RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 817, 14 May 1910, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

"NEW THEOLOCY" CRISIS. DR. MORGAN APPROVES DR. FORSYTH'S CRITICISM. ( Tho theological controversy which has been in progress for several years seems to be about to enter (says the "Christian Commonwealth") upon a new and critical stage. Tho Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, D.D., who has hitherto taken little part in tho ' discussion, baa issued a pronouncement expressing his indebtedness to the Rev. Principal Forsyth, D.D., for tho address at the National Froe Church Council in which, in the words of tho "Daily News" special correspondent at Hull, lie "lashed the unhappy Now Theologians with stinging epigrams and poured'scorn on their leaders and their creed," and employed the terms "quack" and "adventurer." Dr. Morgan now declares that he is "amazed and disturbed" that certain men are, to quote Dr. Forsyth, "all the time enjoying the name, the credit, and the funds of the faith they, deny," and ho ;dds that it is a matter of increasing difficulty to him "as.to how far it is possible to remain in apparent and -organised union with men who hold thoso views, and who are not prepared to pay the price of tho sincerity of their convictions." In reply, tho "Christian Commonwealth" protests strongly against vague talk about "men" who are not named, and calls upon Dr. Forsyth' and Dr. Morgan to. say plainly whether they aro referring to Mr. Campbell. It is pointed but that the City Temple, being without endowment of any kind, has absolutely no revenue except such as ia created, in effect, by its minister, and that in any event Dr. Forsyth and Dr. Morgan have nothing whatever to do with its funds, their use and administration being in tho .hands of the members of tho church and congregation, who would resent any interference from the outside. Apparently suspecting an attempt to drive Mr. Campbell from his position, the "Christian Commonwealth" emphasises the fact, that tho City Temple as a church is "inde : pendent, autonomous, self-supporting," and that it is a mistake to regard Congregationalism and the Congregational TJnion as one and the same thing. Finally, it suggests that Dr. Campbell .Morgan could easily remove bis "difficulty", by intimating to the Congregational Union that either he and his church or Mr. Campbell and his church must withdraw from the Congregational TJnion. A GREAT PREACHER. THE DATE DR. M'LAREN. Describing the Manchester sermons of the i late Rev. Dr. Alexander M'Laron, described as "the last of the great preachers of the Victorian era," a writer in the "Otago Daily Times" states: —. "These sermons were preached without notes of any kind, and often not more than a few lines had been written upon the back of an old letter. Yet they were perfect in Autlino and in diction, while the illustrations were like perfectly-finished cameos. Sometimes the effect of tho young preacher's words was terrific and hard. Manchester men havo told us how they have sat and trembled like an aspen leaf beneath the preaching of those days. But, however such sermons left the hearer, thoy loft tho preacher shattered in nerves, jangled and unstrung, and in such deep depression that ho always felt himself to boa failure, and that he could never .preach again. But his fame rapidly extended. On Sunday tho congregation included many of the leaders of civic life and thought. He nevor touched on any political or literary questions in the pulpit. He rarely dealt with any of tho problems of the Higher Criticism, and gave little or no guidance on. such disputes about eschatoiogy as have guided tho modern mind. Ho preached almost exclusively on tho deep things of personal religion, of union with Christ, and of the power of the Holy Spirit. At all times his mothod was evangelical and his method expository. His services to the Christian Church can scarcely be overestimated,, for in overy section of it he lifted up and purified the level and the ideal-of preaching." / When, at tho assembly of the Baptist TJnion in Edinburgh, Dr. M'Laren delivered his second presidential address on "Christian Mysticism," he spoke for 80 minutes without any manuscript or note, the result being an address profound and central, and of which Viscount Halifax said to the English Church TJnion: "Who could read without emotion the noble address on Christian Mysticism by Dr. Alexander M'Laren —who, I believe, is the head of the Baptist body—at Edinburgh last October, and not feel that Dr. M'Laren was ono who should be entirely ours, one from whose teaching we had all much to learn and whose devotion we had great need to. imitate ?" "LAST OF THE PURITANS." Principal Alexander Whyte, of Edinburgh,- is described in "T.P.'s Weekly" as "The last of the Puritans." "Principal Whyte," it says, "for over thirty years has kept together a large and flourishing congregation, not by preaching a religion of sentiment, but by dwelling upon the cardinal doctrines of Puritanism, the solemnity of life, tho terrible reality of sin, the need of supernatural aid in the unceasing spiritual warfare. Never minimis-' ing the sombre side ■of Puritanism, Principal Whyte does justice to the mystical side. If he is an adept at spiritual vivisection, he is equally at htfrne in dealing with the spiritual fervours and raptures which in these days seem to have gone out of the religious life, but which bulked largely in the experiences of the saints of Puritan times.

