RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES OF THE AGE.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 107, 9 January 1873, Page 3

RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES OF THE AGE.

Bisnop Templr presided over a mooting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at Exeter. Remarking on the spirit of the age, he said everything was called on to give an account of itself — old customs, old pursuits, and old faith*, too, were required to s \ow why they held their place ; wero asked what fruits they could produce to justify their remaining a3 standing trees in the Garden of God ; and why they should not be cut down as cumbering the ground — not because they bad not dono useful work in their day, but because their day was past, and it was now time when other and more vigorous plants should be allowed to grow up and take their place. It seemed impo3sible for anyone engaged in the consideration of what belonged to the present world to think of the quiet and deep forces which the true Christian knew to be the mo3t powerful of all, although they often showed so little — the hidden and secret powers of communion with God, and earnest prayer and strong faith. Yet these tilings were far from being forgotten ; in the mid*t of all tins stir and turmoil of the world's politics great religious questions seemed to absorb men's minds and to have a deepei interest than all others. Though these were times of deep interest and stirring excitement in matters belonging to this present life, they were also times wheu men were striving most earnestly for the faith, and carefully considering how they might be3t commend it to the consciences of others. It was not true that because men thought much of the things of this world they forgot the tiling which appertained to tho otlier. It was in days of general stagnation when one had to fear for tho work of God, anl uot in days like the present There could bo no greater obstacle than a time of stagnation of the human 1 itellect, when men cared nothing for matters of high import relating to their life here Tiie Attorney-General, in moving a vote of thanks to tho Bishop of Ciester for his sertwn, dwelt on the advantage of having prelates who could guide the cjuncls of the Church. Ho referred to the yearning for simple symbols that might. concentrate and enshr ne the great central truths wlnc'i all held, but which might leave other matters for Christian liberty — symbols which satisfied the primitive a^es of Christianity, and whic'i, but for unwarranted additions, would satisfy us too. He had felt this, because in tho profession to which he belonged, and in tho society in winch his lot was ca3t, he had found not a rejection of revelation, no desire arrogantly to question the authority of things divine, but a desire to accept faithfully an 1 hu nblv that which satisfied the earlier ages, and which would satisfy men now were it not for a I littons which might be true — and in his judgment nine-tenths of them were truo — but as to watch he failed to see the authority for enforcing them on mankind as of the name force and value as the more siinp'e an 1 central truths. S\r S. Northcote alluded to the strides bems; made by Mahomedanism in tho East, and urged the importance of female education in India, as likely to prevent young men who abandoned Hindooism from becoming Deists. It was true there were great difficulties in the waycf educating women in India, but a beginning was being made with the Zonanah schools, which were doing an excellent work. Tnose ■who were shaking off the idolatry of their ancestors were beginning to feel a desire to see their wives and sisters educated, so that they might become their companions and interest themselves in tho same pursuits as they were becoming interested in.

A Piucticil Illustbvtiov — " I can't bear," said Sydney Smith, "to be irapr'soned in the true orthodox way in ray pulpit, with my head just peeping abo c the desk. I like to look down upon mv congregation — to fire into them. The common people say I am a bould preacher, for I like to have my arms free and to thump the pulpit. A singular contretemps happened to me once, when, to effect this, I had ordered the clerk to pile up somo hassocks for me to stand on My te\t was, "We are prepared but not m despair ; persecuted but not fomkon ; cast down, but not destroyed ' I had scarcely" uttered *hoso words, and was preparing to illustrate the n when I did si prachcallv, and mo. way I had not at all anticipated. My fabric of hassocks suddenly gave way, down I fell, and with difficulty prevented myself from being precipitated into the arms of mv congregation, who, I must say, behaved very well, and recovered their gravity sooner than I could have expected. " A Laughing Stock — Adam Smith, author of the " Wealth of Nat ons," was for his political opinions, subjected to much ridicule bv his con tern noranes In illustration of this flr Lcisdale tells the following anecdote :— " Smith was a native of Kirkcaldv, in F fcshire, one of the small royal burghs of the last century. The ' Lang Toun,' as it wi»s cal'ed, had its provost and council One of the worthies of this corporation, just before the meeting of council, was seen laughing, nnv, almost convulsed with laughter ; and some time elapsed before he could restrain himself to explain the came. At last he said, ' I'll tell you the mason ; it's a grnnd joke as e'ro you h ard. Ally [Adam] Smith, our Addv, is gain' to write a bmk ! Ah ' ah' in which the rest of the Ktrkfa'dv fornvit-nn io n^ 1 yery freely. No doubt the ' Lang Toun ' of KirkaMv felt with the tickled town rouncillor, that if ' Ad r ly Smith' hal taken to buik-making it was a' ower wi him, and that he maun be fairly dnft '' S >eaUn* of temwanco reformers, some one HU a good story at the eipcnip of one of the most ardent of them — a peraon whose whole heart wa* in the work, to such an extent that he hadn't tuna to mend the fences or take care of his farm A distinguished temncrance lecturer wns to addre-is the citizens m the town when* the reformer lived, and the latter took it upon himself to meet him at the station, and tako him home with him and entertain him The lecturer was talkative and full of 'the cause ' 'Theie, now,' sad he. as he drove by a handsome farm-house, ' anybody can (it once see a temperance man lives tberc. Everything •hows industry and contentment, and, no doubt, • happy home u there. Is it not »o?' 'Yes, 1 was the reply ; ' Squire 's a temperance man, and has a rerr pleasant home and family.' ' I was certain of it.' ••id the lecturer ' But here is a place,' he continued, as they came to an old house, with dilapidated fence and a neglected nnpoanince, 'that you'd pick out anvwhero as tho house of a drunkard Soe the old hats in the windows, the broken down fences, and the neglected anpearance everything has — you can't makr any mistake nbout Mich a plane — it itioki out all over it that it's the home of a sot.' He was nbo t( o appeal to hi<» entertainer for the truth of his when that gentleman nullel rein, ami turning the Jg'ftm up to th« neglected fence, remarked, with something an a *ig \, 'I li«r« hcr-i '

Paiusians Bathiwg— At firsf thrre h«omefh<'ng strange at «eem ' 50 many half-naked men milling themselves coolly about (in Vie Some), but there is an innocence and simplicity in t'le whole proceeding which diverts of a'JV lmnropretv. Here, for instance, are three gentlemen and two ladies, all in bat'ung dresses and all giving thomselves the air bath, which their limited costume renders agreeable, before taking their swim together. The boat stops in mid-stream ; a little ladder is hung over the side, the gentlemen all go in like frogs one after the other, heal first, the ladies go in more like ducks, with a sort of /hitter and a rinh upon the surface, an 1 sot'icy swim merrily round the boat, laughing and chasms; one another, and every now nncl then climbing up the ladder to rest At Bas Mention there are a number of covered boat^which may be hired, and within the gipsy-like tent of the stern the ladies make their toilets, while the gentlemen make theirs in the bows. But here, also, are islands with convenient bushy shelters, and bathers of both sexes take in the advantage of them in the absence of bathing-houses, or better cover, then there are pretty villas upon the river bank which suggest to the occupants a bathuig place of their own. As you walk along the bank you meet, for instance, ft 'ady charmingly dressed, tripping down her garden, out across the road, and down to the water's edge. In a second something is apparently unhooked, the becoming morning costume sinks in a heap at her feet, and reveals an equally dainty but different form of att're, in which, having kicked off the slippers from her stockingless feet, sho plunges into the stream, and kisses her hand from the middle of it to her husband, who is standing admiring from the balcony of his drawing-room. Afterwards her maid com°s down with a large wrapner and she runs home like a dripping Naiad with her children who seem to have had their bath, all troopipg and laughing round her. There is a great deal of swujpiing leurnt from boits, the swimmer having a cord nltaehed to his or her waist, and being upheld and directed by a man in tho boats The whole of these aquatic performances, which appear to be confined to the small bourgeois is conducted with most perfect innocence and propriety Whole fan lies come and gple«h about for real enjoyment of the tiling, and the performers seem far more decently clothed than those of Le Roi Carotto —Paris Letter to The Timei.

