1916-12-11 — Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

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THEOLOGY V MORALITY.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS"]

Bik,--There are some passages occurring in Biskup Norris' address on Thursday night which I feel pught not to be allowed to pass without comment. With regard to the authenticity of the Scriptures, it is not necessary (as his lordship claims it is) to know the author in order to dis-

prove authenticity. This is, in any caso, anfare play upon words, for all who have followed the discoveries of science in this direction know that practically the whole of the Book of Genesis came from a heathen scurse. The discovery of the stone

HO

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS MONDAY DECEMBER.

THE WAR AS A PUNISHMENT.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS,"

WE MUST WIN THIS WAR."! REFERENCE BY THE REV. J. K. BISHOP NORRIS'S FINAL MESSAGE

MACONACHTE.

In the Union Church, yesterday morn-

The Theatre Royal was filled last night SAR, I have read, with great interest for the concluding meeting in connectioning, the Rev. J. Kirk Maconachie made the able addresses of Bishop Norris in con- with the National Mission of Repentance a passing reference to the Mission "and some of its features in the course of a nection with the National Mission of Re-and Hope. Commodore Sandemann Pernion on the curing of Blind Bartimess petance and Hope, but I cannot wholly agree with him that this terrible world war this Armageddon--is God's punish- ment for the sins of the peopic.

sided, and the address was delivered by Bishop Norris,

(Luke xvii., 37). It was, he said, a mis-

was

But ea-

cellaneous crowd that issued from Jericho that day. The people were gathered after a noted teacher and healer, Whose nue had been in every mouth. Every shade of religious feeling represented among then--faith, fanati- cism, prejudice, unbelief. There, for example, was the enthusiast, well to the front. Powerful motives were at work on him; high expectatione exhilarated his soul-a divine kingdom devoted to form, social regeneration, political free- dom, triumphant righteousness according to the old prohpetic visious. thusaists are few, and the great number might be best described as more or less interested, or indifferent. For the mo meat they might catch the contagion of the few zealous spirits, but the next day there would be littis left of it; a month after Besing his discourse on the words from it would be but a memory; and before a Isaiah:-- Come, let us reason together,year had gone these people might be saith the Lord," Bishop Norris referred merged in the other crowd which cried to the vision of Isaiah when he saw all for Barabbas. They follow a crowd more the nations of the world at peace, and because it is a crowd than for anything swords turned to ploughshares During which could be called a reason. Another the last few days, he said, many of them type that was sure to be found in such a crowd was the cynical onlooker. He had been thinking, perhaps, more than takes the pose of being in the crowd, bat they had ever thought in their lives be

not of it. He affects to have no great fore.

interest in what is going on, tells that he was in the neighbourhood and turned. out to see what these people were exciting themselves about.

Commodore Sandemann, in the course of a few remarks, said he preferred to The worthy Bishop has referred to the look upam the way as an opportunity poverty, misery and degradation to be given to them for repentance and self- found in all the big cities in England, sacrifico. The war had been going a side by side with wealth, extravagance and for two and a half years, and the end luxury; the godicenness of France; the was not in eight. To thom in Hongkong cruelty of Russian her treatment of the war seemed a long way off, but to Jews and Poles; the atrocious behaviour those who had been at home, and had of Hammurabi (a Babylonian King), of Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and taken a more or less active part in the it naturally appealed more now preserved in the Louvre, has revealed, Turkey; but he has, apparently, lost sight war,

of the up-Christian behaviour of the realistically, Their duty now was to the source of many of the legends which tradition previously attributed to Mosis, powerful civilized nations towards endeavour, spiritually as well as physi- but which in reality are far older. Not the weaker nations of the world, and the cally, to bring the wax to a successful lory ago several books were eut out syabomatic extermination of millions of conclusion, and it was up to them in of the Scriptures and their use forbidden the natives of these weaker nations and Hongkong to do time beat they cou... That in the Established Church, and a very the absorption of their territories in wars was their opportunity, and it was an large portion of the present Scriptures of conquest during the past three hundred opportunity which they must seize with

