CANDID COMMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 249, 17 October 1908, Page 16

CANDID COMMENTS.

(By "RILDA.")

The Auckland branch of the International Arbitration and Pea«e Association lias been urging, by letter, upon the clergy assembled here for the Anglican Diocesan Synod, the importance of the peace movement and the special claims which it has upon the active support of the pastors of Christian churches. The continuance of the belligerent spirit and the unceasing preparations for warfare which are being very generally made may be—certainly are. from the association's point, of view—very deplorable, but, as every cloud is understood to have a silver lining, so one great advantage derivable from a nice healthy little war should not be overlooked. 1 am thinking of the educational side of warfare. How successfully international strife furbishes up our knowledge of the geographical construction of the parts of the world involved; how intimate we all become with our Tiigehis, our Mafokings. our Montenegros, Bulgarias, Servias, liosnias, and so forth! We learn to talk of them as though they were places of our most intimate acquaintance because we happen to see them mentioned frequently in reports from the theatre of the strife, and because the newspapers all very kindly hasten to publish maps of the inflamed parts just so soon as these come into eruption. Why, there is not a "man in the street" , who cannot manage to rattle off the most jaw-breaking geographical names when a popular war is bringing them constantly to his notice. Surely all such, dissemination of knowledge is -advantageous? 1 happened to have occasion lately to seek out a local street going under the name of Inkerman, and asked a small buy of ten tender years (or thereabouts), who was disporting himself in the said street, and of whom I had made other inquiries, if he had any nebulous notion where lnkerman is. or what historical event the name recalls. But he stared at mc, with large, affrighted eyes, which told only too surely of his complete and impenetrable darkness of ignorance concerning the historical associations of the I name, and I passed on :i sadder and a j wiser being is to the educational standard attained by the small boy of the Dominion. Now, supposing that boy had lived in the time of the battle of Inkerman, the*name would surely have soaked through his curly pate, anil become to I him something more than the mere designation of a street? So, too. we might reasonably hope that the boy of this period would begin to have a nodding acquaintance with those "critical Balkans" should the much-threatened war manage to break out. That, briefly, is my ease for Bellona. and it is. 1 trust. sufficiently well established to convince even the peace advocates against their wills. One com-efi across some curious contrasts in the columns of the Press. Cheek by jowl with the decision of the Taihape Cricket Club that it must play on Sundays, for '"woto .P-unday playing abolished ■ cricket in Taihape wouJd die" (a truly 'alarming contingency). 1 find a rcsolu- ; tion passed by the Hawke's Bay Presbytery that it "deplores the widespread ' Sabbath desecration within its bounds. ; and urges the people of the various con- : gregations to use their influence in the direction of Sunday observance." The I Synod he-re, and the P.an-Anglican Con- ! gresti in London, have also each had ! something to tsay upon xhe prevailing Subj buth-break ing propensities. Words, idle I words! Nothing s-hort of pathetic are these weak-armed attempts of the religious bodies to stem the sweeping tide of self-indulgence itnd materialism which 1 is rising, rising, tlve whole civilised world over, engulfing as it flows each old landmark of religious observance and moral obligation. Cricket in Taihape must not, I .die —so uaithinkable a catastrophe must be averted at aIJ costs; aud. truly, there • \i Tittle cost in sacrificing the Sunday ' observances, for few value aught so obsolete, in these times in which, we live. So : the Taihape cup matches are to be played on Sundays, and "cricket shall ■ i not die." 1 I It in, indeed, hardly reasonable in these ■ onliifliUined diiyn to expect Unit highly- • civilised people will Bet usidc emu day - I of the bo yon to tho worship of the Un- ■ , known, who has made the cricket 1 : ground und the materials from which the : cricket impedimenta is evolved —not to mention the cricketing man hims«lf. For there is the god so much better known, the God of Pleasure, to claim allegranco and receive it from a host of faithful beI lievers. Sundliy is set apart for his worj ship now. and the clerics who serve under I th banner of another King, fight a very , j unequal battle against the world's supremest monarch. God Pleasure reigns a triumphant, and there is little hope that 1 those ranged on the other .side will be j able to recapture the Sabbath Day from his tenacious grasp. It may be the fault of the clerics themselves. It may be some I supineness of their own which ha.s tended to weaken the allegiance of the army i that should follow under the banner of Christ—it is, indeed, hard to say where , i the blame for the present condition of c ; things should be ascribed. Hut the essential fact remains: tho (Joel of Pleasure reigns first, even over his brother tho God of Money, and a few " resolutions " c ' and " admonitions " from religious bodies f are not going to be sufficient to d'iapluc« these two false gods from their proud J supremacy over many million minds. a I Uy-tho-by, in discussions about the j Sabbath-brt'iiking propensities of tho peof : pie, tho term "Continental Sunday" is [, frequently used to imply thu last word ~ ! on Sabbath day wickedness, but 1 do s. I wish that the folk who are so fond of £ i this term of opprobrium would try to 0 I remember that the Continental institut ! tion is, really, several degrees better .. 'ethically speaking, than the British one. V j In so far that the people, being mostly n ! Koman Catholics, make a practice of 5 ! going to early morning Mass on Sundays n j only proceeding about their day's plea- ,_ ' siires when the due religious observances: ,f ! have received attention. This is quite r ' an essential feature of the Continental v Sunday, while we know that in Britain or Britain's colonies there is, on the cony i trary, no religious service which the ', i average "Christian" considers it essen s ! tial to attend before he sets about hi.----d J day's delights. Possibly the god he t_ I worships iv the earlier hours of Sunday . r J is Soninus, the beneficent. Now, it ii ,s j beyond the mark to discuss the relative c j degrees of wickedness which distinguisl !_ amusements obtainable in a Continenta 1- city and in a Britisn or colonial citj el ; on Sundays—the real question is, i≤ ii j- ; preferable for the bulk of people tc it ' ignore the religious aspect of the da} ! entirely, after the present well-estab (1 i lished British custom, or to give it atten | s i tion at least once, as is the very genera ; C Continental habit? Personally. 1 do no , a think there is very much wrong witl i- this "Continental Sunday." Certainly r [is not a dull, lugubrious day—there ii

little reason why a religious day should be a ''dull day"—the people got all the joy they can out of their holiday, but, for the most part, they get it after they have done their duty by their religion. And that is where the Continental Sunday differs very conspicuously from the British variety. I don't think there wouJd be much wrong with those cup matches at Taihape on Sundays, provided that the players and spectators had all taken good care to go to church once in the day before the matches started. But will they take that trouble —Taihape not being a Continental town?