MEN'S BROTHERHOOD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1534, 2 September 1912, Page 6

MEN'S BROTHERHOOD.

V : THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY. The second anniversary meeting of the Wellington City Men's Brotherhood was held in the New Theatre yesterday afternoon. The building was packed to the doors and a number of people were Tinable to gain admittance. Music was rendered by a glee party of over thirty voices (most of the singers being members of the Brooklyn Gleo party) under the leadership of Mr. W. M'Ciellan. Choral items rendered were: "How ■ ' .Excellent;" "Onward Christian Soldiers,"-and "Worship rho Lord." A solo, "Tho Sailor's Grave," was contributed by Mr. F. Lnycook. After the opening exercises, which were conducted by the Rev. E. 0. Blamires. the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher introduced the Hon. \V. F. Masscy (Prime Minister) who had been invited to preside over the meeting. Mr. Massey, in a brief address, com-' mended tho work done by the Brotherhood and expressed his pleasure at presiding that day. He emphasised the necessity for keeping Sunday, inviolate as a day of rest. He had been brought up, he said, in a country where Sunday was strictly observed. Tlie restrictions attach-

ing to the day of rest in those times had perhaps been too severe, but tho tendency was very much in the opposite direction ot tho present time. This tendency he deprecated, for he wished to sea Sunday preserved as a weekly day of rest.and also as a day for the cultivation of tho higher spiritual faculties. Mi'. G. Laurenson, M.P., was the speaker of the day. He took as the sub-

jecl of his address the neeessitv of having high ideals in life. The present age, he said, was one of rapid movement and of changing ideals. Tho ideal-of some people thirty years ago had been to "relieve men's minds of the trammels of religion. . Today it was .being asked, "Where were those men?" Tho necessity of having strong beliefs was as great now as it had ever been. .No nation could'survivo the less of its belief's. Happiness did not depend only on economic justice being obtained. Man's infinite capacity, needed something more than could bo secured bv economic justice, though personally he was a fighter for economic justice! V spiritual ideal was necessary. A German philosopher at Jena had said that vou could not be happy in this world unless yon believed in the moral order and tried to live up to it. This was the modern philosophic rendering of the Psalmist's saying: Trust in the Lord." Economic justicp, though not of first and supreme importance, should be .striven for. The drift of population info towns, the decreasing birth-rate, and the present distribution of wealth, .with dire poverty at one end of the social scale, and g'reat wealth at the other, wre signs of fall and decline, which needed to be watched. Such organisations as the Brotherhood would help to supply the remedy required. A. collection was taken up on behalf of tho Sisterhood work of the mission, and realised between ,C 8 and ,£9.

.P 1I ' s „ a ' on . a PPea' is being made this month for funds to finance the general work of the Brotherhood. The speaker at the Brotherhood meeting next Siuiday will bo Canon' Garland, of Queensland, who will take as his subject, "Bible in Schools."