FOLLY AND FRIVOLITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 24 November 1915, Page 8

FOLLY AND FRIVOLITY.

. IN THE HOUR OF PERIL. a t AUCKLAND'S PATRIOTIC CARNIVAL. P a COMES IN FOR SCATHING ' CONDEMNATION BY PRESIDENT OF SYNOD. A striking reference to our duty as part of the Empire, and a scathing denunciation of the methods pursued in Auckland in raising funds at the Patriotic Carnival were included in the address by the chairman. Rev. I. H. Laws, 8.A., when opening the annual Synod of the Methodist Church this morning. ''You will. I am sure, -.pare mc a , moment to refer to the one insistent topic of the day,'' said Mr. Laws. "We meet, as we met twelve months ago, in the midst of an unparalleled world crisis. The earth is shaken with the crash of , war. 1 do not feel that we arc in any position to judge what the real situation is. but we know enough to realise that the Empire of Britain has never been in such peril as in this hour. All that we love is in danger. The finest ideals of modem life, the noble conceptions which the Kingdom of God has slowly wrought on earth, the honour of the plighted worn, the chivalrous respect for womanhood and childhood, the honourable protection of the weak and dopendent, the reign of freedom and justice . and truth on earth—all are asssailed by a vulgar, materialistic life-force, dominated by a ruthless passion to conquer. We have at last taken the full measure of the foe. of his vast resources, his infinite preparations, his powers of resistance and attack, his wicked unscrupulousness, and we know that we are in the midst of a life and death struggle with one of the must stubborn nations on earth. ' CITY GIVEN OVER TO GAMBLING. "I am ashamed that you should find our streets full of such folly and frivolity at such a time as this," added the president of the Synod, "and 1 am amazed that serious public men should looK on with even tacit approval at their citygiven over to a carnival" of sport and pleasure. These masks and gaieties, this revel of gambling, appealing in I lie name of patriotism to the most selfish instincts of the community, this "battle of confetti amid the grim realities of war —are all a sad revelation of how little the gravity of the hour has come home to tbe heart of the nation. It is the great and difficult task of the Church to bring the people back to a better mind, and if not to-day. then to-morrow she will be heard. She. and she alone, has the final message for this day of strife and agony, as Uaiah alone had the message for his great day of national i peril when he cried: "In quietness and i in confidence shall be your strength," t or as John held a secret unknown to ' the rulers of this world, when he saw J beyond the seas of blood and the loud < commotions of his distracted age the dcs- t cent of the fair city of God. t A NEW SHARP INSTRUMENT. ] "It is ours to speak of the unshakable - integrity of our cause, of the honourable ( conduct of our arms, of the reign of God , persisting through the darkest hours of j the race, of the leaping flames of inexor- f able justice which consume tyrannies ( that boast themselves as gods." added the speaker. "The driven sea lashes itself in the fury of its anger against | the. iron coast, but when the tempest Ithat was big with wrath has spent itself. i the eternal hills stand in their agelong strength and the precious argosy comes through the storm-wrack safe to shore. ( 1 can trust this world, even with the < red problem of war in its bosom, to the i guidance of Him who made it and us ] fqr H» own wise though as yet inscrut\ablo Jjurpoaw. The light "that > T ero. i

could not quench is not going to be put out by William of Germany. When Britain strikes her blow for which she has been preparing with an infinite patience and resolve, we shall see fulfilled the thing which God spoke to Has ancient people when he said: '1 will make, thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth."