RELIGIOUS AWAKENING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1612, 27 November 1905, Page 3

RELIGIOUS AWAKENING.

LOFTY PRESBYTERIAN IDEALS I I CRITICISM OF OTHER I I CHURCHES. The interesting annual report on the state of religion presented by the Rev W. Gray Dixon to the Presbyterian Gen. oral Assembly created quite an enthusiastic debate, the delegates being convinced that a i the present time the colony is under the influence of a groat religious awakening. ~ . , Your committee are profoundly thankful to the God of all grace and glory that they are able to present a report in which may be fell the breath of returning springThere is much, very much of winter yet in the Church’s spiritual condition, and vastly more in the communities about her gates ; but the voice of spring is begin* ning to be clearly heard and the flush of its new life experienced, and we cannot but be glad with the quickening of hope. In a large majority of our parishes and mission districts there is an impression that the influence of religion is increasing In a good many all that can he said is that the Church seems to be. holding her own. In very few indeed is there the feeling that there is a weakening of the influence of religion upon the community. Young people give themselves to pleasure as life’s aim. The attention paid to sport is ridiculously excessive. It is in some places almost hopeless to stir the minds even of the most reputable young men and women to any mental effort. A dancing mania ” possesses certain parishes. And one or two of our correspondents do not shrink from naming the Roman and Anglican Churches among the hindrances to religion in their parishes on account of the lower ideal prevalent in these churches, especially the former, on such matters as Sabbath observance, raffling at bazaars, etc At the other extreme “ bitter brethremsm s deplored. It may be well occasionally not to keep silent about the exceptionally lofty standard of thought and conduct which our Church, through God’s grace to our fathers, inherits, and which association with members of even some of worthiest of the sister ■ communions is liable to impair. We gratefully note that public dpinion on the question of gambling is greatly improving. The outcry from press and people against the total;sator is one of the most cheering manifestations we have had for a long time of the soundness at the heart of our civic life. Our Church got credit for defeating the proposal to introduce the totalisator into Victoria; we hops she will take her due share in sweeping it out of New Zealand. If pleasure-loving is injuring in a special degree our young people, of the older people it has very often to be said that they seem to be in a condition of torpor. Enthusiasm is at a sad discount among multitudes of our Church members. The dairying industry seems responsible for much spiritual atrophy and sordidness. And there is a general complaint of the waning of home life. Family discipline is deplorably neglected, with the result that children grow ignorant, self-indulgent, ill-man* nered, lawless. Here we touch a spot of veritable heart disease in our body politic. We note with satisfaction that the church is, on the whole, attending to the duty of aggresive evangelism. At the same time, the evangelistic note seems to be increasingly characterising our regular services. In respect to the proportion of young men more or less regularly attending some place of worship reports vary widely, from io per cent, to practically ioo per cent. The prevailing conviction is than a decided majority of Presbyterian young men attend Church, but that the proportion is very much smaller in the community as a whole. The testimony of ministers who haye branches ot the Young Men’s Bible Class Union in their parishes is unanimous and emphatic as

