RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1425, 27 April 1912, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

CRITICISM AND INSPIRATION, DR. PEA KB AND J)l{. WARSC'HAUER. In a paper 011 "The Modern Criticism of the Hi bio," read at (lie Free Church Council, which met at Cheltenham in March, Dr. A. S. Pcake said that ideally oritic:-ii\_ was a passionless inquiry controlled simply by the desire to ascertain the truth by tho application of rigid scientific method. but it was diiiieutt to elnniiiate bias. He described tho methods of criticism in the attempt to get behind the literature lu the history. He held that there was a practical consensus of opinion 011 results which would remain. Imj iar as the Old Testament was concerned, there was 110 real sign of n reaction. Jll tho case of tho New Testament it was more difficult b speak of any general consensus of opinion covering the whole ground. Tile authenticity of tiie l'aulino ivpi.-,tlos was widely recognised, though several scholars rejected Ephesians. The view that .Mark was the earliest of the Synoptists, and along with a. collection of the sayings and discourses of Jesus had formal the basis of Matthew and Luke, was very widely accepted. The Lucan authois-hip of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles was still very generally rejected in Germany, in spite of Harnack's brilliant vindication. He looked looked for a change of attitude here to tho younger scholars. At present t hey were far from agreement with reference to the Catholic Epistles, the .Revelation of John, and, above all, tho fourth Gospel. As to the way in which criticism affected their estimate of the value of the Bible, he said that no matter what view they might take as to the way in which it had been produced, there it was -a stupendous fact in literature, in history, in morals, and in religion. .From its pages the collective consciousness of tho'Church, as well as the individual Christian, had heard the Divino voico speaking, and the fact that in this Book, as in no other, Goil had disclosed Himself to them was attested by evidence which no criticism was competent to touch.

A paper on "The Permanent Value of the Bible in the Light of Modern Criticism 1 ' was read by Dr. AYarschauer. Ho said they were face to face with the disquieting situation that while in their colleges Bible criticism was frankly welcomed and rapidly progressing, the spread of the new knowledge, in tho Churches had not kept pace with its acceptance by those academically trained. ]t was most undesirable that tho results of criticism should be a sort of secret knowledge of tho ministry, for any policy of mental reservation was alien to their Protestant temper; moreover, it generated an atmosphere of distrust which reacted unfavourably upon the life of the Churches. His first plea was for entire and courageous frankness in the treatment of this great issue. The principle of Biblical criticism was adopted in practice by tlio.se who repudiated it in theory. The virgin whiteness of tho pages of such books as Ksther and Chronicles, which wero "taken as read," revealed tho Biblical critic unknown to himself. Inspiration was an attribute of persons, and only in . a secondary sense of writings. It was a matter of degree, and was exclusively concerned with the things of the spirit. Tho final test of inspiration was that which inspires. The paramount value of tho Bible was its spiritual value, which no criticism could touch, because spiritual things wero spiritually, and not critically, discerned, '.i he paramount value of an nlteranco could not be affected by its authorship. It was too tragic that in our day, with an abundance of cheap modern, text-books, the Scripture; should bo subjected to an advocacy which could only alienato educated minds. No sane criticism had dimmed the uniqueue-s, tlio supremacy, tho Divinity of our Lord and Saviour. After all that criticism had done or could do they wel'o left willi tlio Book of books culminating in tlio Lifo of lives. On tho question of miracles it was a question of evidence first, middle, and last. The evidence must be irresistibly cogent, and the. evidence for breaches in l-.ho law of uniformity recorded, even in the New Testament, was felt by many to'jbo not satisfactory enough. No criticism could touch the unique personality of Him who having seen, they had seen tho Father. v A resolution, was interpolated • asking for further revision of the Revised Arcrsion. Rev. AV. J. Tlcaton, jJorchss'"r, in moving it, said that, with all its excellencies, the Revised A'ersion had many ccfccts, and it had failed to qtt itself accepted. The resolution, whicn r-ked that l'lec Churchmen should be adequately represented on any Revision Committee, was seconded by Dr. Ballard. Objection was taken by Dr. Findlav and Dr. Peake to rushing tho matter at such a meeting. Dr. Peake held that they were not yet ready for a revision of the Old Testament, and carried.an amendment to instruct the National Council Executive to consider the matter, with a view to deciding what action should be taken.

