"PUSHING AND SHOVING."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 10

"PUSHING AND SHOVING."

c PEOPLE IN DEMOCRACY. \ PRESENT-DAY TENDENCIES. MERIT VERSUS ADVERTISEMENT. Some outspoken remarks on the effects of democracy, more particularly in reference to a colonial community, were made by Ai-chbishop Julius in the course of his sermon at St. Augustine's Church, .Cashmere Hills, on Sunday morning. Democracy, he told the congregation, led to a far greater striving for the high places than did the monarchical system, for people, being placed on the same level, j were continually striving and pushing and shoving, endeavouring to raise their heads just a little above their fellows in a practice which, under the old monarchical system, would lead to decapitation. The search for place, honour, dignity, and preference was tenfold greater to-day, tinder democracy, than it had been in the past. "Down there on the plains in Christchurch," he said, "if you stand on a tub you can be seen from one end of Colombo Street to another. And we are all at it —pushing, shoving, and striving, so that people can see our heads and we can get our names in the papers." "Principle of Democracy." In the old days only a few people could push their heads up, and others who did I 60 had theirs cut off. People wanted to be noticed and were seeking the high places all the time. "That's the principle of democracy," he said, "and it is intensified by the fact that we are so tender lest people think they are better than ourselves, and we push and shove and say: 'They are no better than I.' It is more real and true here than at Home because you can't live in England without coming across people head and shoulders above you. They take the conceit out of us. Here there is

nobody who stands liigh above the rest." 110 went on to say that now it was not a question of merit, but of advertise* ment. It did not matter twopence what an article was made of if it would selL "Advertise yourself," was the modern outlook. We were trying to push our heads a little higher .than they ought to be. Humility was a very much ■ discredited virtue, and people said it was not applicable to modern life, arguing that Christ would never have been', a success to-dav. Ho would not have wished to be, however. If Christ were 1 here He would never make His way. "Sham Virtue." Another reason why humility was discredited was that it was one of those ■ peculiar graces most easily imitated. Sham virtue was one of the biggest dangers people suffered from. In literature it was often shown up andfridiculcd, but it was a very common thing. "I would love to advertise, but I don't like to do it publicly," was a common feelingThere were two ways —one by running down our neighbours, such as by saying: 'It's, a pity he's got such a temper and she such a tongue.' All the time there was that feeling that 'I am not like that, you know.' In the same way people even disparaged themselves. , "We say that we get sick of humility/ Archbishop Julius added. "We say that it is a most nauseous thing, and that IS another reason why it is hated and unfashionable. But the real thing, not tho sham, lies at the very foot of the Kingdom of God. It is a sense of our position, not before men but before God."