THE CHURCH AND LABOUR.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 120, 19 May 1909, Page 7

THE CHURCH AND LABOUR.

[from otjr correspondent.] ' WELLINGTON, Monday. From time to time a lot of stupid nonsense is talked by the Socialists about the Church's alleged lack o* sympathy. Dr. Gibbs, of St. Johns, is often indiscreet and arrogant in his pretensions as to the influence of the Church, and I have often drawn attention to public utterances of his which cabled, so it seemed to me, for reprehension. But I am heartily in accord with the Doctor in his comments upion the recent attack on the Australian churches made by Mr Fisher1, the Labor Prime Minister of the-Commomvßalth. Referring to vliis, attack and the conduct of the local Socialists, Dr. Gibbs was yesterday most outspoken. "My comment on those sentiments," said Dr. Gibb, 'is hosh, and canting bosh at that. It is time and more than time that ministers of religion spoke out plainly when called on to vindicate the Church against the aspersions of critics of the Socialist type, whether high-placed men like Mr Fisher or hoodlums like those that have turned at least two recent meetings in this city into a veritable bedlam. If I have any adequate knowledge of the situation, Uie Church has been for some time past very vigorously telling the rich) man of his shortcomings and lack of* the feeling of brotherhood; it is time the Church had begun to tell the poor man that he may be as poor as he calls himself and as selfish as ihe devil. Socialism, may be right or it may be wrong as an economic theory —1 think it is ; wrong—but a man may be a good, Christian and a convinsed Socialist. > But it will not be the Socialism of * class hate and general yahooism. The Church has been the friend of the poor, the genuine poor, and unhappily too often the friend of the poor whose poverty is cmc to their own thriftlessness and *worthlessness. It would take a long time to recite what is being done in this city directly and indirectly through the churches j to relieve suffering and help, the,helpless." After referring to the snlendid work done by Christian philanthropists in the cause of, humanity, Dr. Gibbs proceeded to say: "And the Church and Christian men will continue vo be philanthropists. They cannot be anything else without denying the Christ,Who was not only the Son of God, but also the carpenter of Nazareth. But if the Church takes up the political role to which Mr Fisher calls it, and begins fco preach Socialism or any other ' ism' than the Gospel 01 the grace of God—the Gospel which is not primarily bread and butter, but righteousness—the only reliable guarantee in the long run even of bread and butter—then her end will be at hand. There will in this case be as few to mourn her disappearance as there would be to mourn the disappearance of some Labor agitators and the Socialistic crank if they were to vanish from the sum total of created things." The "Socialistic cranks" will probably give the Doctor a warm quarter of an hour at their next meeting at the Queen's Statue, but the clergy-

man on this occasion, at any rate, will have the majority of the people with him. The fai;i is tlat everybody whose opinion is vrortli having is heartily :iick of the r.. sy liLole ..aud of, nobnriety-seekiug to alis:,.; ar,'. Labor agitators who aie s, jnsu',.ntly ir- V/i- ; dence in ■ Welling'.oi; -x..i tLc oame time it would be well for Dr. Gibbs and other ministers tj remember that they themselves have, during the I'ist two or three ( years, put up peoples' backs by attempted interference with the rights of the people.' Let. the shoemaker, stick to his last, and the parson to the preaching of religion.