SALVATION PER STANTON.

NZ Truth, Issue 92, 23 March 1907, Page 5

SALVATION PER STANTON.

"Truth" Attends a Prayer-

Practice.

The Doctrine of the Dubious

doctor."

An advertisement m the daily paper announcing that the Progressive Thought Society would ' meet at Or- ' age Hall, Worcester Street at T o'clock on Sunday night when an address on Campbell's new Theology would be delivered by '• Shepherd Stanton, a " Truth " man went, along to explore. He arrived- late, and was rewarded with a frown for interrupting the good man praying, by an .aggressive-looking female m the front row*' A miscellaneous crowd of some twenty persons (apparently the whale of the Progressive thinkers of Ohristchurch) were sprinkled over the large hall m chairs faciag the platform. Thereon stood cancer and soul^saving Stanton, appealing m somewhat hesitai^ ing voice to an all-wise Providence to bless all those gathered together m His naniei. EVrtlowLng that came a hymn, one of Sankey's good old hymns " modernised," led by theag-gressive-looMng female aformentioned, and accompanied on a wheezy organ (with an urnf ortunate habit of side-tracking every two or ;three lines) by a curly-headed youth said to be the Shepherd's son. When order had been restored the saintly Stanton began his discourse, reading from ah English paper the main points of Rev. R.J. Campbell's new theology, and stopping every few lines to impress upon his" audience that this, new theology was just what he (Stanton) had /been preaching from ;", this little platform " for years. It wasn't an inspiring oration,the main point belabored ; by the .preacher, (save the mark) being the emphasising of the fact that Campbell, of the City Temple, Londonf was a plagiarist who had somehow, snavelled all the ideas that Stanton had heen preaching from " this little platform " for a long time, and was now foisting them upon an Unsuspecting British public as a new theology of his (Campbell's) own conception. After spending about half-an-hour rubbing this into his

SMALL AND SLEEPY AUDIENCE

Stanton dropped Campbell and new theology, and went on to talk of other things. According to Stanton we have m the past been taught altogether m the wrong way. Pulpit preachers m the past have always said we were born m sin and therefore we sinned because we thought it the- correct thing to do, so to speak. That was all bally rot, said Stanton, or words to that effect. { If his hearers would believe him (and the majority looked simple enough to believe anything) there was no occasion for anyone to sin— if ' they tried hard • they could be as sinless as Christ himself! Of course it could not be done without great effort, 'but that a sinless world was possible Stanton was convinced ! He then went; so far as to say that (with faith it 'was possible for us to perform miracles, and instanced the loaves and fishes act of long ago. With sufficient faith he was certain any one of us, if approached by one a-hungelred could conjure tip tin loaves and whariou or flounder till further orders. This was coming it rather strong, but the audience swallowed the statement with less effort than would have been necessary to ' get down any bread or fish Stanton had miracled into being to appease their hunger. JUST SUCH BALDERDASH as this did Shepherd Stanton serve out for nearly an hour, and then he sat . down for a much-needed rest whilst the wheezy organ and the aggressive female extended more music, of a sort. After that questions were invited. One or two of the /'regulars" asked questions of a sort that Stanton could answer dead easy; they were put to that end. Then an elderly rnemlrer of the aud- • ienoe rose up, and his ; first question hit Stanton m a vital part. The searcher after light desired to know if Stanton really meant that it was possible for us to be absolutely without sin, as pure as the Son of God Himself. It was a poser, and made the occupant of " the little platform " blink. Before answering, he assured his examiner m an oily, insincere tone that made " Truth " want to kick him,' that he was very pleased to see him at the gathering and to-be able to answer his question. He then went on to "answer" the- question, to do which 'm the affirmative was, of course, impossible, without knocking the teachings of the Bible all " skew-wiff." So he sought cover under the subterfuge of the reincarnation of the body, and said that after coming on earth a number of times m various shapes, the man or woman might become pure as Christ Himself. Seemingly his flock took this twaddle m, also various other equally idiotic answers which Saint Stanton gave to his merciless baiter. But the questioning showed clearly as daylight what an arrant