RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2205, 18 July 1914, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

CONGREGATIONAL UNION ANNUAL ASSEMBLY IN LONDON. NATIONAL PROBLEMS. At the opening sessions of the 82nd animal assembly of tho Congregational Union of England and Wales on May 11 publio interest centred chiefly in the delivery of tho presidential address. by the incoming chairman Dr. W. B. Selbie, of Oxford, and tho announcement of the result of the ballot for the election of his successor (says the "Daily News"). After the elimination of soveral names on first ballot the choice remained between a layman, Sir Arthur Haworth, and the Rev. R. J. Campbell, of tho City Temple. So interesting a sequel to the controversies of seven years ago as tho elevation of Mr. Campbell to the chair of the union is deferred, for the moment at any rate, as Sir Arthur Haworfh was declared elected, with a total of 1398 votes against 1104. At the evening session in the City Temple, Dr. W. B. rielbie, principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, was inducted to the chair of the union in succession to tho Rev. Morgan Gibbon. As successor to Dr. Fairbairn, and through his previous tenure of pastorates at Highgate and Cambridge, as well as by his reputation as a theologian, Dr. Selbie is known and respected in every section of the Free Churches, and in many quartern outside their borders. His address dealt with tho peculiar responsibilities and privileges, not so much of the Christian Church as a whole as of the particular section of it over which.he had been chosen to preside. . On the- duty of the Church towards movements of social and political reform the chairman spoko with vigour and decision, amid emphatic indications of agreement from his audience. . . "Wo cannot," he declared, "shut ourselves off from such movements. Wo are our brothers! keepers, whether wo like it or not, ' To' introduce the tone and 1 methods of party politics into religious assemblies is a sheer desecration and argues a radical unbelief in tho guidance',of the Holy Ghost. But to shrink from dealing, with vital issues lest this danger be incurred' is a confession' of weakness; and a counsel of despair. .(Loud applause.) If our. Churches are ever to carry their weight in. influencing , public opinion on grave social and .political concerns, it willonly be as they' stand for tho Christian view on these matters. They have to declare •for their day the Word of-tho Lord—a Word which .cuts clean through all the expediencies of party politics." '•• ■■ • "So," said Dr. Selbie, in an eloquent closing passage, "our appeal is, in the last resort,- to the Church. "Many are looking and praying in; these daysfor a, revival of religion, but it must begin' with the Church. Wβ have great traditions,, and we arc proud of them, but we have also, a great opportunity. The modorn situation becomes to us a challenge which, wo must not,and dare hot evade. In order to'mept it we must give ourselves to prayer, and ' service, and self-consecration. What the Church has been-to us at its best it can be again, and in the strength of this knowledge we. must play our part to-day." (Loud applause.) .-"■.;.--■. . churich and Nation. '^ On the second day three aspects of tho-Church's life, its relation to the nation, to commercial life, and to tho industrial order were considered. 'On the Cnuroh and the nation-Dr. Forsyth contnouted a paper wiiolly characteristic of himself—closely-knit, outspoken, epigrammatic, and revealing the writer in u familiar role —the exponent of "High Church Nonconformity." The Churcli,, Principal Jj'orsyth claimed,' ,: 'was.'■'■tKel mother of moaern Europe, and histori.cally tho attitude of nation to" Church was .that of lilial piety; ■■ "More specifically,,, he added, "the Church"in its Ualvanist, Puritan, •' and Independent form was the mother of modern civil liberty.. If the Catholic Church created England, the Free Churches saved it." (applause.) • But, continued Dr. Forsyth, tho claim of the modern State to be the source of all rights in society could never be conceded by an inherently autonomous Church. It had led both the High* Church and the Free Church movement, of last century to assert spiritual independence. 'What, then, must bo the. relation; between. Church and State ? Not rot alliance, but-rather ■ an entente cor-■ diale, a mutual, respectful, and formal recoßnitioa without formal control. ' 'The- Church/' Principal. Forsyth aseerted, "gives the nation ; an object in life. It is the trustee of the Kingdom of God: For this purpose it must be tree, free even to turn on State and nation if'need be." ' ' - After a high appreciation of tho ideals of nationality, Dr. Forsyth pointed to the Church as the integrating ■ force among the nations of the world. "It has, its hands full," he admitted. "Think of the war spirit alone." But, "the Church is there to "make moral gentleman of the nations, instead .of officers only—(loud cheers)— and to kill the superstition of the inevitableness of war, drink, and vice." „ Then as to the. future. Let them, urged tho speaker,, get clearer-ideas about the Church. ~"Let us realise what we are for, even more than what we are against." Before all . things came tho need for education,' education, going hand-in-hand with religion, aud leading back to first principles and formative ideas. ■■ -