SIGNS OF ATHEISM AMONG THE EDUCATED PROTESTANT YOUTH OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 102, 10 April 1875, Page 13

SIGNS OF ATHEISM AMONG THE EDUCATED PROTESTANT YOUTH OF AUCKLAND.

The above heading is rather startling, and I hesitate to write ifc, as it may possibly convey a wrong and unjust impression. But my authority for doing so is as follows : — At the last meeting of the Diocesan Synod Mr. Boardnian remarked that " The Bishops and clergy should turn their attention to the great benefit which might be derived from a series of special sermons in the churches in and around Auckland. At present the- young men were mostly led by the literature, a great deal of which was of an ephemeral character. They were now told that miracles were pure fictions and myths, that there was no religion except that supplied < bysun, moon, and stars, the rocks, and other physical agencies." The Bishop thought the suggestion of Mr. Boardman a very valuable one. The Bishop and Mr. Boardman have long taken great interest in tie now apparently dying Young Men's Christian Association. In a former letter I hinted that possibly the kind of literature furnished to the Auckland Protestant young men by this Society's library was not to their mind, and that this might account for their withdrawing their support from it. The Society's literature might not be sufficiently "ephemeral," nor sufficiently imbued with that form of "modern thought" which encourages the notion that miracles are pure fictions, and that there is no r©. ligion except mere "physical agencies/ that the idea of God as our Creator, our present witness and future judge, therefore, is an antiquated superstition — fit only for old wives, Papists, and, the like to take up their heads with ; but quite unworthy of being 1 entertained by young Protestant philosophers of the period. Th.<j code of morals in our modern novels is the code in vogue with our fast philosophic youth of " the party of progress." The morality of the New Testament is out of date, especially as regards motives. Am I justified in saying, then, that the young Protestant men of Auckland are becoming Atheists., or are at least in great danger of becoming so from the kind of literature they now like and jue furnished with ? Perhaps after all Mr. Boardman and the Bishop maybe exaggerating the evil. That the evil or danger exists, however, to some extent can hardly be doubted by any one. That the popular or current literature of the day is, to a large extent, unwholesome, and has an irreligious or demoralizing tendency, is but too apparent, in spite of the many good and unobjectionable works which issue from the Press. The Press is an instrument of tremendous power for evil as well as good, as we all know and gee. It can be, and is now being, prostituted in a most shocking manner* for money-making purposes. Whatever it will pay to write, print, and publish, will be written, printed and published by some, let the consequences or faith and morals be what they may. We hare recently had an able and learned attack on Christianity, published by a first-class London house, and supposed to be written by a clergyman. Protestants laugh and sneer at the idea of any supervision of the printing and publishing of books by Catholic Church authority. With them the Index Expurgotorius, or list of prohibited boots in Some under the Papal Government, was lojfg- % standing joke. But the present licentious and irreligious state of the Protestant Press with the wide-spread lamentable consequences to the faith and morals of the young may now induce them to moderate their mirth, or to doubt if it be well-timed at all. The evil is but beginning. Like most destructive evils, it will in time cure itself, and bring men to see the false pernicious character of Protestant principles. Happily our Catholic youth have some pro. tection against improper books, in the authority of the Church. Catholic _ schools, libraries, and publishers' shops, are all under denial supervision. This protection, it is true, is under present tircumstauces not anything like bo perfect as could be wished. Proteatanti and Catholics are so mixed in society that it is well nigh impossible ta keep objectionable books out of the hands of Catholic youth, let parents do what they will. Almost every Catholic youth of either | Bex can now read. Books of some kind they muat and will have

good bad or indifferent. Protestant books come easier to hand, particularly light reading sensation tales. Some of these are improving come innocent, but a great many more, and these the most attractive portion, are dangerous or positively hurtful. Happily it is very hard to make a Catholic an infidel or an Atheist. Defective as his « schooling and moral character he may often be, but he clings to hisfaith with • tenacity nothing can destroy. He knows he has a definite religion He knows in whom he believes. If his faith is to be shaken or des-' troyed at all, it can only be done in early youth under irreligious or heretical teaching and example. Hence the necessity of aU Catholic parents now making some strenuous joint effort with their clergy to keep objectionable books out of their children's hands, and supply them with euitable reading, by establishing reading rooms an£ libraries for them. Let "the Hibernians " look to this? They have numbers with them, and therefore they have power to do the thine thoroughly. It may be a bold thing to say, but I believe there are thousands on thousands now, in the humbler ranks of life especially to whom it would have been better had they never learnt to read at all, but had received instruction in their duty to God and man by word of mouth from their parents, or priest, or others. Their power to read, from the kind of literature thrown in their way, has been in moral and religious sense their ruin. Bishop Cowie and his clergy may try as they please to put down Atheism among the Protestant youth of Auckland ; they will never succeed. That can only be done by the power and authority of the Catholic Church, which the Protestant youth of Auckland do not recognise. Till they do recognise it they will go on in their errors, trusting to their own vrisdomand "the right of private judgment," a right which the Protestant Church teaches them to claim and exercise. The Protestant body is visibly breaking up into three grand sections— one becoming Catholic, another indifferents, and a third Atheists. Unless Mr. Boardman and Bishop Cowie's fears be vain, the Atheistical party may look to be largely recruited from the Protestant youth of Auckland. Their desertion of the Young Men's Christian Association may be their first step on the road to Atheism. Since writing this I see the Young Men's Christian Association is very fairly supported, and it is not likely any improper books will be admitted. But something is wrong plainly. Lajo# b