LECTURE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1525, 14 December 1886, Page 3

LECTURE.

The Rev. (J. Barclay delivered his usual monthly lecture in the Good Templar Hall, Geraldine, on Sunday evening last. There was a good attendance, the Hall being well filled, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. The rev. gentleman took for his text Isaiah Iviii., 6, and a few following verses. The rev. gentleman said that in these verses we found Jehovah reproving ceitald of the Israelites for their hypocrisy. They put on a great sho w of religion and sanctimoniousness but were quitesimngers to its real life and influence, lie said that in these verses, 100, they bad the teaching of the Bible upon the great fundamental virtues of religion, charity, .humanity, and sympathy for the poor ami needy. He pointed out that great changes had taken place in the world with regard to these great truths, and claimed that these changes for the better and this progress were attributable to the spread of the religion of the Bible and of Jesus Christ. It was under the beneficient sway of Christianity that these great principles of justice, of feelings of charity and the great social virtues had made such great progress from time to lime. Mr Barclay mentioned that a short time ago he had pointed out some of the results that Christianity had produced upon slavery. He proposed to point out that evening the influence it had had in mitigating and. eventually doing away with the evil of serfdom.. The difference bstween.slavery and serfs, a difference not always very great or easily distinguished, was explained to his audience. The condition of serfdom, he stated, had been in exi-tence from a very early period. ; The manner in which the people were often made serfdarns, and its prevalence all over the world down to a very late period were ably dealt with. The rev. gentleman then went on to point out how the spread of Christianity, the religion of Jesus Christ, had bean the great reforming power, and brought abundant evidence in support of the claim which Le put forth that the spread of the principles of Christianity was the great factor which had brought about these great changes’in the condition of the inhabitants of the world. The rev. gentleman was listened to with great attention throughout hta very able and instructive lecture.