HYMNS AT FOOTBALL

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 July 1938, Page 5

HYMNS AT FOOTBALL

A BISHOP’S COMMENT LON DON. .June' 1. The Bishop of Liverpool edits the Liverpool Diocesan Review, in the June issue there are comments about hymns sting al. football matches, ns well as about “gambling pools.” The Bishop draws attention to “a profit of about nine millions" reaped by pools promoters. "Th? football season over, it appears from advertisements that, there are to -be racing and cricket pools,” the journal states. "It was not do be expected that any avenues for extending a business so profitable to its promoters' would be overlooked or neglected. It is cslima-1e.,1 that seine 62 of these gentry, as a reward lor their services to the community -the -season just ended, have divided a profit of about £9,000.060. no douhl in wry unequal proportions. This sum has becir gratuitously handed Io them by about a third of the stolid adult, population of Britain. The latest, form of the. gambling craze has also brought, employment to an increasing body of professional tipsters. “The gambling mentality is notoriously incapable' of appreciating the mathematical doctrine of chances. But one might suppose that the most

. sanguine stupidity would be daunted by the tact that some coupons can be | filled up in over 14.000,000 ways, and that only 25 completely correct, forecasts were given in 330,000,000 attempts in iilieen weeks. Whatever tin- merits or otherwise of what is called the entertainments tax. it is- a tax not upon profits but upon receipts, and if this colossal gambling lamp is to he permitted there can bo no reason why it should not. make 1 to the State a- contribution, proportionately equal io that. lev'od upon theatre and cinema tickets. UNREALITY IN WORSHIP. i On the subject of hymn-singing by I football crowds, the journal says: — “Wo wish we could believe that certain forms of popular emotion were clear evidences of religious earnestness. None who have been present 1 at -the Cup Final at Wembley or have 1 listened Io Hie singing of ‘Abide With Me’ by that vast, crowd can -have fail- ■ ed 10 have been impressed. The ' Christian' religion, however, needs 1 more than emotion for its sustenance. ■ A religion which requires the big oc- • casion for its- exercise, or the moment, • of crisis for its appeal, is' of little value in the workaday world.. True re- ■ ligion requires no adventitious aids 1 to worship: it works in the most un- . favourable surroundings—'sometimes, ; : indeed, in opposition to the cPowd. If

religion is -to he of everyday worth it must be based on -reality. , "In anv case, is ‘Abide With Me an appropriate hymn to sing at the Cup Pinal” Lustilv to sing ‘Hold Thou 'l’Jiv Cross Before My Closing Eyes .seems to us specially inappropriate wln'ii we remember the widespiead m ul-d of Goad Friday observance, and the fact, that many of the principal foot ball mat ches ar.o played on Good Friday. We wonder what the effect would be if a cross were to be set up in the midst of the stadium during the singin'’’ of the hymn? “On the. occasic.il of the Cup Final we should prefer the singing of such a hymn as ‘Praise God From Whom ill Blessings Flow’ or ‘Praise. My Soul, the King of Heaven.’ We welcome any and. every sign of popular interest in religion, but We fear the danger of untealliy in worship.”