RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1342, 20 January 1912, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

OXFORD MINISTERS AND BISHOP GORE. TWO INTERESTING LETTERS. The Oxfoid Free Church Ministers' Fraternal sent tlie following address of welcome lo Bishop Gore:— ' "To the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Oxford. "We, the members' of Iho Oxford Xcnconformist Ministers' Fraternal, de.-riro herewith u> ulier yon ;i very hearty welcome to thi-% city and diocese, and lo assure yon of our prayer; for the sue: - e.-s of your work anion;; us. We have learned to admiro yon far your contributions to Christian --'eiiolarsliip, and for yuur manifold lab.iurs in Christ. We rejoico in Ihe cordial and happy relations which exist between ourselves* and many of the city clergy. The growing indilfereneo to religion in this countvy seems to us to make it incumbent on Christian people to stand together against their common enemies, aud we can assure you thai, ill spito of much that very seriously divides us, we avo always ready and glad to cooperate with all those that love the Lord .losns Christ and seek the interests of His Kingdom.— Signed, on behalf of the Fraternal,

"ALEX. WARRACk", Secretary." Tho Bishop's reply wa? ;ls follows:— "My Dear Sir,—ilav I thank you for the address of welcome to the dioceso from the Free Church Ministers' Fraternal, which you have been good enough to &3iml nie! J X did not reply before l>eeause I have lieen living under a very heavy pro-sure of work, and wanted to semi something more than a mere aclii/ lfdginent. I wish to thank you cordial bfor your good wishes. I have had very many luippy experiences in Birmingham in my relations with the ministers of many religious denominations, and 1 should earnestly desire in Oxford—(l) That we should seek to understand and know on i another in a friomlly and human way. (2) That we should cy-oper-ate in all such causes as concern social welfare and sacred learning; and (:i) I do earnestly desire that such fellowship may lead us gradually along towards fuller union. I pray earnestly that I may never be a cause of olTcnr-e by any wilfulness or hastiness on my part.—Believe me to be, my dear sir, vours very sincerelv. "(Signed) C. OXOX."

A GREAT PREACHER.

THE STORY OF Mi. M'LAREN'S LIFE. "Dr. Alexander M'Laron, the great Manchester preacher, shrank, it is said, from the idea of a large book, what is called a 'life,''being written about him. A memorial volume, published by llodder and Stoiighton, written by his' cousin and sistcr-in-hw, would," say's the "Manchester Guardian, "probably have pleased him in the modesty of its scale and pretension ami in the simplicity with which the story of-his career is told.

"It would have pleased him, too, in another respect—in the place it. gives to the influence which his wife played in his life and in his work. She was a woman of rare qualities, but she merged her life in his so completely that only those admitted to the rather strict privacy of thcir holoe had any idea of her real gilts and influence. Here' one'gets a iairlv full glimpse of the gentle and saintly woman who sustained the preacher in his exacting public service and silently helped to keep that service at .such an amazingly high level.

"His persistence in refusing do be seen by callers, in having messages sent to and fro between his study and the wait-ing-room instead of giving a minute or two to a personal interview, was put down by many to vanity or a sense of his own greatness. Yet his biographer is able honestly to assure us that 'the most nun-Iced feature in his character was his entire freedom from anything approaching to egotism. His de?p vein of shyness, as well refined ta.vte, made egotism, in the way of speaking of his own doings, an impossibility to him. But his want of egotism had a deeper source. It was tho result of gmnino doop-rootcd hu-i inilitv.'

"Of Dr. M'Laron':; devotional reading he seldom or never spoke, but the books he always took with him when lie went from home included Augustine's 'Confessions' and Fox's 'Journal.' He read comparatively little biigraphvl but was keenly interested in books of travel, if at all graphic. and he had s n mo peculiar tastes in fiction. George E'iot ho disliked, Stanley Wevmaii, A. E. W. Mason interested him. -and lo I lie astonishment of some of.his friends he enjoyed what he called the 'wholesome tone' of Pett Ridge and W. W. Jacobs. Of Thackeray and Dickens he never tired."

BISHOP AND VICAR.

FATTIER STANTON NOT ALLOWED TO PREACH. The' liov. Father Stanton, of St. Alban's Anglican Church, JJolborn, was announced to preach at Die dedication service at St. Thomas's Church, Warwick Street 1 , Liverpool, recently, hill: the Bishop of Liverpool intervened," uml said ho would regard the visit as an act of defiance, as the vicar of the church hail, declined to submit to his ruling with' respect to tho use of incense and reservation.