"Principal Whyte's unique pulpit power is largely due to his sympathy with the mystical side of religion, and to this also is duo his marked success as an author. Underlying all differences of creeds ho'recognisos a spiritual unity, and thus he is brought'into sympathy with religious types tho most dij verse. He is at home with Bunyan, Rutherford, Newman, Jacob Boohme, Saint Teresa—in short, with all who show ovidence of living wholeheartedly in the Unseen." BISHOP GORE AT ST. PAUL'S. In tho course" of an article in the "Christian World," describing the address of tho Bishop of Birmingham (Dr. Gore) to.an immense congregation during tho Tltreo Hours' service in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on Good Friday, the Rev. J. G. Henderson, a Nonconformist, who was present, states:— "The Bishop spoke with.great earnestness. Occasionally the earnestness passed into passion, and his words rang and echoed about tho dome. For a dignitary of tho Church ho is surprisingly free and unconventional. He used slight notes, strode about in the spaciuus pulpit, thumped the cushion and indulged in colloquial terms with the freedom of an energetic Methodist evangelist. He has one very curious action. In his most intense passages he- lifts himself up on his toes, and then jerks down upon his heels. During tho last hour ho showed signs of weariness, a diminishing vigour of gesture and utterance. I suppose ho was using his voice in preaching or in prayer for considerably over a couplo of hours,

and a couple of hours under the dome of St. Paul's, with the desire of an earnest preacher to make the most of a. great opportunity and to' reach the limits of that enormous audience, must have imposed a terrible physical and mental strain.

"What of the teaching? Well, there was not a word to which I could take exception. The Bishop's addresses might have been delivered in any Nonconformist church without, provoking any comment save commendation.

"Sitting there beneath the shadow of the. cross, one felt the paltriness, and even the horror, of most of the controversies which "divide and embitter our Christianity. Here was a High Anglican bishop talking on the central theme' of our religion for over two hours, and not dropping a sentence which could create irritation, or excite the dissent of any Evangelical Christian. I left St. Paul's with that thoughtin my mind, a sad thought when we contemplate the animosities of theologians, and yet a thought which js luminous with hope and rich in prophecy," SENSATIONAL PREACHINC. Professor Denney, in his new book "The Church and the Kingdom" (Hodder and Stoughton), says of "the want of appreciation 'i or worship": "It is seen whenever the common worship of the Church, instead of being,an occasion on which the souls of men' are subdued and exalted by the consciousness of God their Saviour, is an occasion on which a clever man exerts all his cleverness to keep a congregation from wearying as they observe a decorous convention. '

"Much may be forgiven to earnestness, and to the desire to bring the careless by any means within the sound of the Gospel. But to shoot at folly as it flies, to preach on the sensation of the hour, and to do it with the overemphasis of a generation fed on excitement, to fall back on economical and political questions as thought they had a reality which could not be claimed for God and the soul, sin and atonement, death and immortality, is not the way."