both hands. Are so incredible as to insult the intelli-years. gence of thinking men. The Bishop's be lief that the men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and that their writings were recorded, fails to tako cognizance of the possibility that, through all these ages, error may have crept in, and, if such a thing nas occurred (I use the subjunctive nood in deference to the Church; in my own mind there is no doubt), it must surely be the Church's plain duty to ferret out the error and to rectify it. In my opinion Christianity is not played out, but is merely halting at the first step of its onward march, and it will continue to halt until something is done to end the war of the sects and to arrive at some understanding between. them.

I wish to protest, sir, against Bishop Norris' words that men who do not be- lieve in God need not trouble a hang about, society or attending to their coa- science. Such precepts are not only against all moral philosophy but are quite incompatible with the spirit of the great moral principles embodied in Christ's Sermon on the Mount. It is to these principles that Christianity owes whatever progress: it has made, and cer tainly not to the punishments of Hell's flames and of the bloody God of War who guided David's footsteps.

When the Church consents to modify its fierce theology and the glib use of the name of God, about Whom we really understand, so little, then it will be able to rake into ita fold those inconsistent individuals" that Bishop Norris would let" go hang."

Other creeds, also, which embrace the bigger part of the world's population, practice a moral philosophy similar to that which is the soul of Christianity, Le, our duty to our neighbour. It is this that guides men's behaviour in their daily intercourse and thus establishes nctional and international morality. which should be the particular aim of the Church

that

A thousand years ago the ancestors of the modern nations of Europe were no more advanced than the savage races of Africa, America and Australia, and, surely, the Bible does not teach that Might is Right," and that it is the privilege of powerful nations to conquer and absorb the weak.

I believe that this terrible world-war is God's punishment for the crimes of Europe, as I have already stated in my book, "The Creation and The Origin of the Chinese," and for the information of Bishop Norris, and those of your readers who may not have read my book, I will quote fully as follows:-

This terrible fratricidal war, which is convulsing and devastating Europe is not due to trade rivalry, mutual fear of aggression, or the ambition of Kings and Emperors to become supreme in this world.

It is the punishment of God for the crimes of Europe. There must be many ungodly men, to-day, who are blaspheming God, and crying out with uplifted hands: There is no God. If God exists, why should He make the inndeent suffer with the guilty, and why should Europe be made to suffer so much misery

“God is a just God, and He rewards the good and punishes the wicked. If the punishment does not come to-day,

ก

When he came among them week ago he said he believed that God was seizing that opportunity of war- war brought on by man and not by God...... to punish mon for their sins; to punish, it might be, the other nations of the world, but, as far as they (English people) were concerned, to punish them for their sins. That view had not been shared by all of them, na ke had put it, and he wanted to say that night that if through putting it in that way-which seemed to him the true way he had offended the conscience of any one, and kept anyone from turning to God as they themselves would have turned, he asked their pardon. If they liked to put it in another way and say that God was teaching them a lesson, well, it came to very much the same thing, because, why

it will come to-morrow. But, sooner or should they want to learn a lesson Had later, it is bound to come.

This story of Bartimeus is a story of long ago, but it is one that touches our experience and appeals to

our hearts. It needs no wizard to read through the touching tale of human need and Christly compassion the story of the cen- taries and the parable of to-day. Through the centuries there has moved an under- flow of progress, slowly but surely per- vading the great tide. The divine in man has been gradually drawn forth and drawn nearer its own. Christ, in the midst of whatever crowd, is yet the Saviour of the individual, which is a truth which lies at the centre of evan- gelical faith; and experience has shown that it is the Church of the individually righted that God can use for the righting of the wide world.

bare nothing but commendation for efforts at social reform, national tight- cousness, far-flung hopes, expansive When tho plans, inclusive methods

