Drorings from London.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 4

Drorings from London.

By LYM£ DROPS.

Never is my catholicity of taste and tolerance more in evidence than on the Lord's Day. Just as through the week ' 1 am prepared to read any book on any Subject, "so on-Sunday am I prepared to listen to almost anybody. Seven o'clock in the morning may 1 find mc at St. Ameii's, kneeling devoutly through the Mass. At 11 I am soaring with Dr. Tudor Jones to giddy altitudes in metaphysics; at noon bumping again on tho bedrock of things at the Economic Class in the Socialist Hall. At 3 in the afternoon Mr. Blamires may hear what he fancies to be seraphsinging among the brotherhood. That's mc. At 6 I enjoy the ritual of the Apostolic Church ; at 7 endure that f-f the Salvation Army; and at S go to His Majesty's Theatre to learn the most intimate and personal peculiarities of my remotely immediate ancestry in the anthropoid line. That is, of course, when in Wellington. And jet with all this sifting and seeking, last Thursday night was the first time I met an Out-and-out Bel.ewer. I mean, m&rk you, a man with a positive belief;-not a man who thought he believed simply because he never thought at all. The auspicious place was tho Town Hall in Hammersmith.; the occasion, a mass meeting of men; the believer, the Bishop of London; the vehicle of his belief, a stirring plea for the despised ideal of masculine purity. For just as the ravages of unspeakable social disease last j*ea_r stirred Dr. Findlay to legislative enterprise, so now in England have the Bishops been awakened from religious somnolence. I dare say it was the doctor's plea for the prisoners which enchanted mc with his performance on that occasion. I remember I thought it very* fine. He seemed to embody the spirit of the "Rev. Frank Eden." whom I hold to be.one of the noblest heroes in fiction. Ihe surprise, in the doctor's speech was . his- sympathetic knowledge "of criminal psychology. Permit mc, please, to explain these big words. Recently it was discovered that if, when a man had the misfortune .., | a.. To Fail Down in tha SVlud, ''^. you urged a policeman to push him in further and hold him there while you ran for a judge, jury and jailer to sit on him, the chances were the man would remain in the mud to the- end of the chapter. That is the great science, in a nutshell, so to speak —a cocoanut shell —and to the untutored mind it seems obvious enough.'without any discovering ; but in scientific circles it was felt to be a find of such prodigious magnitude that only a large word like psychology could hope to do it justice. £ had naturally supposed the doctor to be fa>r too learned to be able to talk 9el.se on so vital a matter as a man in the mud, but in the event he did bravely. Not only did he urge that the police, judge, jury, and jaiiler should give the man a chance to get up, but he himself proposed to offer him a • little soap (soft). and water, together with a request that he should refit himself for polite society as soon as may be. Of course, such a step was far too revolutionary for 1910. Even his fellow red-flaggers said the doctor was presuming to take far too' much on himself, and that was all he' got for his pains. Same with his scheme for checking the social evil. Being sensible, practical and spoken solely for the public good the doctor's words naturally fell on deaf ears. I suppose by now it has been forgotten that he .ever spoke at all. Doc .or and Bishop Alike 'sought the salvation of the people. But their means differed. The doctor's alarm was to wake the social instinct to a common danger. The Bishop's appeal was to the individual to remain or withstand the lure of sin and reach regeneration through individual effort. The surprise in listening to the Bishop was to feel his absolute faith in the efficacy of his religion. It was clear 'that to him doubt of God's existence or of the truth of Christian dogma did not exist. He did not categorically deny it. Hi 3 faith more expresses itself as a sort of effluent power in the zone of which scepticism would have sounded weakly impertinent. The Bishop's presence doo3 not immediately arrest you, but ho is a, fine type of man, with Gla dstonian mouth and nose, and eyes deep and iiroadly set. Theor. is nothing mora

