SUPERFLUOUS RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE AGENCIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8282, 14 June 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUPERFLUOUS RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE AGENCIES.

[BY " A CHRISTIAN.''] A long list of pulpit exchanges for last Sunday, published under the heading, "Auckland Ministers' Association." leads me to put into shape a few thoughts that have often crossed my mind. Some persons seem to think t hat if a general interchange of pulpits could be brought about, it would constitute the strongest proof of Christian brotherhood, and that if the practice were adopted by all the leading denominations, the long-taiked-of union of Christendom would be un fail accompli—l am not so sanguine. The experiment, so far as it has been tried in different places for some years, is interesting, as it shows an increasing reciprocal relation of sympathy and Christian charity. So far it is a step in the ri<rht direction. When we come to more practical results, the outlook is not so promising. Nothing has been effected in the way of diminishing useless expenditure. The lavish waste of men and means, the practice of erecting three or four places of worship where one would amply suffice for the population, the ever-increasing multiplicity of religious organisations—all this goes on unchecked. So far (to deal only with the Christian world of Auckland) we seem powerless to remedy it. Now for the ministers of Auckland, as represented by the Association, I have the greatest respect and sympathy ; and if you will allow me, sir, 1 will take the c;ise of their worthy president as an illustration of the point i have raised. As a public character Pastor .Birch will not, I am sure, resent a humble criticism that is meant to be kindly and not destructive. The worthy pastor arrived among us six months ago, ticketed by C. 11. Spurgeon, and with the hall-mark of genuineness stamped uninistakeably upon him. He found ministering to the spiritual requirements of eight or nine hundred people at the Tabernacle a mere bagatelle, and cast his eyes round for other spheres in which to work off his superfluous energy. What is called "evangelistic work " suggested itself to him, and, as a consequence, before he had been many weeks in Auckland he established Sunday afternoon services at Onehunga, and soon afterwards extended his operations to Panmure and Huntly. May I ask what, in the name of common sense, is gained by this line of action? Onehunga lias had for many years four or five resident ministers, holding morning and evening services in as many churches. So far as I know they all bear an excellent character, and, presumably, are equal to the spiritual work of a small township like Onehunga. Everyone knows that the afternoon is not a convenient '-line for public worship, and if people are indnced to attend it must be at the expense of the other services, it seems to me that Pastor birch must lind himself impaled on one or other of the horns of a dilemma. Either he considers four or five of his brethren nob equal to the work of preaching '■ to a community consisting of a mere handful! of people, or else, regardless of his brethren's interests, he thinks good w6rk is not done, unless the people utter his particular " shibboleth." To outsiders it seems a wanton waste of time and strength that might be better employed. Respecting Panirmre and Huntly I cannot speak with so much certainty, but I am under the impression that at the former place two or three services have been held regularly for years. There are regular Anglican, Presbyterian, and, I believe, also Methodist services at Huntly, conducted by their respective ministers who reside in the district. That Pastor Birch's intrusion has caused some sore feeling is evident, by correspondence that lias appeared in the papers. I have no doubt the good man has been" welcomed by some. In every small community there are a few restless spirits who are fond of novelty, or dissatisfied with the existing state of things. When Pastor Birch has lived in the colony as long as I have, and knows as much of the hardships country ministers have_ to contend with, he will think it no light thing to go and look up their work. Nothing is easier for a popular man (whether he is Christian Minister, Mormon Elder, or Freethinker) than to get a hearing in a country place, where people arc glad of anything for a change ; but whether it is done under the name of evangelistic work or otherwise, it is too often at the expense of the ministers of the district, who are left to do the real work when the effervescent evangelistic effort has died away. I have referred to Pastor Birch's action, although my remarks are also applicable to many 'of his brethren. I could not help fealinf both amazed and amused when listening to Pastor Birch a few weeks after his arrival. Ho was urging upon his hearers the necessity of providing horses for the use

