RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2805, 24 June 1916, Page 6

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

MISSION WORK

ENCOURAGING FINANCIAL' POSITION, The opening article of the April number of the "International Review of Missions" (Oxford/University Press) is entitled "A Missionary Survey of the Year 3915.*' Iu reference to the strain thrown on missionary finance' through the war, the article states: Taken as a whole these show a remarkable and most encouraging recovery in tho financial position of missionary societies, and the present situation gives cause for abundant thankfulness. Tho gifts to foreign mission's from the United States and Canada which had amounted to 17,108,611 dollars in 1911 rose in 1915 to 15,798,990 dollars, an increase of 9.48 per cent. Out of 192 organisations reporting to 'the Conference of Foreign Mission Boards ab Garden City, Long Island, in January, 191G, no loss than 88 were able to show an increase of income. In Great Britain BeveVal of the smaller missionary societies found themselves still in financial difficulty at the close of the year. But with these exceptions, the financial position, which had caused continued anxioty, proved to le encouraging to a marked degree. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which up to ■ the. late autumn had apprehended a serious deficit, received on income less by .£BOOO than in the previous year, but more than sufficient for tho j-ear's expenditure. The Wesleyan Missionary Society not only covered its expenditure, but cleared a previous deficit. The amount received from the circuits was the largest in the history of tho society. The China Inland' Mission received an income slightly in excess of that for 1911. . The London Missionary _ Society, which closed its financial year in March, 1915, with an adverse lihlance of .£IB,OOO, was faced with a declining incomo during tl\e onsuing months. In December the diiectors decidcd on a reduction of foreign expenditure to the amount-, of <£10,000 a year, involving the closing of long-established work in' India and elsewhere, unless promises of a large increase of annual income were immediately forthcoming. - Within a few weeks there -was response sufficient to justify a withdrawal of the proposal to abandon work. The Church Missionary Society, for the nine months ending December 31,. had received .£29,000 in excess of the income fbr the same period of ' the preceding year. The income of the Baptist Missionary Society was well maintained. A spirit of loyal readiness to respond to the claims of the work was reported from the' various _ constituencies. The thinning of missionary ranks as ' a result of the war. lias been appreciable. A large number of missionaries on furlough and of members of tho various mission houses havo been engaged in work connected with tho war. Tho number of new missionaries sent out during the year was much below tho average; the Church Missionary Socioty, for example, reporting 39 recruits as oompared with 52 in the previous year. Many vacancies in the various mission fields remain unfilled, and the missionary training centrcs are almost depleted of men, candidates of military age having responded to the call of their country. Tho number of women candidates has, however, increased. The volume contains a number of other interesting articles by leading authorities dealing with various phases of missionary work. . .

TREND OF THOUGHT IN FRANCE. APPEAL TO REASON AND COMMONSENSE, Clement Besse, of the Catholic Institute of Parjs, contributes a striking article in the March number of the "Constructive Quarterly" (Oxford University Press) on "Intellectualist Theodicy, in Prance." It gives an iinpressivo idea of the strength and vitality of the'modern Catholic school of philosophy. After his conversion in 1651, Pascal' (declared his belief in the God of Abraham, of Isaac;"andof Jacob, 'hot' of the .philoso-' 'phem and' ithe-savants.. Ho . did: .:not want a, "God of geometrical'truths," butGod of love and of consolation." 1 In recent years there lias been a marked tendency among modern thinkers to discredit intellectual proofs of' the existence of God, and to place more stress. on "the reasons of. the heart"— the instinctivo and intuitive beliefs. We are told that God exists because the heart needs him, and the heart is able to reach truth which is inaccessible to the mind. But the new French Catholic Intellectualists make their appeal to logic and common-sense, leaning upon the usual data of Bcience. They make, use of the principle of reason, the valuo' of which 'in other domains is not questioned by anyone. Their cross-oxamina-tion of the Agnostic,, who tells us that "nothing is, everything is becoming," and who wishes to avoid confessing a First Cause at the origin of things is decidedly interesting. The term "agnostic" is used in a very wide sense, including Pragmatism and various, other phases of anti-intellectualism. The causality argument is briefly this: We know ino example of a bein» which comes of itself. We know only beings which proceed from other beings! The world, therefore, proceeds from someBeing other than itself. But why is this Being' in. its turn of itselfi and not <lf .some other being?.; Because, says Aristotle, "it,.is impossible that;, one' thing should come from another 'ad infinitum.' We reach a point where we must stop." We then' discover God, Who is this uncaused Cause. This is how If. Maritain aiid P. do Tonquedec press the agnostics on this point:— Aristotle said, "It is impossible for one' thing to come from another ad infinitum."; The Agnostics answer: "Is it really necessary to stop; why should not the series of causes be infinite?" If becoming is the essence of the Universe, and this becoming did not begin, then the Universe is eternal? They aaswer: "Why not?" , But this becoming which determines itself, and aetualises itself by itself, gives itself what, by hypothesis, it does not possess, and we can say,/then What is not, is? They answer: "The principle of identity to which you appeal is a mere prejudice of the reasoning faculty." One of them' writes, "a sin of the reason." You must confess that the effect is liere out of proportion to the cause, surpasses it infinitely. They roply: "Cause - and effect. aro only symbols-abbreviated signs—by which we jot down our impressions about nature." There are then, no categories any more, no ixioms in which we may trust ? They answer: "The human mind is plastic, it changes its axioms and its categories." Then this world has no raison d'etre, we look in vain for a why ? They answer: ■"The world lias 110 need of a why." But you do know the world in a certain manner, how do you represent it to yourself? They answer: "I know it only as I make it;-the world is the work of our mind.'" Science protests against such a position. Besides,' it only makes any way because it properly applies, laws, categories, axioms, postulates, causality, induction, and the rest'. They reply: ".Science is only the carioature of reality." After all, your principle,...pushed to its limits, brings us to deny tlio very possibility of knowledge. They answer: "Perhaps we in fact have no knowledge." "These," says M. Maritain, ' "are exaggerated explanations? and a manner of "thinking contrary to nature." And for his part P. de Tonquedec concludes: "Here we aro invited to let go of what our reason holds firmly, to throw away our certitudes, largely verified, on tho pretext that they will some day bo given back to us trausfigured ill some, metaphysical system or other." But of this me'taphysic we at present know only one thing—it is "tho counterpoise of common sense"; and it is repuguant to us-to accept it. . The "Constructive Quarterly" contains articles on a number of other subjects dealing with other phases of modern religious thought by eminent writers, representing various nationalities and creeds.