HOW THE UPPER TEN SPEND SUNDAY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1737, 15 May 1888, Page 3

HOW THE UPPER TEN SPEND SUNDAY.

The Bishop of Exeter, in the TJpper House of Convocation, presented a petition from the Lord's Day Observance Society. The petition stated that there had been a very marked increase in the employment of the afternoon and evemings on Sundays for amusements of various kinds in the upper and fasWble classes of society! Those of resent date m- - eluding formal dinner parties, smoking * concerts, theatrical performances comic recitations,, exhibitions ot iueslery, coach drives, boxing at a club, show Sundays in the studios of artists, lawn tennis, dances at clubs, and private houses, and Sundays up the river. The long list ot those amusements.embraced men of art, science, politics, and commerce, as well as a large number of mere dilettanti and of men and women df means, whose prominence was only that of devotion to pleasure. Many of these amusements were public, and were accordingly open to criticism, and their prevalence in our midst testified to very loose Sunday habits on the part of the rich and great and noble of the land. The Bishop of London, at the discussion which followed, agreed that the practices complained of had been ' increasing quietly for a considerable number of years. He particularly regretted that the upper classes should take pleasure on a day which ought to be to them, more than to others, a day for public worship and for doing honor to God. The evil was a very serious one, although it was much more excusable in the lower classes of society, where there was unremitting toil throughout the week, and where the aspect of,the Sunday—that it was a day of rest from toil—must necessarily take up very much larger space in their thoughts than the aspect and character of it as a day of worship. He thought the proposal m the memorial that they should join in a public protest against Sunday amusements and entertainments was rather •a doubtful one. Protests of this kind, if issued and allowed to fall flat, did more barm than good. But the evil was BeriouSj and if they could make a serious difference in it by public protest, a public protest would be well worth while.