HUMAN NEED OF SPRING CLEANING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3509, 14 June 1921, Page 52

HUMAN NEED OF SPRING CLEANING.

After a. night ol' frost not long ago I was harrying along the road when I was attraeced by a garden hedge. Everywhere upon its stiff, bare, prickly twigs were hung webs ,ot silk, glistening in the light as tire morning sunshine changed the hoarfrost crystals into clear, sparkling jewels. Never, I think, had I seen the spiders’ work look so beautiful. In our homes when the spring- sunshine lights up the dusty corners, and reveals the cobweb that has escaped the eye of the vigilant housewife, we are impatient to begin “spring cleaning.’’ We welcome gladly the sunny days, but we loath the dust we bring- to light. The cobweb here is not a thing of beauty or of joy, but merely a dust trap, and we sweep it down. I remember one good lady who complaind that her maid never thought to look up for the cobwebs that always seemed to find a place just out of reach. A serious lack, for the cobweb in the House Beautiful is a stain upon its cleanliness and a reproach to the diligent housewife. —Cobwebs of Prejudice.— But all cobwebs are not material, nor spun by spiders’ skill, of delicate and slender texture. And too often we are like the servant lassie, and never trouble to look into the corners for the cobwebs that lurk in mind and heart and spirit in the life social, religious and political. How tenaciously, for example, does the cobweb of prejudice fasten itself on heart and mind until we can scarcely judge a-right or see things in their true light. How we cling to the old way of doing things ! We are so sure of its superiority that we have scarcely patience to listen to tile suggestion of any other, nor can we be pursuaded to try a new method, though there is every likelihood that it would prove more simple and effective than our old one. Do food reformers declare, to use a very homely illustration, that we lose much of the food value by boiling potatoes and other vegetables in the old, old way ? Sufficient for us that they have been cooked thus for generations. We make no change. We read, perhaps, of casserole or “hay-box” cookery. How it saves fire and gas, and cooks the food to perfection, rendering it more digestible. “It sounds all right,” we say, but we make no effort to put it to the test. Perhaps there is no place where prejudice has taken hold bo firmly, as concerning woman, and her so-called sphere. We think at once of China and other Eastern lands where woman has been enslaved and despoiled for centuries. Of course, we Westerns are more enlightened. But in spite of the light of knowledge and experience we are slow to clear away the dust that has gathered round prejudiced ideas.

Our ancient Universities hesitate to confer degrees on women even though they win them. Some of us are even now not quite sure whether we like, our girls to join in outdoor sports, such as hockey, or to take their place in the arena of workaday life as do their brothers. See how slowly has the prejudice against the woman medical been cast a,wav ! Not because of doubt a.s to her skill —for her possible superiority in some directions was admitted —but, what ? Some vague idea that a doctor's life was not. quite in keeping with her womanliness had, like a cobweb taken hold. But many a woman has blessed the day when «he swept and garnished the room for her coming, and to-day the woman medical is accepted at somewhat nearer her true worth. —Old Cobwebs in Church.— The first Sunday a woman stood up to preach in the City Temple some of the regular worshippers, not approving, stayed away. Not that they thought she could not preach, or had no sincere or urgent message. No. Simply because she was a woman. The old cobweb, prejudice, once more. In our church life, too, many cobwebs need to be swept down, if we are to have the sweetness and light so necessary to the growing attractiveness and progress of the Christian kingdom. We allow ourselves because of sentiment or superstition, to be cumbered by old customs, outworn creeds, and antiquated methods which would be tolerated nowhere else. Ecelesiastieism and sacraroentarianism are cobwebs of disruption and antipathy. Here is a church that cannot admit you to the Lord's Supper because no bishop has laid hands on your head. Hc-re is another that stickles for the use of fermented wine because it is the true emblem, regardless of the fact that the fermented wine used is doctored with brandy, and that “leavened” bread is used. Another church discounts your membership unless you have —as the plani man calls it—“been dipped.” Some churches look askance at your credentials if you have no prayer-meeting or clasis- meeting of a regularised order. Why do we allow those things which matter less and less in the light of the Spirit, to take hold until thev become almost too sacred to be touched? We need the brush. Aiwa vs the cobwebs. They are always accumulating. Every generation must do its own spring cleaning. Our fathers did it. The present and future generation,a have a right to worship gild serve Gel in their own wav. free from the < obwoKs ’ f custom, tradition, and . reed Tf those things are retained that a-e suitable end helpful to sincere worsbiv) and Christian service, what more need we ask ? “Where two or three are met together in My Name, there am 1 in the midst.” That is the church in its essential simplicity. As to all else, which is secondary, let irhave the best, that i,s in keeping with the hr-'l weds of the Church, community, and iiul ividual. - Social Evils.— And what of the many and harmful evils that are allowed to fasten themselves, and, alas, are, in some quarters, encouraged to fasten themselves upon the life of a nation 1

Drink, vice, monopoly, tyranny, and jingo's. 111 : more than the cobwebs ’ these, and difficult to sweep out. But if the determination and courage of the people were sufficiently reused, there is no doubt thev could be dealt with as they ought to be. If tlie-e v,ere swept away great would indeed be tne victory ; far, far, greater good wonitl result than anything that can be gamed by a military triumph. Y 4 e reca.l that stirring picture of the Reformer, by Whittier the poet of one’s ear.y enthusiasms. Ihe message is no less potent, to-dav. \uu remember how he peivomfied him as grim, and eoiled, and brown, and strong, smiting the various shrines of the past. Grey-bearded use, the church, wealth, power and monopoly all suffered from his raviehing hand to their utter dismay. Then, says the poet : I looked aside, the dust-cloud rolled, Tho waster seemed the builder, too; Upspringing from the ruined old, I saw the new. ’Twa.s but the ruin of the bad, ’lhe wasting of the wrong and ill; M liute’er of good the old time had Was living still. Me need a mental, moral, and spiritual spring-cleaning, not once a year, but often, that our life, individual, social, religious, and political, may be cleansed of whatever endangers the growth, progress, and general wellbeing of humanity.—Jknnib Brooks, B. Lift., in the Scotsman.