In the church, before a crowded congregation, Use Hew Ernest Underbill, the vicar, said he had received a letter from tho chaplain of the Bishop of Liverpool, informing him that at. the Bishop's request tho Rev. A. 11. Stanton had "consented to cancel his engagement to preach at St. Thomas's." These words taken in their ordinary sense would mean that the Bishop had requested Father Stanton not to preach, leaving it open to him either to consent or refuse, lie therefore immediately communicated with Father Stanton, who in reply authorised him to state that he hail given no such consent. He said that tho Bishop wrote to him saying that his visit would be "regarded as an act of dofiance," as the Vicar had declined to' submit to his (tho Bishop's) ruling with regard to the use of incense and reservation. Tho teinis of this letter would appear to bo such that it left 110 option either to Father Stanton to preach in St. Thomas's or to the vicar to permit him to do so. To this letter Father Stanton, so far from "consenting," replied that if tho Bishop did not wish him to preach he must ask him to write and tell the vicar so. Thus the action of the liishop hail made it impossible for them to have Father Stanton with them that night. The vicar added that lie had not defied the Bishop's authority. Like many qlergv in other dioceses in tho samo position as himself, ho had frankly recognised the Bishop's right to regulate the use of incense and reservation. Many of the English Bishops had consented to regulate these matters'. The Bishop of Liverpool had refused.

JESUS OR CHRIST?

SERMON BY DR. JOHN HUNTER. Preaching in Trinity Church, Glasgow, this first of a series of week-day Advent s-nuons. Dr. John llunter (Congregationalist), in to the growing observance of the Christian year in 'Scotland, .said that it had boon stimulated by a firsh interest in the life of Jesus, and tint it alo had tended to deepen and purify that interest. It helped to make of Jesus the great companion, of their day?, and brought nis holy living and dying neaner to them in the ways of their common life. Jesus of Nazareth and Jerusalem seemed to him to be tho most real and essential thing in the Now Testament. It may be, ho said, as too many appear to think in these days, that {.lie historic Jesua is not permanently and vitally nectary to Christianity; but f.har'C ef us who have grown to know and lovq the simple figure of, the synoptic grspels prefer Him to any or all of the Christs who are displacing Hiin. The of mythology, speculation and mysticism, the Jewish Messiah of the first Christians own the Logos of John and the Christ of Paul, were unsatisfactory substitutes for the Jesus of the Galilean story and Gospel. There is a verso of »i child's hvmn which he always heard above all llu-se weary and interminable controversies about Christs many and Lords many. ami which still expressed his own souls ile.-ire: O Galilee, sweet Galilee, VChoyo .7' su-" TovH much to be; 0 Galilw, blue Galilee, 4 Conic thy acain

UNITED METHODIST MISSION. |

THE SEIIIOI'S DECREASE IN INCOME. Tho Missionary Committee of tlie Unit-' ed Methodist Free Churches, which coneluded its autumnal meetings at Itoehdale recently, had under serious consideration till' future mission policy of the Church. Last year tho missions cost .£20,250, of which ,t1. r )00 was contributed bv ilie mv tivo clinches. This Kit .£18,70 to be raised by the Homo churches, am! there was a deficit of ,£5500. Jt was reported that during; tile last few years there ha.s been a. steady declini- in missionary income,'common )/,> all Ohiirclics. lnuvos Hie income. was raided it would mean closing | one-third of their stations. Tho commit- 1 tee decided to allow the missionary secr;.l- - (the lfev. C'. .Stcdel'ord) to dovoto Jns energies to a campaign to increase tho annual missionary incom.; by .£1(1,IHJ0. Already promises have been made which represent an annual, increase of i!lJ00. J.he committee had More them the oiler oi the Government of the liritish East Africa Protectorate to open a station at Meru. j his is entirely new ground, and the climatic condition's are reported to Ix 3 much more favouiablo than tho coast towns, which will probablv bo left almost entirely to native workers. After discussing the matter at great length, tho committee decried to accent the offer, and the first missionary will be appointed to the station in April.

THE NEW CARDINALS.

SOME KCTEBKSTIXG PACTS. The following is taken from tho "Tablet" (London), of December "J;— Who is the youngest of the eighteen new Cardinals? \\ e arc able to'claim this distinction for our Archbishop of Westminster.' A consultation of tho "Anuuairo Pontifical" of Mgr. Battandier's careful compiling seemed to show the "babe" of the late Consistory was tho new Cardinal I'ompili, the late'secretary of tho Congregation of the Council. We learn, however, on good authority that the date of birth here set down.' which would have made Cardinal I'ompili our English Cardinal's junior by two years, postdates the event by live. The senior of the new creations is Cardinal lie Cabrieres, the llishop of Montpellior, who kept his eighly-lirst birthday last August, and has ruled his Southern French see for thirty-seven years past.. We may add that of the sixty-five Cardinals (including one reserved in petto) who now compose tho Sacred College, one (Cardinal Oreglia) is of Pius IX'screation, twenty-nine are creations of Loo XIII, and now thirty-/ five are of Pius X. Six of the most interesting Human churches have, now for their

