"THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO NATIONAL LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 107, 8 May 1896, Page 2

"THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO NATIONAL LIFE.

Thk Auckland Dloceaan Chnrch Congress resumed sitting yesterday aiternoon ab bhe V.M.1..A. lectui'o room. There waa a good atteadaace, among those present being Mr George Aldridge, la the absence of the Hon.'E. Micchelson, Hi_ Lordship Bishop Cowie presided, •SUB. CHOftCJtt AMD POLITICS. Mjr H, Hi. Seth-Smtth opened bhis phase of tbe que-tloD, He said bhere were those who maintained thai the Church should in do way intermeddle with politic*, nor the State with religion. In their own mother country the civil and ecclesiastical aubhoritia. bad had many a conflict with varying success.. He thought three lessons might be learned from the history of the struggle, ft.) that a church possessing large political p&wef wsw a danger both to itself and to the Stato in which it existed. Power brought with it temptation, and men were seldom, if ever, wanting who would abase a pow*r which was placed in their hands; (2) wheraver the Church bad interfered wish political question, to advance its awn claim*, the result had been disastrous % and (3) wherever the Church had intervened to protect! the weak against the strong, its intervention had been productive of good. Ib was now geaara.ly admitted, at ieasb in countries tbat had come under the influence of tho Eo.ar_afl-.on, thab tbe State had no right to bso its power for the enforcsmenb of any creed. A religions body which allowed itself to ba swayed by political considerations rather than by religious convictions, neglected its first duty. They did rsofc want their clergy to be great political fhllosopbora or economists, exports in mince or in the details of jurisprudence. They did not want them to preach sermons which were treatises on the system of land tenure, of local governmenb or of taxation. In the education of the people, in the formation of a sound public opinion, nob in matters of detail, but in tha great principles which underlie it, the Chnrch had a vasb iiold for exorcising its influence. This Influence mighb be made effective by every member of the church within its own sphere of action. Without neglecting the other branches of her teaching, tha chnrch had here a great work before her, and ib was here, and he was inclined to think here alohe, that the church could make ber influence felt in bhe region of politics.

Dr. Giles followed. Ha said that every church musb recognise as its proper business, whatever else ib mighb do, feo ' know how to impress the mind of the community with a eanae of the religious solemnity of obligation bo makr, men feel bhe re.ponsibiliby of life and the B&credneaa of duty, to touch with unerring band tho inner spring which suggests all high moraliby aud prompts ail noble conduct. Tha evil of party polibics had to be faced here as much aa in England, and ib lay at bhe threshold by whatever door the Church might attempt to enter the political arena. Past history showed that the Church had too often shown herself ready to support wbatever par.y seemed most likely to promote her power and influence, and had too seldom cob herself to stem the current of party ebrife, to assuage ibs bibterness, or robuke ibs malice, yeb ib oughb to be a matter of loss concernment to the Church which party should prevail, than that insincerity end cant, hatred and malice, evil speaking, lying and slandering, should be denounced and suppressed. The first work of the Church in relabion to polibics, seemed to bo to bring about, if possible, a stato of things in which citizens would feel no pleasure in a party victory for its own aako, would give their opponents credit for as much public spirit a_ they claimed for themselves, and would as soon think of reviling others on accounb of a difference of opinion, as two persons loab in a forest would think of reviling each other for having different notions how to find the best way out. If ib was decided to be outside the office and functions of bhe Church, bhen it seemed to him thab she must refrain from tho attempt to solve bhe concrete political problems, because they were problems of science, and, a3 such, beyond her sphere, bub, in virtue of her office as monitor of the Conscience, abe mighb insiab ou bhe moral doby of refraining from legislation where no lighb of science showed the way, and she might be urgent in pointing oub thab, albbough an end mighb seem desirable in itseif, ib did nob follow thab ib was good bo aim ab ib by legislation. Her constant lesaon should be that no real good could come to man except bhab which he accepted by tha free choice of hia reason, hia conscienco and his will, and bhab bhe good that was forced on anyone turned rapidly to j evil. For the rest, the Church could only foster a higher polibical life by enforcing the old lessons of honesty, truthfulness and charity. THE CHURCH AND COMMERCE. Mr A. Boardman in dealing with thia subject said bbc old fashioned doctrine of live and lot live seemed to be no longer an article of trading faith and practice. Commerce would now appear to be a fierce war among those engaged in it. Every art and stratagem, keen business ability, wide and accurate knowledge and greab expenditure of money, were brought to bear to secure Buccess in bbc commercial ■truggle. Advertising was very largely employed, and he had read that a single firm, dealing in a single article only, spent £60,000 a year on advertising. Of course, purchasers bad to pay the coat of this. There seemed to be one common feature in the phraseology of this wide adTertißing viz., thab each of say a dozen articles of the same kind and for the same purpose was boldly stabed bo be notiymply equal to the other eleven, but each was superior to all the others, each was the very besb in the world, and a discerning public was confidently invited bo take care and purchase only the one particular besb brand. How each could be superior bo every other would appear to be a trade eecret. The adulteration of food, drink and clothing was now a highly accomplished science. The days of sanding tha sugar, and webbing bho tobacco before leaving the shop, aod going inbo the parlour for evening prayer, were pasb, together wibh other things of an unscientific age. Continuance of demand caused the continuance of supply, and thia again was caused by the greab mulbibnde who worshipped with unfaltering devotion tbab greab false idol of low price, ignorantly believed to be aynonymoua with cheapness. An article largely adulterated" with inferior sbuff, but beautifully gob up in imibation of bhe style of tho pure and wholesome one, was what tbey gob for bheir low price, bheir imaginary cheapness. Tbeexporbtradeof Great Britain to some heathen people at leasb consisted largely of adulterated goods — useless guns, vile eopeobioos of spirit, cotton cloth I of the flimsiesb character mado thick and j good looking by the liberal use of thick sizs. There bad been and was a strong and josb demand on bho part of manual labour workers for " a living wage," and not long hoars of work. Ib was nob very nnfair probably to assume thab those who; gob a living wage formed the largest number of purchasers of these low-priced articles. If thia was so, then those who demanded •nd bad a living wage themselves wera responsible for women and girls working hard aad long for tbe very poor wages they earned. 11l paid workers bad their welfare sacrificed for the multitude on tbo alfear of cheapness. With regard to credit, Mr Boardman said thab financial institutions and wholesale houses, as experience moftfe abundantly proved, also really go ia ie? what is in fact reckleca trading* **<* Induced reckletm trading in others. Tbey