In ft neighbouring colony t wo police-officers were exchanging their experiences- Neither of them wore diaciplea of Father Mattheev, and each of them had, at one time or other, suffered the penalty of excess. Said one, "When I have gone a little too far I see rooms full of canaries " "Canaries ! " said the oth. r eagerly, "my desr fellow, what do you drink for canaries " Wnen lam iv that way I see rooim | full of snakes and lizards." M. de Mirandei has just published an exceedingly curious letter, written by Rossini in replj to a young artist who consulted him as to the best manner of composing an overture . — " Ist recipe. AVait till tho ovonmg before the first performannce. Nothing excites inspiration like necessity; tho presence of a copyist waiting for your woik, and the view of a manager in despair, tearing out his hair by handfuls. In Italy in my time all the managers were bald at 30. 2nd I composed the overture to ' Othello' in a small room in the Barb.ija Palace, where tho baldest and uio-,t ferocious of managers had shut me up by force with nothing but a dish of maccaroni, md the threat that- I should not leave the place alive until I had written the last note. 3rd I wrote the overture to 'Gazza Ladra' on tho day of the first performance in tho upper loft of the Le Scala, where I had been confined by the manager under guard of four who had orders to throw my text out of i the w indow bit by bit to copyists, who were waiting below to transcribe it. In default of music I was to be thrown out nmelf. 4th. For ' Barbiere' I did better. I composed no overture, but tacked on one intended for a very serious work called ' Ehsnbetta ' The public wore delighted sth. I composed tho 'Comt Ory' when angling, with my feet in the water, and when in company of M. Aguado, who was talking Spanish finance all the time. 6th. That of Guillaunie Tell* was written under somewhat similar conditions. 7th I did not composo any overture for ' Aloise,' <fee."— Pall Mall Gazette. Too Faithful — Two members of a dans;orous gang of burglar 9 were brought up at tho Mixed Court tho other 'lay. They were respectively a man well kn )wn to the police, decorated with scores of previous convift.on*, a>ul a dog ; and the charge ngamst fiem was that of loitering about the settlement at unseasonable hours with felonious intent. The man was observe 1 about three o'clock in the moruing skulking about in an out-of-the-way part of the settlement, attended by three dogs. After watching the four for some time, the constable advanced and seized the human member of the band. Two of the dogs made off as fa3t as eight legs could carry them, but the third followed the bipeds to tho police station. Here the Chinaman was carefully searched, but nothing of a criminal character was found upon him But the doj, in his anxiety to sco nil that was going on, came out from under the fnendlv shadow of a chair, where he had hitherto rested, into the full glitter of the ga?. The sharp eve of the officer on duty then observed something about his neck, which on examination turned out to be a packet containing a flint andsteol, with some tinder paper — well-known appurtenances of the cracksman's craft. The constable then remembered having noticed something tied round tho necks of the other dogs also, and it was naturally presumed that they were similarly equipped with similar professional implements. But they seem to have been better up to tho stage movements of their profession than the greenhorn that voluntarily rail bjth his own head and that of his chief into a trap. The latter, however, seemad to have an aptnes3 to learn, for, as soon as he was relieved of his implements and he saw his master being conveyed to the cell, he gn\c them leg bail with all speed. lie thus escaped the cinque — a most uncomfortable dog-collar — to a month fo whiili his master was condemnod next day. — Shanghai Bulletin. Mns Befciier Stowk — Mrs Harriot Bepcher Stowe made her appeavancc as a public reader, reading from her own works, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the othcrmght, and l>or reception was very flattering. She was dressed in black silk w-'th a garniture of white laco puffs, entirely becoming to her fine matronly face, which wore the colour of health and happiness. Her brown wavy hair is scarcely rusted with file, and manifold curls ripple over a tiny waterfall behind. Her blue eyes lose none of their mild fire and humanity, even through the pince-nez. Altogether, Mrs Stowe, at the nge of 58, bears such an air of health and of tenaciously active life, that all her friends will hail her appearance with joy, from the mere delight of seeing her, even if eho brought nothing else for entertainment. She read first from the Oldtown stories of " Sam Lawson." Her thin voice ia well fitted to enact the Yankee sharpness of utterance. Her description of " Parson Carryl's" troubles and " HuldyV triumph was truthful to her own conception of course, and happily to the public idea of tho character! also. Her dolmeation of the gos3ips"Wider Piperago"»nd "MissDeaken Blodgett" was perfect to the life and highly enjoyable. " Sam Lawson" was also well rendered. We noticed that she pronounced the Yankee word "well" "wal," and it is so written m tho book. This is, wo believe, a word of tho writer's rather than of the speakers of Yankee. Tho Yankoo word is a liquid w'l, when spoken quickly, or a flat w-a-a-1, with the aas in hat, when prolonged. This quostion, however, leads into » field where Mrs Stowo would have us at her mercy. The Oldtown sketches took three-quarters of an hour. After sitting three or four minutes, Mrs Stowe resumed, this time with Uncle Tom's Cabin in her hand, and commenred with Black Sam's stratagem. The dramatic interest of the story and the spirit of the rendering held the nudienco closely notwithstanding the muggy air upon a damp, warm night Tho negro dinlect was not always rendered with a distinctness that made it intelligible to Northern ears, but, in spite | of the occasional loss of a sentence or phrase, no one failed to follow and enjoy the rapidly shifting pluses of the characters 03 delineated to the car. At the end of one hour and twenty minutes Mrs Stowe closed her book amid applause, with the words of one of the practical listeners to Sam's political hifalutin, " Children, git off to \)c&.~Spri)i>/Jield Republican. A provincial grand lodge of the West Yorkshire District of Free and Accepted Masons was held at Pontefract on Wednesday, and was honoured with the presence of the Marquis of Ripon, X Gr , WM G M of England, and Pro- | vmcial Grand Master of West Yorkshire. In the afternoon a profession of the brethren was held to a villago two miles off, called East Harclwick, where the Marquis of Ripon was to lav the foundation stone of an intended new church of StSteo'ipn. Afler the usual ceremonials and the stono had been ng'.tly laid in the presence of a large assembly, the Oimd Master congratulated tho people of the ne-ghbours liood on the completion of tho work which had brought them together that day. In the evonm' n. Masoni" banquews held in tho villaT«, at wMeh th*» Marquis of Ripnn was sM>mort>»d bv Lord Houston, Mr H G E Culler*, MP, •i 1 Major Wat,»rhou«p, M P After th« usual loyal teastn, \fr R»ntlpv Shaw. BPftlf of Wet Yorkshire, proposed " T'le MWOM of Ei 'lmd," to whic'i his lordship replied Mr C'ulders, M.P , lmd assigned to him t'le duty of proposing as a tonst " Tho Archbishop .and Clor<;y of the Diocese." He said it was one which in some other countries he Bhould havo had a difficulty in proposing for it might not be unknown to thoio present that "in some parts of Europe confusion had arisen between secret societies with objects very diffeient from Freemasonry and that great society of their own, whose beneficent purpose he and those around him had no doubt about whatever They, on their part recognized the great truth of the Divine saying, tha* " Except the Lor 1 build the bouse, they laboui but in vain that build it," and tho Church recogiuied on her pait the Masomc fraternity as one of those bodies to which tho message was given of "Peace on eaith and good will towards men" The Church recognized that Mas>ous were men of good will, and men to whom the message wns given that they should do their utmost to promote peace and concord among mankind. On that occasion, hanpily, tltey had nothing to do with those discussions bet-ween Churches and religions which had so much divided Christendom. But, at the same time, they were most happy to connect themselves and their objects with tho Church, which, on its part, waß always ready to connect itself with Freemasonry. Lord TTou»hton, in proposing a toast, expatiated upon the honor done" to East Hardwick b\- tho presence there of the noble marquis who presided, and lemarked that his lordship was in rank the eight or ninth citizen of the realm. He was president of the Cabinet Council and the British Monarchal Republic. His namo had lately been closely associated with ono of tho greatest events in the history' of the world — a great question, pending betwoen England and America hns been settled by tho skill of statesmen, and a question which at any former time would on'v have bfvn settled bv the instrumental 'ty of war. Connect cd with that memorable event, no doubi", tho namo of tho Marquis of Ripon would go down to posterity. The other toasts included "Tho Borough Members," to wh-Vh Mr C'ulflers and Major Watorhouso briefly responded — Times, October 23.