SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

Evening Star, Issue 20052, 18 December 1928, Page 12

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

BISHOI> CHERRINGTOH REPLIES to m ’ Star. 1 ] AUCKLAND, December 17. Preaching to the text (St. James, 1., 27): — Pure religion atyl 'undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world ” Bishop Chernngton yesterday gave to a large congregation at St. Peter’s Cathedral, Hamilton, a further exposition of his views regarding Sunday observance. As a bishop of the Church of God,' he said, it was not his business to interfere with the interpretation placed upon the Scriptures by other societies that had separated from the church. Anything taught by the PresJbytorian, Methodist, or other Christian communions had nothing ,to do with him, and he would be the last to instruct them as to what they should teach and practice. It had been suggested that he had advocated the Continental Sunday. So far as the two Continental countries he was familiar with—Belgium and France—were con- ■ corned, if people went to church in New Zealand with anything like the regularity they did in those countries, especially in Belgium, live new churches would be wanted in Hamilton. People had been vexed and troubled because they thought he wanted to do away with Sunday schools. He was second to none in admiration for the ladies and gentlemen who for years had devoted Sunday mornings and afternoons in teaching the children. However, he considered that the whole system was wrong, because religious instruction should not be given on the Lord’s Day as such. Sunday schools were started in England last century by Mr Ilaikes, not for the purpose of religious instruction, but to teach boys and girls how to read and write. In, those days children were employed in the pits and factories for twelve and 1 fourteen hours a day, and no other i opportunities of education were given' than those provided on Sundays. t “1 do not believe in the Bible in i schools system.” said Dr Cberrington., “ I do not fully approve of the Nelson j system, but if you cannot have reli-1 gious instruction in schools, with the right of entry by the clergy, as was permitted in New South Wales, there is no alternative to the present system.” He did not see how, for a Christian people, there could be any divorce between one day and another. Every day should be spejit to the glory of God. People must be straight and open and fair. If it was right for one person to play golf or to play tennis on a private court on Sunday, then he did not see how another person, who could not play golf or own a private tennis court, should be debarred from playing tennis on a club court on Sunday. He was sorry St. Peter’s Tennis Club courts were not open on Sundays. ! Hours might be restricted to, say, from i 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., so as not to clash with church hours, but he regretted the action of the authorities in forbidding play at all on Sundays. Some people enjoyed riding a motor cycle built for two, some enjoyed a pipe and a book, while others enjoyed muscular exercise. What was fair for one must be fair for another, concluded the bishop.