DECADENT PUBLIC MORALS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2065, 27 April 1907, Page 4

DECADENT PUBLIC MORALS.

11l the course of his sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland, on Anvil 21st, the Very Hev. Fr. Clune .made an attack on the public morals of the present day, which, lie said, were of a very low standard. The first great evil was immorality. Wherever two or three were gathered together the foundation of their conversation was this pernicious vice. It had entered into the social life of the people, where statues and books were displayed calculated to degrade their moral sense. The statues were fit only for a Venus temple, and the books he referred to were saturated with immoral literature. Those who had studied the matter were coming to the conclusion that the printing press, instead of being a blessing, was going to bo a curse on humanity. The second great evil was materialism, or the greed of riches, wealth, and luxury. The Pagan Gospel was as true to-day as ever it was, namely. “Let us drink and make merry, and crown ourselves with roses, for wo will be long enough in the grave.” This, greed was manifest in the prevailing idea that a nation on the downward grade was an indication that their worship was not welcome to God. Ilig armies and navjes and wealth seemed to be the standard by which the world gauged the religion of a country. It mattered little that (Christ had said to His apostles to choose whom they would serve, God or iNJaminou, for, as He had often said, they could not serve two masters. ■ An immediate cause of this spirit of materialism was the desire for quick gains, of which gambling was a natural ally. To combat the growing tendency to greed, the law governing the lives of the people should be a love of hard work, which should be governed by a desire to re. ceive the eternal rewards that God had in store, rather than the wages they received at the week end. They should learn to work for Jesus, as Joseph did. The third and last great evil was the spirit of infidelity and unbelief. Men and women were found in hundreds and thousands who refused anything and everything in matters of faith that did not commend itself to their judgment and reason, and the direct cause was empty pride. Hence, it was that infidelity and insubordination and murmuring had entered even the Church of the Almighty God,