"titulars" Cardinals of English-speaking races. Tlio head church of the Domiui'caiis, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, gave a lit 1 o to the first American Cardinal— M'Closkey. Tlio association, renewed in the case of Cardinal Farley, was no doubt originally suggested by the fact that the two first Bishops of Acw York were Dominicans and inmates of the adjoining Minerva Convent. Standing where a'temple of Minerva once stood, this church is the. only Gothic one in Kerne. Under the liig'n altar rests the body of .St. Dominic's greatest daughter; St." Catherine of Siena; anil.here, moreover, is the tomb of his great son, Fra Angelieo. To another Cardinal of the 2\ew .World, Cardinal O'Connell, has been assigned as his titular Sail Clemente, also a Dominican church. At the. Irish Dominican church three distinct buildings exist, (he lowest of them (discovered and excavated in the 'fifties) ■being a patrician mansion of the first century, and almost certainly at one time the house of Dope fit. Clement. Above it is the ancient church, of the fourth century, and above this the twelfth-cen-tury church now in use. The Irish Dominican Fathers have for some time had in hand a scheme for the drainago of the lowest portion, including the still visible ruins of the temple of Mithras, which once occupied the sitt>. One of their number lias lately devoted a little book to the shrines and relics and to other sacred lore of Han Clemente. To mention some minor memories of our own day, Father Tom Burke used to preach from its pulpit: and ,the Irish. Fathers welcomed" 1 to their priory King Edward VII as Prince of AVales in 1859, and tho Duke and Duchess of Connaught in 1899.

OBITUARY.

CANON TEIGNMOI7TH SHORE. The (loath at Worcester is announced of tho Rev. Thomas Teignmouth Shore, Canon of Worcester since 18SI1 and Chap-lain-in-Ordinarv to the King. Canon Teignmouth Shorn, who was 70 years old, had also held the position 'of Chap- ! lain-in-Ordinarv to both Queen Victoria and King Edward, and acted os religious instructor to Kin£ Edward's daughter;. Born in Dublin, Canon Teignmouth Shoro graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, where ho won a gold medal for oratory, and took his M.A. degree at Oxford. In his subsequent life he was brought into contact with many of tho most interesting personalities of three reigns, ,• In "the early years of his work in the Church ho joined as curato at St. Peter's, Vere Street, Frederick Denison Maurice, whose views at that time were regarded In- many good people as ''dangerous" and "heretical." In liis recently-published "Recollections" Canon Teignmouth Shore recalled how one clergyman said to him at the time, "You arc going to imperil your faith," and then, with emphasis, ''and cortainly to destroy all your chances of promotion'!" An eloqueut pulpit orator, he held the Alice Order of Hesse, presented to him by the Grand Duke, and the lioyal Order of the Crown of Prussia, conferred by tho German Emperor.

IN BRIEF.

The new Cabinet in Canada is headed by an Anglican communicant, Mr. Borden, whose colleagues aro six Anglicans, six Methodists, four Roman Catholics, and cne Baptist. Tho members of Parliament are thus classified as to religious beliefs, 73 Catholics and MS Protestants, namely: IB Methodists, 10 Presbyterians, 45 Anglicans, 5 Baptists, 3 Lutherans, 2 Congregationalists, and 1 Friend. The anniversary of tho foundation of the Church of England in Australia will ba celebrated in Sydney on Sunday, January 28. It will commemorate tlio holding of tho first service under a great treo near what is now the Circular Quay, in 1788, "on the Sunday after the landii&." The observance of the day was decrecd uy an almost unanimous vote of both Houses of the Provincial Synod about seven years ago, and it has been honoured since, and with a widening interest. Some churches have been decorated with Australian and other flowers. The history of the Church of England in Australia, what she has done for tho people, and hor own duty as affecting the national life havo been topics dwelt upon by preachers on tho day. At the closing services iu connection with the Chapman-Alexander Mission in Belfast. Dr. Chapman announced that over 3000 persons had publicly professed to rcceivo Christ during; the mission, and 94 young men, University students and others had resolved, if the way opened, to devote their lives to tho Christian ministry, and that 150 young men and women wore prepared, as the Lord had need of them, to become missionaries of the Cross. Dr. Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, has Ijcoji elected to an honorary fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge, in recognition of his stand for outspokenness by the clergy. The final returns of tho centenary fund of tlio English Primitivo Methodist Church 'show that tho total amount ivceived is ,£3H,(!H. A quarter of a million was aimed at when the fund was started five years ago—.£] jft.OOO for forward movements and chapel debt reductions in circuits, and .£IOO,OOO for missions, orphanages, tlio and other con ilex ional objects. Some .£228,011 has been raided for local and ,£80.032 for connexional purposes. The entire amount represents an average of 31s. Id. pur member, and of the promises only 3 per cent, have been unrealised. Tho Very Kcv. J. T. Marriott, D.D., Dean of Bathurst, has tendered his resignation to the Bisbon, as Dean of Bathurst and incumbent of All Saints' Cathed.*:.l. Ho hopes to lake his departure for England about March next. Dr. Harriott g:\ve indifferent health us the reason for his decision. Ho said that during tho first four months after his return from England in December, 1010, he found that excessive wo:-k was undoing the uood which ho had derived from his trip. Consequently he has now decided to i-elin-quish his position, and to sever his connection wi'lh flic Church in Australia. However, ha might tako up church work I in Enylind, but this, of course, was n .mattsa; fac.tutujs wmsidqrutioiC 1