A Sensible Minister.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLV, Issue 251, 15 December 1903, Page 4

A Sensible Minister.

1, He , V L, W ' Thomson, of Scots Church Abel Smith Street, Wellington, devoted his sermon the other Sunday to a criticism of the Wellington Ministers Association upon the morals of Wellington. He deE u th ® desecrr.Uon of the Sabbath but he could not help beinc atruck with the fact that none of the minister:} who had spoken on subject had explained the cause of the various evils which thev referred to. The theatre had its place in our social life, but as a form of relaxation it was not am end in rtselrt and was only a stimulus to higher service and life. H e could not agree that prohibition was the only cure for the evils of the liquor traffic. He thought that an improvement in the moral condition of the city would be noticeably lif the»e was less overcrowding, less |poverty, and less of the craze among girls for dress that they could ill afford. He asked whether the churches themselves were not intensely selfish. A great reformation was urgently needed, and he hoped it would consist in a wholehearted return to the simplicity and •nw&rdnetis of the a*, thoroughly Scriptural acceptance of the Christian lile, a reliable faith and a charity which would Jespect liberty of conscience, and also a social reform which would no longvr necessitate a protest from the Ministers' Association.