MUSIC AND ORATORY

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 138, 9 December 1919, Page 4

MUSIC AND ORATORY

CHAUTAUQUA MEETINGS.

Mr. M'Clelland Reed gave a brilliant address on "A New Era in Civilisation" at the Chautauqua, meeting yesterday afternoon at the Town Hall. He likened civilisation to a mighty river, ending mi' tho broad great sea of Humanity. Into that river flowed many tributaries, many beneficent but some foul. Science, education, religion, all had their great part in swelling the main stream, but it was fouled by ignorance and superstition. The results of these evil tributaries were to be seen in Russia to-day, and also in Mexico. Ignorance and the absence of religion were responsible for the great upheaval in Russia, with its appalling effects upon humanity. The relations between the United States and Canada— a country where the people were educated and religion was given a practical interpretation—were contrasted with the state pi affairs existing on the United StatesMexican border, where an armed forca was necessary, while on the Canadian border of 3000 miles there were no soldiers on either side of the line, and only six police depots for a line of 3000 •miles. The new era in civilisation demanded that the Church should justify its continuance as a power for good, and that the breach between Labour and Capital—tho one being absolutely indispensible to-the other, should be closed up, for it was now-as wide as it would! go, short of revolution.

The Zedeler. Quintette gave an.all too brief concert, with selections from "Faust" (Gounod), "Les Huguenots," 'Martha," and Mendelssohn.