THE BRITISH CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1199, 7 August 1911, Page 4

THE BRITISH CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

SERMON BY BISHOP SPROTT. In the course of a very interesting sen moil at St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral yesterday morning, the Anglicnn Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprott) referred to tho present political crisis in England. Ho took' his text from 1 Timothy 11: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intereesfions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all that aro in authority; that we may load a quiet and peacrable life in all godliness and honesty." 'J'lie DisJiop dealt in a very striking manner with the growth of tho conception of prayer, which ho said was an elemental instinct of human nature, finding its 'most perfcct expression in the Christian idea of prayer, as outlined in the text. Dr. Sprott concluded in the following words:— My friends, our prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church is an expansion of St. Paul's directions, by quoting which that prayer begins. At times these ancient prayers ol' ours seem to have little application to present needs. But those of us who have lived long in tho world also know that, ever and again, circumstances arise which give tho ancicnt words a new and living force. Sueli a time, 1 think, is tho present. Our Motherland is face to face .with a constitutional crisis, which, for the possible gravity of its issues men say cannot 1)8 paralleled in our history since the days oil the Stuarts. Happily tho day has gene by, if it ever existed, when we in New Zealand could- think that wo had little or no interest in tho internal politics of the Old Land. We now kno* that for weal or woe wo form one community with our kin beyond the seas. We know that for us too the movements there are pregnant with great issues. Yet wo can do nothing directly to influence their course. But wo believe in a God who willcth all men to be saved, that is, not merely to escape hell, but to como to their highest and best life both here and hereafter. We l>eiievo Ho sits enthroned above tho writer-fields of human confusiou and perplexity; that He guides and orders all tilings 'n tho interest of His saving purpose. We bie iieve too that He hears prayer, and our Christian Scriptures tell us that prayers for kings and all who arc in authority are acceptable in His sight and are in harmony with Bis purpose of salvation. Shall wo not then pray for thoso witii whom tho responsibility of solving the present constitutional problems lies? And if you ask me what shall be tho purport of our prayers, I find my answer in the spirit of this passage. I do not myself profess to know the true and right solution, but I am sure that, i"i it is ever to be readied, our leaders on ono side and the other must bo enabled to rise to the universal point of view; muit have the grace, the wisdom, the courage, the self-abnegaiion resolutely to put aside all petty, party, and sectional aims and seek the common goofl, Let Lbat then bo the purport of our prayers, our earnest prayers, If only the' Christian people will so pray, and, of course, act in the spirit of their own pr.iyers, I cannot doubt that out of tho present chaos there will arise a more perfect and Imperial organisation, which shall embody more than in times past the ideals of justice, unity, intelligence, freedom—a social order in. which Christian men may live in tranquility and peace a godly and nobly serious life.