PARSONS AND PEOPLE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 9

PARSONS AND PEOPLE.

A MOVING S PEECH BY BEAN HOLE. Speaking of the working men’s meeting in connection with the Church Congress at Nottingham recently, the Dean of Bochester delivered one of his characteristically practical and striking addresses, He lamented the apathy of the Church in years gone by, but said it would not be denied that the clergy, as a rule, were now working men, and that the sarcastic observation, “ Them parsons has six bank holidays a week, and only work half-time on Sundays,” was no longer just. The Dean told the following story :— A country clergyman went away for his holiday, and a benevolent neighbour, who had a curate, took his Sunday duties. After he had preached his first sermon, he remarked to the clerk in the vestry, “lam sorry that I gave you such a short discourse, but the reason is, that a dog got into my study and tore out several leaves.” The clerk gazed wistfully upon the speaker, and said, “Oh, sir, do you think that you could spare our parson a pup ?” (Loud laughter.) Proceeding Dr Hole observed that in our National schools there was evidence throughout the land that Churchmen, clergy, and laymen, had organised at an outly of many hundreds of thousands of pounds a system of religious education long before Parliament began to legislate. And because it was inseparable from true Christianity to care for the bodies as well as the souls of men, these Churchmen had been foremost in supporting hospitals, asylums, nurses, and sisterhoods; and because prevention was better than cure, they had done much in providing more healthful homes for the working men, parks, arboretum?, gymnasiums, and baths. If I had my will, said the Dean, every man should have a garden who, like “ the grand old gardener,” would dress and keep it. These gardens may do far more than please the eye and win the prize. They may remind us of “ Paradise Lost,” of Gethsemane, and of “Paradise Regained.” Again, if we would overcome evil with good, we must put good by the side of evil, we must place that which is better by the side of that which is bad—pleasant places, where in summer time the working man can smoke his pipe and listento good music, instead of inhaling an impure atmosphere and hearing profane and filthy conversation, where he may compete in manly games, or encourage others competing with “ Play up, Notts,” instead of wrangling over cards and bets. If poor folks are located in a pig-sty, they will “go the whole hog.” and look the hog they go, until they perish. (Applause.) I am not a total abstainer, he added. I have, on the contrary, gone so far as to join in a chorus which commended “Nottingham ale,” and I am not ashamed of that vocal performance. (Laughter.) Hut I abhor « drunkenness, a vice which maddens the brain, petrifies the heart, cripples the limbs, disfigures the countenance, brings

poverty to the home, misery to the wife, disease to the children, and ruins the man, body and soul. And I denounce these dens and attics and slums as fatal to temperance. How can you expect a man to abstain from stimulants in an atmosphere which would kill an oak? “You come and live in our courts/’ said a drunkard, “ and you’ll soon take to the gin.” I remember that when I conducted a mission in Holborn some years ago, one of the curates told me that he had seen four families occupying the corners of a room, and that one of the inmates had said “ That they should be all right if No. 2 wouldn’t take in lodgers.” (Laughter.) Much has been done; but no sanitary laws can secure, no money can buy, nostrength can master, no philosophy can teach the one thing needful for a happy home; and yet e/ery man may seek and find it from Him who stands at bis door, and knocks, and yearns to .say, “ Peace be to this house.” Where shall we find outside the Church of Christ a communism so comprehensive as that which brings the Queen of England to read the Bible in a cottage home. With these sacred sympathies, in this holy alliance, we meet, iny brothers, to-night, to be reminded of our own responsibilities to each other, and to rejoice in our glorious hope. In vain we put our .heads together if our hearts are not in unison. Parliamentary debates are interesting, but one good Act—shall we say the Employers’ Liability ?—is worth a hundred volumes cf , Hansard. A pound of beefsteak to a starving man is worth more than a ton cf tracts. (Laughter and applause.) We want more consideration for those who differ from us in their circumstances, their characteristics, or their creed. Why should Ephraim envy Judab, and Judah vex Ephraim ? Why do the poor make no allowance for the temptations of the rich, nor the rich for the trials of the poor? Might there not be more toleration, a more unselfish forbearance between the employers and the employed; more impartial investigation into mutual claims; less suspicion and railing accusations., At least we. must allow to others that which we claim for ourselves —that every man has a right, whether he pays wages or receives them, to make the best of his resources, so long as he does not transgress the boundaries of honesty and justice. (Applause.)