THE RELIGIOUS WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 256, 4 December 1909, Page 4

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD

AN OUTSI'UkE-V VIOAR. A remarkably outspoken comment was recentfy made' in a parish magazine by the vicar ol Silbstone (the Rev. J. M. S. Walker) regarding some etthibitors at the tlower show. Under the heading "Liars" the vicar wrote: — "It is no use miucing matters'. Our flower show is spoilt by downright lying. It was a surprise to read the other day that all exhibitors signed this : statement on sending in their form of entry: 'I hereby declare that 1 shall have cultivated for at least two months prior to 14th August, 1909, the specimens exhibited by me, and then at the 1 show were exhibits' which had won 1 prizes exhibited in t'he names of those who had not a single plant of that species in the garden. Some, we are ; told, had no garden at all; others pointed openly to specimens which they claimed to have grown, entered under other people's names. There is 110 getting away from the fact that, after the above declaration, the exhibition of specimens not cultivated by the exhibitor is lying; and how mean and degrading to lie in this way Kir two or three shillings which ought to be award - ed to another! A Christian ought not to do it; the warnings' from the Bihle are sufficiently clear. But even those who do not profess to be Christians, if they are worth calling men, have some sense of honor and justice, and could not stoop so low. Would that the members of the committee, instead of treatiig this unmanly deception as a joke, would take drastic measures against known enemies', and exclude them from competition for which the lying entries are made. We feel confident that it rests to a great extent with the committee to free the show from the scandal which renders it unworthy of interest and support." AT THE PAHTING OF THE WAYS.

The Chief Rabbi has lost no time in I Making known his views on the new movement contemplated by the Jewisn Religious Union. Preaching at the Bayswater Synagogue the other day, I>r. Adler oilereu uncompromising opposition not only to tlie holding o! Sunday ser--vices, but also to the erection of a' syiagogue by the members of the Union, and their oonsequent secession from the geieral body of the community. On the latter point he observed: "Our community has had to deplore a recession seventy years ago from the effects of which it is still suffering to-day. Shall we witness a second division at a time when a union of heart and hand is so imperatively needed! Ia it meet that a body styling itself the Jewish Religious Union should promote un-Jewish, Irreligious disunion!" Naturally, however (remarks the Daily Telegraph), the Chief Kabbi regards the proposed Sunday services as "the most disquieting element m the movement," and he does not hesitate to brand them as unscriptural, and as; a direct mena«e to Judaism, because they are likely to prove an incentive to the desecration of the sevnth-day Sabbath. Be points to the experience of Germany and Ameri#a to show that although at present the Sunday services may only he intended as supplementary to the services held on Saturday, in time they will entirely supersede the regular Sabbath devotions. The sermon, which is printed in the Jewish Frees, concludes with an earnest appeal to the authors of the new movement to pause at "the parting of the ways," and not to persist in an action which constitutes a ''peril to the religious life of the community."

THE SINS OF SOCIETY. V STRAIGHT TALK BY BISHOPS A:, J CLEKGi. l!u connection with the recent Church Congress the Archbishop of Brisbane said that in another generation or two the force of education which had spread over the civilised world would be felt. But at present the result was only restlessness. She developments of science and mechanical inventions opened to luxury and indulgence; and as men and women rushed in upon the discoveries of science, corruption crept into society. It was steadily causing character to deteriorate. Motherhood and all that was beautiful in the home was falling into discredit. Vie call ol the Church -was to complete the round of knowledge. The Church stood for the other half of their environment. The immaterial andspiritual attitude of the Anglican Church towards publie immorality was very freely and frequently expressed. He appealed to the patriotism of the men. He felt that in the recent speephes and writings of Sir John Madden, and also in. the mission of the Rev. Ml*. •Woollcombe, a challenge had been made to Australia, and particularly to the Church of Australia. The great fact they were called upon to realise was that they could not have immorality in a nation without that nation losing its virility. Australia was going to go down if she allowed herself to De mottled and speckled with the deadly evil that was threatening her to-day. In the first place they must remember that ootkiig could be done except through public opinion, and public opinion vatf the opinion of the average citizen. In Queensland they Hound that the great evil which threatened was not horse-racing and gambling, but lust They had started the formation of _'a council of public morality, consisting of ( representative citizens who were at one concerning that important question. There were too many of the wrong men ; in power. In our cities too many hum in the town councils and Parliaments ; •were on the wrong side, and when a man got into power who was himfeelf leading an impure life he could block or neutralise those that were intending to make tor good. That was happening to-day, as he knew f<y a fact. Public opinion had not yet realised that a man j who was impwe in his own life wps not a man fitted to govern the oom- * m unity. e

