ANOTHER “AT HOME"

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6871, 15 July 1909, Page 9

ANOTHER “AT HOME"

(To the Editor "N.Z. Time*.") Sir, —“A Guests" skit in to-day** “Times" on me usual ieports oi suc.ety functions appeals to me very strongly, especially \\ucu tneauou m made oi cuurcn nabobs, at Uie end of the epistle. 1 belong to no ouuren, creed, or ciiiiue, but 1 nave read tne Now Testament; and most of tne parsons and “deliverers of the Word"—or some ol them, at least, ougnt to reuiemoor tne command “bell ail that thou hast, and give it to the poor."

1 am not going to enter into a newspaper controversy, but 1 want to say that the churches—ail oi them —have turned the commandment to read: “Keep all that thou hast, and extort from the pour," with the result that churches all over the world are worth untold millions in money and property. Who ever heard of a church selling its property or giving one-tenth of its money for the purpose of putting the poor within its clutches on a fair footing? Who-ever heard of a church which would not, to swell its own coffers, claim the children's pennies, and take toll from a dying widow? And where does the money go? Ta buy land and assist in stealing land for ecclesiastical purposes. To build palar tial churches—and useless and ugly edifices they are. To build palatial palaces for church dignitaries and very oomforfc--1 able homes for the smaller fry, and to provide from princely to comfortable incomea for hordes of professional mendicants nicknamed priests and ministers of the Gospel! It is, I suppose, true that we shall always have the poor with us, but that ia absolutely no reason why a useless army of men (?) should be housed, fed, and maintained in order to keep up the supply of the poor, at the expense of the poor themselves. Why do the churches not turn their lands into homesteads their churches into factories, and use their ill-gotten and ever-increasing money for furthering the prosperity of the working and workless? But this ii scarcely possible, sir. The sound of a priest's or parson's voice and the comfortable feeling that "T nm hotter off than thou" is too sweet to himself to be easily let go, and the churches, while not knowing what to do with their useleM and burdensome wealth, will continue ta say, with unction, “The poor shall always 'be with us. We will helu the over-lord to grind them till they die, that mercy .may be shown them."—l am, etc.. JOHN SMITH. July 13th, 1909. [Our correspondent Is both unjust and ungenerous. He knows nothing of the splendid work being done by the clergy aud church organisations in relieving the necessities of the unemployed and those dependent upon them.. Ed, “N.Z.T."]