THE CHRISTIAN SUNDAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 20 October 1924, Page 2

THE CHRISTIAN SUNDAY.

WORDS OF VOLTAIRE QUOTED. ■ “A* BENEFICENT PROVISION.” “If you would destroy this Christianity you must first get rid of t}ie Christian Sunday.” These words of the scoffer Voltaire were quoted by Bishop Aver ill in his charge to• the Diocesan Synod while dealing with the growing laxness in Sabbath observance ‘‘by the secularisation of Sunday.” He- declared: “We are joining with the thoughtless and Godless crowd in destroying Christianity.” He went on to say that Socialism and Bolshevism flourished in an atmosphere of selfish abuse of privilege. “The old Sabbath day was, and the present Lord’s Day is, God’s beneficent provision for man’s spirt-ual, mental, and bodily equiliabuse of the day, with the inevitable abuse of the day,” with the inevitable results therefrom; afford standing witness to God’s wisdom and man’s folly. From the physical point of view tiie secularisation of the Lord’s Day is fraught with considerable dangers" and the ever-increasing development of nervous disorders is a standing testimony to the value of a quiet Sunday. The proper observance of the Lord’s Day has suffered considerably at the hands of some of its. so-called friends, who, iii attempting to lay down a minimum requirement for the observance of the Lord’s Day, have done as much harm as others have done in trying to foist a “Puritan Sabbath” upoip the. weekly Christian festival. Sunday observance is not based upon compulsion of law, but freedom and the contrasting power of love and where there is "no love——love for God and love for our neighbour men will continue to abuse their privilege and ignore tlieir responsibilities. “I have no time for those supercilious individuals,” continued Bishop Averill, “who are condescending enough to regard religion as necessary, even if a necessary evil, for the sake of endeavouring to maintain some ethical standard in the world and keeping back the forces of spoliation and anarchy. If religion is to be upheld and patronised as a lever for the greater security of the selfish and their, .possessions, a kind of soporofic for keeping dangerous people quiet, a kind ,of moral adjunct to the police force, I for one would not insult Almighty God by. pleading the cause of religion. If God’s law can be openly ignored and despised, why should man’s law be respected? The growth of Socialism and Bolshevism flourishes in the atmosphere of a selfish abuse of privilege and disregard of stewardship and brotherhood. I would appeal to all men of goodwill not to abuse their liberty for the sake of example, for the sake of the young, for the sake of the country, and for the sake of a chaotic world.”