RELIGIOUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 915, 13 September 1889, Page 7

RELIGIOUS.

PHYSIOLOGICAL REASONS FOR SUNDAY REST. The question of Sunday work has, of course a moral side, and it is that side which most strongly influences many who are striving to lessen the evil. Physiologists are universally agreed that men need, for purely phyBiological reasons, one day’s rest out of the seven. There is plenty of evidence on this auestion, all pointing in the same direction, and the conclusion is inevitable that the al most universal desire of workmen for rest on Sunday, and their strong objection to work continuously every day is the result of a natural physiological law, which like all other laws of the kind, cannot be violated without someone having to suffer the penalty. There is good reason for believing that many railroad accidents are directly traceable to physical and mental exhaustion of trainmen, caused by the strain of severe and active ■exacting duties, performed without relaxation for a period of time beyond that which is allowed by Nature. And in the case of street railway employes, who are required to work from 12 to 16 hours every day, Sundays included, it is probable that society suffers, and will suffer, a large share of the penalty. For the presence in the community of a considerable body of men to whom civilisation moans almost, if not quite, nothing, upon whom society has imposed burdens almost intolerable and infinitely heavier than are imposed by Nature as a condition of living—we say that the presence of a body of men living under such conditions is a menace and a danger to republican institutions.—American Machinist.

A PROTESTANT PROTEST. The Roman Catholic propagandists are so persistently pushing Father Damien’s name and work into prominence that we feel compelled to call attention to the fact that he is only one, and by no means the most meritorious, of the band of self-denying workers who have sought, and are seeking, to alleviate the sufferings and to save the souls of those afflicted with the dire disease of leprosy. Let the Romanists point to Father Damien ; the Moravians can point not to one but to many equally devoted, whoße names are unknown to fame, and whose praises as individuals have never been sung, but whose work deserves to be held in higher esteem than his by English Christians ; whilst there is no lack of English missionaries ready to visit leper asylums and risk health and life itself in their labour of love. Let not these be ignored by English Protestants in their zeal to do honour ,to.oae instance of philanthropic self-sacrifice. "We are ready to reoognise, and to applaud, en heroic act where, ever we find it; but we warn our fellowcountrymen that advantage -is being taken of their ignorance and their desire for fair play to further the interests of a self-seeking system by casting a halo around the name of one self-denying philanthropist. More- • over, some doubt is cast upon tbe necessity for any self-sacrifice, as it is alleged that with proper precautions the jiak of contagion

may be much diminished, if not entirely removed. —English Churchman.

GAMBLING IN CHURCH.

Gambling in Church is a diversion that few would advocate or excuse, but, ineredible as it may seem, a species of gambling is annually carried on at the parish church of St Ives. It seems that some two centuries ago an eccentric person left in trust to the vicar and churchwardens an orchard, the rent of which was to be devoted to the purchase of Bibles. So far, so good. But the pious benefactor further provided that the Bibles should be raffled for with dice in the church, and this extraordinary ceremony was duly carried out ou Whit Tuesday last. After a short form of evening prayer, the Vicar delivered an address, telling those present they must look upon what was to take place reverently. He was sorry they had to observe the custom*, in a place sanctified to the service of God ; but it had been observed for 200 years. With this lame excuse the proceedings began. A table covered with a white cloth was brought forward, and some half-dozen boys and girls came up as their names were called, and threw the dice, which were provided for the occasion. Three throws each was the rule, and those who threw the highest number won the Bibles. The ceremony closed with a hymn and the Benediction. A Nonconformist writer, indignant at the proceedings, writes to say he would like to know if a church is not a public place within the meaning of the Gaming Acts. If ho, by 5 George IV. c. 83, the Vicar would be liable, to be prosecuted as ‘a rogue and a vagabond. —Tunbridge Wells Advertiser.