Man in the Street," or his representa-

"We should always remember that the they any need to learn a lesson 1 If they tive in the editor's chair, complains that crimes of the father are visited upon knew they had lessons to learn, it was his children, and this applies to nations because they had not learned them as well as individuals.

years

Se Exodus xx., 50.God visits ago, and God, in his mercy-not in his the iniquity of the fathers upon the wrath-was teaching them now. And, children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him. And realising that, they should think of their shows mercy unto them that love Himains, and think what it meant to offend and keep His Commandments." "

The nations of Europe have sinned against God and broken His Command- ments:

Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not steal,"

"the Church" does not give all the lead it should in these directions we are will ing to listen and to abstain, except occasionally, from the obvions retort that many a time some of us Christian teachers have given more of such leading than our critics have cared to follow. But, apart from that, there is a special charge laid upon us who so largely are held to represent the Church.' It is our busi ness to watch for genls as those who shall give account; and we upon whom the supreme and supremely dithcult charge is laid are unfit for our task if we forget that our fellow-men are fellow-sinners in need of a personal righting of their relations with God,

Wo bave had a week here of a "Na- tional Mission," and we all hope and pray that large results will remain from better Churchmanship, with all that thes it; that there will be better citizenship, include in all directions. We hope the light will come where it was God's relation to the war, Christianity such discussion as has beeeded from at large, why men should pray, and so forth. We hope that uneasy consciences may find, not soothing, but bracing, im

the limits within which

such mattera people should conduct their pet amuse- inents and the way they spend their Sundays.

are:-

Bank.

Average Specio in Amount. Reserve.

against God. He had been told by one who had been at the front, and in the thickest of the tight, that it was not the bloodshed and the awful loss of life which were the worst things they had to face, Thou shalt not covet thy neigh-but the bringing to light, of monstrosity hour's house or anything that is after monstrosity in man. Referring to Isaiah's vision, Bishop Norris said they thy neighbour's." I think, sir, that his lordship spoke un-

If the Christian nations of Europe had to look forward to a nation which guardedly when he tentatively consigned

God, a nation in which God dwelt. That to perdition all individuals who do not believe in the Bible they must acknow-had the right to be called a nation of believe in the God of the theologians. It ledge that Militarism is a crime against was a picture of an England as God had ja auch an attitude of intolerance that

ture to make or mar; they wanted Eng has had so disastrous an effect on the God, and that the savages of the world planned for them, and it was their pic land to be the mountain of the Lord's Church in the past, and an adoption of are their brothers. a moré tolerant attitude, which is attain-

And, instead of killing and exterminat. house." But God might take away what able through-the study of modern science, will result in the rapid progress of the ing them in wars of conquest, and robbing he had given them, and they might come to be looked upon as one of the nations Church. In the realm of Theology so them of their possessions-eventually lead of the past, not of the present. There two creeds think alike, no two sects think alike, and even in the same sect different ing to fratricidal wars amongst themselves was a greater honour, however, than su- premacy of arms: there was the honour individuals have different conceptions; it is their duty to educate and civilize of supremacy of goodness. Other nations but moral philosophy, the other hand,

HONGKONG BANK NOTES. is amenable to the direct laws of nature them, as the negroes of the Southern might take away from them their power, but they could not take away their good- and is acceptable to all creeds and sects. States of the United States have beenness Yet, if ever it came to pass that

The returns of the average amount of The subject is too lengthy to deal with educated and civilized, and to place them they lived, and that they had won that bank notes in circulation and of specie here, but we may take it that nearly all

war, they would need to remember the sin is due to disease of either the mind on the same plane as themselves.

vision of England; the vision of a great in reserve in Hongkong, during the month or the body, and that sanitation and

