CHURCH-GOING IN SAN FRANCISCO.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 782, 12 October 1853, Page 3

CHURCH-GOING IN SAN FRANCISCO.

[From the “ Alta California," May 20.]

Among the pleasant memories that cluster around the path of the busy sojourner in this land of anxiety and earnestness, there are few to which the mind turns with purer satisfaction than to the time-hallowed and parent-sanctified practice of attending church on Sabbath day. As men look back to their days of youth, they love to contemplate those calm Sabbath mornings when, in all the neatness and taste that parental pride and fondness could bestow, they met together with friends and neighbours to lay aside the busy cares of the week, and give their thoughts to matters of a higher nature. No one looks back to those days but with pleasure and with sadness ; with pleasure at the recollection of the quiet enjoyment and happiness of that period of life, when as yet the ambitious schemes or perplexing cares of later years had not begun to infuse their alloy into the 1 pleasures of life. With sadness arc those days recalled, for the recollection of them forties us also to remember that << All, all are gone, the old familiar faces—’’ They have gone, and “ they come not back.” The “ seas between us braed ha’ roared,” and Time, in the mean while, has done his work, so that now we see that the glittering hopes of youthful fancy can never be fulfilled and experience that the sunny future, on which we were wont in imagination to gaze as on a velvet lawn, is but a rugged and toilsome landscape. Thoughts like these, which relax the mind from the intensity of busy life, make men better, and we believe they live longer and happier for indulging In them. It is a law of nature, we believe, no less than a law of revelation, that men should give at least one day of the week to rest. They require it for their own physical good, and whatever may be said of the institution of the Sabbath as regards the effect of its observance on man’s temporal affairs, it is as applicable to one class of men as another. Not only to him who labors with his hands during the six days of the week, but to him who is engrossed with cares and business during the same period, there is a great need of rest and relaxation. Men in California are too earnest and anxious either to enjoy life or to live long. The eager and constant desire for gain which pushes people on without relaxation or mercy, fast wears on the mind and ccn-dilution, and it is a fact often noticed and remarked that men soon grow old in California. Nor is it strange. They have come here as though goaded on by the demon* ot gold, and unless in the pursuit of it they know no peace and it is but natural and inevitable that men under the circumstances should grow prematurely old. It is well, therefore, in this country, above all others, that men should for one day In the week at least forget the caves and perplexities that beset them, and indulge in the contemplation of things of a different nature. The example which is set by attendance at church is decidedly favourable to good order, law and morality. It shows that men respect and cherish the institutions under which they live. It may be that many attend from motives of pride or policy ; bus that does not alter the fact that

there is a moral tone in the community which commands respect. It shows that the outward semblance of’observance to the customs of so iety is esteemed, and is in itself a virtue; and that men would have the good opinion of those whose motives are of a more exalted character. And in the inlluence upon the young—and, thank God, the young are among us, and their welfare is to be cared for—the example of their elders is of more weight than all the didactic instructions of teachers and pastors. The child looks to the parent for example, and he will not be made to believe that attendance at church is good for him, but not far his parents. And if we observe how much of the destiny of the young depends on examples of this kind, we shall see that it is not only our duty to ourselves, but to our country, to keep that outward appearance of respect to the usages of Christian society, which will draw them to a like respect for our institutions and laws. Those who have families of children, it may be {observed throughout the world, are generally more regular in their attendance at church than others. And why ? They see, as it were, by instinct, that if the young are not brought up in the ways of virtue and to respect the institutions under which they live, they are sure to fall into the high ways of immorality and vice. The pathway of youth should be hedged around by every possible means to prevent them from falling into the snares that beset them. And if we will notice it, we shall find that so far as our own observation goes, the youth, who have grown up in the respect of those usages which religious people revere, become better men a id better citizens than those who have been educated to regard the Sabbath as a holiday. They more seldom fall into habits of vice, and if temptation beset them the influence of church attendance is to awaken them to a realising sense of the dangerous path into which they have entered. “ The child is father of the man," and if we would have the next generation of men in California, law abiding and good citizens, then must they be educated to cherish those institutions which always go hand in hand with good order and morality. Search the world over and we shall find that where the Sabbath is respected the people are generally virtuous, and where it is not respected they are almost uniformly immoral and dissolute. The seventh day is not now a day of labor and business with our people, and if it is made a day of idleness it is fruitful in vice and crime. On this day men assemble for enjoyment and conviviality, and in this way it leads to positive evils. It should be a day of rest and self examination, and then there would be no time or reason for men to engage in acts of dissipation, folly, or extravagance. We have considered this subject strictly, with a view to the temporal welfare of mankind. Its bearings on the future destiny of men we leave to those better competent to treat it than we are. But as a matter of duty to society and a regard to the well-being of mankind, we say it is the duty of all good citizens, as a rule, to regularly go to church.