CALAMO CURRENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9220, 24 November 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENTE.

"How is it that so few men attend our services ?" was the pertinent question that the consideration of one of our ereat ecclesiastical courts, holding high festival during the past week in Auckland ; and I do not know at this moment any other question of greater import to the Churches and religion than this very one of ■vvliV it is that men don't go to church. "Oh that men* would praise the Lord" was the text chosen once by a divine, more witty than devout, as he looked around and saw so many bonnets among his congregation ; and it must be the wonder of an earnest preacher many a time, that men do not. come as women do to church ; and attributing the phenomenon probably to a lack of the devotional element in the stronger sex, or a spirit of forgecfulness of indedtedncss to Providence, he looks at the small number of undiscovered heads among the endless array of bonnets, and plumes, ■md leathers, and (lowers, and other bravery deek the heads of his fair worshippers ; a .„j lie has telt earnestly in his heart, even if he has not prayed aloud, "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and tor his wonderful works to the children of men." That the question is deeply moving the clerical mind appears in the fact that at the other great ecclesiastical Council also held in the city, they approached it simultaneously in another way ; for they engaged in the solemn investigation of whether the devotional element was greater in woman or in man, the verdict being of course that in woman it predominated ; arguments merely going to sustain the foregone eonelusion, cased on the overwhelming preponderance ot bonnets at church. I take it, therefore, that the subject is one that is puzzling the clergy, ami as with the very greatest reverence for the order, I do not think that the clercry are capable of coming to a correct conclusion on the subject, •win" that they look at it only from one tide," and only see the bonnets and bare heads from the pulpit, I, who mingle witl. the wicked world, and take a passing note of the motive feelings that are the springot human action, would like to aid in the inquiry by expressing my convictions as to the reason why men do not go to church awomen do.

"It was shown,"' says the report in the Herald, "that this was not a feature of our country congregations, but it is a sad feature of our town congregations. The Rev. J. Dukes expressed his conviction thai much of this was due to two causes(l) the absence of so manv young men from our Sunday services is due to the excessive physical exercises on the Saturday ; and (•J," the moral effects of the press. The weakness of the pulpit has been exaggerated. Many of the newspaper articles have misrepresented tacts." Now, the first of these reasons may be briefly dismissed, for the proportion of young men who go in for athletics, and especially to an extreme extent, is so small that their absence would be as a drop from tiie bucket amid the thousands of our population. Of the second reason Ino not know what to make. Mr. Dukes says that men staying from church is owine to the " moral eliectsof the press.' Is it that the press has so tar absorbed the functions of the pulpit that the world 110 longer requires the latter as a moral regenerator ? Does he mean that the moral effects" cf the press are so salutary and so forceful, that* the people a.-k for nothing more? or is it that the Hkkald Saturday's Supplement _ is so interesting and absorbing that men feel disposed to lie on their backs a lei Mr. Upton, and peruse it, instead of going to church? Or can we imagine that Mr. Dukes intends to imply that the influence of the press is so wicked that it leads men -to disregard the duties of religion ? It is difficult to know what he means, but, surely this would be the most unkindest cut of all to come from an Auckland minister: for though it is the business of the press to freelv criticise everything, the press of Auckland, whether morning or evening, has been at all times noted for a kindly and even a cordial leaning towards the support of religion and religious movements ; and it is only the hypersensitiveness of religious circle who regard any criticism of themselves and their methods as unfriendly criticism of religion itself, that could father su;h an idea as that the influence of the press is exercised against men going to church.

