THE FANCY FAIR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3519, 18 October 1882, Page 2

THE FANCY FAIR.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegeaph.] y IB) —Ab an old Wesleyan —as one who remembers tbe simple faith taught in the days of my childhood—will you allow me a small corner in your paper to say a few words in connection with the forthcoming fancy fair? Perhaps it is because lam old ; perhaps it is because I cannot bring my mind to quite the level of the age ; but tbis much is certain, that I cannot allow myself to remain silent when every thought and feeling—every prejudice if you will—are pained by the reflection that the Wesleyism of to-day is not the Wesleyism of my youth. I may be wrong ; I may have stood still while the great world moved on ; but I think and I hope that the simple teachings of the revered founder of Methodism, cherished by my father and grandfather, and taught to me at my mother's side, are still sufficient for our guidance, and if adhered to would prove sufficient for the guidance of our church affairs. "Owe no man anything" was what Wesley taught and WhitSeld preached. " Come out from amonst the ungodly" was an injunction that was ever urged. How do we regard tbat teaching now ? Is it too oldfashioned for us? Was it suitable enough for tbe rugged simplicity of our grandfathers, but altogether out of place from the pulpit of to-day ? In whatever j light we regard it, we, apparently, quite content to disregard it. " Owe no man anything," and we have got into debt. " Come out from amongst tbe ungodly," and we have to go in amongst them in order to pay our way ! It has become the fashion to do these things by the churches of all religious persuasions and the Wesleyans now follow the lead set them and turn their backs on John Wesley. But the ordinary fancy bazaar, with its gamblingand trickery, has lost its savour ; it will no longer draw the fooh?h and giddy, because its swindles have become too palpable even to be covered by the flimsy rag that now does duty for the old-fashioned cloak of religion. "No, Sir, we must bare a novelty ; we must attract the crowd?, no matter from whence drawn ; fo long as we get their money we do not care much how they earned it, or how it comes into our possession. When I was a child dancing was considered worse than levity, and even thirty years ago, in this colony of New Zealand, no true Wesleyan would allow a daughter of his to dance in public. But what have we come to, —upon what days have we (alien ? A May-pole dance is advertised under the auppices of a Weyleyan Church to heighten the attraction of a Fair!--A fair which to visit would in years gone by have been a sin.

And not a voice is raised in protest, j trow that if the spirit of John Wesley could be observed to walk through the hall when the mummeries of the fancy fair were turning the minds of tbe young into channels of frivolity, that tbe elders of Trinity Church would be glad enough to disavow their patronage of the unholy means of getting out of a debt that should never have been contracted ! But, Sir, John Wesley's spirit is not likely to be seen in the Theatre. But that the spirit of what be taught may not always be forgotten is the prayer of an old Wesleyan.

Napier, October 17, 1882,