SPORTS ON GOOD FRIDAY

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11546, 31 March 1903, Page 5

SPORTS ON GOOD FRIDAY

SERVICES AT THE CATHEDBAL.

ADDRESS BY BISHOP JULIUS;

The sentiment, on the part of Church people, against the holding of eporfc* meetings on a Good Friday, waa evidenced last night by the large congregation that attended a special service, called by the BJehop. The service opened with a Litany and Penitence, which was eung by the people kneeling The collects for the day and season, and special prayers, were wad by Dean H&rper, after which Bishop Julius delivered an α-ddrose. His Lordship eaid that from the very earliest days of Christianity Good Friday ■was observed as the anniversary of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ in every part of Christendom. There were differences of opinion as to tho date on which the celebration of His resurrection should be held, and therefore of hie death, but theivs was no difference -whatever throughout till Christendom, whether in east or west, as to the propriety of keeping, very solemnly and reverendly, the anniversary, or an anniversary, of that most cticred death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, through all the history of Christianity that day watt held sacred, and in the very earlicwt records of our own national history we ]iad reference, again and again, to the keeping holy of Good Friday. That use .and custom had prevailed in the three great branches of the Church from the beginning until now, and in England Good Friday waa held Mattered hh v Sunduy, and was observed down to the present time. Some people lately had been writing, and had been putting a great deal of enipliattis upon controversies that had arisen ages ago us to the date of the death of our Lord. Church people kept an nnniveieary-that had been determined by the Church, and the very controversies tl»ai arose about it only showed the deep importance that the Church and Christian people attached to it in those days long gone by. In this colony we had no State Church—we did not want a State Church —but we had Good Friday, and it

was a holiday, and why? Because it was Good Friday" and for that and no other reason. It was called Good Friday because it was the accepted anniversary of our Lord's death, and people were set free from their daily labours because ot that fact. There were a great many in this community to' whom Good Friday was a day of very great solemnity, and a day of very serious and , sad thoughts. Among the Roman Catholics the day waa held sacred, so it was among Anglican*, and so he believed it was increasingly among the great Methodist body, but there were others, he fully allowed it, like the Presbyterians of Scotland, who did not keep Good Friday, and there were other* who did not like the day because they did not see why they should keep it, and there were a'large number more, unhappily, who did not keep it because they had no special interest in it; in other words, it was „ nothing to them that Christ died upon the cross. He did, for one, most earnestly desire to increase the observance of Good ■ Friday among his own people, and it was the duty qf the Bishop and clergy to try and put that forward among their own people at the proper place, and on the proper occasion.' - But, on the other hand, they did not want to enforce, in any sort of way, their observance of Good Friday upon anybody elee. He should be very sorry if that should be thought so. Hβ did not even condemn men who declined to observe the day. A man woe not a sinner because he did not keep Good Friday, and was not necessarily a saint because he did. It was well known that, in the interests of what we were pleased to call sport, encroachment were being mad* upon ttte observance of Good Friday, and upon ■ other days as well. But the moment sport became a business concern, that moment it was always pushing and pushing, and trying to get in wherever it oould, and to oust everything else, and it was terribly hard to deal with the moment it meant money.

For four or five years sports had been held on Good Friday, in the face of a great many protests on the part of men who had tried to keep them out, and they were in again, and there was no getting them out. There was little doubt about it, thai that tendency would grow and grow, and.if it were not stopped now, there was no saying to what lengths it would go in the days that were coming. He would, in a few words, put before them his reasons for regretting ■ deeply the holding of sports on Good Friday, and his desire to abolish. «uch apart*. The highest reason he took to be this, that at one time the observance of Good Friday was a united act of reverence and love, on the part of the whole body of Ohrietiaoe; it was a great day of humiliation for every Christian in Christendom. He knew that ' divisions had put an end to that to a very , groat extent, but he took ib that there waa f not a grayter need for euch a day than the . present- thought that wae a strong point, for he to see the whole'body of Christians get nearer, and not further . apart. Then, he took it that tine holding, of epotta on Good Fridiay woe an,act of the very worst possible taste. We were a very email community in New Zealandthere were not a million of Uβ altogether— and we were bound together by eympathy, by loyalty to one another, by mutual respect, and by those ties we were held together as one people. It was altogether idle to call these things merely sentimental, and, because they were sentimental, to despise them. They were the ■ray bond and essence of our community, and kept us to* gether as nothing else oould, and anything - that went to break that, that set up one body against another, thai made twio set despise the ways amd doittge of another, wa» altogether and utterly, harmful. • A good master, °' another denomination, bad . spoken, w>ith a great d*al of .scorn, about the superstition of Anglicans in keeping days of months, and all the rest of it, but he warranted that that man kept hie birthday, and would be very much hurt if his childien did not'also keep it He would go further, and ray that U on that man's domestic calendar there was one day of particular sorrow, and if he (the speaker) were bis next-door neighbour, it would be in the worst possible taste for him to make that day a day'of noise and rejoicing. If he lived in a Mahommedan country, and among people to whom a certain day was a day of great reverence, he would be a scoundrel if he played fast and loose with the feedings of his neighbour* and fellow cifcfeens, by sinking public enjoyment on a day on which they were cod and eorrowful. Was it not en outrage opo» ii» public taeto, that we should be gradually working in public sporfcs upon Good Friday, sporta, which were, and could not fail to be, o>

