THE SINS OF ENGLISH SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 13013, 7 January 1907, Page 8

THE SINS OF ENGLISH SOCIETY.

Father Vaughn n's sensational permons on the above subject arc to bo issued in book form. Speaking to a representative of London 'Truth,' the worthy father declares that ho lias nothing to modify in the statements lie bus made from tl>o- pulpit. "Do you, then, still hold that fast society is as bad, or even worse, than you have described it'*" —" It is my deliberate belief that I have understated what is going on to-day, not among the upper ct;cise6 only, but in the middle class, and right down among the working people also. What I know, most observers of men and manners know likewise; but they refuse, to acknowledge it, preferring to conceal what' is now wrong, hoping time will set it right." •'Bo yon -think, tV-n, thai, society is worse to-day thaji it. was at the time of the Georges V —''My goodness! I don't think it- could be mneh worse now than it was then : hut. taking into consideration the gospel of modern progress, Knglar.d is much worse, because it ought to bo much bettor." "Can you tell me the amount of good vonr widely-reported sevmenfi have done?" --••> Co, that T cannot tell you till after the Judgment Day. The. results of one's labors in the' pulpit are known to God onlv. and Ho keeps His secrets to Himself." "On the whole do you think that lingland is on the down grade?" —"I am bitterly grieved to say that, after feeling her pulse, looking into her eyes, and diagnosing her moral condition. I am forced to confess England's symptoms are very bad." " But what, in your judgment, are these tokens of national decay'.'"—" Among the malignant diseases from which England, this dearest land in the whole wide world, is suffering, the very worst of all is apostasy from God. indifference to the claims of God. If my countrymen really recognised God's sovereignty over them, instead of having from 80 to 90 per cent, of the population keeping awav from places of worship on Sundays, wo should certainly have an

average of two-thirds going to church. It is ;iU very well for writers on the Press to ascribe this absenteeism to bad preaching and worse music; the real reason is further back than that; tliey don't want church because they don't want God; and that's the end of it. God is treated in His own world as though He were somotliing less, thau a constitutional monarch."