WHY DON’T MEN GO TO CHURCH?

Evening Star, Issue 17685, 11 June 1921, Page 1

WHY DON’T MEN GO TO CHURCH?

Thq Governor of South Australia (SI? Archibald Weigall), speaking at a gathering in connection with the Christian Reunion Conference in Adelaide last w&ok (says tho ‘South Australian Register 3, said ho bad. been struck enormously with ono thing in Australia—and h-o had been impressed with is in England, too, (Since bis arrival he had endeavored to share, «o far as possible, tho joys and sorrows of tho people as a whole, In that connection ho had attended sorriceS at a. good many of the churches. Ho iiad noticed thsro the enormous prodominanoo of tho fair sex. To every one man present there had been eight or ten women. That was not a true reflection of the relative proportions of the population. He laid asked nuusclf: “Why don't men go to church?" Tho Australian was entirely jolly aryl hearty —ho lived in surroundings which made for heartiness—and ’no steered off from anything that tended to depress him or ehub down his natural heartiness. If ibeywunfod to get hold of _ tho men they must have short, sharp services and an air of cheoriness about tho whale thing, To bo good did nob mean to bo dull; one could bo happy and bo religious. Ho knew it would bo said that surely they did not want to appeal msrely to tho emotions, and that, after all, religion was not a primrose path of pleasure, but that it was n drum of duty to which they had to listen. Tho Australian was a sentimental fellow if they could touch rha right, chord of sentiment. Some would say it was a matter for reason, and not for sentiment. But if they could appeal to tho emotions rightly they could get reason afterwards. ■Ho might be wrong in his opinion, but what ho wanted to do was to get. the men there. Ho knew it was useless to stand on a. platform in a rarefied atmosphere while tho crowd passed by beneath and said tho platform was' not for them. Thoro must bo a ladder by which to walk down to the people, and it should have such an easy slope that tho average man in tho street would walk up it and join with them. All Boris of material things had boon tried to get tho men together, but they had failed. Did not they want now to gel down to fundamentals, and show tho people that, after all, their duty to their neighbor was very near to their duty to their God; and than if thev did thotr duty to their neighbor they would" go a very long way on the journey of making for the progress, prosperity, and happiness of all the people in the world. It was in that spirit that he most heartily commended the whole movement to them.