"FRANTIC BOAST AND FOOLISH WORD."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 231, 23 June 1908, Page 6

"FRANTIC BOAST AND FOOLISH WORD."

It is long since tho public has been given two such notable sermons those which were delivered by Bishop Julius at

1 almerston on Sunday and in this city yesterday. His Lordship is unlikely to be disturbed should his utterances bring him a little unpopularity. On the contrary, he may feel that smartihg may bo the beginning of repentance. Of a kind as rare as it is wholesome, hi 3 sermons

have a special relish and timeliness just now, when the hills and valleys are still ringing with tho jubilant shouts of the Premier and his enthusiastic eulogies of

the unexampled excellence and prosperity of New Zealand. They were hard words . that His Lordship uttered, but we are afraid that they are very true. We have "no horizon,"

he said; wo are tho narrowest people on earth; we 'think 1 that New Zealand is the hub of tho Universe, and that at any rate the Old Country is dopendent

upon us; wc arc very little and talk big; we pipe anthems on our little tin trumpets in praise of our greatness—in short, what is' required in New" Zealand is " a little less bragging, a little less boastfulness, a little less big talking, and a great deal more earnest, honest, faithful service." Each individual New Zealandermust settle with himself the issues raised by the Bishop's sermons, but their lessons for our public men are the concern of everybody. We have always held that it is

time that New Zealanders gave up their belief that the largo world beyond tho seas is constantly watching- and admiring and copying us. Perhaps New Zealanders have begun to wake up from that extraordinary delusion. But in/Sir Joseph Ward's case the disease is more active

than over. It has been well remarked of boastfulness that it is a symptom of a state of mind which is a final cause of catastrophe. " Tho symptom is not there

without the germ of the disease. • Tho boaster boasts because ho is without the capacity of solf-criticism. Ho says all is well when it is not. . lie invites his countrymen to become ' drowned in security." So soon as the public recovers from the shock of ■ the Bishop's hometruths, so soon, we are sure, those truths will take root and spring up in a harvest of saving humility. . Can wc hope that the political teaching of tho sermon will not be disregarded 1 Tho noxt speech of tho Prime Minister may let us know whether he has recognised the liishop as a " disloyal " assailant of " the

country's crcdit," or whether ho thinks that there is after all something to ho said for those who pray for deliverance from " frantic boast and foolish word." It would do us all good if V,'C made a daily duty of remembering that sardonic passage of tho Bishop's sermon in which he assured his hearers that "if Now' Zealand' wore blotted 'out of existence, England would go into eight days' mourning and tho Admiralty would wipe us olf its charts."