pain and a hurt to a good many of' oar./ fellow citizens? Hβ looked upon it a« a mattes: of .very bad taste, ami, upon that gdound alone," i*is abandonment should', if possible, beseemed. He looked upon sport as a very religious thing, and it grieved him to the heeafc to see sport beiing defiled and lowered in tie way it was \xiv% defiled and lowered, because he bad loved sport ever since ihe was a boy, end because he'; knew how the dear old Mother Church had loved it, and had always helped it forward. Anything that ttos going to make «,- separation between the Churches and sport would bo doing a great deal of hacm to twUi. Sport would sick lower and lower, and would become a mere miserable matter ol money, and when it' nad come down to that its days -were numbered-, for recreation would pass from out of.R. What was to be done? Hβ did not know. Some nad approached one of the societies, and if this year nothing could be done, what about next year? Here" Trere some who were ■willing to rest in the belief <tfaat these mso would perhaps decide not to have, the eporte on a. Good Friday in future. H* - wished he could believe that. .• Hβ vu euro thafc come of tiro mem would ccc ihe matter in his light, but he would sure that come of them -would not, and he was very much afraid that, when the present movement died down, then© awn would say that it meant nothing, am? that it true jueb t«he agitation of a few fanatics. He wanted them to feel that, there wear a mjfeot maov people who objected: to tn« holding oi'epwto oa « Good Friday and

llißt was why he had asked them Jo be present that night. He had hoped that ot heirs would hare come, amd spoken, but tine and another had failed him, and he had to staitd alone. He wanted them all to back Kin up by }>utiting their nanus to the papers at the doors. He believed thty iwould see that) he had not spoken a* a ifenotic, neither Ivad lie spoken «-vil <>f tlios*' ■who jiffered witli him, but he wanted thorn to show respect lo the feeling* of itlmw? irho bolievwl thai, {.rood Friday was twcml. Tht> dtrchiration, Ut which 1k« invited *\\ioaturw, was read by liis lordship, as fol3ow.«i: — "We, the underrigited, wii-iiout in any ■way dea'k'inj; to enfuroc obwivanw of <J<hhl Friday ujxwi others, mrongly t'vpieuiU- tlie holding of public sports on ':hat day. as calculated to giro pain to many cit:2«-us. tt»d af it breach t>f that spirit of mutual toleration, and respect for the feel in;.'* of otiit-rs, which is tsaential to the of the community." After the seme* kij clu:*d witii the •ingins; of ".Stand up, stand up, for Jesus.' end t!w' jK-iii'diction, m-ii)b.:.s i.t_ t■μ-coii-givgation, to the number of 450, p.act-d tlitix upon the papers. The lists v.ll bt- left open tor fuither signatures in the porch under the towtr of thts Culiiitdral. Li the course of his sermon on Sunday ciylit at tk; Ashburton WwU-yan Church, the Rev. .Mr Fee recorded his vmphatic j/roU'st against the epurt* advertised to l>e li*ld iv Oliristdiurch on tjocd Friday. He did not pov.- as the fritii-d of any swtioii of Ur- Glmrch whifh indulged in Romanist and ritualistic pzuotittw, but vvtry branch of th- Church, isit-ludinir Roman Citi-holiftt, Anglian, and Nontonfonni.-t.s. WL-re unitid i» comnn-Jnorating the ciiilral evxtit on ii day which w:i« known as (Joml Fritlay. 'I'o'hold spirts o:i liu'. anniver»arv was s-.:i::d;i.lously ii:d-' : .-.:i)t, ..mil wu.< a.i iiK-ou.;rui;:i- ;;i:d i;.:;«e<-mly «■ mother <■•'■?■ bvaiiii'i; tin.- itr.niversary of h-.-r child's d:\ivh wi;!: .i I'.irty. of a mjii h.iving a dancing jmny on th<.' date which his mtithe'r tlk'd, or of I'm- r.:\'.Uz\ giving itself up to rm-rrinivnt :v-'-d on the anni\vreii.rv day of her late h-nviited Quitn Virturia's "i'.-atii. Tin- whove senw of the fitness of thlsiy.s writ- Mich that for love of gain, to satisfy the lust for gambling, and to gratify mm-j spoiting proclivities, they organised and attended spurts on Good Friday, were capable of dancing on the grave of a child, or mother, or a QutTen.