WOMAN PREACHER -IN CITY TEMPLE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3102, 5 June 1917, Page 2

WOMAN PREACHER -IN CITY TEMPLE

The appearance of Miss A. Maude Hoyden in the pulpit at the City Temple (London) aroused widespread interest, and the size of the congregation suggested that tho general admission of women to the ministry might bo ono means of solving, the problem "How to fill the churches t" The vast congregation crowding the floor and galleries watched her with a curious blend of quiet sympathy and critical expectancy. In her simple black dress, relieved only by a white laco collar, sho was a striking figure against the background of the choir and the organ. Her gormon appealed to the intellect rather than- tho emotions of the congregation. They followed it with concentrated attention, under tho double spell of a finely modulated voice and a theme which led off tho beaten track. In. effect she pleaded for a recognition of the existence of spiritual laws as immutable as those which operate in the physical universe and more powerful, and argued that only by. understanding and co-operation vdth these laws could we bear the burdens of increasing knowledge and of a civilisation ever growing, more complex. It was possible, she said, that out of the darkness of conflict and out of the <lepth of economic misery which had resulted from industry, people might be shocked into a realisation that spiritual forces were greater than material forcqs. Miss Royden took no part in tho serrice beyond Teading the lessons 'and preaching the sermon.