DR. FRERE ON TllFj HIGHER CRITICISM. Father Frere's dosing address at tho midday service at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on March 1, was a wonderfully inspiring utterance. Tho subject wiis "The Future of Religion in World History." The preacher expressed his belief that, in the departments of psychology and theology groat provinces will yrt bo won for the kingdom of grace. "Jll theology itself we welcome with confidence all accumulations of knowledge that come in from every point. Tliev are in some form a revelation of God 'Himself. for what is there that is not of God, save sin?" Loaning over the. pulpit, and talking as with his own young students, Dr. Frero explained that there are Iwo safeguards which will guide us through the difficult paths of knowledge. IVe have, first, the revelation of God in .Tesus Christ, and next, we have the guidance of the Holy Ghost. "Dn we need more? -No nidced.", The Church to-day, in .Dr. Frere's opinion, "<taiuls between tho Alpha and the Omega." "She looks back to the historic revelation, and she looks onward to the final victory." He closed with a. solemn personal appeal. '"Wiiut is your per-onal relation to this immense movement Godward? Are you merelv onlookers or critics? Many a critic thinks he i* in the front rank of progress, when he is really becoming a back number. . . . The religions prugress of the world should mean for ourselves a continual going on."

DEFENCE OF RELIGION.

KEC'ENT BOOKS BY RUDOLPH ' EIICKE.W Referring (o tun new books by Rudolph Eucken, the distinguished German philosopher. (ho "Westminster Gazette" states:— The philosophy is ethical throughout. It might be described not inappropriately :is Religions .Idealism. The religious aspects of the philosophy are treated with great fulness in "The Truth of Religion." \Ye can here only refer briefly to this book, in some ways the most interesting of Kiiekcn's works. It is a noble do- i fence (>!' (ho necessity of religion, ;i pasfioiialo pleading for its claims. The kernel of religion lies in (he union of tho Divine with the human. •ifan must often be in doubt, in spile of all his efforts, whether he lias in any way penetrated to truth, whether he can so appropriate (lie absolute spiritual liTe as to make it effective for the victory over the world. To this perplexity religion brings its conlidcnt answer. Through roligio'i the Divine enters into the province of man. and makes the effective communion the soul of all life. Among nil the historical religion-, Christianity appears as the highest embodiment of absolute religion. "It is essentially the nature of Christianity that it transplants man into a new world over against, the near at hand world; it has planted the fundamental conviction of I'lalonism nf the existence of an Eternal Order over against the world of lime. But it has, though it separated the Eternal from Time, brought it back again into Tioie. and through this presence of I lie Eternal it. lias, for Urn first lime, proposed to mankind and to each individual a fundamental inner renewal. and through this has inaugurated a genuine history." lint in Christianity a< pi'e-cnted to us the Eternal is mingled wilh tr.in-icni elements; and one of our must urgent needs is a separation between thvtn, mi that the Eternal inav have freedom lo do its pure work. On the question as to what constitute*, the Eternal in Christianity, Christian thinkers will differ; but a* to 'lie need of the separation on which Euckon insists, tliera should bs so doubt, And m«amvliile,

''whatever new tasks and difficulties lie in tho lap of the future, to-day it bohuvos us before all else to proceed a step upwnrd ill the direction of the summits, and to draw new energies and depths of the Spiritual Life into the domain of man, lor this kind of work will prevent the coming of nu old ago upon humanity, and will breatho into its soul tho gift of Eternal Youth."

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. LATEST CENSUS FIGURES. Tho latest Indian census furnishes interesting figures in relation to Christianity in Judia. The persons of European or American domicile cr pure descent in India number roundly 2(11),(100 (of whom less than 5(S,000 nro females) as compared with 170,000, with females in about tho saino proportion, in 1901. Tho total includes, of courso, tho lirifish troaps, which liavO an established strength of 74,481, thus reducing tho resident nr sojourning white civilian population to About 125,000. Of tho aggregate iatlier moio than fiveeighths belong to tho Anglican communion. Tho Roman Catholic faith is held by about one-fifth of the Euroiieaim, while tho Presbyterians have 15,000 ad-' liereuts and tho"Methodists 7000. There aro 2700 Haptists, and rather more than GOO Congregationalists, while there uro tho saino number of Protestants belonging to denominations not separately tabled. Tho Eurasian Christians now confusingly styled "Anglo-Indians"—a term hitherto applied to puro Europeau residents—number about 101,000 (the 6exes in this ease being fairly equal), as against 8!),001). at tho previous census. Considerably moro than half of tliem—s7,ooo—aro Bomon Catholics, and not quite olio-fourth Anglicans. Of the remainder 2573 are Methodists (mainly belonging to tho American. Methodist Episcopal Mission), 2239 Baptists, and nearly 2000 Presbyterians. In round figures 3,574,000 of the Christian population aro natives, and as in the caso of the Eurasians t.ho Homan Catholics tako first place with 1,394,000 adherents, os compared with 1,122,000 in the previous enumeration.

