METHODIST MOUTHERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 105, 22 June 1907, Page 1

METHODIST MOUTHERS.

THE MORALITY OF MUMMING, '"'■** Dangers " of Dancing.

The average man never goes to church, chapel, or conventicle ; he is contend to pursue, peacefully, .the path of" duty to his fellows. If he trouble himself about a possible future state of existence, he. is accustomed to depend upon a life of such virtue as his circumstances or inherited • tendencies rendier him capable to > .secure his merciful treatment. He" rarely, however, troubles himself about anything: of this sort ; for tite reason that the mass of mankind believe that pulpi'fc-pounders and Bible-bangers know no more about the Riddle of Existence than the ordinary ' laborer or artisan, knows I .There are not su Sew ayex-gy^e citizens, too, wiho are conyijnoi&d that what litjle more the BibleHbanger dees know aixnit this Riddle: is. just enough to' convince him* that the , Higher Criticism and Modern Science have, corroded the- foundations of the current belief, and have, therefore, added hypocrisy to the ignorance of the ; black-coated preacher of exploded ; 'doctrines ; for these men know that they are. 'preaching to the multitude^" "as ' true things which Criticism and Science have demonstrated to be false. : .;«.;. ■ * . . m ■ ■■ Churcli-going is, - however,, the habit 6f the middle class— the majority of the . workers are .never, seen within the walls of a church. This has been carefully and statistically demonstrated by Mr. Charles Booth to be the case m London, the capital of the British Empire, and there is not ' the slightest reason to believe that, m this respect, New Zealand differs from En-gland. The various sections of the> middle class find church-go-ing useful for social purposes, ' and for these- purposes they may be found there, cosily comfortably, ; and complacently . content, every Sunday, carefully caressing their clothdad "corporations," and .silently advertising their vgodliiness," • and. iiiferentially their trustworthiness. s The isnraer tjhat sifts sand into, sugar every. weeK-day 'becomes a " saint 'on the '''Sawfoath," and, : .on this day only, prigs piety from the; prating pulpiteer, iltthe same time, Ms'ole-" aginous obesity and air. of profound purity and inflexible integrity serve s to assure all other persons at "the church (who are not m precisely the same line of business)' .that lie would die rather than give short , weight; 1 sell stale, "cold-storaged/'; Chinese epgs as ""new-laid" .; or adulterates his "groceries" with stuff that is pois- * onously pernicious. On Monday,'however, he says ""business is business," and he does all these things with a conscience -that is superbly serene. ■ .*-- ■ * ■' ♦ ■ ' ■ ' Another of ■ these religious churchgoers is the speculative builder, who buys up some poisonous swamp that lias at one time absorbed the drainage from a Chinamen's vegetable garden, and,, having filled m the plague-infested . spot With wre'ehed rutibish, erects upon it, m a hasty, haphazard, scampish fashion, a number of , sardane-ibox2s, or uOMt hutches, that he has the frozen front %o call a terrace of houses. He plasters these, and dabs on :i coat or two of? paint ; and. then fitivcrItises them as ''beautiful homes for the working classes . ' l He setsthesavings of a number of working men as deposits on purchase money, and soon the. sardine-boxes called houses or "villas" begin to collapse, while the women-folk ' are so close to each other m these tantalising terraces, that they are prone tto wage furious warfare over the doi»2;s of their children, and soon the children themselves are attacked by. the disease igerms that the pious builder covered up with the rubbish .which he dumped into the swamp. < When the terraces are collapsing, the ' children have died of diptheria, or j soine-other'dea-dly disease, arl thej fathers of the families are 'hopeless-; <ly involved m dfcbt, the speculative; guilder seizes ,-tbJ& ; sinking- buildings, props them up, hides their disfigure- 1 ments with painjb— and goes fy> -church > next Sunday/ where he sides, with unction, '"Prafse Q&S. from Wlhom all Wessings J 'fl6w*''T ••" i ' It Is sueii as the sand-sifting! sug-ar-seller and . shekel-seeTdajgi, shark- - bike "speculator" whom we aaye

