MORAL DECLINE IN FAMILY LIFE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 5 March 1912, Page 5

MORAL DECLINE IN FAMILY LIFE.

CHRISTIAN training"op " v ". .. CHILDREN. :;•;::, ; AUCKLAND, ,'^est«/^ay. : '.'. ' The moral decline in the family of the Dominion wasis a.- i. upon by th'e Rev. G. W.'-SpencV,-rfitiiung president of. the New. Zealand "Methodist Coference, in his address' • at'..; the' opening session. It was. he said, most, distressing to find what a large proporr' tion of children, even in professedly Christian homes, proved to . be' receiving practically no Christian trainingduring the most impressionable period, of ,„• their' life. Formerly, it was ; ,the comiioon practice amongst Methodists- : to: have, family worship at least;; : pnce a day, but this excellent usage seemed now to be the exception rather tha,n the rule. He had no hesitation in sayihc that tliis_ was a most serious loss,, not o-nb" to the individual, but to the church and to the State. In these days, when our public schools' education was exclusively secular and family, "worship was largely crowded out of the dav's programme, how were our chidreri"to .be, instructed ; in Bible truth? 'Too often this all' im'- ; oortant duty devolved maihlv on the.' Sunday School teacher, and while he vielded to no one in his appreciation of the self-deny-ing efforts of Sunday School teachers, vet he said emphatically'that haf an hour's religious instruction on one day in seven was totally inadequate for a child, no matter how eoocl- the. teacher might be. Further, this'' waswork which should not be done by proxy, but bv those primarily and morally res■ponsible:—the parents—than .wh'pm'' nn' one had freer access to"the child's hearts or wreatcr influence" over the chad's mind in its formative period. —"Post" Corres-' pondent. ;