THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 15 June 1907, Page 3

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRAY ALWAYS FRAY. Pray, always pray; the IJ.oly .Spirit pleads Within thee. .ill the daily, needs, fray, always pray; beneath rsin's heaviest load,

Prayer sees Hi;; blood from .Jesus' sid« tluil flowed.

Pray, always pray; amid the world'

turmoil, All earthly things v-itli earth shall /ado

Prayer grasps eternity; pray, always

PRAYEII. Almighty Cod, if we do not {'car Th.-e wii iiu'i! our confidence to .lesus Christ. Thy Son, our Saviour, and *mr Priest. By Him we come to 'nun l . Wc have confidence in the Cross— tin; key that opens lioaven, the way inio the hroad universe, !»ecause the way into pardon and purity and peace. We eome by that wnv time after time, and our feet delight to walk it, for in walking it our hearts glow with sacred fire. Jesus himself joins us, and makes our hearts burn with love, and sets before us in the farthest distance a light that makes us glad.— British Weekly.

MS. W. T. STEAD AND THE CHURCH. Mr. Stead, when in America on behalf of his Peace crusade recently, Rpolcc nt the New York Conference of the Methodist Church. During his speech some of the ministers shouted "Amen," in approval, bill with a warning finger Mr. Stead snapped out: "Amen? Oh,, nobody cures a damn for au Amen unless it leads yon to do something-—to put into eilect your prayers.'' In the course nt his speech—ih;, tvoids are quoted from the New York American—Mr. Stead remarked: "f believe the Methodists ui this country are somewhat better thnn those in my own country. Over there in some respects there is a tendency among some to think that frequenting saloons, playing cards for money and visiting questionable resorts i$ no bar to the Christian life. T do not find that sentiment displayed in the Methodist Church. Of course, practically you are fully as had, many of you, hut not as a Church." In another passage Mr Stead exclaimed: "Oh, you Methodists are comfortable and smug as you sit and contemplate. In my visits to various parts oi the world I haven't found anyone who thought the Church of Christ- was a force in the world to-dav. You speak of it to kings or the great men of and nsk their opinion of its power, and tlioy shrug their shoulders and tell you that the ChrUt and Church has been allowed to to the devil."

AN AMERICAN OPINION OF THB NEW THEOLOGk. When a churchman, and especially ?, clergyman and theologian, declares thai th« spirit of the times is irreligious, anl condemns any of the popular fads us an-ti-Christian, many are apt' to tako it as a matter of course, md say: "It is a part of his profession." They call his prejudiced. But when the secular Press speak out against any false religious movement that objection does not hold. The following editorial on the above subject appeared in the Chicago Chronicle of March 1: If this were not an intensely irreligious age. in which interest in theological subjects has reached the low point, the attention of the Christian world would be attracted to the appearance in England of what is called, without any good reason, "the new theology." Ihe high priest of the "new" creed is the Rev. R, J. Campbell, who succeeded the famous Dr. Parker as pastor of the City Temple, in London, and who is the foremost Congregational and Nonconformist divine in tireat Uritain. He, and more than fifty other Congregational ministers, have banded together for the propagation of what is called "the new theology," which, according to a recent published outline, includes the following doctrinal points:—lt handles the Bible as freely and critically as it* would any other book, and believes the seat of authority within-wliirb (h oa aivay with in.ipiratijii. 71 Relives in tli» essential oneness cf «o,| au> ...» (Jiat the, ? H no real distinction between c ify an ] 1 '.r.iiarity (Kit ,s pantheism It belie.e that man is iinmorlnl only in the sojse that every individual consciousness is a i.iy ol the universal consciousness, and cannot be destroyed, and that man pass>ng through many stages will become fully and consciously one with its original sourco-which in Buddhism. It believes that Jesus was the son of a human father, and was Divine. x* _ .

>» which all men are Divine-whicl. dis poses of His Deity. It rejects in toto th, common interpretation of the atonement -and offers no other. It denies the reality of a final judgment, and believes in judgment that is ever proceedingwhieh explodes the New Testament cs-

chatology. This theology, instead of he"lg "HOW," is some thousands of years old, and it is not for a secular journal to discuss the question whether it is true or false. The object in referring to it is I" call attention to the important and revolutionary changes which are taking I'l-ice at the present day in Christian Mief. Anyone can see at a glance that the creed outlined above is a complete 'ligation of the Christian religion. If the inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Clinst. the atonement of Christ, the imI """'lalitv of the soul, and the final jiul"SWpt ""' a - y 's really no Imng of the religion of Christ left,. What Mr. Campbell and his associates are 'teaching is Buddhism pure and simple The astounding thing about it is that

this system is taught as Christianity. Mr. Campbell and his brotherhood must 1«- phenomenally stupid or phenomenally hypocritical and impious to olTer this theology to the world as "the gospel," ami the Christian people of Great Britain •mist be saturated with agnosticism to accept it as such. It is said that the "new theology" is not received very favorably. bu( ihe wonder is that it'does not lead a! i.n -e to tearful denunciation, h anything eoiild be more stupid than the attempt to palm off this doctrine as (•hiistianily if. is tile expectation if anybody evpoets it—that these teachings will bear ii.„ i',-nits of Christianity.

GLEANINGS. I lie \ iear of l.'iley. (j„. | ( ,. v A N Cooper, who generally takes his holidays in llie form of long walks, and is well known as "(In. walking parson," has fie, 1 , 111 Jill- another lung (our. '.Phis time he intends to walk over the Alps by St. Ilcrnard's Pass. im ,| CTOss Ul( , Api . nni)les between Bologna and Viorenee. During file pasl twelve years Mr. Cooper's long ' l:,lll P s ,mv ° inclndod the following: - Hamburg to Paris, Hamburg to BuddnIVslh, Dieppe to Venice, Deppe lo Monte Carlo, Bordeaux to Barcelona, and Filey - hondoii. He walks on an average 27 ~nl" - " 'lay, and carries nothing but, a fctirk an<l a knapsack. Mr,. Philip Snowden, who is young, charming. and clever, wife of the ><t M.P. for Maekburiij appeared in the pulpit at, Pembroke Ch%l. Liverpool, on April 7, and preached a sermon of great eloquence. The ,sermon was frankly on Socialist, lines, and Mrs. Snowden'was warmly congvntubiwl afterwards b,v inany members oi cue congregation.