PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 112, 8 November 1906, Page 7

PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY.

THE STxVTE OF RELIGION. TUT TKLEGRArH. — PRKSS ASSOCIATION.^ DUNEDIN, This Day. At the Presbyterian Ooneral Assembly yesteiday the Rev. J. B. Burrell submitted a long lejiort on the state of lolijjiou, in which were embodied summanes' of replies of the sessions and home missionary to seven question. 0 . The mover raid some of the feature* weie favourable, but thcie v ere othei matters io \k regretted. Family life appeared to be destitute of religious basis. Pleasures Merc apt to be overdone. Young people, though connected wjth the cliuich, thov,ed no strong tendency to become full members., and midweokly prayer meetings "had dwindled to almost vanishing point. Among other things it was urged that parents should bo appealed to and guardians should be asked to seek the hallowing of family life, that the home might, by its purity and happiness, be able to ■withstand the attractions of questionable pleasures. It was also urged that they should rejoice in the widespread agitation against the totah'sator and belting- and gambling generally, and in the promise of the Government to introduce legislation on the Mibjsct ; and to exhort the people to fulfil thpir citizenship in uncompromising fidelity to the Gospel of Christ, ever paying supremo legaul to the bearing pf all civic questions jpon thai kingdom,* which is righteousness and peace and joy. On thu motion of the Rev. Dr. Gibb it was resolved th;\( tho assembly calls upon the Government to carry through the measure for " the abolition of the licensed totalizator, and to take such other s.teps as may help to suppress the gambling mania, which is both widespread and productive of ' immense harm to the luoials, oi the community. The temperance repoit submitted stated that a solid advance has been made in the caut>e of temperapce. The value of the figures at tLo last local option poll — continuance -182,884, no-lieepsu 198,768— could haidly bo overestimated. Judging by tho facts before the conunittPe from no-license electorates, there seemed to be a reduction of crime, serious and petty, of from 62 to 75 per cent. The leport Was briefly discussed and consideration 'adjourned.