The Rev. Mr. Mercer (Melbourne) spoke on "The Call of the Moment," and said he did not believe that men were irreligious, but rather that they were tired of all the humbug taught in Hie name of religion. He dealt with what Sir John Madden had called attention to us "Hie nation's gravest national peril, immorality," and quoted figures showing the number of illegitimate i births in Victorian institutions. It was not nice to read those things. But il A\as worse to know that there were amongst us' men who did their share in writing that black page in the history of our national life. It was said they could not make people moral by Act of Parliament. But they could make it easy to do right and liard to do wrong. The community needed a censor of literature, for there was being poured

forth from the printing presses of Australia, and brought in -Horn abroad, a vast flood of filthy literature. They found it in some of the newepaperts, magazines, and current novels, and looked forward to the time when there would he a censor of literature who would bring to justice persons whlLjmrveyed such impurity, and would, if necessary, confiscate their machinery to prevent them repeating tfie offence. Tiiev should also endeavor to minimise another evil by preventing the sale ol certain drugs except to properly qualified doctors and nurses. He urged mothers and fathers to tell their boys and girls the wonderful seorets of Mature; not to leave tliem to get thsi|t knowledge from their companions', perhaps to be whispered into the ears of girls by some blackguard.

SPREAD OF RATIONALISM. At the Catholic Truth Society, Manchester, on 23rd September, Mr. Leslie Toke read a paper on "Rationalistic" Propaganda." He said it was becoming a commonplace that England was no longer a Christian country. They still i had an imposing religious organisation known, as the National Church, ami there remaine/1 still among the three hundred odd Protestant bodies in the country enough life to break out in a flame of fury agains't the supposed ad-1 vances of Catholicism and even to hyp-| motise a great political party, vet the great mass of the working classes, large i flections of the younger members of the lower middle, the commercial, and profe sional classes, and a still larger proportion of the plutocratic classes, had ■ ■ drifted or deliberately moved onts'ide. the conscious obedience of Christianity.' * ' to plain words, the country was rapidly relapsing into heathendom. What were £~. tlie causes? The jfirsl;. direct cause-was *' the existence of the divisions and quar- |» >' rels of -Christendom. The far-reaching subtle effects of nearly four centuries of tlie great "Protestant Tradition" ; < created an almost insuperable obstacle - ' to any unbiased examination of Cath-i olicisin as a possible alternative.

Secondly, there was the Kationalislicl propaganda by means of the platform and >lie Press. Uhe great newspapers ol England, which, like t.lie international news agencies, were largely owned and

edited by Jews, freemasons, sceptics, or rationalising Dissenters, funned u means ready to hand for the ■ discredit ot Christianity. Whether the great infill- ] ence at tiie I'ress wa« deiiheiately used. 1 for that purpose by those who controlled''! it he could not, of course, say. Hut more important than the platform and the newspaper was the organised dissemination of cheap but well-written ' books and pamphlets that attacked the very foundations of Christianity. Among the indirect causes tending to Rational-j ism Mr. Toke placed lirst the system ot j public undenominational education. A great and ever-growing part of the lin tion, he said, had been deliberately taught by daily suppression, by dauy avoidance, and by daily habit that religion was merely n matter of private whim, and that it might quite properly be left entirely aside by the individual and must be ignored by'the State. More Ueri»us in tkeir etlect had 'been the sucial changes of the last few decades. At no time had it been so necessary as at present to emphasise the antagonism between Christianity and Mauunon ' and the adverse effect of the in'oiuty power and the money lust upon the moral, physical, personal, civil, and poll-1 tical liberties of the people. A materialised, pleasure-loviug society took eagerly' a pkilosophy that justified its earth-' L liness. Moreover, the raising of the . average standard of life out of all pro-! . portion to the rise in the average Sn'» come, coupled with that softening of £ moral fibre which came from the pursuit | , of superfluity and the love of ease, had . resulted in a widespread practice that [. was more morally degrading and anti- . Christian ill tendency than could be iu- . dicated in plain terms. He meant the sordid blasphemy against life reflected in the sensational fall in the birth-rate. This vile practice, the deliberate murder or proscription of the unborn, was rushing like a black death throughout the country. More quickly than anything else this sin brought about moral an;-( archism, and he believed its wiue Uissemination was one of the causes of the modem growth of anti-Christianity. Catholics, in face of these opposing forces, must make use of modern methods and modern instruments. They must have cheap literature, tiinv ni .it not neglect the public Press, a ..ey must make we of the lay apostolat.!. Tile people would not fail them if they but went to the people.