The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1894.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 43, 19 February 1894, Page 2

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

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1894.

far tho canst that lacks assistance, tor the Tron* that meds resistance, Tor the More in tha distance. And tha good that we oan do.

Whatever cause we may assign for it, the fact seems pretty patent that the doings of Synods, Unions and Assemblies, are not followed with an absorbing degree of interest by a very large section of the general public. We might almost go the length of saying that the columns or paragraphs devoted to these proceedings are skipped with incurious indifference by a host of readers, and regarded with something akin to aversion by not a few. There is a reason for everything, but whate ver the reason is, we have no hesitation in saying that there is but little ground for congratulating ourselves on this state of popular feeling.

It must never be forgotten that these religious bodies, whatever may be their shortcomings—and they make no pretension to perfection—are the representatives of a work which, if humanity is to advance, dan never cease to be the most important work of all. Some of us, indeed, may occasionally take exception to the modes in which the work is prosecuted ; others may find fault with the narrowness and intolerance which can never be wholly dissociated from strong convictions on a matter considered to be so vital. But no one who has not made up his mind lo live by bread alone will deny that the aims presented by these religious teachers are the highest we can cherish, and the duties they are constantly, insisting on the most sacred and indispensable for the whole race j?f men. Holding this view of the matter, we read with anything but satisfaction the telegraphic summary of the report of the Committee on the state ot religion and morals presented to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which has been sitting at Christchurch. The details given in that report are most certainly not of a reassuring kind,

and we would fain hope that there has been some unintentional exaggeration in the picture which it gives us of Colonial life and morals. It is a very dark: picture indeed. Social impurity prevalent in many places ; betting and gambling said to be "practically Universal;" practical infidelity widespread; and last, but not least, "an almost unanimous non-attendance of working men and their families at public worship."

Various causes were assigned for this wholesale desertion, but they are not stated in the version of the report telegraphed to us. It is easy to imagine what some of them would have been. Naturally, from the clerical point of view, there would have been a tendency to dwell on the "practical infidelity" of the lapsed masses and the general lowering of the religious standard. This may, no doubt, be true to a certain extent, but impartial observers will not be inclined to tjirow all the blame on the lapsed masses. The clergy themselves have much to answer for. We fear that, uhi. :| latjly at least, while the world has Bti^p'moving on, many of them have beefy if not standing still, yet not advancing on parallel lines. It was their misfortune, for we will not say that it was altogether their fault that they did not adopt their teaching to the needs and

„__.. _ ._ — — aspirations of the age, and too generally preached sermons that were conceived in the spirit of past centuries, and not of the present. Can we wonder that such teaching was not refreshing, or that the working classes who are, it must be said to their credit, far less the slaves of respectabilities and conventionalities than those who happen to move in what is termed a " higher sphere," should have ceased to attend a service with which they had ceased to be in touch, We do not mean to say that at this moment they have reason to regard the services in this light, but they certainly had until lately, and to-day'they are very much guided in this matter, as we all are in all matters, by the traditions of the past.

We believe that it is this association of the services with weariness much rather than any inimical feeling of indifferenceor antagonism tothedoctrines of Christianity that is responsible for the rift within the lute which has resulted in the severance of the working classes from the church. But we rejoice that the church has of late become much more widely awake to her duties and responsibilities, and' we entertain the hope that she may yet regain the touch between herself and those classes whose disseverance the Committee appointed by the General Assembly commented on. In the case of individual clergymen, earnest and devoted to their duties and, more especially, gifted with the power of suiting themselves to the requirements of the time, we may even now see this end mote or leas effected, for there is a power in earnest speech and honest Christian work to which the most careless among us is not wholly insensible.

There is something very gratifying in that portion of the report of the Temperance Committee submitted to the General Assembly which speaks of there being no general desire for intoxicants among the youth born in New Zealand. We have heard the same thing stated before now, but it is an assertion which is always welcome. We must all rejoice with the most rabid prohibitionists in this matter, for not one of us can be ignorant directly or indirectly of the terrible curse that drink has been in almost every part of the world where it has been introduced. This natural. aversion to alcohol in excess, which is said to characterise so many of our youths, is one of the brightest assurances we have of our descendants maintaining—or shall we sayregaining—that mental and physical stamina wtych made the British race what it is. .We oDly wish we could see a. similar aversion to gambling, which, is, we believe, as was stated some time ago by a distinguished English visitor to the colonies, the national vice of Australasia.