SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1923, Page 4

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.

SERMON BY CANON JAMES. AUCKLAND, April 23. The ethics of Sunday golf were dealt with by Canon Pereival Janies in the .course of a sermon, on “Sunday, tho Weekly Day of Best,” delivered last evening in St Mary’s Cathedral. The preacher said that -tho first and paramount Sunday duty was worship, especially public worship. In the second place, Sunday was a day of rest, which had been provided by the Almighty Father for the physical and moral good of man. He laid emphasis on the grave effect on flic morale and health of continuous and unbroken labour, but added that tiie problem in New Zealand was that tiie day of rest was being sacrificed to a craving for amusement, “it is ;t crime,” said the preacher, “to de urive a fellow-creature of Ills one day’s rest in seven to minister to oui amusements.”

"if we are to win hack the Sunday we have lost, it must he by creating a strong public opinion,” said Canon James, "and that can only ho done by the consistent- exnmplc of Christian men and women. I am afraid that church people often fail to realise the awful gravity of this Sunday question. They do not make it a matter o) conscience. A young man will ask. ‘ls it a sin to have a round of golf on Sunday? 1 am in the office all the week. It is healthy, innocent recreation.’ No, It is not a sin. That is the mistake of the Pharisee and the Puritan, hut the man who says this is, generally, a healthy, athletic young man. He is not in the office all (lie week, lie lias a half-holiday which he devotes to playing games, and for Ihe greater part of the year nearly everyone in Auckland can find sufficient time every day for bodily recreation. It is ludicrous to say that Sunday golf is necessary to health. It is a pure luxury, it need not he, therefore, a. sin. It becomes a sin against himself if the only Sunday recreation lie allows himself is physical and lie forgets his real self, the mind and the spirit. It is a sin against Christ and His Church if lie puts golf first and the primary Christian obligation of Sunday, that of worship, second, to he performed now and again on a few Sundays when he is not overtired, and if it does not look as iT it might rain. It is a sin against Cod’s people, and especially the weaker brethren, if lie sets a consistently pernicious example to others. Sunday gull is not in itself a sin, hnt ] cannot regard ihe majority of Sunday golfers as loyal to Christ and the Church.” "Another man,” continued Canon Janies, says, "is it a sin to have a mu in my motor-car on Sunday after, noon:- Certainly not. It may be an excellent thing, but have you been to Cod’s Mon.so on Sunday morning? Are

you going in the evening? Do you refuse to let your children come to Sunday School because you want them with you in the motor run, or tempt

them to come, though throughout the day you have never given them any religions or moral lesson? My dear parent, can you doubt that in the eyes of God your motor run is a sin, a black