to the value of this organisation. The report gave particulars of criticisms to the movement which had been received, . and went on to state Wise, loving, spiritual guidance by parents iu the home , is mentioned as a crying need for young men. " Sixty per cent, of parents are too lazy or too busy entertaining their neigh bours to act as Greatheart to their own flesh and blood. Then there is the splendid opportunity afforded to laymen of the appropriate gifts of acting as leaders of Bible classes. The aloofness, and, at times, censoriousness of older people in relation to the youth of the < urch is not seldom chilling in the e: reme and most ruinous to what ought to be the brightest and most potential of the many varieties of our work for God. At the close'of a year which will be ever memorable as the year of one of the most remarkable revivals of religion in the history of the universal Church, no question seemed more opportune than that with which your Committee have closed their series of inquiries: “ Can you say anything as to the prospects of a general revival of religion in our colony?’’The answers,are distinctly encouraging. On all sides there is prayer, private and united, for the coming of a spring-time of grace. The genuineness of the movement at Waihi has been testified to by one and other visitors to the prosperous town on the Thames goldfields. Criticism, even the most sympathetic, has been merged in wonder and worship. More re: cently there have been quite as remarkable manifestations of the power of the Holy Ghost in the city of Auckland, though they haye been less conspicuous owing to the much greater population with its much greater diversity of interests; The momentous question now is, “ Is the awakening at Waihi to prove the “ little cloud no bigger than a man’s hand!” which presages the coming deluge of spiritual blessing?” Or is New Zealand to let the great opportunity ipass ? The opinion expressed in one of the answers that “ more consideration is desirable at the General Assembly of our most vital work ” is receiving deference this year in the holding during Assembly time of a conference for the dispensing of spiritual life, and it is hoped that by the blessing of God this new departure will justify itself in a way that will fill all our hearts with praise. . , In moving the adoption of the report, theEev.!W. Gray Dixon referred to the references in the report to the Waihi revival, and said the spiritual awakening was evident in Auckland. There was a deepened interest iu religious things, and the attitude of the average man towards religious things showed indeed that there was a rising tide. His personal conviction was that the vice of vice in the colony was gambling, and the chief hindrance to religion Was worldliness. It was often depressing in the extreme to see how little interest the fathers and mothers took in the spiritual welfare of their children. It was exceedingly refreshing to see the, outcry raised by press and people against the gambling evil. There were ladies in fashionable boardinghouses around that very church who regularly put their money on the totalisator. It made one black ashamed to think of highly educated and respectable-looking ladies (alii ough they could not retain their respectable looks very long if they continued on those lines) who were regular gamblers. He,moved a resolution expressing gratification at the religious revivals at Waihi and around and in Dunedin, recommending the holding of conferences for the deepening of spiritual life, and urging members of the Church to abstain from every form of gambling, and to throw their influence into the movement for the abolition of the totalisator, and the removal of national as well as personal complicity in that deadly vice. The Key. H. B. Gray, in seconding, said that the problem was how to stir laymen and office-bearers of the Church out of their stagnant religious life in - to a powerful lifefor God and man. He appealed for personal individual evangelistic work. The present Assembly was remarkable for the spontaneous way in which the ministers and elders had shown a desire to meet together simply for prayer and Bible reading. -The outcome of the Assembly in that particular matter would be the whole Church in New Zealand.

The Rev, R. H. Catherwood spoke to the value of the young men’s Bibleclass movement, and declared that athletic organisations in connection with them should not be discouraged. Mr George Dawson emphatically declared his opinions in regard ito smoking. “ When I see a Doctor of Divinity drawing away at an old pipe,” he announced, amid laughter, “he is showing the worst example he can to the young.” Mr Dawson urged that ministers should stop smoking themselves, and advise the boys that it was a most degrading thing to use tobacco in any shape or form. (Applause.) The Rev. T. Tait, who announced that he was not going on the platform as a culprit in regard to tobacco, made an eloquent appeal ' that • ministers should undertake evangelistic work themselves. '

The Rev. Budd asked that the reference in the report to the Roman Catholic and Anglican ideas in regard to bazaars might be deleted. The Rev. W. Gray Dixon: Not one syllable. (Applause.) Mr Budd moved that the reference be deleted.

Replying to the amendment, Mr Gray Dixon said that the attitude of the churches referred to in regard to raffling at bazaars' was well known, and it might be well occasionally to refer to the loftiness of the Presbyterian ideal in that respect. The Rev. P. _B. Fraser suggested that the clause., in the report be deleted, the words being, “ and which association, with members of even some of the"worthiest of the sister commu ; nions is liable to impair.” Mr Gray Dixon replied that he was not enamoured of the phrase, and he would withdraw it. Mr Budd’s amendment was then Withdrawn, ; and the motion was unanimously adopted. / V