Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1911, Page 901

Current Topics

A Real Cure for Insomnia Here is a genuine cure for —particularly for the form of insomnia caused by worry. The greater the worry, the more efficacious this remedy is indeed, if the mental trouble be really great, it is, to the properly trained mind, the natural and almost the only way of relief. It comes,' too, endorsed by high medical authority. It - :s nothing more nor less than the practice of Christian prayer. It is thus seriously and earnestly recommended, on scientific and psychological grounds, by Dr. Samuel McComb, in an article entitled The Cure of Insomnia’ in Everybody's Magazine for February last. ‘To the man, then,’- says this writer, * whose sleep is banished by worry, I would say at all costs get some kind of faith and liveup to it. . . . And here I wish to lay emphasis upon the power of prayer to produce sleep. Very' notable are the words which a distinguished English expert in mental disorders addressed a few years ago to the British Association: “As an alienist, I would state that of all the hygienic measures to counteract disturbed sleep, depression of spirits and all the miserable sequels of a distressed mind, I would undoubtedly give the first place to the habit of prayer.” From a psychological point of view we can see that in prayer there is a ’healing powder because it enables us to escape from our narrow”, bounded, and despairing self and lose ourselves in a larger, more confident, more joyous self, and because, like all confession, it acts as a moral cathartic and cleanses the heart of the perilous stuff that weighs upon it.’ After all, this is nothing more than a scientific endorsement of those most precious words of Scripture: ‘Be not solicitous ’ — ‘ Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you.’ ; Socialism in New Zealand : When we drew attention, a week or two ago, to the . fact that scientific Socialism was something more than an economic system, and that it was based on a materialistic and essentially non-religious view of life, we had little ■idea that the anti-religious. phase of the movement had made such strides in the Dominion as we now' find to be . the case. For some years the only recognised Socialist publication in New Zealand—so far as we know —was a small but clean and well-edited 'sheet, entitled the Commonweal. This has apparently been merged into a paper called the Maordand Worker —which announces itself as ‘ A Journal of Industrial Unionism, Socialism, and Politics.’ The Worker has now developed -’nto a weekly; ; and has been adopted as the official organ of the New ■ Zealand Federation of Labor. We have had sent to us a copy of the paper’s first issue as a weekly; and it was with deep regret that we notice that the new mouthpiece . of Labor in New' Zealand is spotted, as with a rash, with ;■ anti-religious sentiments. We give a number of sample -paragraphs. They arc all taken from a single —that - of May 5. h ‘ The means of getting rid of sectarianism is by killing its manufactories.’ ‘ The world will not be saved by stained-glass saints.’ ‘ Rev. R. J. Campbell : ‘ The Church had nothing to do with getting men into Heaven, but with getting Heaven into men.” Well put, Campbell.’ <. ‘ I cannot think there is® a Hell ; The merciful God made to frizzy one h I only wish for one brief spell A place as hot For the whole blessed lot h Of the humbugs who tell us there is one.’ ..., ‘Try these: A penny Worker, a Debs pamphlet, a sixpenny 11 P.A. reprint. Recommend them with a fraternal word.’ [II.P.A. means, of, course, the Rationalist Press Asso-ciation,"-which is issuing a ‘steady stream of publications the one J object of which is the destruction of Christianity]; ■f ‘ There is only one saviour for the w orkingclass workingclass themselves. There is only one gospel of salivation for them —Socialism.’ % ‘ When you meet a man or woman bearing upon his or her forehead the Iron Thumb of . Orthodoxy pass him oi•lier one of the R.P.A. sixplennies.>» The thumb will shiver, sits hold weaken. Two “sixpennies” and a Blatchford vol. on determinism and the Thumb will shrivel into space. (R.P.A. literature is fated to destroy superstition. Push it. ‘Hats off to Portugal, once again. Its Church Disestablishment Bill is the beginning of the end of ecclesiastical oppression.’

We have discussed Socialism more than once with several of the less violent and more reputable of the New Zealand leaders; andv they have ; assured us that the movement is a purely economic one, and has nothing to do with any man’s religious : views. Fairly extensive reading on the subject has satisfied us that on this point our ? friends are wrong. The Maoriland' Worker is, as we have said, the official organ of the N7Z.-Federation of Labor, whose objects are, according to P. Ar Hickey’s exposition of them in the May issue, of the Worker, frankly and avowedly ‘revolutionary Socialism.’ If our economic friends are right, what are such utterances as the above doing in the official organ of New' Zealand Socialism? If, on the other hand, the contention advanced in our leading columns a fortnight ago. is correct, and the above-quoted paragraphs faithfully reflect the sentiments... actually prevailing in advanced Labor circles in the Dominion, it is evident that the N.Z. Federation of Labor is an excellent organisation for Catholic workers to keep away from, k More Tercentenary So far as we know, there is nothing in the history or special doctrines of Methodism to explain why members of that body should be more ‘ wowserish ’ and ‘ anti-Rome than members of other Protestant denominations ; ; but the fact remains that so they are. About a year ago the Methodists, ’ who had full'* control of a special Methodist page in the Christian Outlook, receded from that arrangement, and now publish (in Christchurch) a. fortnightly paper of their own, the N.Z. Methodist Times. ‘ In the current issue of this periodical, an ill-mannered and illinformed contributor, who drives a futile pen over the signature of"" - Vigilans,’ makes some, uncouth.remarks about both Anglicans and Catholics in connection with the recent tercentenary celebrations, - ‘“Where,” he asks, stands the Church of Rome in relation to this English Bible Tercentenary?” That is a question that many will ask as they sec v that in all these, commemoration services the representatives of the Romish Church are conspicuous by their absence.’ The Catholic Church has had the Bible right down the centuries, and was its custodian and preserver in the dark days of persecution before Methodism was dreamed of. The year 1611 did not give the Bible to the Catholic Churchwhich already had it—and for her the year 1911 holds no Bible centenary of any kind; and the ‘ question that many will ask,’ if they read the Methodist Times, is how any one, endowed with ordinary . normal thinking apparatus, could write the silly stuff above quoted. * •- ‘ The fact it,’ continues this pundit, ‘ that the history of the English Bible is anything but flattering to the history and principles of the Church of Rome. If that Church could have had its way, there would have been no English Bible in the hands of the English-speaking people to-day. When in one of our New Zealand cities arrangements were being made for a public meeting in connection with the Bible Tercentenary, representatives of the Anglican Church were, as a matter of course, invited to take part. j Their spokesman said they would do so, but only on oho condition, and that was that nothing deprecatory should be said concerning the Roman Catholic Church. “ If,” said he, “ one word is spoken reflecting on that Church, I and all the other Anglican clergymen present will at once walk off the platform.” That would mean, of course, that at a Bible Tercentenary meeting the story of “How we got our Bible” could not bo told; for- to tell that story without reflecting on the Romish Church is simply impossible. Needless to say, the Bible Tercentenary celebrations in the city referred to had to go forward - without the presence and aid of these hypersensitive Anglicans. Chillingworth’s axiom, “The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants,” ; has too much truth in it for any' set of religionists whose theories of Church order compel them to commit the fatal mistake of making tradition of equal authority with the Holy Scriptures. Not only will this Bible Tercentenary bring out some of the harshest features of the Church of Rome, it will servo also to show afresh the untenableness of the position occupied by the High Church Party in the . Church of England.’ * - : ; ■; - * Our Methodist scribe is evidently Shakespeare has expressed it— a creature ‘of discourse, . looking before