The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1907 DR GIBB'S DENUCIATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3774, 24 September 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1907 DR GIBB'S DENUCIATIONS.

In the course of a sermon preached in the Wellington Town Hall, on Sunda3 r night, the Rev. Dr Gibb (Presbyterian), made- reference to passing events. His "subject was “The short-sighted fool and the man who does not look ahead.’’ He said he had no desire to join himself to the doubt-, ful company of croakeis who imag-. ined that, the -Church would sqpiv, be numbered with the dead, blit,, though he was sure that the religion of Christ would yet ring victorious in this land, compared with which the victories of the past were insignificant, he was of those who regarded the,immediate outlook as far from reassuring. Idolatry was rampant in this country,. not. indeed the idolatry which bowed down to stocks and stones, to grotesque images and foul altars, but how. widespread was theklolatry which worshipped money and pleasure and sport, the idolatry which found a-substitute for the.fear and worship of God in the pernicious and debasing excitement of the gambling hell and the racecourse, the idolatry which almost deified the physical and became insane over a successful sculler .or • football team. And worse remained, though he might not tell it there. He had sometimes complained of the attitude of the daily press on questions which the Church regarded as of high moral import. Referring to the manner in which “ athleticism had been elevated into a god,” Dr Gibb said here was a nation that put its ban upon the Bible in schools, and its blessing upon the totalisator, upon the racecourse; here was a generation coming up, a large part of whom had no fear of God before their eyes, prostituting their souls to the worship of brawn and muscle —it needed no Elijah to tell what would happen. Their politicians often talked to them about the Yellow Peril, and the- great necessity of guarding the colony against the day of Armageddon, when hordes of brown and yellow men would invade our shores; but the truest -shield ' of a nation against even armed fools was the virtue of its sons and daughters.'-. What kind of defence should we make of our hearths and homes if our hearts were rotten? When it came to fighting (and for aught one knew it might come to fighting some day) it was the man behind the gun that told. Port Arthur was protected as thoroughly as. any fortress of modern times had been by impregnable fortifications and great guns without number. Port Arthur fell into the hands of the Japanese because luxury and sloth and vice had sapped the manhood of the Russians. It was only righteousness that made a nation great and strong and free. There was much in our present state of morals to make every true patriot ; as well as every sincere Christian anxious and perturbed.