of most of the modern churches—theseand the woman who goes to church to see and be seen, to. excite, the envy of Mrs Butcher by displaying her latest bonnet, to disturb the pious dreams of Mrs. Smallgoods foy flaunting her finest frock. Yet, while the males and females of • the banal bourg-eosie are thus exhibiting 'themselves at a social show called a church, the great majority of the . members of the community, its most useful members— those who as laborers and artisans produce wealth, or those who as scholars and! 'investigators add to the sum of human knowledge — seldom or never eater a church. In spite of this fact, the paid pulpit-pounders \of the pettybourgeois, ' church-going majority make so much noise $hat Ministers of the Crown mistake 'the caterwaulings of canters for the Voice of- .'the People, and hasten to placate the pelf-pursuing, pragmatical, prating, "performing," • platitu'dinizingj- professional pietists by placing upon the-Statute-book laws intended Jbyth'bse' who have clamored for them, '. .f.tgf make, life outsidfe the'-walls^pf' ■■.'.JaT church so intensely wretched., ; , that men and women may .have, to choose between a churcfr ; and an insaneasylum, and enter the former only as an escape from the latter. .■•■•• * ■ .* .. . The narrowness, intolerance, and tyranny of the "Nonconformist Conscienoers," as the. Methodists, Conigregationalists, ■ Presbyterians, Baptists, and others of the same schismatical, strife-breeding kidney are termedi, are illustrated by the proceedings at the recent Methodist Coinferenoe m Sydney. These Methodist mouthers are the most numerous of the schismatical : sects, and, unlike the other Nonconformist Cbnscieneers) they are not; 'quite so closely confined to the middle-class element m &ur social life as are most of the other sects., John Wesley (who was, by the way, a theatre-goer, and was— dreadful to relate !— a "womanizer") • devoted special attention .to the miners of G-reat Britain— who are alleged by Methodists .to have been, "at that time, m a state of savagery and paganism— and .by working up and utilising the dangerous 'epidemic form of popular hysteria called ,by i " cantmongers "a revival," large '^umbers of miners were induced to become memibers of Wesley's ecclesiastical organisation. The 'descendants -of/ these miners m Australasia still belong, nominally, to Wesley's ohurch, but, as a ma'ttet of fact, its most influential members are prosperous linen-drapers and grocers, men who have accumulated cash by parading their piety 'before industrious miners m whose families- the sensation created 'by the feverishly fervid, emotional propaganda of religious excitement carried on by Wesley has acquired the force and power of tradition. Now, what dp the bourgeois and parsonical wire-pullers of the Methodist ohurch want now ? Well, read this rasolution x proposed by Parson Bill Nye (of Victoria), supported by that journalistic Jeremiah, Judkins, by Parson W- &• Taylor (of Sydney.) ,. and by Parson > Woodfull (of Victoria), and carried : In view of the great moral and spiritual peril attaching to dancing, theatre-going, ' and other amusements of a iqoiestionable nature, our member s and adherents are strongly and affectionately urged to abstain entirely from such amusements, and not to allow themselves or encourage others to take part m any practices, however alluriitg and fashionabtle,. which! \tend to lower the tone of their Christian experience ox lessen "their, influence for good. . ' . . . • .. . * * • Here we have and theatregoing" termed amusements" of "great moral and spiritual peril," and Methodists are urged to "'abstaiin entirely from such amusematnts."'*' This precious resolXi--tion Was carried, 8n spite &? ".the fact that— as, indeedi, was pointed out by ?Dr. ' E. Ij. Q-m.it (of Victoria)— 'John Wesley attended theatres and pratsed both the acting and morality of the plays that he there saw performed. Moreover, it was passed m spite of the fact, also pointed -out

