ON SUICIDE. REV. R. J. CAMPBELL'S REMARKABLE SERMON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 08, 10 January 1908, Page 8

ON SUICIDE. REV. R. J. CAMPBELL'S REMARKABLE SERMON.

P.ev. R. J. Campbell, in the course of a remarkable sermon at the City Temple i on the subject of Christ feeding the multi- ] tude, in which he referred to a i event ( suicide in the Thames of an author and his artist ■ttifc, "who polished for want of bread,"' asked the congregation if they j really believed the Ne,w Tnstameni story in its literal sense. Tho men who told the story were Orientals and were not deceived' in the least. They used it to illustrate the spiritual vrlue of Jesus to the world. The feeding of the multitude was not tho feediup of the body, but the feeding of the soul with the bread of ltfo. It was a felicitous and beautiful symbol, but its beauty was destroyed and its tea<thicg ruined when they sought to reduce it io the physical plane. This statement evoked two or three cries of "No," and one- member of tho congregation indignantly exclaimed, "certainly not." Mr. Camptell : Very well, don't interrupt. The preacher proceeded to n(ate that the average representative of the Christian Church argued that it was physical food, and "Now," said Mr. Campbell, "see the pretty mess into which they have landed us to-day. "If Jesus came to minister to us tody» and did not say who He was, do you thmk His Own' church would receive him' gladly? ("No.") It- would not, I am perfectly sure. It would regard Bun a& a dangerous revolutionary, engaged in upsetting order in the Church and State. "He would expose the whole sy&tem und hollow shani of giving people good advice, or putting sticking-plaster on a "running sore and calling it a cure, while \v« continue to profit by their material disadvantages." Referring to the suicide; of Mr. and Mrs. Good, Mr. Campbell said that they had chosen that end because thfc shuggle to live was too much for them. "Here ware (.wo people of refinement and culture," continuad Mr. Campbell, "brought up in good circles, able to produce beautiful thoughts and things, and yet they peri.ihed. As they hud lived, loved, aDd suffered together they thought they would die together and end it all. I suppose there are some people who would say these two poor things would go to he!l. ("No.") If so. it cannot ba very much worse than the hell they left. (Applause.) Who makes that hell? I make it. You make it. We all do our little to help to make it — not willingly, but thoughtlessly. "If we had only known in time there is not a man or woman in this congregation who would not , have shared his or her last crust to save this couple from tho end of which they had heard. We are all sorry. Yet for every one of the- cases ire hear of there are 10,000 which aie not heard of, and of Trhicli we never shall hear."

Mr. Edward Chopper, the oldest 'member of the Melbourne Stock Exchange, died on New Year's Eve, aged 81. Mr. Jainen Moriartj\ the well-known Sydney barrister, has been appointed interim editor of the National Advocate, Balhurrt. Owing to pressure on its green accommodation, the Thorndon Bowling Club has decided to withdraw from all nitcrcfuo competitions except the Pennant matches. The Hon 'T. W. Hislop, who has been visiting his brother, Mr. James Hislop, in Dunedin, will return to Wellington to-morrow morning. Mr. James Hislop has been sefiously all, and yesterday ho was reported to be not so well ' " . • ' Sir John Madden, Chief Justice of Victoria,- Miss Ruby Madden, and Colonel Campbell will leave for Rotorna to-day", journeying by way of the Main Trunk railway line. Mr. B. E. H. Whitcombe", of the firm of. Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, who has recently returned from an extended tour of England and the Continent, will take charge of the Wellington branch of the firmEjatvick Rea, a jockey, who was injured during the progress of the Bega (N.S.W.) races a tew days ago has received news that he- had inherited a fortune' of £11,000. "I would suggest," said the Mayor of Parnell (Mr. G. W. Basley), at the meeting of the Parnell Council the other evening (reports the Star), "that we, on entering the New Year, express our admiration of the very tactful manner in which the Mayor of Wellington has handled Mr. Keir Hardie." (Laughter.) Twenty-six assisted passengers are on board the Papanui, which is due from London in about a fortnight. Amongst the number are five farmers and their families, and five domestic servants (three for Port Chalmers and two for Auckland). The Otago Daily Times says: — "The conviction to which reasonable men must como, is that Mr. Keir Hardie blundered in what ho said and did in India. It is most likely, as . some of his apologists contend, that he blundered honestly. If so, however, why has he not the honesty to admit as much?" Mr. E. Heywood, of Wellington, has been appointed manager of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company's Hamilton branch, vice Mr. G. W. Sare, who is to take charge at Dijnedin. Thus St. James's Budget on manner^ of cricket crowds : — "Some misgivings were felt by thobe who were well acquainted with Australian crowds as to how Jones's team, which is a trifle younger and less experienced than most of these visiting elevens, would be effected by the behaviour of the Sydney spectators. Other teams have suffered a good deal from their strong and freely expressed partisanship. Braund and Rhodes have prpbably a vivid remembrance of the yelling and hissing that swept over the ground in one of the test 'Hatches of 1903, when Crockett gave Hill run out, a verdict fully confirmed by those who were in the best position for seeing. And this display of bad mariners unfortunately origin ated, not in the cheap seats, but in the members' pavilion itself. At a subsequent test match the refusal of the umpires to restart the game directly rain had stopped upset the temper of the spectators. They did not swarm indignantly round the pitch like a cer-t-am crowd at Lord's last summer, but they chaunted 'Crock! Crock! Crock!' Whey play began, they threw the bottles which hud contained the principal part of their lunch on to the cycle track and shouted "One! Two! Three!" as Rhodes strode up to the wicked to bowl. It is a tribute to the Yorkshireman's imperturbability that this did not affect his pitch in the- least. This year the crowd has on the whole been less aggressive." Mont Biinguez, about 2000ft 'in height, situated in tho Herault. recently slid along a surfaeo of 400 yards, dragging arable. land, corpses, and medows with it. Tho aspect, of tho country was said to resemble a, district de\astated by a tcrrino earthquake. Mounds rose in every direction, little lake? were formed, and the big road having bcon blocked up, a village was deprived of means of communication. Engineers sent in hastn to the- scene of this very inconvenient phenomenon calculated the bulk of this "moving mais" at unwdi of 40Q.0G3 cubic metrai ■

While in Christchurch Mr. Keir Har- j die said that theie is absolutely no comparison between the municipal working ! men's homes of Glasgow and the State working men's homes in Chriatchurch. They are as unlike, almost, as they can be. _ And Glasgow has the most advanced corporation in the-. United Kingdom in this respect. The rents of the municipal homes in Glasgow are from 83 to 9s a week. They are composed of a kitchen and another room, | and they are utteily devoid of gardens. Mr. Ilardie states that the London County Council's experiments in making homes for th© people are giving good results in a way. A mistake was made in building rooms much too small. The council had to pay a very high price for the land, and it 'has been compelled to charge more rent jthan most working men can afford to pay. Messrs Warnock and Adkin's big Eale will commence to-morrow to finish up tho season and a largo price list is in preparation. j The Duke of Portland's extensive estates comprire 100,000 acres in Caithness, 17,000 in Aryshirp, 12,000 in Northumberland, 10,000 in Nottinghamshire, and 5000 in the Midlands.