THE SECOND COMING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3668, 21 July 1927, Page 2

THE SECOND COMING.

SYDNEY’S AMPHITHEATRE,

Sydney, July 7.

,At the beach at Balmoral, one of Sydney’s leading watering places, is an amphitheatre which, alike for its novel architectural design and the motive which legend has built round it, has excited a good deal of attention upon it.' The cablegram supports what was a fairly general belief locally, that the quaint building was erected by the Order of the Star of the East for the purpose of witnessing the second coming of Christ over the water of Sydney Harbour. The fact that this idea is now dismissed unequivocally as fantastic and absurd will serve to divest the amphitheatre of quite a lot of the glamour which surrounded it, at least on the part of the general public. A large number of the seats in the building have been leased for twenty-five years. Front row seats cost about £IOO each, and those in the last three rows, £lO each, with intermediate prices for the intervening rows. The real object of the amphitheatre, it appears, is to provide a suitable place, “ready f° r th e Teacher to carry on His work.” In other parts of the world, it is explained, theatres have been erected by the Order, to serve a similar purpose in the world teaching which, it is believed, the Teacher will carry out. Members of the Order feel that, by providing buildings specially erected for His reception and His teaching, such as the amphitheatre at Balmoral, effective service is being rendered, “as the population is , led to anticipate the coming of the Great One, and a place is ready where He can meet, teach, heal, and bless the people.” The fact that the amphitheatre looks out upon Sydney Heads apparently lent colour to the idea of the actual coming of Christ across the waters.