SIR GILBERT PARKER ON WEALTH-WORSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12740, 17 December 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

SIR GILBERT PARKER ON WEALTH-WORSHIP.

Ix an interview in the Boudoir Sir Gilbert Parker. M.P.. expresses the opinion that the worship of wealth by - .: the aristocracy;' of the present, day is " the greatest danger that we have to face": : ■ .". ' p *, : "The worship '■■. of money, of course, means the transference of the,;: national ideal. In old days the aristocracy ■'loved? power and place; when they come to love money, then yon lower the standard of national life, though you may increase its industrial ; and commercial possibilities! and you get a thing, to my ntl»3;:;dittle§ to be desired(he dull,;; uniformity of;' wealth, such as vou see in the • United; States." ."" " . , ■■'.■■ The worship of wealth is a " false standard," and in Sii (Gilbert's opinion will!; lower the whole character of our national life. -';•' : ; ... ■- Willi regard to some recent statements, by a dignitary of the Church of England,. Sit Gilbert Parker, denies .that. the test of: the prevalence ot Christianity in. the life, conduct, and thought of a nation is to he' gauged by a record of attendance at church. He affirms that thinking men are mote reverent and Christian in thought" to-day than I hey were fifty years ago:-- -y\\ < s .; "That England and Loudon are (he says) more- religious in the, best- sensethat is .to say, in all the attributes of Christian life and the result' of Christian thought 'in deeds and actions —than ,it used to be. 1 am certain. You ''..-annul gel. grapes .thorns or tigs of thistles; Crime diminishes, charity increases. There liefer was a time in England when human beings cared so much for the welfare of each other. - '.., .;'.;; * •' " Sentiment, is taking the place of sentimentality; toleration is superseding bigotry and the tyranny of thought."