GOING OF CHURCH.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3323, 16 August 1879, Page 1

GOING OF CHURCH.

Among the- middle wd upiM-^ejUstes, and in countryplaces,* thereof ••rewriting opinion that persistent non •attendance* at a place of worship on if^iot. actually disreputable, at least the reverse of respectable:;' Under the fNHikn of this' aeHtinlent/ 7 many persons without doubt go to church who would -apt be 1 induced to, go by higher, taojtiresj. But in 1 great cities; where peotile. are' for the molt part' Unknown ta theif» Belabours, . and among the city poor, when laxer ideas preVail, this oppugn m but feebly .felt, t and .ooniequeD^ljff Starch-, aftendel's are far fewer iri to. the population thanjn the country. This state of fiffajr^Tji jsjpejiaUy eziatant in such a regio^ as the Eaft End o( London, which* &J**eticaltjr a' 4*& eltf%t poor people. Too much ( stress has. we think; been laid ift modern time^—that is to aay,' within the lasjt/ew; ,centurieif-^n.j|he essential ,duty of. going to church. ' There is wonderfuUy .little about the Aubjectjin the New Testament. The habTt' T has become so much parfc of the' life of our countrymen that those #hoddno'tjgo to church have in' many casei^ an" jpA^iy consciousness that, they 'a^ ji|^|e|ti^| a duty.' This especially applies,'to^ose who, hare been, cbur,ch-gocrs,.;itt/^p|uth. Persons who are thus.^ as 7 »M«. Wth themselves, are> easily incjia^^fpf »s)|er delinquencies* and <the;result is that those who fail to attend some place of worship ( »ot - unfrpquently • spepd, fheif; #«ndf y leisure in such, a manner as^ould be unacceptable eTen to 1 a Pktgan mdralist. The statesman and the"phUp{Opher, therefore as well as the Christiari,|may <t f etfV«ard with''apprehension the efis^ne| dfTrnwut population who are thus ffitimmt'mom religious obserTances.i/^TIW Church of England would, -we-beliere, make more way among' snchpeopleas these'it»tifere was greater variety and less formality in its serfices.—Graphic; ;i •■•>.>-•: v