THE PATEA MAIL. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1875.

Patea Mail, Volume 1, Issue 19, 16 June 1875, Page 2

THE PATEA MAIL. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1875.

Epidemics have, «t various intervals and in various parts of tlio globe, run through all their stages, leaving the mass of population much the same at the end, so far as any permanent result is concerned. The cholera plague may sweep across a continent, and number its victims by thousands, but its permanent results are hardly appreciable, so elastic is the vitality of the, human race. A lesson certainly is taught to those who will persist in ignoring sanitary laws, but it is a lesson they soon forget when the grim visaged monster has, for the time, departed, and left us to recover from the shock of lost friends and broken ties. For centuries past epidemic delusions have cropped up, run their course, and passed away, leaving few r tangible results behind them. It is not our purpose to write a history of these epidemic delusions, as our spam is too limited to admit of such a coime ; nor is the leading columns of a newspaper the proper place for puhlishng such a history. It is our duty to boa] „ nil topics of tne day, which bring. 1 us at once to the subject of this article; viz., the Moody and Saukcy movement. We have here tw'O American adventurers who, by the aid of peculiar natural powers, seem able to carry avay thousands of persons in whose presence they hold forth and exert over the mii.ds of their audience a power bordering on the marvellous. It is quite certain that out of an audience numbering over Id,ooo persons, fully one half fail to hear what the preacher utters ; they can see him gesticulating, and observe the effect on those within reach of his voice ; the mental influence wave like spreads from the platform until its force pervades the whole audience, and the climax is reached when Mr Saukcy starts a hymn, and is joined by the whole assemblage. Epidemic the movement undoubtedly is, and a large portion of the home press has not been slow to brand it as, not only a simple epidemic, but as a delusion. If we probe the matter, we find that the people affected are for the most part persons apt to run in mobs, and that so far from the movement having any permanent tendency to establish an increase reverence for the Creator, and a consequent amelioration of the social state of those towns in which it has spread widest, it lias done nothing beyond disturbing the mental equilibrium of some thousands of people who never before, perhaps, gave religion a second thought, and who, when first aroused from their torpor, have taken fright and rushed off to the “ enquiry room ” to swell the number of penitents. In large cities there are always a very considerable number of persons of an cxciteable temperament, whose minds are easily disturbed, and who catch “epidemic delusions” like children do measles, and with the same average effect; it has no permanent influence on the bulk, and sends a small percentage to the lunatic asylmnns to swell the number of patients under the class “melancholia.” Messrs Moody and Sankey have been what managers call a lucky hit, and will run their course and be forgotten, or only remembered as the originators of a large but evanescent religions epidemic, which soon spent itself, leaving no permanent result to mark its rise and fall. No doubt the two clever Americans, who are just now drawing such tremendous houses, are making a rapid fortune, proving their contempt for earthly treasure, by laying it up for a rainy day. Our Great Teacher laid it down—that whosoever would be saved must give up all that he had and follow him ; the teachers of today practice the reverse, and make their

