Article August 24, 1907 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from J. B., J. B. Silcox

[The British Congregationalist.]

In his address from the chair of the Union, Mr. Compton Rickett certainly chose a live subject to deal with. If the New Theology controversy has done nothing else, it has at least aroused a keen interest and made people think on some of the deepest themes. Our chairman took a bold plunge when he reviewed the situation from the standpoint of the mere layman and the man in the street. We owe him our thanks for having done so, for if there is one thing that the pulpit needs just now, it is to know what the pew is thinking about. As Mr. Rickett says, though surely the picture is overdrawn: "The world listens at our church doors, and furtively peers through the windows, pursued by the idea that a rushing mighty wind may perchance be heard, or the glow of pentecostal fire be seen. When it discovers that the mystic Hinterland is as dark to the Church as to the world itself, the world will cease to trouble about the halffilled temples of the Faith. She has her own ethical systems, and prefers her own gatherings for mutual improvement. She cares little about a Church that shakes hands with her over a pleasant Sunday afternoon and has no story of spiritual mystery. We cannot affect surprise if into this theological vacuum wild theories and strange doctrines should rush. The Church of to-day has created the void which, sooner or later, must be filled."

["J. B." in The Christian World, London.]

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