ages -when the theatre pas one of the great moral forces of the na- v tioh." Every student of "'- lii<oi% tyn.p<ws this?; to; : he true she Imot9;s' thatij: , for.'tlibusaiids ..of , years,: . iixah the days of ' the Greek playwright, Aristophanes until these modern days of Shaw and Pinero, great good has been done by satirizing upon the stage, corruption, degeneracy, sordjidness* dishonesty., hypocrisy, and tyranny. But Methadisrfc wire-pullers, who with many of these things have a secret sympathy, : do. not want their flocks to go : where they may hear, a Moliere satirizing the hypocrite. Tai'tuffe 1 , or a Shaw satirizing. ; the sordidly selfish and maleficiently mercenary monopolist who may he one :of the principal men to guarantee ■ the payment, of parsonical stipends-ma Methodist church. Therefore, Methodists' are not to he permitted .to go to the theatre. - What harm is there m .'dancing/, which has also heen condemned by, the Methodist Conference? The most caustic criticism of dancing was by. that somewhat licentious poet and ! man of genius, Lord Byron, who, m his poem, "The Waltz," most savageTy satirized waltzing and waitzers •; hut although Lord Byron had a club foot, a»dl therefore could not dance himself, this. fact did not prevent him from being a. man who entirely -disregarded the ordinary rules ( of sexual morality, Lord Byron appears to have heen just such a char--acter as his own Don Juan— in spite of the fact that he hated dancing more 'heartily tfnan a Mdfcho'diist mouther, at a conference of canters! Yet, In matters of morality having no relation to sexual affairs, Byron demonstrated himself to be 'both good and great. Wesley himself was always m some trouble about a woman. Whatever Methodists may think cf Bervbow's story of Wesley's having been caught m "flagrante delicto" With a milkmaid, any Methodist that lias read the . life of thie '■-^founde^^j>tyiiriß--,seG3t. jcirpws- rii%^ Wesley's . relations with women were 0f.,, a. ..- chaEaclfirw.,tii'ai- bore-.-a decidedly "carnal aspect, and that, i n >a : latter-day Divorce Court, would not • make an impression' that was at all favorable to John Wesley. Let the dancers alone. The suburbs of all our <hig cities are teeming with women that cannot find husbands. Dancing. is one of the customs that enable men or- women to make ihs acquaintance of persons of the other sex, and, although 4lie 'average sensible man scouts the thought of having to "dance for a wife," there can he no doubt that many a happy marriage has come out of a danceroom- Methodist mouthers have no right to do anything that may prevent, the diminution of the large number of unhealthily celibate young women "eating, their hearts out" for a lpver. ' ■•;■«■ * If the mouthers of Methodism confined their condemnation of every human enjoyment to. members of their own -sect, it might he advantageous rather than otherwise. Their lives ,.6f ©gregjious •* 'ennui , ' ' banal boredom, : and hide-bound hypocrisy might make Methodist men and women so disgusted with each other that they would become either celibate or sterile ; and thus this sect of pretentiously pie'tistical pragm-atists would eventually cease to exist;. bat, unfortunately,, the wire-pullers- of Consciencerism are hot satisfied' with meddling with the amusements . of their own people ; the aspire 'to rule with the , tyra-nnvi of 'John Calvin m his Geneva Consistory, the lives of those who had no confidence m the cant-mongers. In this aspiration, .they are aided and abetted <by unscrupulous politicians, who imagine . the block vote of the Consciencers to to. be muoh stronger than it really is, and who, being unable/ to get the ftlbck Labor vote, pander to the Consciencer vote by passing laws that most seriously curtail the persdhai liberty of the British sub- j ject, and deprive him of the . pas- ■ times , and amusements that lighten the load of his daily drudgery., • • • Parson W. G-. Taylor of the Methodist meddlers)/ calls' upon the authorities to stop all Sunday concerts, Parson Woodfiill (of the same collec tion) howls for the heartless harrying of . the unhappy harlots, not-yet-jettisoned "Jeremiah" Judkins (of the same' strife-breeding sect) declares the theatre and the ball-room "immoral," and would legislatively shut up tooth theatre and danceroom. These pseudo "Puritans" may succeed m. their plots against tbs personal, liberty of th| people— unless the great body of the citizens, objecting to the rule of this gioomy, interfering minority, take a hand and vote against every candidate supported by the Consciencers. Consciencer candidates must be rejected, and some effort must be made to remove from the Statute-book the marks of. the polluting paw of the political pander to pragmatists.;