CHINKS IN OUR SOCIAL SYSTEM.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 429, 18 November 1876, Page 2

CHINKS IN OUR SOCIAL SYSTEM.

Under this title the Rev. J. Elmslie M. A. of St. Paul’s Church Christchurch has recently delivered a lecture in that city, which has caused some considerable flutter amongst fashionable feathers. The following is under the heading of “ The Dress .Ball —

At the time I received a request to publish the preceding lecture, however, I read a report of a public, ball, so objectionable in point of character, and soclearly indicative of another glaring chink in our social system, that I purpose devoting to it a few notes by way of addendum. Among the honoured 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, had donned a costume intended to represent “ Satan by Night,” another, with equal propriety, assumed the pleasing character of “ His Satanic Majesty whilst the third, with more Parisian refinement perchance, went into the festive scene simply to personate “ Le Diable. And this was the only striking feature of the whole masquerade. How deeply humiliating! Worse taste, a lower moral sentiment, and a more humiliating absence of high Christian refinement, we have seldom witnessed, even in the humblest abodes of poor sinning humanity. Why did it not occur to some 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 offeuce 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 deviland had there been no such works and no such worker, our fallen race bad not been “ groaning and travelling in pain” as it is, and the atoning death of our Divine Redeemer had not been a

thing so essential in the economy of redeeming love. The personality of Satan is as clearly taught in Holy Scripture as the personality of God ; aud the works of the Arch enemy of souls arc as palpable to the eye of Christian intelligence as are the works of His Almighty Conqueror. To make any one of these things, therefore, the subject of idle burlesque, is at once a violation of good taste, aud a very unmistakable mark of the want of high Christian intelligence. And had we any reason to suppose that the offence was really intended, given as it was at what may be called the head-quarters of Parliamentary fashion, we should have pronounced it nothing short of a public ini suit to the Christian intelligence of New Zealand. To the flippant, the ignorant, and the profane, such a display would, no doubt, afford material for many a coarse joke ; but, to the refined, the intelligent, and the truly Christian, it was, we are assured, matter only of deep regret and ample cause for not a little honest shame. When Belshazzar thekingmado a feast for a thousand of his lords, and, being heated with wine, gave command that the vessels which his father had taken from the temple at Jerusalem should be brought to the table, that his wives and his mistresses, and his boon companions, might drink therefrom, he was guilty of an act of daring impiety, and of heartless irreligion, which few will now care to defend. Yet, taking into account the boasted intelligence of this nineteenth century, and the boasted BibleChristianity of the British people, the display witnessed atour Parliamentary Dress Ball was more culpable, irreligious, and offensive than that witnessed in the royal banqueting 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. But the drawing aside of this veil, which we have touched with do little hesitancy, discovers to our view another of those blemishes that do so much to mar the beauty of colonial life, and one which has been but seldom noticed, even by those who have most fearlessly exposed the evils of our time. I do not refer merely to the low tone of political morality which exists, an evil which must be ascribed to the recklessness of particular constituencies, as much as to the unhappy influence of Sir Julius Vogel and his natural con/rwes. Nor do I refer merely to the demoralising tendency which our great political congress has been showing during the last few years, in its influence upon Wellington society. We have it on the authority of men, who are neither ascetics nor sentimentalists, that, during the last five years, the presence of our Colonial Parliament has had the most prejudicial effect upon the interests of morality and religion throughout the Empire City ; and this, notwithstanding the counteracting influence of those honourable members whose advent is always hailed by the Wellington churches. But, taking a much broader view of the question, and leaving politicians, both high and low, to find their own level in our general economy, we cannot but remark the low tone of both morality and religion that prevails throughout “ the upper ten thousand ’’ of colonial society. We leave gratefully a broad margin for large numbers of honourable exceptions, of which Canterbury, we arc glad to be informed, is well entitled to a full share. We deny, moreover having any sympathy with that spirit of levelling radicalism, which is ever speaking evil ofdignities,setting its face tlie natural distinctions of society, fusing honour to whom honour is KfE We repudiate all artificial social economics, and recognise the order, according to which men of talent, and commanding moral take a front rank in society as naturalnK and as easily as water finds its own levely Aristocratic influence of the right order would be a boon unspeakable to New Zealand—an influence that is wielded by what Carlyle would called the “ Aristos ’’ of honour and truth and high-born integrity, or better far, as we should say, by the “ Aristos ”of high Christian principle. We are not forgetful of the honour we owe to God—or that the Church’s strength is in the arm of Omnipotence. We are not unmindful of the fact that in the sovereign ways of God “ not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called ” into the Kingdom. Yet, when the wise and the noble and the mighty are called, there is much cause for joy and rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God. And nothing is more needed in this young but rapidly rising country, whilst its habits, tastes, and institutions are being formed, than a class of colonists, holding a first place in society, scorning the evil and maintaining the good, making a frank profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and faithfully standing aloof from those who are “ lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” In other words, there is nothing we more desiderate than a class of colonists of the highest social standing, who would fearlessly renounce the fooleries of a godless world, and be willing at all times, and under all circumstances to take their stand for Christ. Those families in New Zealand who boast of taking the lead in colonial society are, for the most part, related to morality and religion, in much the same way as wore the gentry and nobility of England a hundred years ago. In England, as we know, things have changed for the better. The follies and immoralities in which English gentlemen gloried in the middle of last century, would now make them the objects of public scorn. They have their natural successors we know, but these form a class by themselves. The tone of high class English society is now greatly elevated. And in quite recent times the Christian profession and activity, that made William Wilberforce so singular, have been espoused by thousands of his countrymen, including members of all the learned professions, leading statesmen, ladies of honour, merchant princes, and British peers. And these persons own the Christian profession, not as one half of the British people do, by going to Church once or twice ou Sunday, and following the bent of a worldly spirit all the rest of the week ; but by owning Christ, witnessing for Christ, and working for Christ.