DEFENCE OF HIKING

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 12, 16 January 1933, Page 6

DEFENCE OF HIKING

(To the Editor.)

. Sir, —These hikers,-who stream out into tlie country in "search! of beauty, are one of the hopeful signs of the age. They look forward to Sunday. Surely it is only an intolerant mind that says that they hate the Bible, churches, and everything that pertains to Christianity. If people love these things, a day of refreshment and peace away from the whirl and dust of the city will only refresh their love and give them new understanding and appreciation. There are purer vibrations in the country. There may not be many hikers who bother about that, but it doesn't matter—they are attracted consciously vor subconsciously.. Clean living, healthy exercise, and restful change heal and reform some people as much as a sermon does others. . ■ . ■ »

"N.L." demands spiritual and mental slavery to his ideas. The British nation has always fought for freedom from physical slavery, and mental and spiritual freedom from human slavery.is surely more important still.' Two, kinds of religious people unwittingly turn some others away from church: the.intolerant prohibitionist of every kind of pleasure, especially on a Sunday, and the good people s6 conscious of'theh>good that they look down on less fortunate people instead of "throwing them a lifeline. I have many friends, quite nice people, who do not go to church. Perhaps the radio service satisfies them—l am, etc., • . i ' '