BISHOP’S REPROACH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25952, 19 September 1945, Page 4

BISHOP’S REPROACH

YOUNG PEOPLE OF TO-DAY INDIFFERENCE TO SUNDAY OBSERVANCE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 18. Laxity in the proper observance of Sunday, and also in self-discipline, was commented upon by the Bishop of Auckland, the Right Rev. W. J. Simkin, in an address to the Anglican Synod to-day. In New Zealand, he said, the habit of indifference towards Sunday had grown beyond all bounds in the past few years. Formerly, when hours of work were much longer, there was some justification for using Sunday for needed recreation and for a change from the stress of toil, but to-day, when so many young people did not work on Saturday and when holidays had been greatly increased, the justification for making Sunday a day of pleasure only had been removed. - "" “There is a further danger creeping into our mode of life,” continued the bishop. “This is the growing custom of making Saturday night a time for all kinds of amusement, dancing and the like, with the result that on Sunday many people,’'especially 'young people are too physically tired and mentally and spiritually unprepared to observe their duty to God. “ Youth to-day is buoyant and adventurous, and the world owes it much, but licence is not liberty. Licence is rampant to-day and has assumed alarming tendencies. ' “Boys and girls of New Zealand, to-day is your opportunity, but it is also your day of responsibility, and you will never fulfill your responsibilities or grasp your opportunity by avenues of licence.” the bishop added. “By the spirit of God, gladly self-imposed, you .will attain the true goal, and render the service the world so urgently needs from you.” . , . Touching on the atomic bomb, the bishop said the bomb might be described as the release of., a natural force. The defence against natural force would only be found in a force which was supernatural. “Our only hope of salvation is to bring to bear upon every nation and people the supernatural force of the Grace of God,” he said.