TEMUKA DEBATING SOCIETY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1945, 19 September 1889, Page 2

TEMUKA DEBATING SOCIETY.

At last Monday evening’s meeting of the Temuka Debating Society three anonymous papers were read. The first was entitled “ Sympathy,” and signed Multum in Parvo. It was read by Mr McCully, as follows: To cultivate sympathy we must be among living creatures and thinh ing about them. If we would truly sympathise with others we must beware of hastily estimating the manner and degree of the trouble we give them. If we go as comforters we must go as inquirers, not as judges; come to bestow consolation, not criticism. What under other circumstances would be a natural pleasure is apt to become au effort, aud a last, when those with whom one lives do not sympathise with one’s pursuits. It is by sympathy we enter into the concerns of others, that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to be indifferent spectators of anything which men can door suffer. It may bo considered as a sort of substitution by which we are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as he is affected. It must be admitted that some are too much centred on home, and forget the outside world, and all the duties and responsibilities owing to their neighbors. These are the people that deprive themselves of much enjoyment, and miss the blessing of sympathy. There is a hind of sympathy in souls that fits them for each other, and we may be assured when we see two people engaged in the warmth of a mutual affection that there are certain qualities in both their minds which bear a resemblance to one another. Wonderful it is how God causes, and at the same time sympathises, with both the dark and the bright. He has sympathy with the sufferer, yet he does not withhold joy from those for whom, according to his own wonderful order it is now fitting. He has sym-

pathy with these also. One mail is on the rack, another in the dance, and the nerves of each have their thrill of pain or delight, because of the operations of the Divine natural law. A little help given when a man is on the beam end, and thinks the world is neglecting him, is the best help of all; it lifts him up again, and gives him a renewed belief in the worth of human nature. Let us cherish sympathy, By attention and exercise it may be improved in every man. It prepares the mind for receiving the impressions of virtue, / and without, it there can be no truSi politeness. Nothing is more odieus than insensibility, which wraps a man up in himself and his own concerns, and prevents his being moved by either the joys or sorrows of another, It belongs to man only to weep with with them that weep, and by sympathy to divide another’s sorrows and double another’s joys. There is no echo so fine or wonderful as that, which in the sympathy of human hearts repeats the cry of another’s sorrows, and makes us feel their pain almost as if it were our own- And we ought to divide each other’s troubles and double each other’s joys in this world of mingled troubles and delight. The second paper, which was on “ Draughts,” was read by Mr Storey. It asserted that the game of draughts was 4000 years old, on the authority of Sir William Jones, and held that it was an interesting and scientific game. Anyone could master the rules in one hour, but still it was far more pro-1 found than human knowledge couldT' fathom. Its ever varying positions could not be solved, and it was computed that if Adam and Eve had 1 commenced playing when turned adrift on the world, and continued playing until now, they would not have exhausted one-tenth of the variations possible. ; ; The third paper was on “Handshaking,” and was read by Mr deeper. It dealt with the hearty band-shake, the fishy hand-shake, the pumphandle hand-shake, the bone-crushing hand-shake, the partial hand-shake, and the hand claspings, denoting affection. All these were described in an amusing way, and elicited much laughter.

Messrs Twomey, bim, McOully, and Brown made some complimentary remarks on the papers, and the whole business being over by 9 o’clock the remainder ot the evening was devoted to impromptu speaking, on subjects selected from papers drawn from a hat.

Next Monday Mr H. Cross, M.A., will read an essay on. the “ Past; present, and future of the Empire,” and Mr Eussell will also read an essay. 3