THE YOUNG MEN'S FRIENDLY SOCIETY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1145, 26 February 1884, Page 3

THE YOUNG MEN'S FRIENDLY SOCIETY.

In our last issue we published a paragraph intimating that a branch of ' The Young Men's Friendly Society,' had been escablished in connection with the St. Saviour's Church in Temuka. Under ordinary circumstances wo should feel satisfied[with what we have already published, but as regards this matter we think the objects in view are so good that they deserve a few encouraging words. First of all we wish to commend the Kev. Mr Hamilton for the intense interest he has exhibited in the promotion of everything calculated to do good since he came to this district. He seems never tired of promoting the social well-being of his people, and his latest effort is the establishment of the above Society. The objects of this Society are as far as we can learn, to help young men, both spiritually and temporally by (a) promoting purity, temperance and general morality ; .(b) befriending young men leaving home or moving from one place to another, and protecting them from evil influences ; (c) promoting thrift and independence, especially by encouraging young men to make provision against sickness, accident, and want, on sound principles ; (d) promoting a healthy tone of literature and amusement among young men. To show that the desire is to do good we may say that it is under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Aberdeen, Earl Cairns, Earl Shaftesbury, Viscount Emleyn, Lord Mount-Temple, and other distinguished men, besides twenty Bishops. That such a Society is capable of doinp good no one can deny. Preaching in Si. Paul's Cathedral on behflf of the Young Men's Friendly Society, Canon Farrar concluded an eloquent and impressive address in the following terms : —'■ We nre, and cannot help being whether we will it or not, our brother's keeper. We cmi help, we might and we ought to help, to an extent fur greater than we do, these youths of England. We might not only teach them to value their birthright, but do much to save them from the deadly temptation to sell it and from the shame and agony caused by the loss of it. In our neglect to carry out this last on the right scale we show our lack not only of religious fervour, but even of national wisdom, even of political insight. Consider that the youth of a nation are its most piecious treasure, the only treasure of which the loss ia absolutely irreparable. They are itssafetv. not its ironclads ; they are its glory, not its memories; not its commerce, not its L gold : but all the indefinite possibilities

which lie garnered in in- iwvis (>■ n-> youth. And then consider ho*v awfuliy this treasure is wasted. Year by year hundreds and thousands of youths flock from the country into our great cities. These cities in their unhealthy condition, in their grinding servitude of mammon, in their fatal national neglect of the health of body and of soul, tend more and more to become not only the ' graves of the physique of our race,' but also of its morality." Speaking of the gross immorality and vileness of London, for example, he went on to say— u We cannot, in the preaent stagnation of social improvement wait for a hampered law and a paralysed legislature to cleanse this huge Augean stable. The work can only be done by one power, the fire and blood of Christian enthusiasm. ' What makes the huge tower crash before the course of the slight ball ? Accelerated force !' But this foice must be in part at least supplied by those who are now young. ' Give me young troops/ said the great Duke in the Peninsula. 'Give me the children of England,' said Cardinal Wiseman, ( and in twenty years England shall be Roman Catholic' . Give u«, we say, the youth of London, help us to mould, help us to inspire, the youth of London, and in twenty years its morals shall no longer be dehumanised into a proverb and a byword. England has need of these youths, God has nerd of them. Against sin and selfishness, against wrong and robbery, against greed and oppression, against slander and drunkenness, against impurity and lies, against godless immorality, political corruption and pharasaic religionism, we want them to fight. We want them to flash in callous acquiescence and slumbering conventionalism an epidemic of nobleness. And yet what are we doing for them ? Except in the work of one or two Societies, we are doing almost nothing. There are the low theatres, music halls, dencing saloons, drinking bars, glaring gin shops and gambling hells, there are disgusting floods of corrupting literature and the- so-called philosophies which teach them that, being little better than the natural brute beasts, they may live worre than they; there is on the one side an insolent atheism, on the other a coarse and dangerous religious excitement; on every sLie there is desperate temptation to the young and unwary,- the inexperienced—just when reason is most weak and passion most strong—to sell their souls. And there are the young themselves, two hundred thousand shop assistants, clerks, postmen, telegraph lads—often overworked, often, subjected to undue strain, often surrounded by companions already lost and corrupted —alone and friendless in the great city, away from father and mother and from every holy influence, and from home. And a nation in crisis, with so many perils before it, moral, social, religious, political, needs the aid of its youth to maintain its ancient and godly honors. For these youths what are we doing] Where are the voices to plead 'My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not V Where is the cry of Wisdom in the streets drowning the harlot songs of the siren Sense ? Where are the gymnasia, the free public libraries, the friendly societies, the provisions for every innocent and healthy recreation for the young 1 Where is the genial sympathy, the guiding counsel, the helping hand? When degeneracy once sets in, national degeneracy, degeneracy of morals, degeneracy of aim and standard, who shall stay it? What is it but the sale of England's birthright, and what might not England do V It is to be hoped that the efforts to establish a branch of the Society in this town will he successful. Anyone who looks around him at present cannot help observing that the so-called freethought doctrine is taking a great hold of the minds of the rising generation, and that all the efforts Christianity can put forth are necessary to counteract its effects. A society such as the one suggested would go very far towards giving a wholesome tone to the minds of its members.