SABBATTARIANISM in CANTERBURY.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1667, 13 March 1883, Page 4

SABBATTARIANISM in CANTERBURY.

This Tlm'ai'u Herald has the following i~ Mankind are much more easily led than drivdh. ; ' 'The Freethinkers at Christ-, church hnve gone to -work on that prmcipleV Th6y have organised Sunday picnics, by way of undermining the Sabbattarian institution, and at these picnics they have games and amusements, especially such as are calcinated to afford gratification to children and young people. They hope, in fact, soon to make Sunday in ÜbrK-tchmch what it is on the continent of Europe, a day of recreation, a day of social gathering*, of family meetings, of decorous pleasure and health-giving relaxation. And what is more, they seem uncommonly likely to achieve their object. Their first picnic was a tremendous success, and as there is nothing so catching as happiness in any form, we venture to think that the more picnics they have, the more recruits they will cnli&t. If this sort of thing spreads, it will soon affect the habits of society very much, and since a picnic is, in itself, one of the most innocent forms of human enjoyment, we think it will spread as soon as society get a little accustomed to the idea. Religious people wdLuo doubt say that this is very shocking, that it is a perfidious attempt to undermine a sacred institution under the pretext of a harmless amusement, and that if it gains ground and prevails it will destroy public morality and eventually shake the social fabric to its foundations. We are not prepared to argue that point. On the contrary, we aic quite willing to admit that the secularisation of Sunday may be productive of a vast amouut of mischief. But we think it is incumbent on those who object to Sunday picnics to show that the people who attend them would be better employed if there were none. We must say we can conceive of nothing more melancholy than Sunday in a colonial town, especially as regards the young people of the poorer class. The day is not made atti active or impio\ing to them in any way, but is in numberless cases, merely a dreary, wasted time. It seems to us that the young folks -would bo j better out in the fields, getting fresh air and having plenty of fun, than lounging listlessly about the stieefcj, or standing in groups at the corners exchanging coarse chaff or peihaps getting into mischief. Young men would be better running vices or playing cricket, than sitting all day in their frowsy lodgings, smoking and yawning ;and young women had far better meet their sweethearts openly in a social way, than resort to secret and not over creditable ways of arriving at the same result. As for the children, it cannot be denied that the picnics arc the finest things in the world for them, for Sunday is not only a miserable day but also a very injunous day for these poor little town dwellers. The conclusion seems to be this. If people go to church, and say their prayers, and meet in the family ciiclc for Bible leading and praise, and go to Sunday school, and visit the sick, and in shoit, really spend v Christian Sabbath, well and good, it would be a grhvous pity to make any change in their habits But if they do nothing of the soit, if they only idle about and wish the day wa-s over, and spend wot only a heathen but also an idiotic Sunday, then, we .say, they had better go forth with the Freethinkers and make merry and come back at least physically refreshed.