ON SUICIDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 315, 14 January 1908, Page 4

ON SUICIDE.

REV. R. J. CAMPBELL'S REMARK ABLE SERMON.

The Rev. R. J. Campbell, in the course of a remarkable sermon at the City Temple on the subject of Christ feeding the multitude, in which he referred to a receit sukide in the Thames of an author and his artist wife, "who perished for want of bread," asked the congregation if tliey really believed the NewTestament story in its literal sense.

The men who told the story were Oriental and were not deceived in the least. They used it to illustrate the spiritual value of Jesus to the world. The feeding of the multitude was not the feeding of the body, hut the feeding of the soul with the bread of life. It was a felicitous and beautiful symbol, but its beauty was destroyed and" its teaching ruined when they sought to reduce it to the physical plane.

This statement evoked two or three cries of "Xo," and one member of the congregation indignantly exclaimed, "Certainly not." -Mr. Campbell; Very well, don't interrupt.

The preacher proceeded to state that the average representative of the Christian Church argued that it was physical fowl, and "Xow," said Mr. Campbell, "see the pretty mess into which fhey have landed us to-day. "If Jesus came to Minister to us today, and did not say who He was, do you think His Own church would receive him gladly! ("Xo.") It would not, I am perfectly sure. It would regard Him as a dangerous revolutionary, engaged in upsetting order in the Church and .'State.

"He would expose the- whole system and hollow sham of giving people good advice, or putting sticking-plaster on a running sore and calling il u cure, while we continue to profit by their material disadvantages.' Kticrring to the suicide of Mr, and Mr?, (.iood, Mr. Campbell said that they had chi*en that end because the struggle to liie was too much for them.

I "lure were two people of relinement and culture," continued Mr. Campbell, •brought up in good circles, able to produce beautiful tliouglits and things, and yet they perished. As they had lived, loved, and suirered together they thought they would die together and end it all. I suppose there are some people who would ray the.-e two poor things would go to hell. l"X«."j If so, it cannot be very much wor~e than the hell they left. (Applause.) Who makes that hell! 1 make it. You make it. We all do our little to help to make it—not willingly, b'lt thougbtlcs-ly. "Ji we had only known in time there is nut a man or woman in this congregation who w.iul.l not have shared his or ner la-i r-rn-t to save this couple from the end ..f which they had heard. We are all -orry. Vet for every one of the <:.:-cs wv hear of there are It»,(HJU which are not heaid of. and of which we never j'i-jiU hear."

THE YELLOW DANGER. m NO ruiNll'-AND-SIIEET GIIO6T. JOHN FULLER'S IMPRESSIONS. '•When I left this country, when I set I loot in the East, 1 was an nut-uiid-oiil I alti-militarist and advocate of Japan. When I left Japan it was with a deep and uneasy appreciation of what she had done and was doing, of her methods, and of the peculiar and cunning persistunco wilhwhich she pushes them towards tier design. The Yellow IVril is real enough, in my mind.'" In these words ,lohn Fuller, jun... publishes his conversion, lie spent some months in China and Japan, restlessly endeavoring to justify tho-e sintiinciitof amity towards and respect for the people and institutions of Japan which he had been quick to put forward previously. And his observations completely stultified his preconceived conclusions. Mr. Fuller thinks—but let him speak for himself. "The Japanese," he says, "appear to be spending very little money in improving their cities, but they are devoting large sums to the derelopment of their manufactures. They have all but collared the cotton trade, and they have a large and heavily-subsidised merchant fleet, whose, branches spread and suck like the tentacles of a huge devil-fish. As rivals in trade all countries must fear them. For, in addition to their natural cleverness, they have the advantage (as yet) of cheap labor. A skilled laborer gets about 2s 4c] a day. Of course, the gradual rise in the cost of living, and consequently in the price of labor, will, in time, mitigate the severity of Japan's competition with the West. Hut there is in the industrial progress of the New Far Kant abundant food for the reflection of those who contribute their labor both in Australia and New Zealand and in the Western countries. There is, for example, as one writer puts it, the great ipiestion for Socialists. How do they propose, if any of their social systems be put into operation, to cope with the competition of the yellow hordes to whom Socialism is as naught!" "We have only just awakened to the fact that .Japan is something more than 'a pleasant land of beautiful scenery, inhabited by an interesting race, with charming, gentle manner-.' .lapan is a great, ambitious natio , with a national habit of suspicion tlint more recent events have turned into deep, exaggerated mistrust, and even hatred. 1 visited over ten cities in Japan, and 1 never lost an opportunity of gleaning the feeling of all classes about their debarment from entering Australia and New Zealand, 1 found that, without exception, their national pride was stung to the quick, and they cherish a deep resentment. They cannot comprehend that, their standard of civilisation, moral and social, is Mow ours. If they got into the Dominion in any great numlicrs, sooner or later we must conform to many of their customs or lose in the battle industrial. Take note that tlfey dress for about 4s a year, and workseven days a week for unlimited hours." "Now'consider this pregnant fact: the sole pastimes of the Japanese are the army and the navy. Contrast these conditions with those of Jtritain and her colonics, where drink and over-indulgence in "sport" are faetom in the workers' thriftlessness. I tell you that we in New Zealand arc living in a fool's paradise. We make an Asiatic Restriction Act with but a tissue-paper defence to enforce it. Japanese feeling runs very high over these restrictions. It is a canker-sore adroitly covered by them till it comes to a head. When the moment comes it will Imrst, and at that moment we in this country want a citizen arinv of 10n,lHXI men."

"There was an American mix-up, ton, Mr. luiller"'—tentativel v.

"I. cannot express my admiration,'' says Mr. Kuller, "at thc'ipiick awakening of the I'nited Slates, and their feverish haste in making tlie Philippines impregnable, as they are now doing. Is not that sufficient warning to New Zealand*"

Mr. Fuller suggests thai a representative party of Xew Zealand editors should investigate the (situation at close quarters, and he offers Cio towards j fund for that purpose, lie attributes the deep-rooted lethargy of Xew Zealanders in defence matters to the luxuries of life as enjoyed by almost every class in New Zealand.