TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8867, 9 August 1894, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A CoNiEHBKCE on the The Clergy * attitude of 'the Church and towards amusements was Amusements, held the other day in > Melbourne, . when ' ; ' the clergymen present delivered themselves of many and diverse views on what will be acknowledged to be a very vexed question. The proceedings were opened by the Rev. Alexander Marshall, who may be regarded as the leader of that section of the Melbourne clerics who think that the Chhrch wonld come into relationship, with the people if it took more interest io tb&latterV amusements. He'has before now spoken strongly on this point, but on .the occasion, under notice, when he dealt particularly, with race-going, he did.sot commit himself either to advocating visits to Flemiogtos or to denouncing them." There was sound sense in his remark that the Church- had been too wholesale in-her denunciation of amusements, and that instead of following her usual course oi ignoring or condemning them sheahoukl act a*"a wise and judicious counsellor. As he went on to say that some pains must be taken to obtain accurate knowledge of the subject, not to apeak from mere hearsay, it looks ad if "the reverend gentleman was preparing his brethren for seeing hie name*mo&g those meatidaed as being present at Flemisgfera. next Cup Pay. " He was quite sure that the Master at the marriage feast at Caha did not spoil the innocent fun,there, and make the other guests uncomfortable by bis presence. (Bear, hear.) But the difficulty arose ia connection with other amusements which' were sot. themselves innocent of onwholesome Surroundings. For instance, racing was permeated with the terrible ourse of gambling. Such questions, in his opinion, should be lefc to the free judgment of the individual consoienee. The Church should point out where the evil lay, and then, without a shadow of blame or a syllable of reproof to those who felt free to eujoy the amusement itself, leave them to decide for themselves. ,. The Rev. A. Hardie, who followed Mr Hall, ! took a very Puritanical View of amusements. No good, he said, could come of eporte and. plays. Poor Mr Hardie! "There was nothing ia the Bible to encourage sports and playa except the-innocent playing of children in the streets and the sporting from pure love of joyfulness. Other aatusa-' ments were too much like the dancing ' around the golden calf. 9 We really'must plead guilty to shocking ignorance, but we ■ were under the impression that the race of | clergymen of Mr Hardte'd sort was extinct i long ago, and offer our condolences to Mel-1 bourne that such is net the case. *' He himself (said Mr bardic) had been to I the theatre and to circuses, and to this day he bore the stain upon his soul of things he wished he had never sees. God forbid that he -should.object to innocent amusements. But from these great maxld isitittttioM, is

which the name and spirit of Christ was not, but which claimed to be pleasures of humanity, the Church.muafc stand apart' We do not know at what theatres Mr Hardie obtained his soul-staining experience, but he must be a remarkable man to see anything objectionable—from a moral point of view—in a Circus. If it was for their general dolnsse that he wished fie had never seen them we could have eadantood him.

Thb long discussion which Sense ensued on the speeches above and mentioned was only remarkNonsense, able for the almost unanimous

expression that the Church could not countenance Flemington. The Rev. Dr. Robinson did not think that before Che Church spoke of amusements it should, be thoroughly informed of them. Sorely* he said, if they could not speak of the racecourse without going to Flemington, or the theatre without going to the play-house, it must be argued that they could not speak of drunkenness without getting drunk. There may be sound logic in this argument, bub there is very little sense. The men of noblest lives were seldom seen on racecourses—an assertion easy to make, but hard to prove, and which the speaker clinched by adding—" What a thrill, lor instance, would run through the British Empire were Moody and S&nkey to be seen on the racecourse," and yet if racecourses are the carnivals of rascality, which the Rev. JEL Price Hughea and others deem them to be, they are surely the very places where clergymen and evangelists of all kinds are most badly wanted." The Rev. J. Gibson supplied a ciieerftil little speech, the toue of which was in marked contrast to some of its predeetSaore. He oonaidered that the great majority of the, people who went to the Cup did not gamble, but took a good outing, somewhat after the fashion of a Suuday school picnic. The simile .was, perhaps, a trifle unfortunate, but the argument is a sound one, and if the clergymen who speak as if" racegoing and gambling beyond one's means were one and the same thing would take the trouble to find out the facts of the case, they would learn that a good many people go α-racing who don't care twopence what horses win so long as the racing is interesting, the sun shines, and they meet old friends, aud have a good time generally:—

"It was simply absurd (Mr Gibson continued) to say that there was no good in the racecourse or the theatre. Why, in business there had been far. more gambling than on the racecourse. The Church had already patronised cricket and football without the taint oj^profesaionaliam, and why should it not go in for a theatre without the taint. The theatre of the present day was not entirely: a survival of the ancient Greek theatre. It had been created by the mediaeval church.- The time had come, when the Church might give something better than magic lantern illustrations of Scripture. It was not by decrying the characters of actora and actresses that good was to be done, but by trying to exert a beneficial influence on them." 4 After this the Chairman's statement that he i objected to amusements which kept people out late at night fell rather flatly, especially as it would apply to church socials with almost, if not quite, as much force as to the theatre. The discussion was brought to a close by the Rev. Alex. Marshall, who said it was assumed because a young man waa seen at the theatre and Was afterwards ruined, that the fault was due to the theatre.. He might meat a prisoner in Pentridge, and finding that he used to go to churoli, say " What uhoroa ? " " The Rev! Dr. Rbbinson'e." • " Ah, that's it." It is to be hoped that Mr Marshall's reverend brethren took the moral embodied in these remarks to heart.' If they did not, it is hard to see what particular good was achieved by that Conference. ,

From South Australia cornea A Modern the story of one who in his Pied Piper, humble way has been emu-

lating the feats of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Instead, however, of devoting hie attention to ridding—after the, manner of , his legendary prototype*-hie. country of the plague of mice which is now i ravaging it, the shepherd whoje musical performances form the subject of a> para-, graph in "an Australian contemporary, appears in the role of a colonial-St. Patrick, >, and is said to be gradually clearing his locality of snakes. The gentle swain is .reported to be df a musical disposition, and to spend his spare time.in sitting on a tussock, amusing tjimseU with selections and variations on the flute. The opportunities for the cultivation of any of the fine arts by a shepherd on an out , station are limited, and as the flute .is not a particularly easy instrument,to, play, it may be imagined that the performance' was not one calculated to give keen pleasure to a musical critic But there is no accounting, for the rausioal tastes of the lower orders of animals , , and the shepherd's abilities in the flute line wetfc apparently good enough for the local variety of snake, a specimen of which one eveniug approached the player and; appeared to listen to hie sweet strains with what, it is claimed, was an expression of evident pleasure. The company of this unexpected visitor did nofc/pleaee the shepherd, who awaited his opportunity, end choosing a pause in the voluntary he was then playing, he -cfmole bis audience over the head with his flute so that it It is stated that after this the snake charmer in a similar manner disposed of a number of snakes, ;wac*e curiosity as,. to the source of such strange sounds led to their undoing, and that in one evening, When.the music .must have been TznueuaUy eottlwuarcbing,- a large number were despatched ia succession. If the shepherd would now learn taome instrument which would have the same power over rabbits asJiis flute has over snakes, ha would be in a fair way to become a* {famous &s the. Pied Piper, and there would {Kobably be so demurring as to his reward. • ' '* "•' ' '