PUBLIC WORSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 2, 2 July 1929, Page 10

PUBLIC WORSHIP

DECREASED ATTEND-

ANCE

"INORDINATE LOVE OF PLEASURE"

In his presidential address at the opening of the Diocesan Synod to-day, Bishop Sprott referred to tho drift from organised roligion, and amongst tl.j causes he mentioned was the inordinate love of pleasure. ".Now I imagine that if I were to ask you to namo the cause, some of you would answer: the inordinate love of pleasure, so characteristic of our time," said Bishop Sprott. "And truly that is what meets the eye, as Sunday by Sunday we see processions of motor-cars and omnibuses and excursion trains bearing multitudes, on pleasure bent, into the country at the hours of Divine service, and reflect that this is going on in every Christian country. "Among tho striking developments in these wonderful days of ourß, not the least striking is the development of the machinery of pleasure. 1 myself can recall a time when this machinery of pleasure simply did not exist. In those days, unless people had horses and vehicles of their own—and, of course, the vast majority had not—Sunday travelling was practically impossible. People could take walks on Sunday, pay social calls, or play games near to their homes —though public opinion rather discountenanced this; but such recreations did not necessarily interfere with attendance at public worship. Now all this is changed. A vash machinery of pleasure has come into existence. An ever-increasing number of people possess motor-cars, and private companies and railway departments vie with one another in attracing for financial profit the custom of those who have them not. "All this may well seem sufficiently to account for the general drift away from public worship, and beyond doubt we have here a true cause of the present religious situation; but I cannot think it the sole cause or the ultimate cause. For one thing, the drift from public worship had begun before the development of the machinery of pleasure, and, further, it would not be true to say that all who habitually abstain from public worship are inordinate lovers of pleasure. The fact is Sunday pleasuring, if it be a cause, is also to a large extent an effect."