THE BROTHERHOOD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 93, 15 September 1914, Page 6

THE BROTHERHOOD.

ADDRESS BJT ME. ARNOLD. CMRISTIAXITY* and" Wfi MASSES. There was a large attendance at the Good templar Hail on. Sunday alterJioon, when Ma- J. F. Arnold gave an instructive and interesting adclwss on the duty >tf Christianity towardis tl,e workers, Mr Arnold gave a graphs description ot the conditions which existed in the past and now prevail in. coiuieeuon witli boy and girl labor in the Old Country ii,s compared with New Zealand, referring to the industrial legislation of the Don.imon :,nd its effeet in. iniprovin.tho Jot of the worker-?, pointing cut that -wherever the conditions of labor were unsatisfactory and jn-ejsed hardly on young girls .Hie roauit was invar.ably tlie prevalence of immorality. In this connection he ins*aiiecd that twenty years ago, when in New Zeafand, this result was evident in,''H-JaWon to factory iwcirkera the churches iaiiJcd entirely to 'take ewtdon in. the night direetX'ii—that of .sympathetic orient to letter their and secure ikealthy bodies for the unwilling souls. Instead of this there -v.-us merely an cutery for the repeal of ti-a Act which uvognisod vice. Jlc said mat he. liad | attended a conceit given in one of the ! largest schoolrooms in New- Plymouth, connected with one of tho "leading churches, and noticed that the audience, 'consisted of fourteen womien to every a\xn, and he asserted that this proportion almost invariably wlutt would be found at the churches on Sundays. The reason for this he attributed to< 'llm fact that the man had come to \ undM'i't'iUnl that Christianity was out', oT touch with ilie masses, and failed to ; identify it-self with their hopes and as- f pirationH. There must, ho said, he a i real tmdeiwtaittling between these two,* bodies before they would he drawn to-1 •gethcr. Ueferring to Dr. Sheldon's | ttory of the Italian child who had to l 'make 41)0 artificial Uo'wwer B ; for 211 id, lie si;id that ]>r Sheldon could ba taken as a representative of Christianity in the nvissi'cn lie was conducting, uni in <;uoting the 'lory mentioned above the one ihurror that was present in iiiia mind was the fact that the child'is pitiable condition was l the result of the father being a drunkard, lout Dr. Khe.ldon overlooked the fact that it was the system which was at fault whereby such si. terrible stale of things was possible. There | were, he said, 'hundreds of girls working" in that way whoso .paiciiti;, we'e net diunkurds. It was the system' that Christianity should attack rather than (ho individual case. The speaker pointed out that there was an immense ,I'iehl of labor open for Christian workerin elevating the iboy and p.irl toiler, and Lettering as well as linyhtening their lives and Kirrroundings, 'out 'the basis of uiH improvement must rest on the. foundation of a Juimane tystein that, recognised tin? sacred.ji.ess of human lit' 1 in "all it's phases and under ail •.on.litions, and he hoped tlie time was not far distant when there would be a complet.' understanding ibetweni the churches and the workers.