"BISHOP SPROTT'S ENIGMAS AND HUMAN SOCIETY"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 291, 28 August 1918, Page 6

"BISHOP SPROTT'S ENIGMAS AND HUMAN SOCIETY"

Sir,—lt may be that Bishop Sprott's enigmas, as set forth the other niglit, appear even less intelligible to' the readers of your short hut interesting report than they did to the University students to whom they were propounded. No doubt the Bishop wished to make these young people think for themselves, but either his report of tho Apostle Paul's speech or The Dominion's report of the Bishop's lecture is incomplete, for the Apostle certainly laid stress on man's common origin. The fact that "of one" God made "every nation of men" underlies the whole aigument. Men's unlikeness to each other is on the surface. At bottom "sacli one of us," Greek, Roman, or Hebrew, is alike, and is on the same footing as "the offspring of God." Tho Apostle took this opportunity of asserting not the differences existing between men so much as the essential brotherhood of mankind. Ono .of the griei;ons mistakes of the day is tho misconception of human society, due to magnifying and exaggerating the external surface differences between man and man, and making light of tho real underlying likeness as brother to brother. That likdness still exists", in spite of the .fact that twenty centuries of individualistic doctrine and practice —the Church, alas! like Pnul at Stephen's martyrdom, consenting thereto—has defaced it and almost effaced it. That theory of the Church as a "nucleus of tile redeemed'society" has a scientific sort of sound, no doubt. But unfortunately tho nucleus has split into a dozen or more nuclei, with' several dozen nucleoli into the bargain, and human society, instead of getting redeemed, is exterminating itself by means of every conceivable method of racial suicide and murder, quite independently of any of them. In the name of efficiency—for there must Co such a thing as Church efficiency or Christian efficiency—let those upon whoso shoulders the Apostolic dignity and responsibility now rests hold out the hand of brotherhood one to another. Then tho Church, as a sane, united body, might put her whole force into teaching and preaching man's brotherhood, in season and out of season, bv practice and by precept. Some of the conundrums which mock our comprehension to-day might then get answered, to the satisfaction of Bishop Sprott and every. 0110 else. In tho meantime wo must all try to bo satisfied with a Sphinxlike, yes-no reply to the , time-worn enigmas which perplexed the minds of all well-intentioned philosophers, heathen and Christian, long ago.—l am, etc., H. M. B. MARSHALL. Mangatainoka, August 25. [In fairness to the Bishop it should bo stated that our report of his lecture was a verv briof summary. Tho lecture probably lasted over an hour."]