But let us fairly face the question of why so few men as compared with women attend services at church. And it i a my wish to treat the subject as reverently and as impartially. but at the same time as faithfully, as 1 possibly can. Now, there is a percentage of churchgoers who go to church from right motives—men and women who are sincerely pious ; whose hearts are so tuned to heavenly things that it is a real delight to them to be there ; who love to praise the Ltcrnai, and to whom prayer in the sanctuary is real communion with the Throne of Grace. There are these ; but they are not many ; indeed they are very few nowadays I fear "and nine-tenths of churchgoers go to church from no such motives. Their motives are tnainlv conventional. They go because it is the proper thing to 'do so, and it is the proper thing to do so because all per-ons having any self-respect have been accustomed to do so. New, as woman is far more conventional in her habits than man, we have here one of the principal causes why there are far more women than men at church. Woman is a much more devout worshipper of that thing which is known as respectability than is man ; and so when man is disposed to lie down on his back, like .Mr. Upton, and snooze, woman routs him out and makes him go with her to church ; and that is the reason why we see so many men even now as there are in the pews.

Again, it must be owned that woman has more of the emotional nature than man, and the sympathy of a crowd, and the music and the bustle, are more congenial to her; in fact, in her more placid life, it is a species of mild dissipation that i- pleasant to her, and apart altogether from the nature or objects of the service, such a break in the comparative monotony of existence is a welcome change that she i- riot willing to forego. Further than this voman has more of the elements that go to Tnuke up the devotional nature than man. To iif'Crin with she is as a rule not so wicked a-man. She has not known - - o much devilry as most of us ; and so her feelings can find it nosier and more agreeable to come close in contact with good thoughts ; and she is lriofr; reverential withal, and as she is more fiearr. than head, she fee! l more than she I'-a-ni-, and so little things impress her nvir.;. and she is in that frame of mind of one of her sisters who said that there was a. world of spiritual consol ition in " that blessed word Mesopotamia."

-mmv, this is all honourable and credit- I ■•d'le to the ladies, and that is why I like to say it; but it would be unfair to them and unfaithful to the cause of truth, if I did not admit that there •i- other reasons too which make it I'-liehttul to them to go up to the house of prayer; and by way of exemplification as to how it works just give your wife a pretty new spring bonnet, and I'll bet my bottom dollar you won't be able to keep her from ' hureh the next Sunday if you tried to. 1' pains me to say it, but after a long life of ' 'hservation and reflection I have been forced to the conviction that a very power!"l and prevalent motive inducing the attendance of women at church is the opportunity which it affords for being s oen in dress. I am very far from saying that it is a reprehensible motive, for it is not. They know that they look well when they have all their feathers on, and I am very s ure that it was one of the holiest and most Innocent instinctive principles implanted '•y the hand of Nature herself in woman— this desire to look nice. I say it was given for wise and beneficent purposes, in order to establish that moral ascendancy over wan, which the Creator intended to be exercised by woman for our good. So that, when I say that nine-tenths of women go " church mainly induced by the knowledge that they look well, when they have had opportunity for deliberately putting on all their bravery 1 am merely sayintr that .hey are carrying oat) a command of Nature

within them, intuitively learned, for the | happiness and welfare of the human race. *"| . > - And that this is the dominant influence, you may assure yourself by overhearing the conversation of a number of ladies after church; and lam profoundly convinced that, as a rule, the record of all new bonnets and new finery in general is more vividly impressed on tne female mind at the conclusion of the service than the maxims of the preacher. It is in no censorious spirit I am saying this. On the Melbourne Gup day, the points and paces of the horses, which are a. profound subject of study and anxiety ,to the masculine frequenters of the course, are but as the fly on the wheel in the working up of that, tremendous concourse compared with the absorbing interest of the Cup-day drosses. Therein lies the secret of the world-wide interest that attaches to the Melbourne Cup, and that draws to it contributory streams of visitors from overy corner of the colonies. I am far from saying that the wicked love of dress that turns the grandstand at Flemington into a garden of flowers is the same as the innocent motive that prompts a woman to put on her modest finery and go to church, but it has its origin in the same deep springs of woman's nature, and I feel assured that if it were not for this intuitive perception of what is nice in dress, and the instinctive promptings in woman's heart to be seen, and seen to the best advantage, the attendances at church on Sundays would bo more meagre than I they are.

