CORRESPONDENCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 186, 16 November 1910, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

MR. JONES IN REPLY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The dark places of the earth are full of cruel habitations— From Egmont's icy mountain, From Waimate's dreary plain, . They call us to deliver Their land from sinful chain. It is high time that some sort of an awakening revival should visit Taranaki. For, in truth, the present condition of Christianity is really shocking. The people do not seemingly understand the real meaning of the Ten Commandments, for they grossly misapply them, j They seem to lack honesty of purpose. Their worship is too much a matter of j form. It is written in holy christian; scripture: "Thou shalt not steal." The uncultured herd may, through lack of I knowledge, not understand the meaning thereof. "Thou shalt not steal" converted from the negative into the positive, becomes, "Thou shalt labour, working with thine hands the thing that ifl good that thou mayest have to 'give to him that needeth." It is in another form, the loving of one's neighbor as oneself; having the same care for the neighbor's goods as for thine own; the : same anxiety that he should have proper wages for labour as oneself. From thtChristian point of view this commandment is broken, not only by stealing in the ordinary sense, but also (1) by fraudulent dealings in business or trade, whereby our fellow man receives for money given something less or other than he had a right to expect; (2) by sweating or requiring others to work for inadequate wages (and there is a tremendous lot of sweating in Taranaki); (3) by giving or receiving bribes or in other ways defrauding an employer of the best service of the employed; (4) by expecting others to work for us without doing our own fair share of work; (5) by neglecting or inadequately performing the duty of alms-giving. And in our generation we especially need reminding that association in companies leaves the moral responsibility for commercial dealings still resting on each member of the company, at least in the form of a duty to vote for directors who will have righteousness in view and to discountenance all unrighteousness as far as possible.—l am, etc., WILLIAM MERVYN JOXES.