AUTHORISED AND REVISED VERSIONS. THE LITERARY POINT OP VIEW. .At Lambeth Palace on March 5 the Archbishop of Canterbury received a deputation who presented a memorial, signed by a large number of heads of colleges and public schools, asking for an emendation of tho Authorised Version of the Ncw Testament. The memorial' pointed out that, whereas the revisers of tho Old Testament had shown that it was possible to accomplish the task of correcting errors without destroying tho characteristic qualities of the version, tho New Testament revisions departed from tho Authorised Version systematically where there were no errors to correct.' Dr. Boyd Carpenter, who introduced tho deputation, pointed out that tho Revised Version did not adequately satisfy from a literary point of view. The Dean of Norwich said tlioso whoso position in the field of learning gave them the right to speak on tho literarv merits of the New Testament were unanimous in saying that the Revised Version must not be allowed to replace the older version. They asked that the Archbishop .should appoint a small committee to consider the corrections made in tho Revised Version. Sir. St. Loe Stracliey endorsed this request, and added that the committee should have on its representatives of Nonconformity. Clearly tho first consideration must ho to obtain the original meaning, the wholo meaning, and no foreign.addition to the meaning. The Archbishop said a great deal of what had been put forward would, he thought, bo in completo accord with the mass of public opinion outside. A great deal of it was incontrovertible, but there were other parts about which he had very mugh doubt. There were parts of tho I memorial which, if it were not for tho irreverence of using the words, lie might say wore hardly fair for tho unlettered persons who read it and who- had no knowledge of the original books. They might be misled .by such a sentence" as "Tho' revisers of 'tlie' Old Testament- h'avo shown that it is possible to accomplish the necessary task of correcting errors without destroying the characteristic qualities of tho version." Perfect outsiders might not know that tho revisers of tho Old Testament had a totally different problem before them. Tho revisers of the New Testament had textual work, and at least half the objections to the Revised Version with which ho was familiar were based upon textual questions. Then tho memorial stated that "tho version had been altered throughout unnecessarily and for the worse." That was a sweeping statement, and ho could not go so far as to agree with it. While he was prepared to go a long way with those who desired revision, he did not think that this was an opportune moment for an authoritative endeavour to do tho work suggested. Ho understood that in Germany there were certain works which were going to give a complete restatement of tho whole case. Therefore, whether as regarded scholarship or investigation, he thought that in a few years they would bo in a better position to judge what the result would be; and for that reason the present time did not seem opportune' for them to do as they desired. That a few scholars might deal with the New Testament and give the results of their work might ->,e extremely desirable, but it was rather diilcrent for the Archbishop of Canterbury to do what they asked. Sir. St. loe Stracliey had suggested that a small committee should include representatives' of tho various denominations in England, but ho thought that would cause some little difficulty, lie should like to sec a few men of acknowledged scholarsliin take tho books and sny what should b? done as between the Revised and the Authorised Versions, and then, having before them such work of voluntary critics, they would be in a better position to judge whether it was desirable to seek-to give the imprimatur of authority. That seemed to him the course he should proler at the present time rather than to attempt authoritative action, and lie should hesitate to do so until textual criticism and research had gone much further.

WINNING THE CROWD. NOTTINGHAM AYESLEYAN MISSION. "The mission. Las become a real force in. the town,'' writes Principal Ritchie, of Nottingham College, in the annual report of the Nottingham Mission; "and under the leadership of Mr. Gautrey tho wort done by his predecessor has not only been maintained l>ul advanced, and especially consolidated." Tho report, which covers | tlw fifth year of tho J!cv. Moffat Gnutrey's ministry in Nottingham,' lias been prepared bv -Air. Denis Crane, who has inspected the work at all points, attended tho services, interrogated tho workers, mid has come to tho conclusion flint its prestige was never higher, its ministries never more comprehensive, its success never more indubitable nor move intensely spiritual than to-day. Tho mission has 011 Sunday the largest Methodist congregation in the city, and perhaps tho largest of any denomination. In tho morning from WO to !)00 are present; ill fiio evening, not only arc tho iNOO numbered clmirs occupied, but often several hundred pooplo are content to stand. Mr. Gautrey regards as the chief institution of (ho week the devotional meeting on Monday evening, which is popular with tho young people, who attend in considerable numbers. "It is," Mr. Gautrey siys, "the rallyinggi'oiuul of the Church." Among the many brunchcs of tho work is a Junior Urol herhood, slarlcd lo form a link between tho Sunday-school and (he men's meeting, and now numbering over UN) members; and a men's class on Tuesdays, an assembly of derelicts, whose home is tho cheap lodg-ing-house, led by one who was himself raised from (he depths by (ho mission. The .Sisterhood has iIOO members, and the girls' parlour ITiO. Five years ago Mr. Gnntrey wins entrusted with the task of reconstructing tho premises, which had been destroyed by lire during tho ministry of his predecessor, tho Uev. ,T. E. Knttonfoury. In thoeo fivo years the membership lias grown from 3.O'J to 010.