Reviewing this book in. the "Dundee Advertiser," Rev. A. B. Macaulay sayß: " There is no richer, saner, more massive, or more cultivated mind being applied to the service of the Christian religion at the present day than Dr. Denney'a." THE RESURRECTION. Writing in the Boston "Congregationnlist," Professor M. W. Jacobus, D.D., of Hartford Seminary, says: "If nothing had come of the Resurrection of Jesus, the mere assertion of it would have been so much talk—nothing more; but as a. matter of fact Christianity came of it in all its reconstruction of the disciples' lives and in all its conquest of the world. This could not have been unessential to Christianity. . . The modern mind may find it difficult to adjust itself to miracle and still desire to accept Christianity as the only way of the world's ' salvation, but no mere respect for Christianity as a system of truth, nor any mere reverence for Christ as an ideal character will retails the essential of that religion which makes the heart of its teaching to be Jesus the Redeemer of men. The supernatural in Jesue Himself makes, miracles essential to the'acceptance of His religion in any and every age. Christianity cannot be accounted for historically, apart from the supernatural, as apart from the supernatural it cannot rationally be accepted." JOTTINGS.

It ,is officialy';.,stated', that ".during Dr. Henry's five: days' mission'." at Masterton, 313 " decisions" were made for Christ'. Dr. Henry and. Mr. Potts, were welcomed by the ministers of Auckland last Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday held the two opening services of their Auckland mission in the Theatre. Despite very bad weather, there were large attendances, including 75 per cent, of men.-

.A conference of divinity students— Church of Scotland, United Free Church, Free Church, and Congregational—on the proposed union of the colleges has been held in Edinburgh, under the auspices of' the Church Union Association. Principal Whyte, in reference to the coming union, declared he had little hope of seeing much of it, if any; but he envied the young men the possibility of having a hand in the reconstruction of such a splendid Church for Scotland. Professor Paterson, of Edinburgh University, who said that as a member of the Joint Committee of the Churches on Union he was. sworn to secrecy, declared that he felt it dangerous to speak on the subject of Church Union at present, and advised the Church Union Association to hibernate pending the result- of the deliberations now going on elsewhere. He held that it was futile to talk about the union of the colleges if they did not get. the union of tho churches. Mr. F. W. Watson, a Church of Scotland student and 'son of "lan Maclaren," expressed the view that, if the colleges had been united ten years ago, they would have been nearer Church union to-day. The otudents were- entirely in favour of union.

Mr. Roosevelt, at Khartum, said:— "I wish I could make every member of a Christian Church realise that as far as he spends his time quarrelling with the other sects he is discrediting Christianity in the eyes of the world. This applies equally to quarrels with fellowcitizens of other creeds."

One of the.' largest and most imposing public receptions ever extended by the civic authorities of Edinburgh will be that with which tho Town Council has agreed to mark the visit of the delegates to the World's Missionary Conference in June. Tho number of invited guests will not fall far short of two thousand.

A memorial of John Banyan is to be erected at his birthplace of Elstdw. The church at Bunyan Meeting, Bedford, proposes to erect on a site, given by Mr. Samuel Whitbread, a hall, to be known aa the "Bunyan Memorial Hall," which will contain not only accommodation for public worship, but also smaller rooms and all appointments necessary for school and social work, at a cost of from £1500 to £1300. Over £1000 has already been raised, and of this sum the little congregation at Elstow has contributed through, its own effort £165. Subscriptions will be received and gratefully acknowledged by the present minister of the church, of whoso membership the Elstow congregation is a part —the Rov. "W. Charter Piggott, Bunyan Meeting, Bedford.

At tho council of the Federation of Free Churches, in England, Gipsy Smith told the story of bis evangelistic mission work in tho United States. .Ho preached there 750 times in fifteen months. Ho was not late at a single service, often began services an hour beforehand because of waiting crowds, and never missed a meal or a night's sleep. In Pittsburg eight hundred chnrches united in his mission, where ho preached twice a day foi eighteen days. Sixty-five policemen, told off to keep order," becamo his choir. In St. Louis, a hall holding fifteen thousand persons was packed night after night, and in Chicago still larger buildings wore needed.

The Bishop of Truro says in a letter to tho secretary of the Church Defence Committee that it would. bo infinitely better for one of the Nonconforming bodies of. Christians to bo established Tathor than that there shordd bo no religion established as national.