Now, all this is dealing only with the phenomenon of women preponderating in church, and 1 have been neglecting the principal part of the question, which is How is it that. so few men attend our ser vices? It. is obvious that the absence of those qualities which inspire women, must in the case of men account in large part for their non-attendance. Man is not, as a rule, such a slave to conventionalism as woman. The mere idea that, it is the proper thing to do is not such an impelling influence. If he feels that he owes it to himself and to society to maintain a dignified attitude in the face of all men, he is bound to go to church, as he feels bound to wear a shiny silk hat. Indeed, deep down in man's nature there is such an intimate relation between going to church and wearing a conventional stovepipe, that some poor benighted heathen from the Orient, in writing to his friends at homo, said that an Englishman worships his hat, for that when an Englishman went into the temples he put his face into his hat and said his prayers to it. This, we know, was a misipprehension. Nevertheless, in the average man there is a relation between his Church and his hat, in that his use of both is in large measure conventional : and a man that defers so far to the conventional usages of society •is to habitually wear a long hat is sure to be an habitual attendant at church. As men of the conventional kind are few in these colonies, it accounts for the comparative few men that are seen at church, just as it explains the fewness of those who wear a long shiny hat.

Again, men do not require the mild dissipation of goin<r to church which is dear to women ; they get it stronger elsewhere. The exception is in the country, where life is very quiet as a rule, and whore the assemblage of the people of a whole country side of a Sunday is a real excitement ; and accordingly it is not complained that but few men sro to church in the country. It is only in the town, where life is more intense, and where the sensation of cnurch-goiuir fails to stir the pulses that have been throbbing with the whirl of life. But of all the causes that lead to men not going to church the chiefest of all, I venture to say is the practice of triturating down the Gospel into food meet only for babes. Men are out in the world, and in the practical struggle of life; and life ifull of hard nuts "to crack, and the mind habituated to encountering difficulties, has no satisfaction in dreamy abstractions or worn platitudes, that have not the smallest practical bear on the realities of life. The eloquent Dr. Parker, of London, has put it well when he said : " The pulpit had lost its hold on the tragic and impetuous life of the world. The outcasts of society turned away from the preacher as from a man who talked in an unknown tongue, and troubled himself about antiquities and metaphysics, for which the sad and maddened heart of the world cared nothing. Men were wanted who knew the country they lived in, the sorrows which surged" in billows around their very homes, the poverty that was completed by hopelessness, and the mental unrest which could not be touched by dead fathers or living pedagogues."

These eloquent words were spoken in reference to the terrible social state revealed in connection with the Whitechapel murders, but they well express the divorce that has taken place between the pulpit and the real life of humanity. The pulpit confines itself to abstractions which have not the smallest bearing on the burning throobing life we live, and clothes these abstractions in the language of Oriental metaphor which from its familiarity passes over the heads of the people like a hum in the air, and has no more realisable meaning to their minds than the " blessed word Mesopatamia." In the reiteration of ideas with which all are familiar, and in clothing them and unclothing them in the various forms of allegorical language according to the usage of the lands where the cradle of our religion was rocked, the pulpit semiits hearers away without a solitary new idea suggested, or a scintilla of light on the problems of life with which men's minds are struggling. No wonder men are absent. A clergyman recently in an Auckland pulpit declared that they had nothing to do with the burning questions of the time; that it was enough for them to lead their people to walk in the paths in which they ought to go ; and it is not so long since another pulpit in this city denounced the hungry crowds of the London poor, who had assembled in their tens of thousands to cry for bread. Christianity of this kind is not in touch with humanity ; and no wonder that the pulpit, which has isolated itself from human life, has utterly lost its power on the world without. What a reflection on the position of the pulpit is it to hear the universal call for shorter, and still shorter sermons ! Half-an-hour, twenty minutes, quarter of an hour, are claimed, and even a five minutes' sermon has been spoken of with commendation as a desirable reform. It is not so with any other form of speech. An hour, an hour and a-hulf, two hours, are none too long for a lecture on a scientific, historical, political, or literary subject. But for a sermon the whole world is crying out that half-an-hour is enough and to spare. Could anything more eloquently tell the cause " why men do not attend our services Pollex.