CULTURE AND SOCIALISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 289, 31 August 1908, Page 8

CULTURE AND SOCIALISM.

ADDRESS BY DR. TUDOR JONES.

The Rev. Dr. Tudor Jones lectured'to tho Socialists at His Majesty's Theatre - last night. His subject was "Some A&pects'of the Individual and Society," and it was not long before ho was giving some advice on self-culture to tho individuals beforo him. After eulogising physical culture, he passed on to tho affairs of the intellect. Ho would feel conscience-stricken, he said, if ,he devoted more' than fifteen minutes a day to tho newspaper. He was convinced that newspapers and periodicals indirectly hindered tho development of tho intellect. Ono must get tho news of the day, but that was not all. No real mental cultivation was possible unless one took up some independent branch of study, apart from- one's regular ' vocation. It should, if no more were possible, bo something that related itself to human life. No

better choice could be made than the.study of history and economics. They should be able to give reasons for the opinions > they held. Next came ethical culture,-which was closely related to the mutual obligations of the individual and society. It was wrong that any man in Wellington who wanted work should be unable to get it. Such; however, was the case, whatever politicians might say to the contrary. (Applause.) Men had come to him —honest men, men .as good as himself—telling him that they had had no work for four months. This would not be so if what Jesus Christ had preached—the Kingdom of Godness—were established among us. Instead, we had built our religion in the clouds, and tho world had been given to the devil. The churches had wasted centuries on metaphysical puzzles which could benefit nobody. "You see," remarked Dr. Tudor Jones, "it is time for us ministers to begin to speak the truth. (Loud and prolonged. applause.) I havo been , trying for the last nine years—and that's all, only nine years/' The teachings of religion must be understood as applying to modern life. Ho urged his hearers to have some, great goal in front of .them., an ideal society, embracing tho physical,' mental, and ethical aspects. It must not be only an affair of the head, and he did not believe,, with some, that Socialists wero mere headfellows, or stomach-fellows—materialists. They must actfrom conviction. Only men with firoin their hearts achieved anything. If thoy all had the same convictions on the coming of better things for human society, those things would come, and all opposition would melt like snow in the sun. Among tho conditions that were necessary to the realisation of their ideal was the attainment of a nobler individuality—a x widening of the interests of people, so that they would not live only for themselves and their families. This must be worked for at such meetings as that, and in the pulpits of tho churches. Professor James, of Harvard, in his book on "Pragmatism," had said'he knew of nothing' that had como into tho world except because somebody wanted it. (Applause.) Tho speaker had a very attentive hearing, and' afterwards answered a number of questions, in .which task ho apparently gave general satisfaction to his audience.