gave credit where either none ab all, or very little, oughb to be given, and a great deal where much greater care oughb to be exercised. Tho man of straw waa bolstered up to compete with the man who bad a fair amount of his own capital in his business, and who carried on thab business in a prudent manner, paying all ho owed, j Dealing with the Chnrch as a trade Mr j Boardman said thab a really honest person, j though he might be a perfecb Gallio as to i any and all religious organisations, would : abstain from embarrassing himsslf by | ! plunging into debb thab he saw no chance j of getting rid of. He should live within t his means. But men professing to belong 'to this or thab religious organisation to live on a much higher plane than the man referred to did plungo heaviiy into debb, which kept their religious organisation in an embarrassed state for years. Their ; expenses wero kept down not" infrequently '■ by refraining from paying 'aliving wage' to 1 their minister or educated man whoso pro- ; fesaion debarred him from modes of increasing his Bmall stipend by other means, ] and whose best years of hia intellect and physical powers were spent having only a return moderately sufficient for the day, nothing to put by for the day of old ago. Mr Boardman was frequently applauded during the delivery of tho paper. THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL LIFE. The Rev. P. G. Evans, in his paper, summed up the practical social duty of the Church under the headings: (1) to comfort, (2) to protect, (3) to rescue. Under bhe heading of "to comfort" Mr Evans said to " comforb all that mourn" was sureiv one of the characteristics of Christ that- had been handed on to his disciples in every-age; to succour the poor needing the necessaries of life (no member of tha Christian Church should be obliged to appeal to the State lor charitable aid while so many fellow Christians had enough I andto-pare). tocarefortholonelyimmigraut away in a strange land ; to minister to the penitent prieoner desiring a better life, to attend to the sick both in body and mind, to provide homes for the homeless (ib waa a scandal to the Church in this city 1 thab there was no nighb refuge provided for the weary wanderers tramping about looking for work), to multiply the meanalready employed to ameliorate tha condition of the poor in our cities, and in all our efforts to romember thab the beai help waa thab which enabled those thay helped to help themselves. Under the heading "to protecb " Mr Evans said their duty was to see thab employers paid a living wage, and thus to strive for the permanent ! extinction of the sweating system, to mediate bebween employers and employees, finding oub the faults and difficulties of both, to protect young girla in their cities by providing homes for them when temporarily unemployed, to see that there was no child labour, to protecb the toiler from ; those who would rob him of the Day of Rest, to protec- from dangerous employments US far as possible, to protect from overcrowding in cities, to teach the people bho simple laws of sanitation and health, and to make ib impossible for grasping landlords bo lebunaanitary houses to poor people, to pro tecb from vice, to influence tbo parents of the young girls crowding the streets, and which were recruited from their day and Sunday-echools, to provide a girls' club, prevent gambling, and to protecb from iobemperanco by treating the drinking babib a8 bhey would any other evil similar in ite debasing and crime-creating tendencies, by encouraging the police to carry out in it? strictest integrity tho splendid Act which mainly to bhe honour of tbe present Governmenb bo ib said they had in this! colony, by seeing thatunadultoratod liquors were sold, thab increasing efforts wero made to edueato the people in temperance principles until the time came when from the realisation of tho righteousness oi those principles prohibition would be tho law of the land.

Tho Rev. C. M. Nelson, in tha course of gome remarks, said be did nob think in fchia country, or indeed in many countries, wero they ripe for prohibition. It might come, and mighb be a good bhing, bub thoy would be doing a bad bhing, especially bo tho native race, if they forced ibon unduly. Mr George Aldridge eulogiyed tho paper read by Mr Boardman. Hei said thab he would hail theday when no mutter whether ib was brought about by moral suasion or legislation when every man could say "Thank God prohibition has coma."