The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1891.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1891.

For.tho cau3o that lacks.asßlatanoo, For tho -wrong! that nootls rouistinbo, For the future in tlio distance, Anil tho god that vo can do.

It must have been discouraging to he energetic workers who have sustained the Young Men's Christian Association in a state of efficiency under great dis

couragements to see such a meagr e attendance at the annual meeting last night, notwithstanding the announcement that Mr W. Hind Smith, Organising Secretary of the National and Dr. Bevan, one of the most popula r preachers of Melbourne, would take part in the proceedings. An audience of about a hundred —half women, and among whom the " young men " numbered less than a score —surely does not fairly represent the strength of the unsectarian Christianity of Auckland.

But more conspicuous even than the sparse attendance of the class for whose special benefit the institution has been called into existence was the absence of a representative gathering of the clergy. On mail day there are calls upon men engaged in business that cannot be evaded, but the business of those who are earning their living as exponents of Christianity lies wherever useful Christian agencies stand in need of their support,and we might probably find the secret of the indifference f.hat is manifested in the important work which is undertaken by this institution, and which its constitution admirably qualifies it to'perform, in the attitude of the accredited leaders of Christian effort in our city. A miserable spirit of localism pervades the churches, and their forces are dissipated in everlasting struggles against church debts and little schemes so puerile in aim and barren in their religious or moral achievements, that one cannot but feel amazed that year by year so much energy should be deliberately wasted, while men and women who would naturally look to the churches to aid them in improving their social and moral environments are finding that they must work out their own salvation by purely secular means.

But let the churches take warning. We live in stirring tiroes. The leaven of new and revolutionary ideas is at work in men's minds, and may either lead to the culmination of a social system in which the present forms of Church organisation will play a prominent part, or relegate them into an obscurity the end of which is decay and death. They must justify their existence by works. In the admirable address which Mr Sherwood delivered to the thin, but let us hope appreciative audience last night he truthfully said that humanity to-day does not want less of Christ and His teaching, but more. It wants, however, less preaching and more practical work, less creed and more Christ life. Ministers will have to concern themselves very much less with the raising of iunds to paper church manses and increase the stock of church millinery, and more with the schemes of social reform which are filling men's minds. Federation is in the air, and if the churches are to survive in the turmoil they must follow the fashion and present a united front to the enemy.

It is gratifying to know that the few who have struggled on with the Young Men's Christian Association in Auckland have accomplished so much. Bitten,, a few years ago, with the mania for speculative building, they loaded themselves with debt, but they have stuck to the institution bravely, and by indomitable perseverence, backed by a personal liberality that has no precedent in connection with any other Christian institution in the city, they have succeeded in averting a bankruptcy which at one time seemed inevitable, and are now rapidly bringing the Association's estate into a sound condition. All the while, the proper work of the institution was being performed with a fair amount of efficiency.

The managers of the Association, however, have latterly lost touch with young men. Possessed of unabated mental vitality, they have been somewhat forgetful of the changes in thought and tastes which come upon us with our grey hairs. But not being deficient in common sense, the diminishing attendance of young men has at length come home to the Committee, and they have inaugurated a scheme for the infusion of new blood which we trust will realise their anticipations;. If the outline sketched by members of the Committee last night be faithfully developed, the scheme ought not to fail. One speaker bappily hit the idea which should dominate the management in their new departure when he described the model V.M.C.A. as a young meu's club—a club, moreover, which will attract young men of a robust Christian type. It is the nauseating goody - goodyism of some of these institutions which drives away many young fellows whose instincts are really right, and who would hail with joy the creation of a place where they could meet men of their age in a friendly way without feeling that they must qualify for membership by a loss of some portion of their manliness.

People are apt to think that the type of young man approved by V.M.C.A. leaders is a sappy sort of creature with marvellous powers of digestion for tea, buns, and small talk, but whose mental pabulum must be of the very softest description. This notion is not altogether unjustified by the character of the literature which under a strict censorship finds its way into V.M.C.A. libraries. We hope the new Committee will make a clean sweep of these pernicious notions. Young men in these days cannot pass through the world wrapped up intellectually in cotton wool. They should be qualified to give a reason for the faith that is in them. They should also be encouraged in enjoying to their full the harmless recreations which are suited to their age and animal spirits, without the oppressions of a Puritanical austerity which the natural man never did and never will tolerate for long. If these are the aims of the new managers of the V.M.C.A., we venture to predict that the next annual meeting will be a very different gathering from the one which assembled in the Association lecture hall last night.