' of Evangelists at Birkenhead, of all places ! i Why the district, with a few scattered people, is overdone with religious services. In addition to the Anglican and Wesleyan Churches, the Presbyterians cut in a yearor two ago, and recently built a church which is loaded with debt and almost destitute of worshippers. What a picture of wasted means and energy is here presented ! Indeed, we have only to look round Auckland and suburbs to see that the existing churches are nearly half too many for the worshipers. The reckless waste of money by the Congregational body in church building is simply astonishing. Boresford-street Church has been of late years weakened, by the forming of separate congregations at Parnell, Mount Eden, Dovonport, etc., or rather by putting up buildings in those places, swamped with debt, and with congregations frequently not numbering a score of persons. In fact, the multiplying of services in Auckland is not only producing disintegration of congregations, and paralysing Church work, but every year it is becoming a more serious drain on the public purse. We seem burdened with a lot of thoughtless people, each with a mania for some separate evangelistic work, representing his own particular fad. One fine Sunday, a few weeks ago, J. looked in at the morning service in the Salvation Army Barracks. The building was about onethird full, and presented" a dreary array of empty benches. One of the officers informed me that at the evening service the building wsis generally pretty well filled, but by no means crowded. In tho face of this we have Mr. 11. Boss (who is, or was, I think, a Salvationist himself) advertising that ho is about to commence evangelistic services in the Temperance Hall—two minutes' walk from the Salvation Barracks. When one considers that the public have to pay for buildings, gas, advertising, &c., in addition to keeping thus army of teachers, no wonder, as Mr. Ewington wrote lately, we have to shiver at the frequent visits of "thinlipped, spectacled ladies, with the inevitable note-book and pencil in hand." I have often asked myself, " What practical good is done even by the Sunday evening services in the City Hall." I know it is said that a number of people attend who do not go to regular churches. I challenge the assertion. The congregation is mainly made up of people who belong to the different evangelical denominations. I have seen them there in hundreds. It is mere nonsense to say they would not attend regular churches. They did so before even tho City Hall services were in existence. 1 have heard it said that people go there who •are not well enough dressed to go to church—rubbish ! Such an argument has some force in Whitechapel or Seven Dials, where you get hundreds of ragged men and women who have a natural shrinking from mixing with well-dressed people—but to seriously bring forward such an argument for our City Hall services is enough to make even a Gospel Temperance man laugh. I never saw a man there who had not on a good Sunday suit, and as to the women—bless them ! —they are all feathers, six-but kid gloves, and Grecian bend ! Von tell any of them that, they go there because they are not. well-dressed, and you'll soon find out. The truth is the City Hall service oilers a premium for not going to church. lVople amuse themselves with walking about, and then turn in there as there is generally some novelty. I find no fault with the service. I suppose it must go on now. It is like a child that ought, never to have been born, bub now it has come it. must have some milk. The moral from these examples, which might be indefinitely extended, is that moral and social ' disorders are not cured by evangelistic ! work; that to blindly pile one agency ! upon another only adds to the diltii eulty, and that the denominations weaken themselves by reckless disregard of each other's interests, while wandering evangelists and teetotal lecturers share the plunder between them. What is true of religious is also largely true of our charitable agencies in Auckland. They arc rapidly pauperising the people. One does not like to depreciate the efforts of any earnest workers, but there seems no broad general principle on which charitable organisations are carried out. Dealing at length with this subject, the able author of "Scientific Meliorism" writes thus of an English city : " The number of inhabitants is about 229.000, and there are forty separate and distinct charities of various kinds, in addition to an enormous infirmary for the sick, a largo asylum for the insane, eight dispensaries where medicine is supplied gratis or cheap, three ragged schools, and two large union workhouses which are generally full, and for the support of which the whole town is taxed." The writer, after speaking of the intolerable burden the people feel in dealing with these interminable calls upon their charity, says that an amalgamating association was formed, by which the people might be relieved of these tormenting counter-claims 'upon their purses, but after several years of effort, not one or/jewi^ation was willing to give up its special pet scheme for the amelioration of the poor. The system of taxing the benevolent, and pauperising the poor, is still going on. There has been an alarming increase of institutions of this kind in Auckland during the last few years, most of them the outcome of denominational rivalry, or the result of private fads. One lady has seen the Kindergarten system in Germany. She is fired with the idea of trying it here. The institution is started and thrown upon the public for support. Well-meaning enthusiasts beat up children for the school and hunted up mothers to leave their children at the creche. If we have one, as the Irishman says, we always have two. A second was started at Auckland West. In order to keep them afloat musical people are worried out of their lives to get up concerts, while I have known instances of women making use of those places to loave children while they amused themselves at the Rink. Then we have the Home founded by the Little Sisters of the Poor. That they tend to foster idleness is evident from a case that, appeared lately in the paper-. A lusty idle vagabond had been there for some weeks, and might apparently have remained there for life, only in the very wantonness of idleness he smashed the furniture and insulted his hospitable entertainers. What more glaring instance of pauperising people could we have than the proposal of the Salvation Army to give 1000 poor children a Christmas dinner. Fortunately the good sense of the community prevented a lot of well fed youngsters from being gob together and amusing themselves as they did the year before with pelting each other with good food. If you have few paupers in a community, a sure way of increasing hem is by multiplying unnecessary charitable; institutions.

Few people have any idea of the amount of money drawn from our heavily-taxed population by uncalled-for charity organisations, and still more by wandering evangelists and teetotal lecturers. Pastor Chiniquy raised immense sums of money by appealing to sectarian prejudices, and a visitor from the colonies to his home describes him as living in luxury. lam informed on good authority that the unholy gains of Edith O'Oorinan considerably exceeded a thousand a year. One popular female evangelist, whose takings amounted to many hundreds of pounds during a short tour of the colonies, invested the proceeds in an apple farm in the suburbs of a rising town in the States, a land boom soon afterwards made her a rich woman, and she and her partner piously exclaimed, " It is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes !" Marvellous, indeed, how poor people are duped ! In the colonies the teetotal lecturer looks upon his profession as a moneymaking business, as much as the actor or acrobat. The " cause" is a secondary consideration. *' It's the poorest evening's work I've ever done," said one travelling teetotal tramp as he grumblingly pocketed £G for an evening's address in a small suburb of Auckland. In fact, some of the poor working peopleof Auckland connected with teetotal societies are so heavily taxed to keep up this sort of thing, that in giving up beer for teetotal ism they find they have only escaped Scyl'.a to be wrecked on Charybdis.

"Ladies, do you want to be strong, healthy, and beautiful ? Then use Dr. Soulc's American Hop Hitters." - The ginger wine eases in Tuesday's Police Court will no doubt cause considerable inquiry to be made as to_ whose ginger wine is non-intoxicating and suitable for staunch teetotallers and temperance people generally, Itenshaw's Non-intoxicating Ginger Wine was the one which stood the test, and is the only one on the market which may be sold by storekeepers, and used by temperance people. It is guaranteed to be absolutely pure and free from the poisonous and obnoxious ingredients mentioned in the report. May be had everywhere at Is 6d per bottle,