Therefore, the crimes of kings, govern-nation called by God for the service of ended November 30th, 1916, as certiaed hygiene favour the development of morali monts, and the leaders of men have been the world. And in thinking of this they by the Managers of the respective Banks, ty. Professor Gerald Leighton tells us visited upon the people, and this is the bad also to remember what had to be "mental traits-especially those reason for the punishment which done. First, they had to win that war; which are associated with what is termed Almighty God has indicted upon tho because no nation had a right to refuse Chartered Bank temperament are largely dependent upon nations of Europe. Yours truly,

As a the so-called physical condition. rule, the better the health the better the spirits, and the worse the health the greater the mental gloom. Gout, liver. Complaints, and dyspepsia carry with them their corresponding states of mind, In- deed, so closely are the two combined that now-a-days any mental peculiarity is attributed to some corresponding brain change a change, that is, in actual brain cells. The time has gone by when a man with a faulty brain is expected to behave as other men or punished for not so doing; he is now treated as a patient, not a criminal. Slowly we are recognis ing that the whole of a man's nature is governed by the same laws, the only differ- ence being in the parts acted upon." Professor Leighton goes on to show that a man can train his powers of natural resistance against any particular aïn until he has become immune to that, sin, in Exactly the same way that a man becomes immune to sall-pox after his natural resistance has been increased by vaccina tion. I caimos say more about the sub- hest here, but it seems, to my mind that it is very suitable study for the Church to take up. Yours faithfully,

My PLEBIS. Hongkong, 9th December, 1910.

TSE TSAN TAL Hongkong, 9th December 1816,

RAIN WANTED.

to do what God had given it to do. They must face things with determination; there must be no selfishness, slackness nor slothfulness if they wished to win that war. It might be God's will to take victory away from them, it might be God's. will to cast them down from the high position that they had held among the A HONGKONG DROUGHT. nations of the world, to cast them right down to the very bottom. If that was The rainfall for the month of November God's will they could struggle up again et the Botanical Gardens was 0.06 inch with the vision be had referred to in on one day, at the Matilda Hospital, front of them, until once more they had Mount Kellett, it was 0.10 inch on one reached supremacy amongst the nations day, and at the Police Station, Taipo. of the world. It was their duty now to no. rain was recorded. The rainfall for bold fast, to put in every ounce they had, November, 0.075 inch, on November 13th, and strain every nerve they could to win was the lowest on record since 1009, when it was 0.065 inch Other November the war for the sake of God and their fel- droughts occurred in 1886, 1890, 1893, and low-men. They must try as they bad 1894, when the rainfalls were respectively never tried before, in England and cut With the of England; there must be no more 0,05, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.03 inch. exception of the fall on November 13th selfishness, self-indulgence or materialiam there has been no rain since October 24th. If they were called to be of service to the when 0.18 inch fell. The amount of other nations of the world they had to sunshine, 31.8 hours, was the greatest grasp the opportunity before it was taken on record since 1893, when 294.6 hours away from them. were registered:

The average mean temperature for the month of November was 67.8, the highest point registered being 88.6, on the 8th, and the lowest 47, on the 20th. The average humidity was 63.

A vote was thanks was accorded Eishop Norris on the initiative of Commodore Sandemann, who also called for three cheers, which were heartily given.

Among those present at the meeting were H.E. the Governor and Miss May.

$8,180,300 $5,000,000*

of India, Aus tralia and China Hongkong en d Shanghai Bank- ing Corporation 21,200,400 Mercantile Bank

20,000,000

of India, Ltd... 910,890 550,000t

Total

833,306,595 $25,550,000

*Sterling Securities deposited with the Crown Agents valued at £150,000,

Securities with the Crown Agents £68,040.

HONGKONG FINANCES.

The financial statement for the month of September, 1918, is as follows: RAVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. Balance of Assets and Liabili

ties on 31st August, 1916...81,420,267.50 Revenue from 1st to 30th

September, 1916

Expenditure from ist to 30th

September, 1916.

Balance

1016.

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