success in soul, saving the measure of their wealtli. Between tlie Apostle who forsook all to follow his master nineteen centuries ago, and the popular preacher of to-day, there is a tremendous difference, and however much men may pretend to admire their Moody’s and Saukey’s ‘ fit hoe genus homo,’ and to run after them in thousands, they cannot shut their eyes to the fact that they have been merely caught up in the waves of a mental epidemic which, when it has passed over them, will leave, them free to see what they might have seen all along; viz., that they harm been helping to fill the pockets of men who have managed to serve God outwardly, and not neglected Mammon in private. We have as deep a reverence for the religion which teaches men to worship their Maker, and to live in Christian Charity with each other as any man, but wo do not believe in epidemic delusions or revivals ; they are mere hubbies on the surface of a meretricious civilisation which, while giving out to be founded on religion, leaves men free to oppress their weaker brethren, and to forget they were ever enjoined to love their neighbors as themselves. In America, the revival business is a regular branch of industry, and a religious star knows his price and gets it as quickly as the wearer of the sack and buskin or burnt cork. Henry Ward Beecher, for years, swayed thousands, was worshipped as a demigod, and now stands forth stripped of his borrowed plumes, a very Joseph Surface, whoso “ School for Scandal ” yclept Plymouth Church, brought him in a princely income. Messrs Moody and Sankpy may not he men of the Beech er stamp, and may he most highly respectable personages as things go, but depend upon it they are simply a couple of clever performers, who are reaping a golden harvest, and doing no more real good to the cause of religion, than any of their predecessors in the same line of business. Religion is not a thing to be picked up at a meeting, where thousands have their mental balance disturbed by a couple of sensation mongers ; it is the growth of a life, and a plant that shuns crowds. It is in the first few years of our lives we have the seed sown in our minds, and in the rest of our existence that the crop matures and bears fruit; it is by the fruit we must judge of the Moody ami Sankey excitement, and the opinions of impartial judges at homo have so far not been much in favour of the movement. A few clergymen have, it is true, been caught up in the movement, and have perhaps thought the success of Messrs Moody and Hankey Lojnuoo iliotioaixdo Ixivo- l>oon normally but temporally effected, and we shall, no doubt, be deemed wanting in beliel’, because our credulity is not equal to the acceptance of the present excitement as a special manifestation of Divine influence. In dismissing the subject for the present, wc do so in the full belief that the Moody and Sankey “ epidemic delusion ” will soon run itself out, and leaving those who swelled its ranks wondering how they could have been so carried away by their feelings, and feeling a little foolish when reflecting on the money they have helped the two adventurers to pocket over tlie transaction.

Tim political atmosphere at New Plymouth is likely to be disturbed during the present session of the Provincial Council by the introduction of a want-of-contidence vote by Major Brown, who, wo understand, feels pretty confident in ousting the present Executive, and forming a new one, with the addition of a representative for Patei. That a change would be beneficial to tbe Province, we cannot admit. The gentlemen forming the present Executive have certainly shown every disposition and desire to advance the interests of the Province, and the Patoa District lias special reason to feel grateful for their attention to its wants, and wo should very much regret to hear of any change being brought about merely for change sake. We cannot for one moment believe that our representatives would join any opposition to turn out the present Government, unless flagrant charges were adduced to justify their withdrawing their support from those in power. It is proposed by the Opposition to grant Patoa representation in any new Executive that may be formed, and to allow our three members to select one from among their number to fill tbe honoured scat. In the event of a change being brought about, winch, we understand, is very remote, there would not be the slightest chance of an unanimous choice being made among our three members, as they are not very firmly cemented together in one bond of union, and consequently the Opposition would not be likely to gain any material strength by enlisting the individual member most likely to nibble at the bait.

Yesterday morning we issued an extraordinary, announcing the painful news of the loss of the ketch William and Mary, bound for Patca, from Nelson, Our telegram was very meagre in its particulars, as it did not mention the locality in which the ill-fated ketch had met with th •

disaster, nor where her unfortunate master had been picked up. As the vessel was bound for this port, and as her crow were known to many residents in Carlyle, unusual interest was manifested as to their fate, and many anxious inquiries were made at our office in search of additional particulars. The vessel was seen off the Patea bar on Saturday week last, the clay prior to the disastrous gale, but unfortunately the wind and tide was agajpst her. We regret to learn that Mr R. K. Mcßae is a very heavy sufferer by tlie disaster, he having 20,000 feet of rough and 7,000 feet tongued and grooved timber onboard uninsured. There were also from 300 to 400 bushels of grass seed on board, consigned conjointly to Messrs Mcßae and Nicholson ; the former gentleman’s losses will exceed £250. Great sympathy is expressed for Captain Slovens, as the loss of his boat will be a heavy blow to him, as it is believed she was uninsured. There was also a quantity of hemitite paint on board, consigned to Mr William Dale.