SOCIAL OUTSPOKENNESS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1905, Page 5

SOCIAL OUTSPOKENNESS.

AN APPEAL TO Till; PEOPLE. At the Baptist Church last night tho Rev, J. J. North made reference to the abovo subject. Ho had, ho said, intended to pi ouch on religious outspokenness, and his intention had been fortified by tho action of Mr. T. ' E. Taylor in respect of the social question. That bravo voico from Christchurch had wpoken to the wholo nation. Kvoty man who loved righteousness would rejoico in tho bland taken by Mr. Taylor. Tho need for outi-poken men in relation to the prciai.ing immorality was intense. Things were shockingly bad. A cesspool was festering boneat'h tho peaceful HUi-faco of society. Some deprecated the Mirring of its foul depths ; and reasonably .so unless there was a oeriouH intention to drain them. Mr. North beliuved that such mi intention was forming itself in tho minds of miuiy. The sin of tho streets wuh unbpcuktible, Liccntiounnem among mere lads was reaching toward the pitch of ffhiimeltMmess. Our schools wero threatened. Ho (Mr. North) had just come f i oHi a clean quiet town whoso citizens had recently been horrified by tho discovering of the immoi 1 condition of its main school. It was becoming more and inoro difticult to bring up a family dcconlly under the existing conditions. Wo hnd not yet reached tho cynical shainclcsNiitss of Pagan Rome; nor had wo returned to the abyss from which John Wesley rescued the England of the eighteenth century. But the villuin who was unmasked last week had journeyed far, nnd tho trouble was (hat ho was not n. lonely villain. If the truth wore told about the moral condition of Wellington as frankly as economical or statistical truth wus told them would bo an unpleasant awakening. For tho salvation of Bocioly there must bo outspoken social voices. Law is a clumsy weapon, and often missed the principal criminal. In this particular direction the law. is »hockingly lax. There was, however, a moro awful punishment than law could inflict, and that was tho wrath of society. If men hated sin tho streeta would bo cleaned. Moro teniblo than the policeman was the indignation of ono'd fellows. Let men who wrong women nnd women who are unsexed encounter the wrath of the city, and they would understand hell. For all lived so much upon tho respect of their fellowmen. The tragedy of tho piescnl situation was that tho lespect was not openly withdrawn from the notoriously licentious. If the right sort of stuff wero in us, the shocking murder committed in Christ church last week wou'd create in us a new attitude toward tho cruellest vice. Mr. Taylor hnd been called a brave man. no did his plain duty. Wo ought to do ours. A cordial bearing toward the notoriously licentious was n crime ugninal tho well-being of society. It was the cowardice of tho majority which had given so yieat an impetus to social evil. Mr. North wcnl on to state dhat social cownrdiw hnd it» roots in religious cowardice. He pleaded for an outspoken nttitudo in relation to goodnew and to God. His lemarks wcto closely followed by a largo congregation.