“GOD’S EIGHT-HOURS BILL.”

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9076, 17 February 1908, Page 7

“GOD’S EIGHT-HOURS BILL.”

The Bishop of London presided last night at a meeting of Wood Green in favor of Sunday observance. The Bishop said that one of the things which made it a great pleasure foi him to take the chair at that meeting was because it was a meeting of united Christians. He always felt that the disunion of Christendom was one of the greatest obstacles to the progress of Christianity. * * Since I have been over to the other side of the Atlantic,” he said, “and seen how very_ much more all the Churches are united in Christian progress there, I have determined to try points we can in this country. In regard to Sunday, we have one of the greatest points on which Ohristians"can be united. I look on the observance of Sunday as one of the finest pieces of Christian evidence we have, and it is a piece of evidence which cannot be refuted. Secondly, we have in Sunday what I will call the worker’s charter, and as a clever man observed to me the other day, ‘Sunday is God’s Bight Hours Bill.’ We mean to safeguard the one chance for thousands of men and women for caring for their souls. What we have to remember is that this great boon of Sunday is not lost yet, and I do not agree with those who say that the rest of Sunday has gone, but I notice various things which are tending to rob us of it. The first of all is the breaking up of conventional religion. I do not regret that breaking up. I would rather have five men in church because they wanted to be there than 500 who are there because they are driven in. The first use of Sunday is worship. The man who sleeps till one o’clock is not keeping Sunday any better than fellows who go boating. It is a day for home life and reasonable recreation in the best sense.”