WELLINGTON SOCIETY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 246, 7 October 1876, Page 4

WELLINGTON SOCIETY.

(Evening Post, Sept. 30.)

The Rev. Mr Elmslie, who for some years has been the officiating Minister of the Presbyterian Church in Wanganui and more lately baa accepted a similar "position in St. Paul's Church, Christchurch some time ago delivered a lecture on the times, entitled " Chinks in our Social System," This lecture has been published, by request, in pamphlet form, and is in the main an energetic and forcible denunciation of the evils of "excessive drinking, gambling, extravagance, and other social vioes. He also alludes to what he terms " the mental dissipation of these balls," and points a moral by the reference to Lady Vogel's fancy dress ball. He says:—

4i I recently read a report of a public ball, so objectionable in pnint of character, and so clearly indicative of another glaring chink in our social system, that I purpose devoting to it a few notes by way of addendum. Among the honored guests present at Sir Julius Vogel's dress ball, and who were there in character, there were, according to newspaper report, no fewer than three representatives of the devil. One of these, with exquisite taste no doubt, bad donned a costume inteuded to represent * Satan by Night;' another, with equal propriety, assumed tbe pleasing character of " His Satanic Majesty,*" whilst the third, with more Parisian refinement perchance, went into the festive scene simply to personate 'Le Diablo.* How deeply humiliating! Worse taste, a lower moral sentiment, and a more humiliating absence of high Christian refinement has seldom been witnessed, even in the humblest abodes ot poor sinning humanity. Why did it not occur to sorae votary of the sensational to present himself in that grotesque circle as ' Our Lord on His way to Calvary?' Such a thing I may be told would have shocked the nervous sensibilities of the most indifferent. But why? The offence would have differed only in degree from that which I have ventured to expose. For our Lord came expressly to destroy the works of the devil; and had there been no such works aud no such worker, our fallen race had not been ' groaniug aud travailling iv pain ' as it is, aud the atoniug death of our Divine Redeemer had not been. a thing so essential in the economy of redeeming love. The personality of Satan is ns clearly taught in Holy Scripture as the personality of God; and the woiks of the arch enemy of soula are as palpable to the eyo of Christian intelligence as are the works of His Almighty Conqueror. To make any of these things, therefore, the subject of idle burlesque is at once a violation of good taste, and a very unmistakeable mark of the want of high Christian intelligence. And had we any reason to suppose that the offence was really inteuded, given, as it was, at what may be called the head quarters of Parliamentary fashion, we should have pronouuced it nothing short of a public insult to the Christian intelligence of New Zealand. Taking into account the boasted intelligence of this nineteenth century, and the boa9ted BibleChristianity of the British people, the display witnessed at this ball was more culpable, irreligious, and offensive than that witnessed in the royal banquettin^ house at Babylon, now nearly 3000 years since. In the one case it was an impious familiarity with the holy; in the other it was a reckless and shameless familiarity with the wicked.

WELLINGTON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEMORALIZATION.

Mr Elmslie then goes on fo express some strong opinions on Wellington society and political demoralization. He writes:—

««I do not refer merely to tbe low tone of political morality which exiets, an evil which must be ascribed to the recklessness of particular constituencies, as well as to the unhappy influence of Sir Julius Yogel and bis natural confreres. Nor do I refer merely to tbe demoralizing tendency which our great political congress has been showing during the last few yeais in its influence on Wellington society. We bave it on tbe authority of men who are neither ascetics nor sentimentalists, that, during the last five years, the presence of our Colonial Parliament has bad the most prejudicial efidot upon the interests of morality and religion throughout the Empire City; and this, notwithstanding tbe counteracting influence of those honorable members whose advent is always hailed by the Wellington churches. But, taking a much broader view of the question, aud leaving politicians, both high and low, to find their own level iD our general economy, we cannot but remark ihe low tone of both morality and religiou that prevails throughout ' the upper ten thousand' of colonial society. * * * Nothing is more needed in this young but rapidly rising country, while its habits, tastes, and institutions are being formed, than a class of colonists, holding a firs', pluce in society, scorning the eviiand maintaining the good, making a frauk profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and iaitbfully standing aloof from those who are ' lovers ol pleasure more than Jovers of God.' Iv other words, ibeie ia nothiug I more desiderate than a class of colonists of the highest Bocial standing, who would fsarlesaly renounce ihe fooleries of a Godless wotld, and be willing at all timea uud under all circumstances, to take their stand for Christ. * * * If these piaia words -should be instrumental in leading any

Christians of wealth and influence to discover the secret of their own unhappinesp, and the cause of tbeir own comparative uselesaness in the best and highest of all services — if, in other words, this humble effort should be tbe means of leading any Christian lady or gentleman to give up attempting the impossible, a reconciliation, namely, between God and Mammon, and, despite tbe ghost of a dreaded singularity, to come out from the world and take a decided stand for Christ, my labor, 1 shall feel, has not been in vain."