The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1904, SABBATH OBSERVANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 297, 20 December 1904, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1904, SABBATH OBSERVANCE.

Even those who are l'uily aware to t'he many . blemishes of Marie Oorelli's literary style and the hysterical character of her ideas, will yet find food for reflection in the article recently contributed by her to the Londoin Magaaime, extracts from which were recently given. Though on the surface can lie tnased that pSq'ue against society which' characterizes so nfuch of her work, there is at bottom a great deal of truttoin her demunci/ation oi its d'isr<Jgard for vlie Sabbath. According to hoi' view society is much more concerned with cards than prayerbooks, and with the hissing of motors than with the solemn aounli of psalmody. "Self and the Hour" is the motto and wttlohword of present day "sets." There is certainly much to regrst and deplore in tiie lack of serious .ithouight; the negleot of piety, and the scant reverence for sacned things which, taken together, make up a spirit of callous indiill'erence in our modern life such as is likely to ralj the nation, in future generations, of its backbone and nerve. Tha chiefeat' cause—according to Marie Corelli—and we are not at all inclined to cavil at the tenor of her ionclusions in this respect—lies with the incapacity of the clergy to interest their hearers or to arouse the public attention. The ministers of religion, fail to seize t'he problems of the ti:rp, and treat as oi no account the discoveries of the age. To the devout and deeply studious mind, the marvels of science are the truths of religion made manifest. Our frienid goes on to enlarge 0 n the "lioible discourse" that cculd be based on the text : '.'ln my Father's house are many mansions." She grows .eloquent on "the most sublime facts of science—ol the powers of the aiir, of the currents of light, of the magnificent movements of the stars in their courses, ot the plenitude and glory of innumerable solar systems, a ll upheld and guided by the same intelligent Force which equally upholds and guides the destmfes of men !" Preachers, in her estimation, forget the synfckriic oi allegorical Manner in which such texts were originally spoken or written, and they cannot shake oil the material from the spiritual or ©et away from thamselves sufficiently to understand or outer into the duirib craving of all human nature for help, for sympathy, for, love—for such sureness in its conception of as run oounter to the proved results of reason. From thence the article goes on to deal witfa the incrcasiiJg propensity for Sunday gaining and motoring ; her indictment of society on these scores showing tlmt Home society is much on a par with society in »nj 0 f the Continental cities - pleasureseoking, indifferent to anything .but self. But Miss Corelli herself reminds us that society in itself is so limited as to (mi a mere bubble on the waters of life—froth and scum, as it were, that rises to tilio top, merely to be skimmed off and blown aside in any serious national crisis. So all this storm in a teacup. The novelist is herself attracted 'by tin.' basilisk eye of society, and sees not tlie deeper danger which is threatening the nation ; that is, the unthinking indifference of the present generation of the middlt- and lower classes to serious thought. We need to be siaved not so muah from what Tennyson terms "honest doubt," as from the stupefaction which prevents us arriving at any fixed idea as to the why, the whence, and the whither ? It is all very fine for the clerics critic to provide hiiin with an ideal sermon, but the question naturally arises, would the public—the n'on-churchgoers— attend a place of worship or be attracted to religion the more readily through its influence ? Would a discourse on the marvels of Creation and the truth of science work better tha n the present teaching: ? it is extremely douibtful. Better far that our system of education were so alterid as to turn o ut thinking men and women, who could arrive at a belief for -thomselves, rather than the present book-cnammed products of our primary schools, our high schools, and our universities, without stamina even to profess an honest, if eiToneous, opiniom. But apart from all question of dogma, the pi esent_ tendency to pleasure-seeking on Sundays is to be deplored. f„ r its votalnes are not at all particular m breaking into the day of rest of their fellows. Therein lies the root ol the whole matter. Natui'e demands that a certain respite should be granted the bodily and men be I powers, and w i rel .e that, is denied the whole organism suffers, whether it be that of the individual or of the jmass.