalists. When they thought t of the splendour of that history, the . saints and the martyrs and the galaxy of noble moil and women connected with , it, not to know about it was incomprehensible to him. If they desired to know '' the reason why they belonged to the - Church they should learn its history. t " ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY. According to Mgr. Bat'andier's "Anj nuaire ecolesiastique" for 1910,, there were until this week 1029 residential sees : in the Catholic world (948 of the Latin and 81 of Oriental rites), and now the Holy Father has in a single week made a considerable addition to the number. . Although the announcement has not I been made officially, it may be taken , for granted (states the English "Tab- . let") that two new dioceses, those of . Crookston and Bismarck, are to bo . added to the hierarchy of tho United States—already, with the exception of [ Italy, tho largest in tho Catholic world; . tlireo new sees will .be created in tho \ near future in Canada; no fewer than ; four new sees and one Prefecture Aposl tolic have been established in the Philippines at the recommendation of the Apostolic Delegate, Mgr. Agius, | 0.5.8., Archbishop of Palmyra; in South America his Holiness lias created . in Brazil two new ecclesiastical Provinces, elevating two dioceses to the , metropolitan dignity and creating five others, besides adding two other new , dioceses to the Province of Bahia, and ' in the Argentine Republic two new dio- , ceses have also been created—which ' are to be endowed by the Government in virtue of the Concordat existing between tho 'Holy See and the Republic. 1 With these' additions Latin America -now numbers 134 archdioceses and ' dioceses. JOTTINGS. ■ The Rev. J. R. Campbell has (ac- ■ cording to a London cablegram pabi lished last 'week) asked the English ' Congregational Union whether he 6hould resign from that body; inasmuch as he has been virtually, excommunicated. What this meaiis (explains tho Sydney "Daily Telegraph") is that ever since Mr. Campbell expounded his New Theology views ho has not been- invited to take part in the great functions of the union. For many years he was one of the "big guus" of orthodox Congregationalism, and could always be depended upon to draw a crowd; but when his gradually broadening opinions developed into those extreme utterances that startled conservative Christendom and aroused a host of defenders of "the faith once delivered to the saints," Mr. Campbell's name was quietly dropped from tho union programme. The effect, if anything, has been to rather increase his popularity. Tho crowds'" at the City Temple are as great as ever, and.Mr. services are in continual demand throughout the United Kingdom. Lately lie has been seriously ill with influenza, and has been unable to preach'. The brief respite from active public work has no doubt given him time for meditating over his" anomalous position in relation to the union.- His resignation from that body would not, however, affect his position as pastor of the City Tomp!u'( a fsj\. {hg':tohureh:has never .been connected • with, the unipn. Tho Rev. Henry Youlden, of Pembroke Chapel, Liverpool, has rotorted hotly 'upon Dr. Forsyth for his attack on "Now Theologians. lii a sermon' at Pembroke Mr. Youlden complained, not of the "attack, but of it being made from the Free Church Council platform. Ho protested against the attempt to cut "liberal theological thought out of the Free Churches by making the entrance into the Church straighter and narrower by theological tests. Arising out- of the Brotherhood movoinent,; though not officially associated with it, an interesting organisation has been formed in Manchester. It is called the "Brotherhood Progressives'. Union.". In Manchester tho Sunday addresses at Brotherhood meetings have done ' much to . educate public opinon oil social questions, and tho idea is that this. educated public opinion , should be brought to bear effectively .upon Parliamentary and municipal problems. The objects of the union, are defined in the following resolutions: 1. That the chief objects of the union shall be social reform, by influencing (e.g.) Parliament, town councils, other .. public bodies, and the press in relation to such matters, especially, as housing, sweating, temperance, unemployment, public morality, and the amelioratio.n of poverty. 2. That the attainment of the objects of the union bo sought (amongst other methods) by promoting the return of th& best available representatives of social reform to positions on public bodies. There is a largo and promising field for the union (states the "Christian World") in the scientific study of social questions, tlio tabulation of statistics, the collection of first-hand evidence as to tho actual i conditions of city lifo and the cduca- \ tion of tho public consciencc. Tho Rev. ] N. M. Hennessy, of Broughton Con- ( gregatioiial Church, is tho first i president. 1 Mr. Rockefeller's scheme for using his wealth for the abolition of- poverty has j aroused Dr. Akcd's hearty admiration. . In a sermon the pastor of Fifth Avenue [ Baptist Church said: "Members of this | congregation will regard the scheme I witli rejoicing, because it comes from s a fellow-member and- a colleague. Wo t sec tho dawning of a new day for man- S kind, becuuso of this magnificent gift, ! coming as ,it does from one who lias ? broad, statesmanlike views, and the 1 genius to plan it all. In it there is to J me a lovely nobility of character. In , its influence we stand in the- presence ] of a new epoch,'one that is evolutionary t and edifying. It will free tho slave- , bond of evil conditions, and it is only 1 the plain, truth for .me to say that this i vast gift will have the power for the Amelioration of suffering and for the uplifting of science and civilisation."

In an "urgent appeal," wired to the Salvation Army "War Cry" from West Australia, Commissioner Hay says:— "In tho SOo meetings I have conducted since my arrival in Australia,-1 have met hundreds of young men and women eminently suited for Salfbtion service as officers, but I havoalso'met tens of thousands' living lives of sin, careless of eternal things—Godless. And I have become profoundly impressed with the necessity of a great revival of tho old ■spirit that has moved and inspired all the greatest movements for the elevation and salvation of men —the spirit of sacrifice. It was this . spirit that animated tho dauntless Australian explorers, and enabled them to brave unropiningly, unshrinkingly, even to death, tho dangers and hardships, known and unblown, that vainly blocked their path. The same.spirit is traceable in all great enterprises that have for their aim the betterment of the world, tho unlocking of the treasures of earth, and tho pursuit of knowledge. The results have amply justifipd this groat principle. In West Australia the way is paved 'for five new corps, but there are no officers available. I am relying on the call being responded to with enthusiasm, consecration,, and willing obedience by our comrades everywhere."-