striking in his cranial outline than in the cast of Herbert Spencer in the National Gallery; and he apologised for his voice, which had grown husky with the. stress of the campaign, but there was a real and winning nobility in his gesture and eloquence. In twinsincerity with his faith in his religion is his great love for hi. fellow beings. lib. beat out in warm waves fromi'THsheart to kindle answering fires in~ the breasts of his audience. I was not quite insensible to certain flaws in his logic nor forgetfirt he has been granted an available foothold to start from, but because he shaped their wills to a nobler end I was glad of his perfect mastery over the host of listening men. He addressed himself bo the matter under four heads, the first being The Bla.nejess3~.sss of tha Body. Evangelists have always taught us that the human body is a base thing. This, happily, is now discovered to be a great mistake. Left to itself, the body is all right—lovely, ia fact. The Bishop's second head was the testimony of the Scriptures, and the.evidence adduced from this source must have left perfect 'conviction in the minds of all strict adherents to the theory of verbal inspiration. The body was found to be the temple of the Holiy Ghor,c, and as such entitled to every reverence. The incarnation was a monument to its essential sinlessness.. and St. Paul's reference to "this vile body" was explained to be p. misrepresentation of the. original Greek. Whatever vileness might seem to be in the body was infallibly traceable to the evil machinations of the will, soul, heart, and other difficult phenomena. It was here that, with all the grace and facility of a theologian, the Bishop took a logical hurdle or two which my analytical sense obliged mc to walk round. But when he turned bo chastity as A Practical Ideal he became easier to follow. Was it desirable that the" bridegroom should go to the altar as chaste in body as the bride is. expected to be? It was. Then was it practicable? Decidedly. At least, so the Bishop said, and referred to himself as a living and not entirely irrelevant case in point. Here also hectrew evidence from the Bible, but presently turned with greater force to the truths of physiology and kindred sciences. Now, careful introspection, together with patient study of others, has long convinced mc that our morality largely depends on the quality of our food, clothing, air, exercise and digestive efficiency. You need not jump down my throat and say ""This is materialism." There are simple truths about ourselves which, however humiliating, we should have been told long ago. Who, for instance, will deny that a crowded theatre, dancing haii, dub, smokeroom, public bar, etc., can engender thoughts which the mind may harbour without concern in a- vitiated atmosphere, but which become absolutely revolting in the'sunshine and open air? To purify the mind and give sweetness of tone to the moral system there is nothing better than a sunbath, while to preserve that tone equably requires only an abundance of congenial work. For when a man's blood is singing in his veins-he does not want to sin; neither to covet, steal, blaspheme, exploit his neighbour, tell lies, go to church, nor get in a bad temper. He wants to work like.the ant or the bee. He is really instinct with the same industry. His whole being reaches out passionately for what is good. In fact, it is only then he obeys the greatest commandment by trying to love God with all his heart. It would seem, therefore, that- my materialism leads to the loftest- spirituality, and I have found nothing in. all the Bishop's discourse which did not either affirm or imply it. We met also in. c«mmon enmity against - . - A Typa of Rascal who would seem to work his havoc in every sphere of society. The Bishop spoke of him as a curse among students both before and during their Cambridge or Oxford days. I can testify he is equally a curse among gumdiggers, shearers, milkers, miners, millmen, buslimen, clerks, limeburners, seamen, ploughmen and other toilers among whom I have worked out my life. I mean the man who leads young chaps-to the bad by advising them to do what in many cases has already brought, rttin to himself. He poses a3> the perfect typo of .normal manhood;, magnifies, and. boasts his capacity for sexual vice; pretends that a' man- mayi go on wasting hi a. self in excesses with-,.

out reaping pain and misery, and thatj tho true test of manhood consists hi a sort of perpetual sex itch. The young fellow listens in some surprise, and only realises that he never feels like that. He does not realise that neither do the other wholesome-minded young fellows round about him, and he becomes alarmed. Ho cannot bear to feel that perhaps he is a sort of freak, and so, though all'his instincts are in revolt, he proceeds to allay the torturing doubt by violating the seventh commandment; only to find that he is, alais I all ' boo ncrmal, and that no words could ever pourtray the anguish of shame that fills him when he realises that his soul has forever lost its original purity. Truly, the ignorance in which youths are allowed to reach puberty is not without some horrible effects. Wells, in one of his autobiographical novels, touches on the subject, but retreats before saying anything adequate. Now, if it really is A Matter of Extreme Delicacy for fathers to teach their boys, could not the master, on a boy leaving school solemnly warn him That dirty talk is the father of dirty thoughts; That dirty thoughts create evil dosires ; That evil desires lead to early, excesses ; That excesses lead to insanity, sterility, disease. and horrible death ; And conversely, That- the absence of animal desires is not a sign of physical inefficiency; That chastity gives health and strength to both body and mind; That no amount of self-restraint will prevent a man becoming a father when he may wish : That, ou the contrary, his children will be. the sweeter and healthier for it; and That the fellow who tells him otherwise is a- liar. - I have merely reduced the Bishop's golden ingots to current small coin, and, with him, believe.-in' the great importance of their circulation. No doubt Mr. Coleman Phillips could further refine them for scholastic use. In his campaign, the Bishop is supported by Sir Somebody Something—l didn't catch the name —a medical man of soaring eminence, an ardent purist, an out-and-out foe of the drink traffic, and a frightful bore. He remarked he would just add a few words, and forthwith began to read not to,-but at us, from, a pamphlet _f his own creation. At least, it looked like a short pamphlet, but it sounded like Hansard or Gibbons' Rome. I know you will think these "drorings" stodgy stuff, but were they served with a dish prepared under Sir Somebody's hand, you would declare them airy as souffle, or meringues. And all the great doctor had to tells us was that of the Three Primary Appetites, hunger, thirst, and pro-creative, only the first two are designed for the conservation of the individual. The third is for the conservation of- the species and beneficially effective only when gratified in accordance with the laws of nature and morality. I thought the doctor would never give out. The Bishop manfully suppressed his yawns, but looked as if he must infallibly die on ennui. However, he endured to the end and lifted up his arms and voice in the benediction. I never listened to a sweeter blesing. Coming home up the grove—a quiet residential street—a common thing happened. Two women accosted mc. One was old, ugly, pitiable, repulsive. The "other was young, pretty, painted, pitiable and repulsive. Fortified with the Bishop's blessing, I withstood the wiles of both. But as I walked on a painful thought occurred to mc. What brought those poor souls there?' Had they no place to go? "Or had they children somewhere crying for supper?. Either was likely enough in London. And then I was glad to recall that the Bishop does not shut his eyes to the root of nearly ail evil. The Bishop of Loudon is like the Rev. B. Hutson, of Brooklyn. He bluntly asks his fellowlishops: "If the Church does not strive to equalise the conditions between rich and poor, what is the good of the Church?"